DIY LED Fixture - WORK IN PROGRESS!

BigAl07

BigAl07

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Ok here's an update. No pics (I know breaking my own rule but you can peek over here for a couple of new pics ) but I wanted to have some "Details" noted here ....

I just checked and I've used just a hint over2 qts (1/2G) of Top-Off water since I last filled up the water bottle. I'll note back here when it's empty to get an idea of how much I'm evaping.


I added my first SPS for the Cube first thing this morning. I had an "Extra" frag of Green Birds Nest so I put it into the tank today.
 
swimmer4uus

swimmer4uus

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chipmunkofdoom2 said:
Hey, no offense meant. I prefer the Crees but Philips makes great diodes too. I'm sure they will do just fine. :)
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Don't get me wrong. If I had the ability to make ALL my LEDs Cree's then I would definantly have done it. The luxons came out to be quite a bit cheaper, so I went with those. My frag tank might get the cree's though.
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

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chipmunkofdoom2 said:
Hey Al any updates on how the corals you added are looking?
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Everything looks GREAT! Colors are all holding well ( Very well) and when I turn down the whites these royal Blues really make things POP! I think on my next one I'll go with more BLUES just because I like the blue looks... a LOT!!

Almost every single bit of my Xenia has climbed almost out of the water. The same thing happened in my 10g tank when I went from PC light to T5 HO. It made them literally climb to the top most points on the tank. It's the opposite of what I would expect. More light would make it stay where it's at not climb TO the light.This is the 2nd time I've noticed this and I'm baffled. I could understand if it were a light DOWNGRADE but both times it was a significant UPGRADE and both times the Xenia all but RAN as high as it could. All I can say for sure is it migrated with urgency LOL!
 
chipmunkofdoom2

chipmunkofdoom2

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Talk about results :) I always thought they liked medium to lower light... I guess that xenia for ya..

Yeah I hear ya on the blues... these PCs are killing me in that respect. I have two 65W bulbs, one is dual actinic and one is 10000k/460 actinic and I still don't have enough blue :(

Oh well. Hopefully soon I'll get a job in my field and have some time to put something together.. haha.

I was looking over Evilc66's Comprehensive DIY LED build thread and it really is stunning how nice some of these LED tanks look.

This 125 gallon is quite impressive:



It seems like every day I learn something new about LEDs or see some other example of another great tank they support :)
 
chipmunkofdoom2

chipmunkofdoom2

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Hm, well the guy was kind enough to list his parts on Nano-reef.

The 10 Meanwells would probably cost around $500 at $50 a piece, perhaps more since they're harder to get in the US. You'd also have to do some sort of dimming circuit since the Meanwells don't have one built in.

He used surprisingly only 126 LEDs, coming out around $820. Add a dollar a piece for optics, so another $130 on top of that.

He used 1 meter heatsinks, but doesn't specify the width, so I'm going to assume it was around 10 inches, adding up to $135 a piece, so $270 for the pair.

Surprisingly, it all adds up to just around $1,700. Now of course for a large project like this, the cost of fastening hardware, thermal paste, mounting hardware, wiring, and other miscellaneous junk will probably be quite substantial, but $1,700 for core components sounds like a steal to me.
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

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$1700 sounds GREAT really! I'd want to add some more LEDS to it but wow...That's a very DOABLE project! I'm REALLY thinking LED for my BIG tank!
 
chipmunkofdoom2

chipmunkofdoom2

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BigAl07 said:
$1700 sounds GREAT really! I'd want to add some more LEDS to it but wow...That's a very DOABLE project! I'm REALLY thinking LED for my BIG tank!
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Yeah that sounds like a great price to me too... I'm gonna have to ask around on Nano-reef about that light. I can't figure out the spacing or optics he used just by looking at it.



swimmer4uus said:
So what POTs did you guys use for Al's fixture? I don't remember.
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They were just a simple 5k linear. The best part is if you use Buckpucks and there are a lot of them, you can hook them all up together to a larger pot and control many with one knob.
 
swimmer4uus

swimmer4uus

Member
chipmunkofdoom2 said:
They were just a simple 5k linear. The best part is if you use Buckpucks and there are a lot of them, you can hook them all up together to a larger pot and control many with one knob.
Click to expand...

Dang, that puts me out of luck since I'm not using buckpucks....more research to do for me.

Also, questions for Al. Was it worth it? I mean, you've had this for a while to see coral growth, reduction in temps from the lighting. So far, do you like it and would you do it again?
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

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Oh I'd do it again in a heart beat. My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner. I want to make ALL my tanks LED but my wallet is lighter than my desire is strong.

Yes I'd do it again MANY times over.
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

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I've got an update.. NOT a good one... I mistakenly broke one of my very own "Cardinal Rules" with this tank...

I'm a HUGE proponent of "Light Acclimation" and tell so many people to do it and I almost (key word almost) ALWAYS do it. I'm of the "over cautious" nature (or so I've told myself all along) and tend to do things more carefully than needed. I "Light Acclimate" with new coral, new bulbs and any type of light changes.

About 2 weeks ago I brought some "Green Birds Nest" from my 90g system here to my office. The 90g has 2x150w MH, 4x54w T5s. This coral was placed about 1/3's the way down my tank and direclty under one of the MH bulbs. So I thought I'd be safe bringing it here and adding it to the tank without "Light Acclimation". It's looks pretty good all last week. I come in this morning and it's all bleached and awful looking on the tops of all the "limbs". Undersides look pretty good but anything being hit with direct LED is completely white and bleached. I've turned the LEDs way down hoping to save some of this coral but only time will tell. Lucky for me (not the coral) this was a "Test Specimen".

Dang maybe these are more intense than I gave them credit for? ? ? ?
 
chipmunkofdoom2

chipmunkofdoom2

Well-Known Member
Man that's bad news for the test specimen... I really hope it makes a recovery.

Good news I think for the LEDs though. If you can torch an SPS with it, it's probably a pretty powerful light.
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

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CoD That's pretty much My thoughts too. I may frag off some of my Monti that's up high almost against the MH and see how they fair under LED with no acclimation. :dunno:

And for the record that's with almost ZERO Uv's so it's not the UV's that fried the BN.
 
chipmunkofdoom2

chipmunkofdoom2

Well-Known Member
Well, I guess the jury's still out on LEDs... there's no way to know if they're powerful enough to keep the light demanding corals that MH can. There's just no evidence to support it. I'm sure they'll be there some day, but there's no way with today's technology (and actually, in the case of the XR-E, that's not even today's technology... the XR-E debuted in 2007).

:D
 
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