hector1520 Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 Well I'm just about to pull the trigger on my nanocustoms order. I've been searching and reading like a maniac ever since I got this tank for Christmas. I just ordered these LED spotlights off ebay, got the idea from another fellow Edge owner Got them from here http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...7#ht_1101wt_939 I plan on doing either a 1x6 or 2x3 LED setup to supplement the spotlights. 4x Cool White XR-E Q5s 2x XR-E RBs 1x Meanwell LPC-20-700 So what I plan on doing is either getting two 1"x6" heatsinks and epoxying them to the swingarm and put three LEDs in each heat sink in a staggered pattern like so (Pardon my drawing skills, I'm trying to draw on a touchpad with the laptop in my bed ) Like so or, do a single row of 5 LEDs and do one royal blue in between the two spotlights ( I have a tiny individual heatsink that I borrowed off a flashlight for the individual one. I would also grind some relief cuts on the heatsink that would allow me to angle the two outermost LEDs outward like the spotlights do to help in color blending. Like this Which of the two would be more efficient in blending the blues and whites together? Spotlighting isn't as much of an issue since I would be doing two islands like this gentleman did He has a couple of VHOs above that tank, which IMO takes away from the sleek look of the tank, which is why I'm trying to keep everything enclosed in the factory hood. Cooling will be handled by a silent computer fan suspended from the light cover on a wall wart transformer. I'm trying to keep this as sleek and PnP as possible, hence the Meanwell driver, unless you guys think a PS and Buckpuck combo would be better suited. Also, I'll note that I'd like to keep my LED limit at 6 due to money constraints. I pretty much have my mind made up but would love to hear other people's opinions. Link to comment
hector1520 Posted January 14, 2010 Author Share Posted January 14, 2010 I also forgot to ask that since nanocustoms is out of the LPC-20-700, would it be ok to get the LPC-35-1050 since they seem to have those in stock. Would the RBs be able to handle the 1050mA? Or since the light is so close to the tank, would I have problems with corals scorching at 1050mA? Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 That's going to be a little much for a small tank. Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 That's going to be a little much for a small tank. If evilc says it's too strong, you might wanna tone it down a bit. LED lighting is a lot stronger than many ppl realize. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 LED lighting is a lot stronger than many ppl realize. Understatement of the century. Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 Understatement of the century. Lol, they're just these lil bumps that light up, how much light can they put out? :friendly sarcasm: Link to comment
hector1520 Posted January 14, 2010 Author Share Posted January 14, 2010 That's going to be a little much for a small tank. so what would you recommend? I thought about leaving the spotlights and just ditching the Cree idea and adding a 13 CFL bulb in there, or adding some kind of light diffuser? Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 Honestly, I'd go the other way and ditch the spots and keep the Crees. a 4x2 array with dimmable drivers would give you the best lighting in terms of spread, power and control. Link to comment
polarblair2000 Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 I saw one of these tanks at a pet store today whilst in a desperate search to find stores that sell Salt water fish (I've only found one so far) Anyway I thought it was a pretty smart looking nano tank but how on earth do you clean the inside of the glass, remove alge ect... I stood staring puzzled at the tank for about 5 mins trying to figure it out. So Im curious how do you do it? Link to comment
ihatesears18 Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 I saw one of these tanks at a pet store today whilst in a desperate search to find stores that sell Salt water fish (I've only found one so far) Anyway I thought it was a pretty smart looking nano tank but how on earth do you clean the inside of the glass, remove alge ect... I stood staring puzzled at the tank for about 5 mins trying to figure it out. So Im curious how do you do it? magnet cleaner Link to comment
polarblair2000 Posted January 14, 2010 Share Posted January 14, 2010 Ahhhh makes sense Link to comment
freddy4130 Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 This rig is pretty dad gone sweet if you ask me. The lighting blows to death though. Came to NR just for this thread today. Specefically, Evil. Have you seen this thing in real life? If so, whet do you think would/could be possible for the given amount of space in that little hood? The tank is on sale right now for $100, but if I can't get some LEDs for it I would never get it. What say evil? Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 19, 2010 Share Posted January 19, 2010 A custom LED setup is pretty much the only way to light the tank effectively for a reef while keeping the stock look of the tank. Even then, the lighting isn't perfect. Cool tank, but a lot of work to get it set for a reef. Link to comment
