Steve's LED mod for S400/S500/S650 series

Choff

Choff

Well-Known Member
Hello all,

If you were not aware Matt (MDK16) worked out an great mod with Steve's LED to retro fit our tanks with LEDs. It's a fairly simple modification and allows us to keep the stock hood. You simply gut the center light channel and install 2 led strips. I will go into much greater detail shortly. I just received my lights yesterday and will be doing the install over the weekend including connection to my APEX and setting up moonlights. You won't find these on the web site just yet, but should be going on sale very very soon for the 650 and then the 400/500.

What I do need from you 400 & 500 owners is the exact length of your center light box so I can pass that along to them so they can begin to work out the build for those units.

BTW..I am in no way affiliated with Steve's and get nothing out of this. I should also point out, I have yet to see these lights in action. I will be giving my thoughts about those as well once I have them up and running.

Thanks!
~Mike
 
LakeLivin

LakeLivin

Active Member
Cool, as you know I'm still on the fence pending your review but I will send you the measurements for the 500 when I get home if nobody else has by then. Looking forward to seeing how easy/hard they are to install and get working. I'm fairly handy but I generally shy away from electrical stuff to avoid burning my house down. :)

By the way, I gave this post my first like. I thought maybe by not joining in on the "like" thing I might be missing out on entering some sweepstakes or something. :)
 
Mrsalt

Mrsalt

Active Member
PREMIUM
I'm on the fence too. I love the idea and the installation into our stock hoods. What I can't grasp is that it seems very few LEDs to give enough growing light for my sps. Am I right in saying there's 84 in total, I'd be very interested in knowing how much light there is, via a par reading etc. don't get me wrong you guys have worked incredibly hard with Steves LEDs, and it is very impressive so far to be able to create a true stock look which we all pretty much love.

I also think that if it only takes the centre channel, the possibility is still there to run the exist gull wing t5s.

So with nobs Vega's, Choffs kessils, and now the Steves unit we have come a long way. Anyone want to try the cannons?


http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/red-sea-max-owners-club/83315-als-red-sea-650-a.html[url]
 
N

Nob35

Active Member
84 LEDs is more than enough if they are good quality. If you look at my setup I only have 80 LEDs (20 on each Vega) and 16 of them are red and another 16 green. So I really only have 16 whites and 32 blues that are supplying most of the visible light. I can shut off the red and green and the tank does not get dim.
I would believe that Steve's would be using quality LEDs but May be a bit lower wattage individually so they have more to give a better coverage area.
I'm sure Mdk and soon choff could verify what I'm saying about their LEDs.
 
Mdk16

Mdk16

Member
Mrsalt said:
I'm on the fence too. I love the idea and the installation into our stock hoods. What I can't grasp is that it seems very few LEDs to give enough growing light for my sps. Am I right in saying there's 84 in total, I'd be very interested in knowing how much light there is, via a par reading etc. don't get me wrong you guys have worked incredibly hard with Steves LEDs, and it is very impressive so far to be able to create a true stock look which we all pretty much love.

I also think that if it only takes the centre channel, the possibility is still there to run the exist gull wing t5s.

So with nobs Vega's, Choffs kessils, and now the Steves unit we have come a long way. Anyone want to try the cannons?


http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...albums/a561/Ehk16/image_zps54642721.jpg[/IMG]
Click to expand...
 
Mrsalt

Mrsalt

Active Member
PREMIUM
Nice picture, tank looks really nice.

That's quite impressive to hear about only running at 45%. I work with LEDs daily installing thousands monthly, however these are in hotels etc. strangely to cover the energy the tank uses my whole house is now led lit. I want to get LEDs in the tank as it is without doubt the way forward, but with most aftermarket /3rd party lights currently I see optics being used to spread the light and they use Crees sols and the likes. What I'm getting at I suppose is does the light get spread evenly around the tank, where the LEDs are do you get shafts of disco like colours entering the tank? And I think you're answered the question of the amount of lumens.

I'd be interested in these if they meet what I'm after, the trouble with being in the uk is I'd love to visit someone with them installed which is impossible lol. On another note, if they are totally awesome I'd be interested in marketing them over here too.


http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/red-sea-max-owners-club/83315-als-red-sea-650-a.html[url]
 
N

Nob35

Active Member
You will get disco effect or shimmer with any LEDs. The trick is get rid of the surface movement to a point to where it does not bother you. You also get used to it very quickly and now I hardly notice it. I do not get the spotlight effect with the Vegas.
 
Mrsalt

Mrsalt

Active Member
PREMIUM
Lol I like shimmer, its the one thing I missed when I dumped my halides from years ago, very natural like the suns shimmer. It's more the different colours flickering around I don't like. With some multi coloured strips I've seen in Lfs s it looks unnatural the way one second it's blue, next its white then flash of pink lol I'm already just been told to wear glasses to help with headaches, I don't want to be wriggling on the floor every time I feed the fish as I couldn't afford the food I'd waste :)


http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/red-sea-max-owners-club/83315-als-red-sea-650-a.html[url]
 
Mdk16

Mdk16

Member
These have great shimmer and even distribution, No dark areas. The LEDs alternate w,rb,cb so it presents as a uniform color. The blues and whites are on their on channels so you can play with the colors.
 
Choff

Choff

Well-Known Member
Thanks Orieng! Any S400 owners?

I too love the shimmer and is one of my main worries about dropping the Kessils. Kessils are renowned for their shimmer.
I doubt I will run any t5s at all if I do it will be the pure actinics that PSU uses to supplement his radions. I wanted to add uv leds, but Jeff was really against it. I figure I can add a strip of the actinics don't work out.

I had to do a little running around yesterday to find 22 gauge shielded wire that I needed to hook up the apex. Something that I hope they add to the purchase page when they create one for the S series.

I'm going to work on this today and expect to have it running. Hopefully I'll make the build post tonight. The only caveat is that I'm currently sitting in the hospital waiting for an MRI. I slipped yesterday and managed to reinjure my quad tendon. It's at least partially torn and I will be having surgery again. Good times...

...stupid auto correct
 
Choff

Choff

Well-Known Member
Bad news, I somehow pulled a connection of one of the drivers. I only have 3 of 4 channels working. I went ahead and tried to connect the apex, but my first attempt failed. Heading out for a few beers so tomorrow I'll check the connections. I'm certain its wired correctly, but inserting the small gauge wire into the push connections is dicey. I'm assuming/hoping that's the issue.

...stupid auto correct
 
Choff

Choff

Well-Known Member
OK, figured out the issue with the APEX. The wiring on the Neptune dimming cable is "backward" in that red is negative and black positive. I had it the other way around. I now have another issue on a 2nd driver, a power line is cut. I need to figure out how best to fix that. So I have 1 fully functioning bar and 1 totally dead. Busy with kid stuff all day. I'll get back at this late in the afternoon.
 
Choff

Choff

Well-Known Member
It's connected to this round flat thing that I'm not quite sure what it does. I'm going to post a pict later when I get home.

...stupid auto correct
 
LakeLivin

LakeLivin

Active Member
Glad you're making progress Mike and I'm looking forward to your overall review. However, I have to admit it does not excite me to hear that the install process does not appear to be as easy or fool proof as I would like.
 
Choff

Choff

Well-Known Member
Tim, we are the first ones doing the install and there are no directions yet. The install should take no more than an hour and with a few lessons learned from the early adopters it should be a very smooth process.



...stupid auto correct
 
Mdk16

Mdk16

Member
I provided them with a complete write up and about 30 pics detailing each step. I'm surprised they didn't include any of that information.

With the exception of the Apex connection, if you have them build it the wiring should be completely done.
 
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