BC29 with Apex LSM installed?

[ChadO]

Hi Folks,

I did a little bit of searching here, and didn't seem to find a distinct answer, so I thought I'd ask the group.

I have an Apex LSM with 2 LED string on the way, and I'm going to install it into my new Coralife BioCube. I have the RapidLED retro kit installed, so I have to work with that in the equation.

From the reading that I have done, folks seem to be commenting on how bright the LEDs are on this Apex string. So, my plan was to mount 1 of the 2 LEDs in the center of my RapidLED heat sink, and then gently cover the 2nd LED with electrical tape, or some other method and zip tie it off to the side, still under the protective splash guard. This way, I'd have one moonlight for the center of the tank shining down. If I try to do both LEDs, I don't see an easy way (other than to put them pretty much next to each other on the heat sink) to get decent coverage without it being too bright. Am I overthinking this too much?

Anyway, I'd be curious to see what others have to say, and I am completely open to suggestions. This is my first SW tank, and I've learned a ton from this forum already. A big thanks to all the active members here encouraging the new folks and showing in great detail how they have set up their systems.

Thanks,
Chad

[soulpatch]

I ran rapids moonlight leds for a bit and with both of them it was fairly bright. That said I do not leave the lighting on all night. I had it turn off after a bit so the tank went dark at night.

Depending on which retro kit you have you could have saved your money on the moonlights if the retro kit you bought is one of their dimmable models. Simply use the apex to dim the blues to 10% and kill everything else and boom moon lighting... Then kill that after whatever amount of time for the tank to go dark for the evening.

[ReefWreak]

Since the RapidLED heatsink isn't all that wide, I'd maybe just use a tiny bit of glue and glue the LSM plastic LED boxes to the side of the heatsink (or double-stick it to the hood itself, next to the heatsink) and just run them like that. If you can get the stock LSM LEDs dim enough, you don't need to dim them further, but if you do, you might want to tape white paper or something over them to dim and diffuse them.

On soulpatch's second point, even 10% would be waaaay too much light (the way my kit is set up), and when using the 0-10v dimming (all of the DA/Neptune/Apex controllers), you can't get lower than 10% without them turning off. Now, I've also noticed that as long as my drivers are receiving power at the outlet, the LEDs actually stay on, and just bright enough to see the tank nicely in a dark room. I guess you could synchronize the power plug on/off to the moon cycle. Though it probably is just a shade too dim to use as a moonlight, but it's there.

Dunno, just throwing an idea out there. Otherwise it sounds like you're on your way and have a viable solution already.

[ChadO]

See, I should have posted here first before I ordered. :idea:

Well, I can still go that route, minus some small return fees since I haven't gotten it yet and opened the box, so thanks for the suggestion! It feels silly now that I didn't think of that as a way to do it.

I do have the solderless dimmable kit. I have RB, NW, and UV+Lime on separate channels, so what I'll do then is modify my RB programming to just have a moonlight mode in the evening as you suggest.

Thanks again!
Chad

[soulpatch]

I will send you the invoice for my consult fees.

[ChadO]

Since the RapidLED heatsink isn't all that wide, I'd maybe just use a tiny bit of glue and glue the LSM plastic LED boxes to the side of the heatsink (or double-stick it to the hood itself, next to the heatsink) and just run them like that. If you can get the stock LSM LEDs dim enough, you don't need to dim them further, but if you do, you might want to tape white paper or something over them to dim and diffuse them.

On soulpatch's second point, even 10% would be waaaay too much light (the way my kit is set up), and when using the 0-10v dimming (all of the DA/Neptune/Apex controllers), you can't get lower than 10% without them turning off. Now, I've also noticed that as long as my drivers are receiving power at the outlet, the LEDs actually stay on, and just bright enough to see the tank nicely in a dark room. I guess you could synchronize the power plug on/off to the moon cycle. Though it probably is just a shade too dim to use as a moonlight, but it's there.

Dunno, just throwing an idea out there. Otherwise it sounds like you're on your way and have a viable solution already.

Ahh, this is a good point. I am noticing the shut-off at 10%, and had read about that as well. I only set up and turned on the variable stuff yesterday, even though I have been cycling for about 4 weeks - just busy with holidays and stuff.

So, maybe I what I'll do here is hang on to my LSM kit when I get it, and try out the 10% option to see what it looks like. I think you might be right on the brightness as I do have 10 RB and 2 Blue LEDs on that string controlled by the Meanwell 48D.

Thanks to both of you, I really appreciate it.

Chad

[ChadO]

I will send you the invoice for my consult fees.

LOL! After the beating my wallet took over the holidays, I'd almost be tempted to let you have what little money is left in there.

