Last question I promise. On my bc29 setup, should I run 60 degree optics on all or change the optics on outer ones, inner ones, where ever?

Done...



...and done.



Some have had mixed feelings about running the optics where the rock was high in the tank. For only $1 each, get enough for all the LEDs and play with what seems like a happy medium for the tank.

Going to follow rvadub

Bump me to 8 white / 8 blue so I have back ups.

Can do. More we order the cheaper it is for everyone.

Would you sggest doing different optics then on high spots? I am just wondering if I should run 80's over these spots.

these meanwell- can they be wired to run straight from the wall outlet? How far can you put the driver from the LEDs? and lastly these will drive 12 LED at 1A correct?

80's are a possibility. It will certainly lessen the intensity. You can also run without optics on the really high areas.



Add a plug and plug them in the wall. I don't recall seeing a spec for maximum distance from driver to LEDs, but the drivers are fairly sealed, so you can mount them up in the hood if you have the space.

Up to 13 LEDs at 1A (with the current limit turned all the way down).

Sounds great. I'm done then with my order.

Allright evil, put me down for 3 meanwells, 19 white leds and 19 royal blue leds. Should be able to come up with the funds by the end of the group buy.

Am I correct that you're saying with these drivers there is no need for a power supply?

Ok So I am full of questions. Is it smart to get a back up driver or is it really not needed. Not sure of their track record.

OK

12 Blue cree and 12 white cree

2 drivers

10- 60 degree 10- 80 degree

Thanks

Right. Straight into the wall it goes.



Shouldn't be needed. Meanwell is a lot larger company than Luxdrive, and far more experience with power products and their manufacture.

Might want to add a plug first.

Pfft, you take all the fun out of life

Wooo Hoooo!

Just dropped into 2nd tier pricing on the drivers,

There are a few people on the fence that would get the price down to $33 each if thye decide to do it.

Yeah I'm thinking about it, I wanna convert my 8 to LEDs but need to see what $$ looks like. How many LED's do you think would be good on a BC 8? 12 seems like overkill, but I wonder if the distribution would be ok with less.

I'd probably be in for a couple drivers and a few LED's but need to see what the budget is looking like.

BC8 would probably be in the 8-10 LED range.

So wait the drivers don't need a power supply? hmmmm these things just started looking a whole hell of a lot better than before. I see that they are adjustable but would we have to add a pentameter or something? Or is it coming pre wired? Also, is it difficult to modify the output for 1A and 650mA outputs? I just might be ordering 2 of these to replace my buckpucks.

Evil, what would you recommend to replace the factory lighting/hood on an Aqua Medic Nano Wave 9G? Would the 12" LED fixture be sufficient? I would like something that is "ready to run."

Hey Evil, do you think you could run through how many of what would be needed to retro a 20" dual satellite? I'm seriously thinking about this...

Also, on the optics, which is less strong, the 40 or the 80?

i would think the 80 degree because it spreads the light out 20 more degrees than the 60? thats my logic.

Evil,
I want to get in on this GB but i need your help on how many to buy to make 24" fixture with a color close to 20k totally mybe a bit less with a 250watt hqi equivalent. so i need help on how may to buy and how colors of each my guess is 50/50 of each. I would think i would need two drivers but i dont really know what a good angle on lenses. I would also like to get one actinic sunpod fixture aswell

thanks
scott

They do require a little more work than the Buckpucks to get the dimming working. I will be testing tonight to see if it will take an analog input (potentiometer) as well as a pwm signal.

If you want to run LEDs in parallel, you will need a current mirror, which I can help you get set up. It's a saftey device that will prevent additional damage from an LED failure. Don't worry, it's cheap to build.



My 12" fixture won't fit, unless you make a way to mount it on a 16" long tank. the light spread front to back might be a little low because of the narrow spacing of the LEDs in the slim fixture. The same setup in a Dual Satellite would spread better, but it still won't sit directly on a 16" tank.



What tank dimensions?



80 is less strong. The tighter the angle on the lens, the more light is focused on a smaller spot.



60/40 RB/CW mix will get you close to 20K with everything turned up. You can adjust with the drivers to ge the final color temp. To hit 250W levels, 40 degree optics will be required, and a fairly tight spacing on the LEDs. This will require a decent number of them, but the total will depend on your tank details. Thats more important than just telling me you have a 24" fixture to work with.

Did you want a single or a dual Sunpod Actinic?




Everyone,
Can we please keep configuration questions to a minimum on here. You can either ask me on the LED Guide thread, or PM me, but I don't want to get this thread cluttered up. I will continue to answer those questions that have been started here, but any new ones should be started elsewhere.

Thanks

Alright I'll decide on them when you figure out how to do it! I definitely want to be able to dim my LEDs since I have a lot of softies in the tank right now, but will be getting a clam once I get this micro bubble issue sorted out.

Drivers can be dimmed for sure with the pwm circuit I posted in the Meanwell thread. I'm still uncertain on the analog (potentiometer) dimming. I will try and post results tonight.

Evil, put me down for 1 sat. retro, minus the fixture (per the PM convo).

Gotcha bro.

I understand. What about a kit that would include everything I need to remove the stock lights and just replace it with LED's. Would that be possible as a kit that is "ready to run" pre soldered, mounted on heat sink, etc. What would the cost be for the parts and your time to pre-assemble it?

