BC29, NC28, NC24, NC12, AP24

http://www.nanotuners.com/product_info.php?products_id=619

I'm seriously thinking about it for my bc14... I'd love to do a diy for my tank, but I don't have the time, patience or in all honesty the electrical know-how to EASILY do it. Seems like a pretty decent kit all in all, but I don't have any first hand experience yet. I too would love to hear if anyone has bought it yet...

It's a simple 20 minute install. Taking all the stock parts out takes longer than putting the LEDs in.

im really considering it as well now the matter of 300$ is another story

I have the 3.6 LED mod in my NC12 and its great I love it! Planning on upgrading to the 5.6 later but its pretty impressive with just the 3.6 my crocea is on the bottom of the tank and loves it. If you want the 20k look go with the 50/50 strips.

hey guys. because one of our vendors has been late getting the LED modules to us, so thank you to everyone who has an x.6 system on order for your patience. bpaston was one of the luck few able to get his hands on a pre general release.

glad to hear the feedback. let us know if you have any questions.


chris.

So Chris, do you have any idea as to when you'll start shipping again? Hopefully it will be real soon...

We got caught by surprise when our supplier made a mistake on their physical inventory. when we launched, it looke like there would be no hitches, but unfortunately, we live in a real world, and things didn't go as planned.

The latest date I have heard, and nick can confirm this, is next week. because the boards are custom populated for us, we had to get in queue again at the manufacturer.

Having played, tested, and installed this kit, I feel it will deliver long lasting value at a level of quality you have come to expect.

Chris

The supplier is supposed to ship from overseas around the 15th. I've asked for more specific confirmation. It will probably take a few days to get the 50/50 strips once they're shipped.

Nick

I have the Nanocustoms BC29 150HQI hood. I am strongly considering making the move to LED lighting. How would you compare the 150w HQI with 72 watt pc to the LED 5.6?

Thanks,
John

In our testing the 5.6 LED kits are on the same level as our 150w upgraded systems when the PC's aren't on.

Hey, are there instructions available for the 3.6 led retrofit upgrades? I have a BC29 and Im interested in purchasing the 3.6 led upgrade

I took the photos for the instructions, but don't have them written up just yet. I'm working as fast as I can. Things have been busy to say the least. All that being said, it's going to be pretty simple... much easier than most, if not all, of our other upgrades.

Sooooooooooooooo excited!!

Is the 3.6 enough lighting for a JBJ 24? Thinking about going to the 5.6 to be sure.

You need the 5.6 for the NC24. Its much better suited for higher light requirements.

So do yall have any PAR or other test results on the LED kits?

I'm seriously considering this for my NC12 (3.24 now). I would love something to where I can keep some of my SPS in the 12 instead of just in my 90g Reef.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLcCFXMJiU4

As always you da man!!

that will work

First off I want to say this is a great forum. Just in the two days Ive been lurking, I have found lots of great info. ANyway, I have a BC29 that I have had for maybe a year and a half. I just moved so its completely empty. I was looking at upgrading my lights to the Nano Tunners 5.6 LED kit. Ive been looking to jump on the LED band wagon for sometime now. Personally I love LED's, almost all my apartment lighting is LED. What I was looking for was a write up or directions for installing the 5.6 kit. Any help would be greatly appreciated and Im looking foreword to keep up withthis site.

James

I think Chris is still finishing up the installation directions, but it's very easy:

1. Gut the stock hood
2. Bolt in the heatsink
3. Plug in the drivers to the LEDs
4. Plug it in the wall
5. Turn it on

Well thats good to hear. I was really hoping for something like that. thanx

Ok, for those of us that aren't fully up to speed on PAR values, lumens, etc., can someone give any real world guidance, say on what corals I could grow in the 5.6 upgrade that I couldn't grow in the 3.6? It's a nanocube 12 if that factors in.