[ReefWreak]

LOL! After the beating my wallet took over the holidays, I'd almost be tempted to let you have what little money is left in there.

One of my dad's favorite quotes: "You can't squeeze blood out of a stone"

[soulpatch]

LOL! After the beating my wallet took over the holidays, I'd almost be tempted to let you have what little money is left in there.

Considering the last 2 months I have spent at least 5K in tank stuff I feel your pain. And my initial budget for EVERYTHING for the tank was originally supposed to be 3K. I still have a couple hundred left to get off the ground...

[soulpatch]

One of my dad's favorite quotes: "You can't squeeze blood out of a stone"

My wife sure tries....

[ChadO]

My wife sure tries....

I want to be the marketing guy that came up with the Skylanders game/marketing model (I know there are other games that fit this mold, but this is the one pounding on me now). You buy the game, then your kids hit you up every other day for "only one more guy" to add to the set at $15 a pop. Every time I shell out for a character, I think, "that's a Purigen packet", "a couple of those and I would have had my extra temp probe"...

[soulpatch]

Every time I buy a coral my wife thinks that is a pair of shoes and every time I pay my child's daycare bill I think that that money could buy me a new tank or be the mortgage payment on a vacation property...

[ChadO]

Well, I did it, and it looks great! I'm very happy.

The kit arrived on Friday night, and after trying a test of my existing RB's at 10%, I came to the conclusion that they were plenty bright. I liked the idea in theory, and I think if the Meanwell drivers could handle less than 10%, that would have been a perfect solution. But at 10% it is too bright for my taste.

So, I opened the packages and figured I'd come up with some way to make it work. My plan was to use a single LED in the middle of my solder-less RapidLED retrofit kit. I was then going to tie the second one off to the side. Well, once I got the protective splash guard off, I tried placing the 1 Apex Moonlight LED in the middle, and it wouldn't fit. It was so close, but with the screws holding the regular LEDs to the heat sink, the way they sat, the Apex LED wouldn't fit. The other thing I noticed was how rather large the moonlight LED "cube" was in size. Even if it did fit in the spot that I wanted, I was a bit concerned whether it would have inhibited the LEDs next to it by blocking some of their light. The moonlight "cube" is close to 1" in depth, and that might have been big enough to block some of the light from the regular LEDs.

So, I looked around some more inside the hood, and I found a couple of hole locations that became unused when the RapidLED heat sink was installed. They were available in the same spot on both sides of the heat sink. Furthermore, they would allow the moonlight LED to be even with, or the same depth as the LEDs that were on the heat sink. This meant that the heat sink wouldn't block the moonlight LEDs either. I went to my garage and found a bag of screws that I kept (and this rarely ever happens for me) that were the right length and diameter to fit in the plastic "stems" in the hood. I mounted each moonlight LED using one of the mounting holes (they have two) and securely tightening it down. Even using only one mounting hole, they're not going anywhere. After mounting them, I routed the moonlight wire like my other LED wires through the hood, and it all fell into place nicely.

I've included some pictures that will hopefully help with the description here. If you have any questions, fire away. Hopefully, this info helps out other folks.

Chad

[homer1475]

I see they are rather large "pucks", and the way you have them looks like its fine.

Just out of curiosity, why didn't you just get the moonlight kit from rapidLED? All their kit contains is 2 or 4 small starboards with blue LEDS(2 is plenty for our cubes), and one very small driver box(probably close to the size of one of those apex LSM modules). They would have fit right on the heatsink with all your others. If you couldn't find a space for them where holes matched up to screw them down, you can use thermal glue(different then regular thermal paste they ship with their kits) to hold them down(I did mine this way under advise from rapidLED. Then put the driver in your cabinet with all the other meanwell drivers.

Granted you can't dim them like I'm assuming you can with the LSM's, but a simple on/off is really all you need. FYI, 2 mo

[ChadO]

Yep, you're exactly on point!

So, I did look at that option from RapidLED(and emailed them as well), and you're exactly right. Since my kit took all of the available mounting spots, I would have needed to do the thermal glue - no problem, that would have been fine. They even have a dimmable driver to run their moonlights that would hook up to my Apex. The issue became since I have my LED lights split into three strings (RB, NW, UV+Lime), and I run a Tunze 6055 on my cube, all four of my vsp ports are in use. If I wanted dimming, I'd need an expansion module at $99 from Neptune. If I wanted just on/off, I could indeed do that with their standard kit for $24 plus shipping. Since I had a few BRS points available, and they ship for free once you hit their minimum, I was looking at roughly $40 more to go the Neptune way. With that, I got automatic plug and play, as well as the season table, etc. I don't know that it really justifies the extra $40, but it was a small enough difference that I figured I'd just go the Neptune route. But, you're points were all exactly right.