BioCube 29, Moonlight Upgrade Mixing Types

[borillion_star]

I recently got Coralife Biocube and want to get back into the hobby. I was planning on upgrading the moonlight led's and replacing them with 3W Luxeon's to augment the compact fluorescent. Additionally I was hoping I wouldn't have to slice it up so much.

 

I was thinking that at night I could switch off the white and dim the blues down with a controller.

 

Has anyone seen this mixing done before, or have any suggestions?

[evilc66]

I don't know if I would bother with such high power LEDs considering that you would have to turn them down so much. If you decide to use 3W class LEDs, don't use anything more than a 350mA driver, and set them low. Having the moonlights too bright will just irritate your corals to the point where their health could decline.

[borillion_star]

So you recommend not even bothering to mix evilc66, Just going LED all the way?

 

If I do choose that, I see there are several different configurations. Cooling through marine grade aluminum with forced air, and what appears to passive by using a larger heat-sink is that correct?

 

Personally I prefer quiet, one with the forced air just in theory seems as if it would be loud.

[evilc66]

Replacing the stock moonlights with 3W LEDs and running them at 3W as a moonlight is a bad idea. If you want to use them during the day at 3W, then they will add a little light, but not enough to really see a big difference, but again, they can't be used as moonlights again. Dimmable drivers with a controller will allow you to change the brightness of the LEDs over the course of the day, but that kind of cost is a little silly for just a couple of supplementary LEDs.

 

If you want to start dabbling in LEDs, I would suggest you hold off and save up some more money for a complete retrofit to get rid of the compact fluorescents. You will lower your energy usage, reduce in hood temperatures, will never have to replace bulbs again, and will have control over the color of the light (which will look far better than the PCs ever would, if you get the right retro kit).

 

As for fans, they are going to be a necessary evil for cooling in an enclosed hood. That doesn't mean they have to be loud. It's all about getting the right setup.

[borillion_star]

So I am going to do this and go in head first LOL.

 

How does this sound?

 

12x CREE XP-G2 5W Neutral White LED

12x CREE XT-E Royal Blue

 

I have two of these Meanwell ELN-60-48D already but never got around to using them

Is it worth trying to add colored or UV leds to the mix?

[Horerczy]

I'd change those colors up.

 

You want a 1:2 ratio of neutral white to Royal blue and the Lumileds Rebel ES line would be a better fit here.

 

I'd also try to squeeze in some cool blue and cyans to cut the purple tint that a neutral white Royal blue combo gives.

 

Maybe a couple Lime for brightness.

 

And a few hyper and/or true violets from ledgroupbuy for a little added par.

[borillion_star]

What about lumileds makes them a better fit? Do you really get more light out of them?

I was looking at spending around not much more than $200 to $275, and use the Meanwells I already have,

 

Also where do you recommend getting them? So far I know about Steve's, Rapid.

[Horerczy]

LEDGroupBuy has the best violets.

 

Lumileds can have higher flux (its all about bins for flux) but they also have better phosphors for their Whites so warmer colors look better and they're the only ones who make limes which will help make the light look brighter without having to turn the light way up. Steve is the best source for these since he's always braging about his bin quality.

[borillion_star]

So I selected these: ( good? bad? too much? wrong mix? )

8x Rebel ES Neutral White LED

10x Rebel ES Royal Blue LED

2x Rebel ES Lime LED

2x Rebel Cyan 3W LED

1x Rebel ES 660nm Deep Red LED

4x SemiLEDs Hyper Violet UV LED

I figure the two 60W meanwells going to be enough juice.

Evilc66 any input?

Additionally I am looking for fans with tach/pwm or ppm speed control, and hook them up with with a controller with the added bonus of auto-dimming.

[Horerczy]

You can drop the red for a cool blue. The Whites (assuming StevesLEDs is the chosen vendor) are 85 CRI so they will have adequate red in the spectrum. This setup should lean towards a whiter specteum. If you want it a bit bluer I'd drop 2 of the neutral Whites for two more Royal blue and maybe drop a Lime (at full output these things are like 400 lumens minimum) for another cool blue.

[evilc66]

I would replace the deep red with a warm white, and two neutral whites for 470nm blue.

 

If you only have two ELN60-48D drivers, I would set them up as follows:

 

Ch1: neutral white, warm white, lime, cyan

 

Ch2: royal blue, violet

 

Just be careful on setting the current output on those drivers. The violets shouldn't be run more than 700mA. Everything else should be ok up to 1000mA.

[borillion_star]

Would warm white also work for growing Chaetomorpha and similar in the rear chamber?

[borillion_star]

Kk I am going to go with this I think:

12x Philips Luxeon ES Neutral WHITE 3 Watt 5,000 (4 of these for fuge)

10x Philips Luxeon ES ROYAL BLUE 3 Watt

2x Philips Luxeon ES Lime 3 Watt

2x Philips Luxeon ES Cyan 3 Watt

1x Philips Luxeon ES 2,700K Warm White 3 Watt LEDs

4x Hyper Violet

2x Philips Luxeon ES True Cool BLUE 3 Watt LEDs

I am considering the finned style heatsink so as not to have hack up the hood, in order to get it back to stock configuration.

[evilc66]

You have too many LEDs there for a pair of ELN drivers. ELN60-48D's are limited to about 14 LEDs. You have two more neutral whites in there than I had recommended. Based on my earlier suggestion (and not including the 4 neutral whites you added for the fuge), you should have:

 

6x neutral white

1x warm white

10x royal blue

2x lime

2x cyan

2x blue

4x violet

[borillion_star]

Do people run them at full power or is something like 50% to 75% more logical/safe?

[evilc66]

You run at what is required by your corals. Once you install the new setup, start low. Start at about 30%, adjust your color temperature to suit, and slowly raise the output 5% every other week. Your corals will tell you how they are liking the light.

[borillion_star]

Cool, I will need to get some then

[borillion_star]

Were the Hyper Violet (415nm-425nm) or intended to be UVA (355nm-375nm) :\

is this just for color or meant for growth?

 

Also the "warm white" I got where 2700K not 4000K, is that ok?

[borillion_star]

I found my 3rd Meanwell

 

Ch1: neutral white, warm white

Ch2: lime, cyan { 1000 mA }

Ch3: royal blue, violet, Cool Blue {700 mA}

Do I have too much blue here?

[evilc66]

Were the Hyper Violet (415nm-425nm) or intended to be UVA (355nm-375nm) :\

is this just for color or meant for growth?

 

Also the "warm white" I got where 2700K not 4000K, is that ok?

 

No one uses UV-A. There's no evidence so far that there is any benefit to using it, and the LEDs are generally horribly expensive for quite low output. Violet in the 410-430nm range is what you want, and what people sell.

 

4000K is neutral white. 2700K is warm white.

 

I found my 3rd Meanwell

 

Ch1: neutral white, warm white

Ch2: lime, cyan { 1000 mA }

Ch3: royal blue, violet, Cool Blue {700 mA}

Do I have too much blue here?

 

You are using dimmable drivers. It's never too much when you can adjust it.

[borillion_star]

Does anyone have a recommended method to layout led's efficiently?

 

I was thinking along the lines of placing singles towards the center and mirroring the two halves of the heatsink

on either side of those led's? I'm having a bit of trouble with this because I am a perfectionist lol.