LED Setup - Let me know what you think...
 

I'm in the process of setting up my 2nd LED arrangement, for a new tank this time, as I've grown bored with my NW/RB fixture. Here's my LED layout, using 3 RapidLED Heatsinks (6"x9" drilled/tapped for 24 LEDs), for a 30"x18"x8" tank:

http://i1168.photobucket.com/albums/...0at45711PM.png

Note: I know that WW and Rebel ES Royals (RbS) are hard to cover up. Also, this set up is more for my own curiosity and hopefully it will turn out well.

These LEDs will be driven as follows:
Channel A: WW (XP-G) and NW (XP-G and Rebel ES) - Inventronics 40w 700mA
Channel B: CW (XP-G) and RB (XP-E) - Inventronics 40w 700mA
Channel C: RbS (Rebel ES) and RB (XT-E) - Inventronics 40w 1050mA
Channel D: CB (XP-E) and TV - ????? 600mA

All of these are to be controlled via DIM4. No optics will be used since the tank is so shallow and I want to mount the fixture really close to the water.

Anyone have any input on this setup or has anyone tried anything similar?

Anyone have any input here?

Really? Not a single person? :/

Just some quick thoughts off the top of my head. Have you considered using meanwell 48D's instead of the inventronics? I feel you could get much more out of your LED's as your XT-E's and XP-G's can all be ran at 1500mA, that's nearly double what the inventronics can do. Same with the XP-E's which can run @ 1000mA. Here are some suggestions.

- I would consider doubling your TV's to 12, many people report that they did not notice 6 or less TV's in their 40+ LED builds. I used 12 and I can see their reasoning as they are pretty dim.

- Will these be clustered very close? or evenly spaced? If they will be evenly spaced, I would consider rearranging your layout because you might experience some color banding. The layout shown pretty much has your colors split into diagonal lines. RB / White / RB RB / White / RB ....etc. If you are clustering tight as possible it probably won't be an issue.

- I'm still trying to think of some other driver string setups as it's a little tricky with all the different colors.

Here is an option

Removed WW added more TV option

Channel A: 6 RB Es + 6 CB @ 1000mA meanwell 48D
Channel B: 12 RB XT-E @ 1500mA meanwell 48D
Channel C: 6 XPG CW + 3 XPG NW + 3 NW Es @ 1500 mA meanwell 48D
Channel D: 12 TV @ 700mA Inventronics or meanwell 48D * honestly you could save $18+ here just use a the non dimmable meanwell LPC-35-700. I never dim my TV's.

Kept your LED setup, rearranged strings option. This option only has your 3 XPG nw's underdriven, everything else is run @ or near their full capability.

Channel A: 6 RB Es + 6 CB @ 1000mA meanwell 48D
Channel B: 12 RB XT-E @ 1500mA meanwell 48D
Channel C: 6 XPG WW + 6 XPG CW @ 1500mA meanwell 48D
Channel D: 6 TV + 3 Es NW + 3 XPG NW @ 700mA meanwell 48d or inventronics

Thanks for your input, I really appreciate it. BTW, your light build looks outstanding.

Here's some of what I was thinking when I planned this out. I was going with those 3 Inventronics drivers because I already have those from my first DIY LED build and I was just going to reuse them. Also, I was going to use those, even though they drive at 700mA, merely out my concern for roasting everything in my tank (mostly LPS with some SPS) since the water depth is just under 7"; I'm not sure if it would be worth the hassle to sell those drivers and get 1000mA drivers and then have to keep those 1000mA drivers dimmed really low.

My mounting concern was exactly as you had noted: the possibility of color banding. I was planning on using the 6"x9" RapidLED drilled/tapped heatsink (because I really don't want to drill a heatsink again) but I'm not quite sure if those 24 LED locations on that heatsink would be tight enough to prevent the color banding. Perhaps it would be a better idea to use their undrilled heatsink and just group the LEDs tightly together and attach them using adhesive? My only concern, which I'm not sure if it's justified, with doing that is that the adhesive is really permanent; what if my initial grouping of the LEDs looked unattractive once over the tank, is there a way to remove the LEDs once adhesive has been used?

Regarding the TV, I'll make the move to 12 of them. Are you driving yours at 700mA?

Ahhh ok that clears a lot of my questions up. At 7" deep and the fact you already have those drivers makes sense. I should have payed more attention to your first post.

I must admit you've got a tricky setup to plan for, especially at 18" wide. Using these rapid LED 6x9 heatsinks, I think how you plan to aquascape will make the difference here. If you cluster like mine, all your PAR will be along the lengthwise center line. If you do the even spacing of the drilled heatsink, You'll have a wider and more even coverage, of course at the cost of some color separation. I think in an ideal setup, You would have several small clusters spread about the tank, like 6 or 8 of them.

Here's an image to help picture you're setup with these 6x9 heatsinks. I do think if you could lay them the other direction, It would at least help a little with your coverage.

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h1...C/Untitled.png
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h1...ntitled1-1.png

Thanks a bunch for your help. What's your take on this setup?

http://i1168.photobucket.com/albums/...0at92606PM.png

That looks much better. Luckily you can change it easily whenever you want unlike me =). You'll even have room to throw in more colors or just more LED's in the future. Let me know how the build goes and how you like the Rebel stuff. They look great on paper, but I haven't seen many people use them yet.

Hi bro,

I thought XTE RB can only run at 1000mA max but for XTE White which is 1500mA max. Please proof me wrong...!

Thanks.

If you look at Cree's XTE Datasheet for XTE they state the general specifications as 1500mA max. They also show many different graphs with the royal blue running to 1500mA.
http://www.cree.com/~/media/Files/Cr...g/XLampXTE.pdf

r33fbuilders "those are e's btw" made a post about Cree's stated specification changes.
http://************.com/2012/05/02/c...lue-spec-bump/

Yes. There are 2 version of datasheet in the cree.com. One XTE RB (only RB) stated 1000mA and the other stated 1500mA (the one includes all XTE, WW,NW,CW,RB) so it's abit confuse.

anyway, I'll write to Cree to clarify before running at 1500mA although I like to if possible :lolspin:.

are there any real advantages to running that mean TV? are there any concerns with burning your corals with that much uv light?