Looking for some LED lighting advice!

[Reef Man Dan]

Hey guys!

Fairly new to the hobby, but through a lot of research and a bit of experience I'm quite confident. I've been building a Fluval Edge 12g, drilled with sump, etc. and am just finishing up the plumbing. Now comes the lighting issue ... the light comes with a 42 LED @7,600k and looks terrible, perhaps it'll make a nice fuge light later on.

I've been looking at lights, and I really want to find something that fits into the stock hood. Enter the AI Nano .... powerful for the size, fits in the hood yadda yadda. The question is ... can someone with experience with this light weigh in here. Is it worth the price tag (I'm a grad student so this is a wallet buster), or are there alternative out there that have good control, good lighting, PAR etc etc.

I'd love to here any and all opinions. Thanks guys.

P.S. once my project is done, I will be doing a build thread, so look for that in the next month.

[rocsec1]

Take a look at rapidled, they may have a retro kit for that tank. If not they have solderless kits that are really easy to use.

[bmanzie]

I have rapid led Dimmable onyx for sale. It is only 5 months old.

[nanoreefer1000]

DIY, look into stevesleds and ledgroupbuy

[Snaredrum]

Just did the Steves LEDs with a Typhon controller. Like it alot.

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[zachts]

for nano tanks your best bet is to use either a DIM 4 and 12 LEDs at 500mA or use a Typon(arduion based) controller to run something like the LDD drivers for a bit more power and similar multi-channel controll.

DIM4 plus power supply and LEDs and heatsink is probably the cheapest but might not be quite enough for light demanding SPS, otherwise plenty in a 12 gallon.

You could go a bit cheaper if you completely build your own controller and every thing from scratch but then when I was in school most of my free time was spent :beer: the poor 10 gallon I lugged with me got a bit neglected.

[brvheart]

All great suggestions here.

I think you first need to decide whether you want to go DIY or with a manufactured fixture. Either will give you excellent results. The AI Nano you mentioned and also the RapidLED Onyx mentioned above are both nice, elegant solutions.

I personally love DIY'ing (and saving a bit of cash) so it was DIY all the way for me. And in terms of DIY projects, LED builds are one of the easier ones. All the options can be a bit overwhelming at first, but it's simple. Basically you've got the lights themselves (LED's) and a power source (drivers). If you want to control them, you can use a manual dimmer, or automate things with a controller. Sorry if you know all this already, I didn't before I started my build.

In general terms, the DIY option for your tank will cost you about $150-200. The finished products will cost around $300. So you could save $100-150. I like the suggestion above of the Typhon controller + LED's from Steve's, RapidLED, or ReefLEDlights. Look for Cree or Luxeon brand LED's. Since you're light is gonna be visible, you could consider the MakersLED products. They make for a very clean attractive build in the DIY world.

The last thing I'll mention is to consider using BJB connectors if you're doing DIY. With those connectors you can easily swap out LED's whenever you like to really fine tune your color spectrum.

Good luck! Lot's of good info to be had here on these forums!

[Reef Man Dan]

I do enjoy the DIYing aspect of this hobby. I've done a few things, some work great, some not so much. The thing with DIY lighting, I'm just nervous because it's a bit of an investment to make, especially if I can't make it work. I want to have some controller that can run sunrise ramp up, and is adjustable for coral acclimation and such, so this is why the AI was appealing, also because of the universally great reviews.

[Reef Man Dan]

Well I just wanted to say thanks for the input. After shipping on our dreaded national sales tax, the AI Nano with controller comes in at just over $400. Now begins the DIY route. Thanks to Zachts, I will be looking at doing a build with the DIM4 controller, as it can drive fans directly off the controller, and I will only be using 2 of the 4 banks for LEDs, since I'll likely be going with the RapidLED biocube 14 retrofit.

Does anyone have experience with the DIM4? I'm wondering about running the "molex" power supply into the power connector on the module. Any thoughts on running the retrofit kit with this controller?

Thanks again guys

[zachts]

make sure you follow the driver setup instructions as those ELN-60-27 drivers drivers will fry the LEDs if not properly tuned down (don't recall if Rapid Does this as part of the kit). On the up side they are enough to drive 3 or 4 times as many LEDs in the future using more powerful, high current chips or using parallel strings.........

You can run a couple moon light LEDs off the extra two DIM 4 channels if you wanted.

What are you doing color wise, I'd not suggest the stock 50/50 mix. It grows coral fine but the color is less than great, IMHO, I would suggest something like 6 RB, and 2 blue, 4 neutral white. If it were me I'd also get some violets and run those on one or two of the spare DIM4 channels.

[Reef Man Dan]

I was looking at actually buying some Meanwell heat sinks as they have a bunch of rails for mounting various components, and possibly the drivers from LEDgroupbuy ... but not sure on this yet. Of the 12 colours, I planned on doing 2 cool white, 2, neutral white, 2 blue, 6 royal blue and 1 violet. I run the fan for it off one of the relays (if I have read correctly they can power 12v devices, as with the extra channels as long as they are driven to above the voltage of the fan). I read somewhere that without lenses these bad boys spread 120deg. If so that's great since I'm not mounting this very high off the water level. I also believe I read about reducing the amperage of the drivers also, something about opening it and turning some knob. Seems easy enough

[TomLiu]

I suggest you just buy a LED Aquarium. DIY performance is not good, if it is broken, will likely scrap

[brvheart]

I suggest you just buy a LED Aquarium. DIY performance is not good, if it is broken, will likely scrap

Ummmm, not really.

[zachts]

I suggest you just buy a LED Aquarium. DIY performance is not good, if it is broken, will likely scrap

Also disagree, what have you been reading?

DIY performance is almost always better than anything commercial you could buy for the same price. Following common sense for the assembly and any instructions with a kit as well as the advice and build experience of other LED users on RC or locally and you will most certainly have a better light for less money. That will last for years if you can resist upgrading.

[zachts]

I was looking at actually buying some Meanwell heat sinks as they have a bunch of rails for mounting various components, and possibly the drivers from clay-boa ... but not sure on this yet. Of the 12 colours, I planned on doing 2 cool white, 2, neutral white, 2 blue, 6 royal blue and 1 violet. I run the fan for it off one of the relays (if I have read correctly they can power 12v devices, as with the extra channels as long as they are driven to above the voltage of the fan). I read somewhere that without lenses these bad boys spread 120deg. If so that's great since I'm not mounting this very high off the water level. I also believe I read about reducing the amperage of the drivers also, something about opening it and turning some knob. Seems easy enough

Rapid has instructions on how to adjust the drivers, make sure you follow them exactly or you could potentially damage or burn out your new LEDs. The adjustment is very simple just follow the instructions.

I'd suggest using the 1ohm resistor method for measuring the current though using a couple of screw terminals to hold the resistor in the led string during measurement. This makes it easier to do without blinding yourself and also eliminates the chance that you will "touch and go" with the multimeter probes and possibly fry the LEDs.

Your color selection sounds good. How will you be running the violet, and which one are your using?