Weasel Baron Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Im looking to do a DIY setup for a new mr. aqua 12. I'm fairly new to DIY so I'd like some input on # of LEDs, spread, and color current idea is 9x CREE XT-E 3up (@1000mA) 6x 430nm violet (@700) 4x 470nm blue w/ 120o lens (@500) 3ups at every 4" violets around every 6" blues around every 10" the 12long has a tight footprint in terms of width, so is this enough coverage/power, or should I look into putting more LEDs on the setup? Ideally Id like to be able to grow whatever, SPS included, and would probably hang the fixture a foot or two over the tank would the 470 blues be necessary? or should I swap in some warm whites or limes instead? I tend to like a bluer spectrum, but im not sure if this setup would overpower the 9 neutral whites. in terms of a heatsink, I was initially going to go w/ the makers because its streamlined and looks good, but I noticed that rapid has these sleek 1.5" sinks with the setup I listed above, would I need a few 40mm cooling fans? or is the heat input low enough that an ambient 70o house would cool it properly? also, to double check, here's a list of the other supplies I have written down. Am I missing anything? 24awg wire thermal paste/grease coralux 5up driver 1x LDD-500H driver 1x LDD-700H 3x LDD-1000H (maybe just 2?) 180w 48v 3.75a PS storm controller (w/ jumpers) thanks in advance! Link to comment
Halo_003 Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 You probably don't need a fan. On my Betta tank I have a 3"X1.8" heat sink usa heat sink, wth 3 3 ups on it, so 9x3W LEDs. It has to be at full power to get even slightly warm. Link to comment
Weasel Baron Posted February 21, 2015 Author Share Posted February 21, 2015 cool, thanks, was hoping I wouldnt have to mess around w/ fans, but I may install a couple just as a backup. any thoughts on the number/color of the LEDs? Link to comment
Weasel Baron Posted February 22, 2015 Author Share Posted February 22, 2015 so Im considering adding some limes and warm whites, here's the floor plan so far. Overkill? Link to comment
Weasel Baron Posted February 22, 2015 Author Share Posted February 22, 2015 anyone? Im flying blind here Link to comment
Benny314 Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Don't know how even the spread and colour mixing will be using a straight line of LEDs. You'd probably be better rethinking and trying to get 2 heat sinks that will allow you to group the LEDs in tight clusters so you get even colour mixing. I used this thread a lot when designing my layout, http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/311998-full-spectrum-led-layouts/ Touch out dated now with the use of multi chip boards and lime, however the layout examples are great and I have mirrored them with my build and it is excellent. No colour banding or disco shadows. There's a lot of info on LED numbers too. Hope that helps Link to comment
farkwar Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Don't know how even the spread and colour mixing will be using a straight line of LEDs.Vertex puts their LEDs in tightly packed rows. What you get is a very diffused T5 looking light with shimmer. But they are also using 2-4x the number of LEDs per foot that other manufacturers use or recommend. My 2 foot Vertex light has like 96 densely packed LEDs. The 2 foot Illumina worked very well over a 36 inch 40B tank. Just eyeballing, and by coral reaction, the 2 foot Illumina(blues at 80%, all others at 30%) gives off about the same light as a 6 bulb 36" fixture which is over that tank now. Link to comment
Weasel Baron Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 thanks for the input guys, appreciated I dont think I have enough money to put 96 on the heatsink but I was hoping the triple cluster stars would help w/ mixing instead of dinking around w/ limes, WW, and blues on separate stars, could I just use the ocean coral whites (red/green/blue) in addition to the 3ups and violets? if I get ~6 of each I could put a mini cluster of each type every 3 inches or so. Im not sure how to break down the channels though... I would imagine that it would be better to put the cyan and green on one channel and the reds on another, but Link to comment
Benny314 Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 If your going to use OCW the red, blue and cyan must all be the same intensity (same channel) for the effect of white light to work. Either tie them to the white channel or run them on an independent channel of their own. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 If I were to make a new array, I would still use basically the same LEDs as I have now. Warm white, neutral white, violet, royal blue, blue, cyan, lime. OCW (which uses 470nm, 495nm, and 660nm) wouldn't be an adequate substitute for warm white, lime, and blue. For reference, this is the spectra for an OCW star: 95CRI 2700K Lime Link to comment
Weasel Baron Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 Cool, so maybe I need to hit the drawing board again. When you say 'adequate' do you mean in terms of CRI and overall appearance or in terms of PAR/PUR? Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Cool, so maybe I need to hit the drawing board again. When you say 'adequate' do you mean in terms of CRI and overall appearance or in terms of PAR/PUR? Well, actually it would be both. Dedicated white, lime, and blue would have more intensity than blue, cyan, and deep red, as the LEDs will have more radiometric output. Link to comment
