artarmon42 Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Fluval Spec with custom LED vs Stock Fluval Spec Latest tank shot: Wow it's been a long time since I last visited this forum! After my last post (shoving a MH into a Nano Cube), I took a break from reefing in general. Was busy with life and work stuff. Anyway I've decided to get back into reefing, and thought I'd share my adventures with you all I bought a Fluval Spec (2G all-in-one, for those unfamiliar) for my daughter's Betta a few months back. I was so impressed by the tank, that I decided to use one for saltwater. This is the stuff that comes in the box. Throwing in a 1.5" sand bed. The tank comes with a foam "insert" (with carbon & ceramic rings) for the main compartment in the rear. During the cycle, I'll use the foam and the bag of carbon (leaving the ceramic rings out). Once the tank is cycled, the foam will be removed, and the rear compartment will just have the carbon. The tank comes with a cool LED "clip on" light. I also bought a Marineland 25W heater. The small heater fits nicely into the return compartment in the back. This is the next day after filling up the tank with water. The dust has mostly settled. I've decided to use mangroves for nutrient export. Their eventual home will be the main compartment in the rear. But because the foam insert is in the back (during the cycle), I'm keeping the mangroves in display area for now. It almost seems like the stock design was supposed to keep plants in the display area, because the top has a nice hole for the mangroves to poke out of Link to comment
Drift Monkey Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Nice 'scape, I like the mangroves! Link to comment
.Newman. Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 i love how people put 20 foot trees in their 2 gallon tanks Joking aside, this looks like it will become a nice pico. This tank looks like it totally needs a sponge of some sort. Other possible inhabitants that i can see working with the scape are various leather corals, specifically for the upper part of the scape. Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 That was a funny joke but imagone if it was a fishtail out of the hole instead Link to comment
.Newman. Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 lol a tang tail perhaps? in that case you could at least tell when your fish is happy - by the obnoxious tail wagging Unless that would mean that it's stuck... Link to comment
Drift Monkey Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 That mangrove is gonna eventually have it's way with the LED fixture too... Link to comment
artarmon42 Posted March 30, 2011 Author Share Posted March 30, 2011 If you remember what I did to my Nano Cube, you know I can't leave a good thing alone While I liked the stock LED light, it just wasn't going to be enough for a reef. I was so close to buying a Solaris LED system before I got out of reefing the last time, so I knew I wanted to do LED for this. In preparation, I got a new acrylic top made for the tank. The stock cover had a hole which was causing alot of evaporation. With my past reefing experience, I know that in such a small tank, the evaporation/top-off was going to make the water specs pretty unstable. Also, with the LED system I was planning, I made the new top with thicker acrylic to avoid any heat or weight problems. Here is the new cover and the chassis for my LED system: The blue chassis is basically a giant heatsink designed to keep hard drives cool. I'm intending to put the chassis on top of the tank top (now you can see why I decided to use thicker acrylic to make it). I bought the LED kit from RapidLED (with the thermal ADHESIVE option). Sidenote: RapidLED had super-fast delivery and all items were top quality. Thumbs up and I'll be buying again from them in future! I decided to only use the 3xCool White Cree XP-G and 1x3 Royal Blue Cree XR-E. I also put some rubber "feet" on the chasis, to avoid scratching the acrylic top. The only problem I had on this project was soldering the LED stars. If you google it, lots of people had the same problem as me: the solder wouldn't stick to the contacts on the star. I won't go into the technical reasons why, but if you have the same problem, this is what I did to fix it. I upgraded my soldering iron from 25W to 40W, and bought some old-fashioned solder with Lead. Apparently the solder not sticking is a symptom of either the iron not being hot enough and/or the lead-free solder not solidifying quick enough. Anyway, here's the test to make sure everything was working after everything was soldered together: Here's a comparison shot of my new LED system vs the stock LED light. To be fair, the freshwater tank on the right has dark substrate and dark driftwood. The stock light would appear a little brighter if it was using white sand like my saltwater tank. But there is no doubt that the LED system on the left is way brighter. Full tank shot. You can see the new cover has a hole in the back for the mangroves to poke out of. So the cables for the LED system is set to come out the "side" (to avoid any water condensation and dripping back to the driver/power-supply). Link to comment
Drift Monkey Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Hard Drive cooler FTW! Looks like you thought this out... Link to comment