freddy4130 Posted January 19, 2010 Share Posted January 19, 2010 Yeah, I knew that. One sort of semi-major problem is that all must fit inside the little hood which also houses the filter. So the problem is one of light distribution throught the entire surface of the bottom of the tank. I'm thinking it's not gonna happen for me this time. Maybe six months down the road when someone else does all the R&D on the DIY of a great LED hood for it. Link to comment
freddy4130 Posted January 19, 2010 Share Posted January 19, 2010 Evil, I just checked out those lights at eBay. You think it would be worthy if one were able to retro the hood to house 4 of those? Link to comment
ccjung Posted January 19, 2010 Share Posted January 19, 2010 Not to get anyones hopes up, but I got my hands on a Fluval edge a few weeks back and am coming up with a drop in retro for it. Also, Meanwells are here tomorrow. Link to comment
evilc66 Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Not to get anyones hopes up, but I got my hands on a Fluval edge a few weeks back and am coming up with a drop in retro for it. Also, Meanwells are here tomorrow. When were you going to tell me this? Link to comment
ccjung Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Lol. Rambo pee'd on one of his footballs, and on the way home a few weekends ago, the boss DEMANDED that we get him a new one. When at Petsmart, i saw one, so I figured i'd check it out. I've been so depressed with the CHARGERS choke, that I forgot to mention it. Sorry honey!!! evilc66 "Lucy!!! you got some splaining to do!!!" Link to comment
hector1520 Posted January 20, 2010 Author Share Posted January 20, 2010 That is great news! I was going to hold off on the LEDs until the spotlights got here but if a retro is a possibility in the near future I may just wait it out and make what I have work Link to comment
badfish816 Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 sweet. also i have a rat terrier named rambo. Link to comment
wwu123 Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 I've got an Edge running with two wide-angle MR16 LED bulbs that have a total of 6 Cree XR-E's (at least claimed to be Cree). The lighting is strong enough that the corals, even some SPS frags, are responding well in the center of the tank, but there's a gradual drop-off towards the edges due to the bulbs being in the center, as well as harsh shadows from from anything that sticks up too much. This thread has given me some thoughts about supplementing the lighting with some additional blue LED's to get more overall light, distribution to the edges, and especially a higher color temp than 5500K. I'm thinking about 5 blue LED's in a line without optics under the front of the canopy. I have a Coralife 10W 50/50 CF bulb shoved in there right now, so there's plenty of room for a line of LED's. I was wondering though if I could wire a LuxDrive buckpuck directly into the original lighting? The wall wart for the original 20 watt of halogens outputs 12V, 1700 mA AC, and there are LuxDrive buckpucks that take AC input. I measured that the two MR16 bulbs are consuming only 7 watts at the wall wart, would it be correct to wire the buckpuck in parallel with the two MR16 bulbs to drive up to five more Cree XR-E's or equivalent? The wall wart supposedly should be able to handle another 13 watts. Even with more light, I'm seeing a problem with shadows due to the center light placement. Unless the coral is under the opening, one side will always be in shadow, and some of the SPS with a thick base seem to be losing tissue on the sides that are always in shadow. And you can't really put anything too tall or large under the center, otherwise you can't get your hand into the tank to do maintenance. Also getting light to the corners is a challenge. The LED's can't sit too close to the top surface; if the pump goes off for any reason, the water level rises quickly in the opening and submerges the LED's. Once you're 1/2" above the surface, any wide angle LED's already start being blocked from reaching the edges by the canopy itself. I've put some reflective tape on the inside walls of the canopy to try to reflect the light back in, though I'm not sure it helps. Link to comment
Naturalreef Posted January 26, 2010 Share Posted January 26, 2010 Not to get anyones hopes up, but I got my hands on a Fluval edge a few weeks back and am coming up with a drop in retro for it. That is good news...Been waiting to set up my Fluval edge for quite a while now, but was waiting for a drop in lighting solution to pop up so my softies would survive and possibly thrive. Ccjung, any time frame or specifics as to how much light coverage while keeping the stock look? Patiently waiting............... Ah B.S. No I'm not Link to comment
hector1520 Posted January 28, 2010 Author Share Posted January 28, 2010 Well my lights came in and I'm totally happy with them. The light spread is wider than I thought and I think it will help with the shadowing. I'm going to go with 4 CW Cree Q4s on a dimmable buckpuck and angle the outer ones slightly BTW, this tank will probably end up being a mushroom/zoa garden. If/when nanotuners comes up with a drop in replacement I'll think about adding some SPS frags Link to comment
thesmokingman Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Here's an alternative mr 11 that works nice for me and its cheap. It's not waterproof but you can fix that buy adding 2 coats of a good clearcoat. For 12 bucks free shipping with Prime you get: 160 lumens 6000k 140 deg pattern 2.1 watts consumption 30K hours http://www.amazon.com/Brightest-LED-Angle-...4361&sr=8-1 Link to comment
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