Benny314 Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 This is what I mean about thinking moving on away from OCW etc. However I have to say I am very happy with my lighting and so are my corals, even if it's a bit out dated. Link to comment
Weasel Baron Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 hrmmm...my initial draw to the 3ups and OCW was to maximize color mixing and save space on the limited footprint I have to work with on the tiny 1.5 inch heatsink So maybe I start with a normal heatsink and aim at creating 4-6 small clusters, each with a 3up, WW, Lime, Violet, and blue... I feel like I'm getting into the overkill territory with that. Link to comment
HM3105 Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 So not to muddy the waters too much but would two or maybe three of the 13up Nano-Box boards work? Link to comment
Benny314 Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 I was once told you can never go over kill, as you can just dim the light unit. One of my arrays would be enough for a 2X2X2 cube if it was mounted high enough and maybe a few tighter optics on some LEDs to get the punch from the hight needed to get that much spread, and I have 3 of them on a 3X2X2. But it leaves me with future upgrade options. I can just hang them higher and spread them out more over a larger tank in the future. No need to rebuild anything. Your new thinking of some well grouped clusters will stand you much better over all for coverage. Link to comment
Weasel Baron Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 So not to muddy the waters too much but would two or maybe three of the 13up Nano-Box boards work? Hadn't thought of that. Would the wiring/5up board/storm controller still be the same/work with the nano-box boards? Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 hrmmm...my initial draw to the 3ups and OCW was to maximize color mixing and save space on the limited footprint I have to work with on the tiny 1.5 inch heatsink So maybe I start with a normal heatsink and aim at creating 4-6 small clusters, each with a 3up, WW, Lime, Violet, and blue... I feel like I'm getting into the overkill territory with that. With dimming, there really isn't such thing as overkill, especially when it comes to spread. That being said, spending shitloads of money on LEDs and drivers isn't in everyone's budgets lol. So why are you sticking with the very tiny heatsinks again? More heatsink = more better. 2.079" profile, 3.5" profile I would do three LED clusters. More would, of course, be better, but three will still give great results. FWIW in the past I used two rows of three clusters on a 24"x12" tube heatsink over my 48"x24" tank with great results. In those three clusters, I would do something like the following: 1x WW/WW/NW 1x L/L/Cy 1x RB/RB/B 2x individual violet That puts you at 11x LEDs per cluster. Run the white/lime/cyan at half the current that you're running the royal blue at to keep the color temperature up, or you can add another RB/RB/B per cluster. Being that the tank is only 9" tall, you really don't have too much reason to keep current high, anyway. Or just use three of the Nano Box arrays. Hadn't thought of that. Would the wiring/5up board/storm controller still be the same/work with the nano-box boards? The new V3 arrays are in four channels. You can run three arrays in series from one LDD with 48v input and will need four LDD. Link to comment
Weasel Baron Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 So why are you sticking with the very tiny heatsinks again? More heatsink = more better. 2.079" profile, 3.5" profile Or just use three of the Nano Box arrays. The new V3 arrays are in four channels. You can run three arrays in series from one LDD with 48v input and will need four LDD. Nano box array idea is now in the lead No real reason for the smaller heat sinks, I was considering reteofitting a shitty 4bulb Odyssea t5 and replacing the two middle bulbs w the LEDs... figured a slimmer heatsink would offer more maneuverability Thanks for all the input everyone. I will inevitably have more questions soon Link to comment
Weasel Baron Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 hokay, assuming I get a cheapo fixture like this odyssea would it be more effective to buy a larger heatsink for all the pucks and run it down the middle, or buy 3 smaller individual heat sinks for each puck? I would imagine the heat transfer is better w/ one big one, so could I get away with/o a fan if I go that route? Im not sure how much heat these pucks generate Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 More heatsink = more better No matter what you do you will need active cooling, especially if you close them up. Link to comment
Weasel Baron Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 More heatsink = more better Im going to get that etched onto the heatsink between the pucks cool, so three 80mm fans should cover my bases? Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Does the fixture itself have active cooling? Link to comment
Weasel Baron Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 Does the fixture itself have active cooling? knowing odyssea, probably not. I think they sell two different versions, if I grab the one that has fans ill see if I cant just retrofit them over the heatsink Link to comment
fredfish01 Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Nano box array idea is now in the lead... Yup. Unless you are a nutbar like me and absolutely insist on doing your own thing, these arrays are about as good as it gets. Last time I priced it out, it was about $6 per cluster more for the NanoBox array vs individual LEDs from somewhere like Steve's. Link to comment
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