Also, I haven't really seen LEDs over a tank in real life and video's can be a bit misleading, so what mix of white/blue LEDs would be most similar in look to a MH/PC mix? All strips 3x blue/3x white, one strip mixed, etc?

Th 5.6 would be overkill in an NC12. The 3.6 will still let you keep whatever you would like in that tank.

The different combinations of colors on the strips will shift your color temp from 6500K all the way past 20K if that's what you want. Asking if a setup would compare to "MH/PC combo" is a little generic, as those color temps can change drastically too. If you go with all 50/50 strips the color temp comes out to about 14K, and also blends the colors better. If you want something more blue, go 50/50, blue, 50/50

The video on our site is way off. The photos in my 3.6 LED system thread (in my NC12) are much more accurate although still a little more blue than in actuality. I'm running an even split of blue and white in my system. The 3.6 in the NC12 is putting out 150w HQI numbers. Going with a 5.6 is going to be very bright, indeed.

Thanks to both of you. Perfect answers!

I'm looking into the 5.6 LED retrofit kit but I have a few questions. First the driver the meanwell driver allows for light dimming as well as on off switch but does it control all lights individually, each strip, or all of them at once? Is there a control on the driver to dim them or do you have to buy a controller for that? We currently have our tank set up with the blues coming on earlier and staying on later as a sunrise sunset effect would I be able to do that with this setup?
The LED retrofit kits look like a great system its affordable and easy to install but for a person that doesn't know a lot about LED lighting it could use a bit more explaining mostly in the driver/emitter areas.

If you go with the Meanwell driver option, the driver will control pairs of strips. It will be up to you which ones that will be. If you use the 50/50 strips, you won't have individual control of the colors, just the overall brightness.

I had a question, what is the difference between CREEs and optos i think they are called, does one perfom better than the other?

I think you are refering to Edison Opto. Edison uses Cree dies in their LEDs. They usually aren't the latest versions that Cree uses, but they are still pretty good. Top end Cree's will outperform top end Edisons.

Thank you evil that answers most of my question on that area. So really with this kit there is only one way to allow a sunrise sunset effect and that would be with 3 white and 2 blue strips if i understood correctly. Also i use a analog timer for my lights currently Will there be 2 different plug in's so i can still use it or will i have to go back to the old manual way of fliping a switch. The best option would be to use a controller but I'm not very familar with them and could end up spending a lot more money then needed. I would really like a controller to make a sunrise sunset that slowly increases the lighting and same with when i use my whites for a more realistic enviroment is there a controller that would be able to do that with this kit?

Also what degree are the lenses that come with them if i went with the white blue white blue white would my blues still cover the whole tank and would it be enough blue?

If you are doing timer based dawn/dusk (comes with two power cords to do this), you can use any of the LED strips. The 50/50's give the best color blending. If you want to go the controller route, using the blue and white strips are the best option so you can dim specific colors. Most reef controllers will do the slow fade in and out.

seriously thinking about this kit, but still can't decide on which ones, should i get the 5.6 or the 3.6 also is it dimable? please help me decide.

Which tank?

Nanocube 12dx sorry about that

The 3.6 kit is more than enough. The 5.6 kit would be for a full sps setup.

don't know if I could add another 2 row of leds in the future to make it a 5.6. I hope it is dimmable.

You can add the strips and the drivers later if you want. The setup is only dimmable if you opt for the Meanwell drivers. You are responsible for supplying the components for dimming though.

My 5.6 LED kit (BC29) is shipping out from nanotuners early this week. ill snap some pics of the install as well as before/after shots of tank lighting. My kit is coming with the Edison strips should be an easy install. Ill update when i get it in the tank.

thank you guys

I finished BC8/BC14/BC29 instructions yesterday. I love writing instructions

Nick

Just an update, my 5.6 kit will be here monday the 16th, ill likely have some pics of the install and a set of before and after shots. Its rather unfortunate all i have here camera wise is my iphone heh.


