Any ideas to light a pico?

[buttons buster]

I was wondering if anyone has done an LED pico tank?
I was thinking about doing this but have no idea where to start as far as lighting goes.
If anyone has done this before and wants to help me out that would be great.
I was thinking mabey two white and two blue lights.
Any Input/advice or tutorials would be great.

Pretty much open to any suggestions as far as lighting goes.
*note: on a budget

[Altpers0na]

how pico?

my default thoughts, are the fashion of the day, LED's..

[troylee]

i just got these new leds that came out from jt out of china they are way cool....pretty much a plug and play system....and very cheap there high power 1.5w led's perfect for a nano......do a google search on them...
there around 3 dollars a led...so you would be talking like 12 bucks to light that tank....:lol:
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p160/aliyasue/work/2009-12-04081526.jpg
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p160/aliyasue/work/2009-12-04081514.jpg
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p160/aliyasue/work/2009-12-04075059.jpg

[Drag Racer]

http://www.nanotuners.com/product_info.php?cPath=74&products_id=623

This is what im going to use to light my pico tank

[Altpers0na]

er? so your suggesting to google 'china' , 'led' ' '1.5w' ?

[troylee]

google jt leds......they have a supplier in cali.....:)

[buttons buster]

so what else do I need if I order the jt LEDs?
like do I need a resistor or anything?

[buttons buster]

oh and can you pm me the website?
I couldn't find those LEDs

[lordofthereef]

I think I have seen a 4 LED array mounted to a computer CPU heatsink over a nano that looked pretty cool. It is somewhere on here...

[buttons buster]

If you can find it I would love to see a link :)

[buttons buster]

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1756480
I decided to go for it let me know what you think

[james3370]

check out www.nano-reef.com there will be enough threads on various LED fixtures for different sized tanks to keep you planted at your pc for weeks of reading

[HumblePie]

I had 4 3W LEDs on a vase pico. It put out a LOT of light. I had the whites turned down a bit because it was so intense. I am going to re-purpose them for my new 4.5g pico as supplemental lighting for my 12" Sunpaq dual.

You can check the build out on my blog [ http://picoxp.blogspot.com ].

[HumblePie]

I should add that I also had the 4 3W wired to a heat sink. This was over a 4.75" diameter vase. I used two buckpucks so I could dial in the temp. I also used a potentiometer so I could speed up or slow down the fan.

I'm not sure how big your Pico is but 4 1W LEDs might not be enough light for a reef. It would be fine for fish only. Without knowing much more about the LEDS and tank depth I can't offer any speculation about what the PAR value would be.

I'm including a few pics so you can see it a bit better and how bright the LEDS were. All the rest of the pics are at the link (http://picoxp.blogspot.com). Just look through the older posts and you can see the build.

http://www.insidertricks.com/picoxp/images/ProjectDay9LightsCameraAction_B797/img_7586.jpg

http://www.insidertricks.com/picoxp/images/ProjectDay9LightsCameraAction_B797/img_7587.jpg

http://www.insidertricks.com/picoxp/images/ProjectDay10Anewbeginning_BD71/img_7588.jpg

http://www.insidertricks.com/picoxp/images/ProjectDay10Anewbeginning_BD71/img_7590.jpg

http://www.insidertricks.com/picoxp/images/ProjectDay10Anewbeginning_BD71/img_7591.jpg

http://www.insidertricks.com/picoxp/images/ProjectDay10Anewbeginning_BD71/img_7593.jpg
In the end I changed the wiring slightly. When these pics were taken I was going to have two moon lights and two whites. I had four buckpucks so I could tweak everything. In the end, the 3W LEDs were far too bright for any moonlight so I re-purposed them for the main lighting

http://www.insidertricks.com/picoxp/images/ProjectDay10Anewbeginning_BD71/img_7597.jpg

http://www.insidertricks.com/picoxp/images/ProjectDay10Anewbeginning_BD71/img_7598.jpg

http://www.insidertricks.com/picoxp/images/ProjectDay12AndLetThereBeLight_A727/img_7733.jpg

http://www.insidertricks.com/picoxp/images/ProjectDay12AndLetThereBeLight_A727/img_7734.jpg

Don't pay much attention to the bubbles. That was the first shot of the tank up and running and the pump wasn't broken in yet.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

[der_wille_zur_macht]

People are probably sick of me saying this, but the #1 thing you need to consider when doing an LED build (unless maybe for a fish-only tank) is getting the most efficient LEDs you can. It doesn't matter if you want a low-light coral tank or an SPS dominated reef, having the best LEDs possible makes a world of difference on several criteria. Firstly, it'll be more efficient in terms of power consumption - it'll use less energy for a given amount of light. Secondly, it'll be easier to build, since you'll need fewer LEDs to get the same light output. Finally, it'll be much cooler, since the more-efficient LEDs will be converting more energy to light rather than wasting it as heat.

And don't be afraid of cost. Good LEDs are cheap (around $5 - $6 per LED if you shop for it) and will pay for themselves in a year or two compared to less efficient LEDs just from the power savings on your electric bill.

[Titeo]

But Led can really compare to metal halide in long term??

[der_wille_zur_macht]

But Led can really compare to metal halide in long term??

A photon is a photon. Depending on your criteria, LED can compare extremely favorably to MH in the long term. Some thoughts:

1) The best LEDs use less energy to produce a given amount of light compared to MH or fluorescent. This means a lower power bill.

2) LEDs produce less heat when producing a given amount of light. This is tied to efficiency, too - if a MH or T5 rig uses 500w to produce a given amount of light and an LED rig uses 250w to produce the same amount, it's basically like having a 250w heater running in your canopy when the T5 or MH are turned on.

3) LEDs have no consumables - you don't need to replace lamps every 6 - 12 months. The LEDs themselves last for a very long time - likely in the 10 year range. On a large tank, the savings from lamp replacement alone can be immense.

4) LEDs are more or less infinitely controllable, in terms of color and intensity. Since you can mix and match different LEDs in a build, you can get the exact ratio that you want for intensity and color. Also, you can dim the LEDs to produce changes in intensity or color. This level of control is not available in any other type of lighting used for reefs, period.

5) Since an LED array is made up of a very large number of point sources of light, you get a lot of control over intensity, color, and angle when building your fixture. People aren't really experimenting with this very much yet, but you could spotlight an individual coral, or have the light slanted in part of the tank, etc.

So again, I guess it depends on your criteria, but IMHO LEDs have several clear advantages. The only real disadvantage is that it costs a lot to do it right in terms of one-time upfront cost to build the fixture, but it'll more than pay for itself in only a few years compared to MH or T5, thanks to lower power bills and no lamp replacement.

On that note, using anything but the most efficient LEDs you can get is a bit of a waste, since you miss out on some of the above advantages. A high-efficiency HP LED like the Cree XR-E Q5 or Luxeon Rebel 100 will produce around 90 - 100 lumens/watt the way we use it. An "average" HP LED will be around 40 - 50 lumens/watt, and a low quality HP LED or plain old gumdrop LED will be down below that range. At that point, you've lost the battle, because it's not really more efficient than MH or T5. So it's important to know the components you're using.

(Sorry to the OP for hijacking the thread.)