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Cultivated Reef

72" Full Spectrum LED Build - PICS


Milad LEDGroupBuy.com

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Milad LEDGroupBuy.com

This 72" Full Spectrum LED Build is going over a peninsula tank. This adds a little bit of fun trying to make sure I get the right optics/height on the fixture.

 

Build materials:

27x XT-E 3UP LEDs

27x 60degree True Violets

12x 120 degree Ocean Coral White

27x 40degree 3UP Optics

4x 25feet 24awg Solid wire

1x Arctic Silver Ceramique 2

1x 72" MakersLED Heatsink

1x 4 pot LEDGroupBuy Dimming Kit

1x DIM4

1x Dim4 Relay

1x DIM4 Relay Socket

5x 75w 700mA Inventroincs Drivers

5x AC Plug for Drivers

 

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Additional tools:

Solder and Soldering iron

Multimeter

Wire Cutters

12ft of wire to make extension cable

And somewhere big enough to hold a 6foot heatsink!!

 

The basic idea of this setup is to have the controller do the sunrise/sunset and use the 4 pot dimming kit to manual tune the color of the light as the sunrise/sunset is happening. The sunrise sunset keeps the ratios the same and I just tune the dimming kit to pin point the color I want.

 

Wiring is like this:

 

CH1 2x 75w Driver - 54 XT-E Royal Blue LEDs

CH2 1x 75w Driver - 27 XT-E Neutral White LEDs

CH3 1x 75w Driver - 27 True Violet - 1x 75w Driver 12 OCW (This channel is maxed at 6.5v to keep the 75w drivers under 500mA at all times

CH4 nonthing

 

 

 

Probably the boringest part of the build is getting these screws lined up

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Layout:

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At this point taking snap shots every 2min got annoying as I had to deal with the grease so I didnt take any pictures of wiring it up.

Finished look with LEDs on:

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As you can see from the picture, I hid all the 5 drivers inside the heatsink. To do this, I removed 3 of the 6 fans. The heatsink still stays cool with just 3 fans.

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Corals super happy:

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It should be noted I neglected this tank for much too long. MH where over the tank and the corals slowly started dieing. The same day I got the LEDs over the tank, my bubble tip anemone finally started looking like a bubble tip anemone and it spread out huge. And it split within a week.... well thats what I thought. Turns out, the anemone I thought that died last year was actually still alive and now its also out and gleaming. Its a GTBA so I know its not the RBTA split.

 

All and all, very happy with the build. The LPS just look amazing under the OCW. If anything different, I may add more OCW to the build. The details in the fish also pop under the OCW. The Sohal orange accents are insane. Never even knew he had orange all over his body.

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(This channel is maxed at 6.5v to keep the 75w drivers under 500mA at all times)

 

Can you elaborate more on this as I thought you could not adjust the inventronic drives?

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Milad LEDGroupBuy.com
add the FTS pic

 

Its coming, I removed alot of rock/corals and re did the entire tank so its still a bit sandy

 

Sounds great!!!! Wheres the pics?

Pics are there. If you are on a corporate network that blocks dropbox, you wont be able to see them.

 

(This channel is maxed at 6.5v to keep the 75w drivers under 500mA at all times)

 

Can you elaborate more on this as I thought you could not adjust the inventronic drives?

 

All Inventronics drivers we sell are dimmable.

 

What I did is the following:

 

TrimPot.png

 

As you can see from the picture, there is two pots per driver. I basically used the DIM4 as the "trim pot". This means, at the most, the reference signal for the real pot is going to get 6.5v. So no matter what, when I dim manually with the pot, I can only go from 0v and up to a max of 6.5v. If its during the sunrise/sunset, the DIM4 is going to limit it even less than 6.5v since its dimming.

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As you can see from the picture, I hid all the 5 drivers inside the heatsink. To do this, I removed 3 of the 6 fans. The heatsink still stays cool with just 3 fans.

DSC008121.jpg

DSC008131.jpg

Cool little potentiometer box? Why is that not for sale on the website? How can one obtain that box?

Why did you opt to not use these that you sell?

 

Also, any plans in the near future to design and create a safe enclosure for the DIMM4?? <~ A must.

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Milad LEDGroupBuy.com

The 4 pot enclosure will be up soon. Just doing a few more tweaks with the design. I would have used the 2 pot but since I needed 4 pots and we needed a guinea pig to test the 4 pot, the 4 pot went onto the build!

 

 

We have been playing with the idea for a DIM4 enclosure. A few people have made small enclosures for it but really it needs a fan on it if its enclosed otherwise it can overheat.

 

Right now there isnt one available but there could be one in the future.

 

Cool little potentiometer box? Why is that not for sale on the website? How can one obtain that box?

Why did you opt to not use these that you sell?

 

Also, any plans in the near future to design and create a safe enclosure for the DIMM4?? <~ A must.

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Milad LEDGroupBuy.com

FTS but the tank is still cloudy after the full re-aquascape

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If someone wants to walk me through how to setup my Sony Nex 5N to take a picture, ill try to get a better one.

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Milad LEDGroupBuy.com
That actually looks just about perfect. It really looks like what a good T5/MH combination looks like. Very well done!

