|
07/12/2011, 11:48 AM | #51 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: The Salty D! Sandy let go of my eggo!
Posts: 1,962
|
Hey BMB. Got any actual power consumption reading for your build? There was a thread awhile back stating that some DIY rigs were using much more power that they should be. A friend of mine as a 24 LED setup using all 3 watt crees and his rig is pulling 125 watts of juice. I was just wondering if you experienced anything like this. Thanks.
__________________
Fish tanks and Chevys... And my cousin's Datsun too. Some call it paranoid. I call it prepared. You have more post than I do... You MUST be right then! |
07/12/2011, 12:42 PM | #52 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: NY
Posts: 977
|
My LED journey is as follows:
I have my only current tank in my office so while I like the look of a fixture suspended over a tank sans hood I don't want people throwing stuff in the tank when no one is looking so I decided a hood is a must. I used to have a 3x48" VHO set-up which was fine but they got hot and raised my tank temp somewhat even with a fan and I hated having to swap out the bulbs when they reached their EOL. I added a Reef Brite blue 48" strip for a little actinic supplementation and loved the blue highlights it added so much I decided to go all LED and eventually added another 50white/50blue model along with a couple of big 36w 5500k PAR38's to add a little yellow balance to the decided blue look. Recently I added a new Reef Brite XHO model 50/50 with the goal of eliminating the PAR38's but I found they actually work even better together because the shimmer coming off the PAR38's is nothing short of MH-like and the yellow cast give a more balanced look IMHO. The only problem I had was mounting the three RB's in my hood made it difficult to do any work in the tank w/o removing the hood. I came up with a solution that involved using the 3-way RB mount sliding on some aluminum T-Track held in place with some quick release cam locks so I can instantly slide the whole RB set-up back into the hood for more clearance when I want to and then slide it forward when done. It works so well in fact that I leave the lights far more forward than I had ever considered mounting them because the light looks better more toward the front angled back into the tank. I really like having four distinct lights hooked up to my Neptune controller too. The blues are the first to come on (and last to go off), along with a fan to cool the hood. Then an hour later the standard grade 50/50's come on followed by the XHO's a little later and then finally the PAR's come on for a midday sun effect for about 5 hours. Then they all go off in reverse order. I guess the whole point to my post is that how you start setting up your lights may not be how you end up and there is nothing wrong with building a component at a time and flesh it all out to your own taste. I couldn't be happier with how my lights all turned out but it did take a while to getting them where I wanted them to be. Last edited by BigKahuna; 07/12/2011 at 12:57 PM. |
07/12/2011, 07:48 PM | #53 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,612
|
Thanks bigkahuna, nice little review!
This is quite similar to my situation. I'm getting two AIs that I just ordered today and will be adding depending on how I like the look of two over a 75 gallon. Lets just say I'm really excited and am very anxious for them to get to my house! It's really an advantage over traditional forms of lighting that you can add modules and save money so easily. |
07/12/2011, 08:10 PM | #54 | |
BMB
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Space Coast - Florida
Posts: 471
|
Quote:
You have to take the 3 watt rating with a little grain of salt sometimes. If a Cree XRE were running at 3.5V and pushed to 1.3A thats really 4.55 watts, if that were what he was running at then 24x4.55=109 watts. SInce we don't know which Cree 3w he is using and what his parameters are its hard to say whats going on...but you can see theoretically its possible. But take that same rig and run it off one driver with 2 parallel strings of 12 at 700ma and you just halved the power..... It would be interesting if he could measure the voltage and current of each string at the LEDs and compare that to whatever he used to measure the total...probably a kill-a-watt or something. I'm using XPGs and XPEs and they tend to run about 3.1V at about 1A so around 3W times 74 is about 220W theoretically. |
|
07/13/2011, 12:08 AM | #55 |
Registered Member
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 41
|
I was wondering what the correlation between PAR and Lux. I assume the more lux, the more par, but I'm not sure.
Also, have there been any reports of those aluminum U-channel's used in place of heatsinks causing heat problems? I have access to a bunch of scrap sheets of aluminum, and was wondering if I could just cut strips and bend them to make my own U channels. If I do, what thickness is ideal, and how long should the fins be? One more, I plan on using the ELN-60-48D and running 13 XM-L's in a series, and plan to dim with my Apex. Do I still use the 10v AC to DC power adapter to dial in my driver, or does the Apex take care of it? Thanks! |
07/13/2011, 12:50 AM | #56 | |
Registered Member.
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 258
|
Response in Blue
Quote:
Last edited by WingoLED; 07/13/2011 at 12:57 AM. |
|
07/13/2011, 04:38 AM | #57 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Florida, FWB
Posts: 3,389
|
Were can you get CREE XM-L LEDs? I googled it but got nothing but forum threads and stores that have CREEs but not XM-Ls. Please help, lol
__________________
180 Mixed Reef SRO-5000 Skimmer Neptune APEX Gold Kessil AP700/ MP60+6105 Kalk+2 part/ Cheato Fuge Current Tank Info: 180 SPS Dominant |
07/13/2011, 07:43 AM | #58 |
Registered Member
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 41
|
|
07/13/2011, 11:27 AM | #59 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Florida, FWB
Posts: 3,389
|
Goggled clay-boa and got a dead link,
This is the fifth time I've posted the question no real link, or shop. Please help....