Nick where are the directions posted for the 5.6 LED install? i checked both sites but could not find the link


- i found the directions, missed them on the 5.6 LED retro page the first time i looked.

Man, if I wasn't planning on starting my 240 build soon, I would snap one of these up for my BC29, as it is, I have to conserve the cash flow

Nice job Evil and Nanocustoms. You've got a real winner there!

Alright well i recieved my 5.6 LED kit for my BC29 from Nanotuners today, packaging was very thorough, tidy and very well done. All parts accompanied the kit except the fan screws which is fine as you can reuse the old fan screws, just had to trip them down as the increased airflow fan is slightly thinner than the stock fan.
The heatsink was awsome, very well done, clean no burs and all holes lined up perfectly. The only thing i noticed was 1 of the tapped screw holes for the Edison Opto strips was not drilled, but there were still 3 other screws to hold in that strip so no biggy. All the strips went in smoothly, electrical connection were easy to follow. I recieved the heatsink with the 60x60 mm fan mounts on the heatsink, im really looking forward to getting the last 4 strips and the fans to up the light ( definitely not needed tho).
Im rather handy with DIY stuff as ive built plenty of lighting rigs before. But needless to say, im stuck in an appt at school away from all my tools . But no problem, im handy, so i used a total of 3 tools to install this, a box cutter, philips screwdriver and a smaller version of linemans pliers. (blunt grabbing edge as well as a side cutter portion). Total instal time for me was a little over an hour with a food and coffee break.
Now that its up and running, im very impressed, all my corals are loving the light and my new clam is soaking it up and loving it. It blows my stock PC lighting away by far. I have a before shot, but today my iphone decide to freeze when i use the camera, so ill have a comparison shot soon.
So finally to answer your question


Im very happy with the new lights, easy install and in the long term a definitive savings $ wise. Also just a little note, the variable amp controller which runs the fan is great, as i dont have central heat/air here, if its a tad hot i up the fan, temp drop over 2 degrees. The tank is already running at 77-78 degrees (down from 80-81) with the fan on 7.5 mA (out of 12). Very well made product, great shipping, great people.

Id say go for the kit, you wont regret it. Hope this info help you.

-ill have before/after pics once my iphone is working, or i find a different camera to use.

I'm glad to hear it, looking forward to the pics.

Also looking forward to seeing other peoples results.

Got to love those Nanotuners

Thanks for the feedback. Sorry about the heatsink. We will be sure to keep an eye out for this down the road. On the positive side, IF you decided you wanted to tap it down the road it's a standard 4-40 tap that can be used and takes all of 30 seconds to do.

I spoke with another customer over the phone today who purchased a 5.6 kit. They told me they spaced out the strips instead of placing them directly next to each other, which is fine. That's why we set up the heatsinks the way we do. People can place the strips where they want, add more, subtract, whatever they want. That's the whole idea behind customizing after all. They will probably be starting a new thread in the members area as they will be starting their system from the cycle completion stage. They also had nice things to say about the product as well.

I know we have had many customers over the last several weeks waiting VERY patiently to get their hands on these kits and we appreciate that very much. We actually were trying to roll out these kits as quickly as possible, but unfortunately ran into supply problems and manufacturing delays that caught us off-guard. I just know that all those who have ordered will be happy with the upgrades and it will have been worth the wait on their end.

Well, ill be ordering 4 more strips when you have them available and will probably be ordering those silentx fans this week ( chance for the Reef keeper ) . Im loving the light output and so are my corals/inverts. Thanks for all the dedication in the design/testing of your products. It shows you've put a lot of time and thought into them and i as well as many others are grateful for it. Thanks again.

Now if I could just talk my girlfriend into letting me get one. I tried telling her the new baby doesn't need a crib, but that hasn't worked. Maybe for my birthday.

Bah. No more blubbering Let's see some pictures. Haha.

when a red sea max kit gonna come around?