Just to be clear rather than buying a bunch of different items, I would pay you for 1 kit that comes pre-assembled and I can just put it in my hood, cover it and plug it into the wall.

If its possible I would consider another kit for my BC29 as well.

If you want me to take this into a different topic or PM just let me know.

I unfortunately don't have the time right now to do custom retros. Believe me, I would love to, and I'm sure a ton of other people would love it if I did. The somewhat surprising response to the group buy is going to keep me busy for a while.

Sorry I couldn't give you a better answer.

Standard 10 gallon so like 20x10x12 I believe

Go with 17 LEDs in a 6-5-6 arrangement. You can put the LEDs on 2.5"-2.75" spacing to get coverage across the tank.

BTW, thanks for doing this evilc66, I know how much work can go into organizing and pulling off a group buy! Not to mention all the free consultations

New to the forum. Looks interesting. I struggled through LED lighting for a 135g reef tank and a 90 gal fish tank on my own. I would have greatly benefited from finding your guide. I used Cree Q5's & Cree XRE blues from Deal Extreme for most of it. 120 led's on the reef tank & 36 on the fish tank. These are built into custom wood hoods. I used the simple current limiter from Dan on the instructables site for the electronics. In the end it turned out great. I am very happy with it. I did the fish tank first and have since rebuilt that one with quieter fans and a bigger heat sink. Also, oddly enough I see that you are from Shelby Township MI. So am I. Small world!. Anyway I would like to have you order 2 of the Meanwell drivers for me. I am planning to do outdoor lighting with them. Seems like these will be easier than a powersupply and DIY current limiting circuits. When do expect to get them in? I notice in some of the previous threads that the dimmable version can be difficult to get.

Not a problem. I have stated many times over the years that it is my goal to get LEDs to the masses. Just trying my best to do that.



What are the chances of that?! We will have to get together some time and show off our respective setups. Are your on Michigan Reefers?

Anyway, got you down for two drivers. These are dimmable versions. Because the price varies based on the quantity, I won't be able to order until the monday after the GB closes. It has typically been 5-7 days shipping from the supplier. No need for you to pay shipping seeing as you are on my doorstep.



Test results are in. Looks like the "P" versions are for sure analog dimmable. It's not quite as easy as just hooking up a pot and a 10v supply, but not much harder. All it takes is an LM317 voltage regulator, 5k ohm pot and a 680 ohm resistor to get you 1.25v to 10v adjustment. You can use a 12-32v power supply to run this, so that gives you a bit of flexibility.

I did try the pwm circuit, but didn't see any real results. Not sure if Meanwell was fibbing (or was just plain clueless) when they told me this was a pwm dimmable version, or if something is not working correctly. I don't have the tools here to check, but I do at work. Stay tuned on that one.

+1 Thank you!

ok, so I won't really need optics right? and on the shipping, is it 8$ flat for our whole order or per component (leds drivers etc...) ?

No need for optics on a tank that deep.

It's $8 as long as I can fit everything in the same box. Shouldn't be a problem though. The boxes at USPS are pretty big.

Ok, then I guess tentatively put me down for 9 whites, 8 blues, and two drivers, which should drop us down to the 35$ price on drivers right?

I would love to get in on this one but I need to wait for more money. when are you planning to do the next led group buy??

how many cw and rb would you recommend for a ap 12? i was thinking 5 rb and 6 cw.

before i place an order would i be able to keep any corals without worrying about bleaching them out? i typically would have the rb come on @ 12pm, cw on @ 1pm, cw off @ 9pm, rb off @ 10pm. thats 10 hrs of rb and 8 hrs of cw. sounds good?

Got you down. This actually gets the drivers down into the $33 range (we have 11 so far with your order)



Next one won't be until the September timeframe. I don't have a date set in stone, so that could move (more likely later).




You know, I thought I asked for questions like this to be kept out of this thread. I'll let it slide this time, but NO MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT CONFIGURATIONS PLEASE. There are other threads where I will answer these questions, and you can also PM me. This thread is for orders only.

What you have listed will work fine for an AP12. You could even go 6 and 6 if you wanted. Waterproofs writeup on his BC14 build is a great guide to follow, and results are very respectable. You don't have to worry about bleaching corals with an LED setup, as you can dial the intensity down if required through the drivers.

As far as your times, that will work, but you can honestly set it up any way you like. Only thing i warn against is photoperiods longer than 12 hours.

What would you recommend for a complete LED retro for a RSM?
Thanks

Probably should pm him or post in the LED sticky for help. I think it would help him greatly to keep things organized and easier to manage.

Sorry I didn't answer you before on this matter. I replied in the Sunpod LED Actinic thread to your question so this thread soesn't get too cluttered.



I already took care of this one. I forgot to answer his question in the Sunpod Actinic thread.

I would like a Sunpod LED Actinics (S). Thanks!

Got you on the list. Thanks

Hey Evil how many LEDs would it take to put the sun out of business?

Seriously though.
I would like to up my order of 60 degree optics to 24. I want to be able to cover my bases in case I don't want to use any 40's.

I started reading that and my blood pressure started rising. I had to then burst out laughing once I got to the end. Thanks man, needed that

Got the lens quantity changed for you.