 

I agree

My previous MH would over power the PC actinics and I always enjoyed having just the PCs on and MH off but since I've had this up, I keep thinking exactly what you said, the color is just perfect. Throughout the day, with the sunrise/sunset, it looks great.

 

If I wanted it more blue, I just turn the knob. If I want it more white, i turn another knob. I can fine tune it however I like it.

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I agree

My previous MH would over power the PC actinics and I always enjoyed having just the PCs on and MH off but since I've had this up, I keep thinking exactly what you said, the color is just perfect. Throughout the day, with the sunrise/sunset, it looks great.

 

If I wanted it more blue, I just turn the knob. If I want it more white, i turn another knob. I can fine tune it however I like it.

Is the ratio of 1 OCW to 2 3-UPs to 1 TV now what you recommend? I know that previously 1 OCW to 4 3-UPs was recommended.

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Milad LEDGroupBuy.com
Is the ratio of 1 OCW to 2 3-UPs to 1 TV now what you recommend? I know that previously 1 OCW to 4 3-UPs was recommended.

 

Im using

9:9:4

3UP:TV:OCW

 

I would probably have done more of a

 

9:9:6 if I had to do it again but im extremely happy with how hit turned out as it is. The reason I was saying more OCW is because ive got the NW turned down to about 50% I believe because they start to wash out the colors. (ill have to double check this)

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So before I order the components for this build and have them sent to Australia,

 

1. Is there anything else you would do differently?

 

2. A rough idea on total cost of components & time to build would be awesome!

 

3. My Tank is a 6ft x 2 x 2.2 - i cant have the 72" heat sink shipped internationally do you think joining 2x 36" together would pose any problems?

 

Love your work!

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Milad LEDGroupBuy.com
So before I order the components for this build and have them sent to Australia,

 

1. Is there anything else you would do differently?

 

2. A rough idea on total cost of components & time to build would be awesome!

 

3. My Tank is a 6ft x 2 x 2.2 - i cant have the 72" heat sink shipped internationally do you think joining 2x 36" together would pose any problems?

 

Love your work!

 

I really like my setup. If i was giong to change anything, I would have added a few more OCW but the cost and complexity of dealing with the additional drivers to handle the extra OCW would probably have no offset it. My build just uses 5 75w 700mA drivers for the entire thing.

 

I think the cost was about $1200-$1400 (so less than half the cost of buying commercial).

 

I didnt calculate how long it took me but I got most of it finished in a weekend. I spent probably a few hours a day on it one weekend and a couple nights tweaking a few things.

 

Doing two 36" shouldnt be a problem. There is holes for aluminum rods that you can slide in on the heatsink. You can also do a couple 24" if you remotely mount your drivers. It depends on how your tanks dividers are setup.

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Hey thanks for the quick reply, a few more questions,

 

1. how high off the surface is your light now mounted?

 

2. what heat does the fitting output on your fav current settings at tank? > and directly underneath?

 

I ask because I need to mount under this under an existing hood, probably only an 1-3 inches off the surface, i think i will need to change the optics as well, how did you figure out you spread ratio? (my tank is 6ft, x2 x2)

 

Thanks!

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Milad LEDGroupBuy.com
Hey thanks for the quick reply, a few more questions,

 

1. how high off the surface is your light now mounted?

 

2. what heat does the fitting output on your fav current settings at tank? > and directly underneath?

 

I ask because I need to mount under this under an existing hood, probably only an 1-3 inches off the surface, i think i will need to change the optics as well, how did you figure out you spread ratio? (my tank is 6ft, x2 x2)

 

Thanks!

 

Here is some info on choosing the right optics: http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/pages/Choosing-...ight-optic.html

 

Mine is mounted only 8" from the surface. The first coral is about 24" away from the light.

 

There is almost no heat on the fixture. Nothing directly under it but the heatsink is slightly warm.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Milad LEDGroupBuy.com
What do you have each channel set to now (what power level)?

 

I would have to kill you if i told you my secrets!

 

 

they are all on 700mA drivers and its set like this:

 

80% NW

50% RB

50% TV

70% OCW

 

When I took the coral pictures, i reduced just the NW down to 50-60%

The tank pictures the NW stand the same.

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Very nice build thread. Thanks.

 

Are you generally happy with the spread and coverage of this one fixture over your tank?

Would you consider two side-by-side fixtures, but sharing the same total number of LEDs?

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Milad LEDGroupBuy.com
Very nice build thread. Thanks.

 

Are you generally happy with the spread and coverage of this one fixture over your tank?

Would you consider two side-by-side fixtures, but sharing the same total number of LEDs?

 

one fixture is great. I have it high enough that I dont need to worry about moving it when i do maintenance on the tank. No shadows because of the optics im using.

 

If you think about it. A 150w MH fixture is about 4 inches wide. Its all about the lens/optic and how it controls the light into the tank.

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jedimasterben
one fixture is great. I have it high enough that I dont need to worry about moving it when i do maintenance on the tank. No shadows because of the optics im using.

 

If you think about it. A 150w MH fixture is about 4 inches wide. Its all about the lens/optic and how it controls the light into the tank.

+1, optics can completely change a fixture. :)

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