__________________
180 Mixed Reef SRO-5000 Skimmer Neptune APEX Gold Kessil AP700/ MP60+6105 Kalk+2 part/ Cheato Fuge Current Tank Info: 180 SPS Dominant |
07/13/2011, 12:52 PM | #60 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,612
|
|
07/13/2011, 12:54 PM | #61 | ||
Registered Member
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,612
|
Quote:
Quote:
|
||
07/13/2011, 03:16 PM | #62 | |
BMB
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Space Coast - Florida
Posts: 471
|
Quote:
|
|
07/14/2011, 11:03 AM | #63 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,612
|
Anyone who has an LED tank, please post pics for others' reference. We need some pics in this thread! And who doesn't love pics.
|
07/14/2011, 11:23 AM | #64 |
Registered Member
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 41
|
ya i thought i fixed the link, but it kept changing it to clay boa. I think its because the site isnt a sponsor. maybe thats why they block it.
|
07/14/2011, 11:26 AM | #65 |
Registered Member
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 41
|
this was my tank when I first set it up. Everything was moved form my 120 into the biocube. The 120 had 800w of radiums on it
this is my tank 6 months later |
07/14/2011, 12:02 PM | #66 |
BMB
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Space Coast - Florida
Posts: 471
|
Nice
|
07/14/2011, 12:41 PM | #67 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,612
|
More info fns! Lights are??? That's more like it!
|
07/14/2011, 12:49 PM | #68 |
Registered Member
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 41
|
Ya I just realized that I didnt say what lights I had on mine. I did this a while back, it has 10 Cree XRE col whites, and 14 Cree XRE Royal blues. I am running 4 buckpucks with a wired in potentiometer, so I can manually dim them. I also have 2 Kai domain UV leds in there. I'm not sure if they really do much, but it's kinda neat to see the tank with all the other lights dimmed down.
|
07/14/2011, 12:50 PM | #69 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: New Hampshire
Posts: 1,593
|
__________________
Sherri Current Tank Info: 400g - 65g DT and 180g peninsula DT both drop into basement. 5 tanks plus a QT in the basement. |
07/14/2011, 01:45 PM | #70 | |
Registered Member
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Northern VA
Posts: 4,618
|
Bridgelux are not as efficient as Cree so you will pay more for electricity. In terms of spectrum 2:1 white:blues IMHO will be too white. Also I would double check that the blues are royal blue not just blue. And finally they need to work on their math:
Quote:
__________________
Click my home page for Thread Summaries Current Tank Info: 75 gallon lps and fish |
|
07/15/2011, 05:15 AM | #71 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Sykesville, MD
Posts: 213
|
I am doing a build for a 110. It is 60x18 and 24 inches deep with a really deep sand bed. It has been running for 5 years.
I Ordered a 10x52 heat sink, 52 RB (E line), 19 CW (L line) and 7 NW(L line). A Meanwell HLG 185-48a and a Meanwell 120-48A drivers. I also went with the pre-shaped self adhesive thermal adhesive pads to speed up the build I hopefully they can be removed with a scraper in the future if needed. If not, so be it. Do I need two or three fans fans mounted on the heat sinks? Are people still doing that? |
07/15/2011, 07:54 AM | #72 |
Premium Member
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: stafford, va
Posts: 513
|
Thanks for starting this thread.
I've got a 300 DD I'm setting up. I was going to go with T5s and probably still will but I was wondering how many AI sol modules I'd need to reasonably cover the tank. SPS would be concentrated in bommies immediately under the modules with the last 3" on each side completely clear of glass and about 6" in the front completely clear. |
07/15/2011, 11:26 AM | #73 | |
Registered Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Florida, FWB
Posts: 3,389
|
Quote:
__________________
180 Mixed Reef SRO-5000 Skimmer Neptune APEX Gold Kessil AP700/ MP60+6105 Kalk+2 part/ Cheato Fuge Current Tank Info: 180 SPS Dominant |
|
07/15/2011, 11:49 AM | #74 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 74
|
Help with 300 Gallon SPS Tank LED Design
I ran through a quick design for my 300 gallon tank LED system. Using the mid tank depth as a reference for the requried lux level I calculated the following:
Height over tank: 18 inches Surface to Mid Tank depth: 15 inches Distance to Mid Tank: 33 inches Illumination Spot Size: 24 inch radius (assuming 40 degree optics (+/- 20 degrees)) Total lumens per LED: 500 lumens assuming CREE XM-L driven at 750 ma (Note I used slightly less than the 560 lumens for design margin) Total Flux density: 430 lumens/m or 430 lux for a single LED Number of LEDs required: 12 " spacing = 16 LEDs (doubles the Flux density to 860 lux due to overlapping radation pattern) 8" spacing = 36 LEDs (1290 lux) 4 " spacing = 144 LEDs (six times flux density to 2580 lux) Now the question is what level of flux density do I need for SPS corals? Also I need to account for the reduction in flux density for blue LEDs. Any comments and/or recommendations would be appreciated. |
07/15/2011, 08:28 PM | #75 | |
Registered Member
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,612
|
Quote:
|
|
Thread Tools | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Yet Another DIY LED Build Thread | csarkar001 | Do It Yourself | 54 | 05/11/2011 05:55 PM |
LED recommendations? | DanEnglish | Lighting, Filtration & Other Equipment | 3 | 01/10/2011 07:21 AM |
LED Recommendations | Baldwin | Appalachian Reef Society | 31 | 09/30/2010 07:49 PM |
LED recommendation/Question | kahkaw | Do It Yourself | 6 | 07/04/2010 02:06 PM |
LED recommendations for DIY moonlight | mwcf | Do It Yourself | 10 | 02/08/2006 12:05 AM |