artarmon42 Posted March 30, 2011 Author Share Posted March 30, 2011 Wow you guys are fast! Thanks for the comments before I even got the 2nd post in Anyway, to continue the story... So now I have replaced the stock LED light with my new LED system, what oh what was I going to do with the stock LED light? First thing, take off the cover... I bought a Vantec ICEBERQ cooling kit. I needed the 40mm fan/heatsink, to fit in the stock light cover: I stuck a Cool White Cree XP-G to the heatsink (using the thermal adhesive pad that came with the Vantec). Wiring the LED and fan in series, and back into the stock light chassis. Plugging in the stock light's power adapter, everything turned on as expected. The fan, while small, does create air movement that I can feel with my hand. Here's everything connected back together. I had hoped that the original light plate could be screwed back in, but the heatsink is a little too thick, so it will have to go "open faced". Luckily my new acrylic cover doesn't have the hole for water evaporation. When I compared it to the stock LED light, the single Cree was definitely not as bright as the stock Fluval LED light. But then again, I was driving the Cree with 500mA (from the stock power adapter), when it could handle 1500mA. So my next step is to drive the Cree higher. The XP-G is rated for 1500mA, so I've ordered a 1300mA power adapter. Will post an update when that arrives Link to comment
.Newman. Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 sweet is right, we will definitely need to be seeing a close up(or FTS) of that betta tank! Link to comment
artarmon42 Posted March 31, 2011 Author Share Posted March 31, 2011 Thanks for the comments and feedback! I got a request for a daytime shot of the LED system. So hopefully this gives you a better view of it. The front is a little ghetto - cardboard with electrical tape covers the front, otherwise you'd get blinded from the light reflecting off the acrylic top On the right is just velcro, to hold the wires so that they come out the side (and not to the back, where water condensation might result in water dripping back to the driver/power-supply). Link to comment
Polscot Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 looks good homie, you thinking of building a canopy or free air? i like the uni-rock Link to comment
artarmon42 Posted April 1, 2011 Author Share Posted April 1, 2011 I think I'm just going to let the heatsink get some air I'm thinking of how to replace that ugly cardboard front with something nice though... Link to comment
mikellini Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 I've been dreaming about picking up a spec and running a par bulb... Link to comment
bwoodward0012 Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 you could probably replace that cardboard with a piece of aluminum trim coil or something similar and bend it to fit exactly like you want it to, just have to figure out how to attach it Link to comment
artarmon42 Posted April 6, 2011 Author Share Posted April 6, 2011 I've been dreaming about picking up a spec and running a par bulb... If you want to run saltwater with the Spec, I definitely recommend either a new top or somehow covering up the hole over the main display area. The amount of evaporation is pretty crazy... I had to top off ~6oz every day (and I live near San Francisco, so the humidity is pretty good). Since I replaced the tank top, I do about ~3oz top off every other day (cutting evaporation by 75%). I was considering a PAR bulb, I just couldn't fit a desk lamp in the current location. Certainly would be easier, just be careful that the desk lamp you buy is strong enough to hold the bulb (those PAR bulbs are surprisingly heavy). Link to comment
Houdini Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 I am running a stock Spec which just turned 30 days except for a Marina heater and digital thermometer. Otherwise right out of the box. I Really like what you have done to your place and am drooling over your acrylic top and led light. Very impressive so I think I'll subscribe and hope you keep posting. Link to comment
sogreedy23 Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 That's sick! That LED fixture, the whole thing looks good and it's pretty bright..looking forward to seeing this thing come together! Link to comment
glazer Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 I think I'm just going to let the heatsink get some air I'm thinking of how to replace that ugly cardboard front with something nice though... 4 or even 3 sided for that matter, open top and bottom black acrylic box? Or perhaps call it a skirt... Tiny tank looks nice man... Steve Link to comment
artarmon42 Posted April 8, 2011 Author Share Posted April 8, 2011 Thanks for all the positive comments! 4 or even 3 sided for that matter, open top and bottom black acrylic box? Or perhaps call it a skirt... I put in an order for a drive bay cover, so we'll see how it looks. I want to keep the LED chassis mostly open so that I can get natural air movement (and avoid needing to install a fan). I just want to avoid drilling into the heatsink to mount the fan Link to comment
artarmon42 Posted April 10, 2011 Author Share Posted April 10, 2011 When I compared it to the stock LED light, the single Cree was definitely not as bright as the stock Fluval LED light. But then again, I was driving the Cree with 500mA (from the stock power adapter), when it could handle 1500mA. So my next step is to drive the Cree higher. The XP-G is rated for 1500mA, so I've ordered a 1300mA power adapter. Will post an update when that arrives The power adapter finally came in! I already cut off the end plug before I remembered to take a picture With the stock 500mA power adapter, I could look straight at the Cree. But with the new 1300mA adapter, it hurt my eyes to look straight at it. But as you can see, even then, it was no match for the stock Fluval LED lighting. Just look at the light reflecting off the wall I can't drive the Cree any more, and a single Cree can't match the stock lighting. So sadly, this retro project will now be marked as a failure and retired. Link to comment
mmcguffi Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 It looks like you may be able to squeeze up to 3 Crees on that heat sink no? Link to comment
mikellini Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Use a 20w LED. Don't mess around with these little 3w'ers Link to comment
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