racerfreak Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 I'm going to be building a BC29 LED hood, figure I would share the build. My hood is coming Friday (if not delayed to weather) and I am expecting the hood to be done by March. I'm doing 18 LEDs because I feel 24 is just too much at 1000mA. You may say otherwise, but if 12 leds is comparable to 150W MH, then I'm sure 18 are enough. My setup will allow me to have dawn/ dusk, daytime, and mid day. Plus I'm also throwing in a moonlight. Link to comment
racerfreak Posted February 10, 2011 Author Share Posted February 10, 2011 Here is my new plan for the LED build. I decided to throw in some violet LEDs and nix the warm whites. RB CW --- RB --- CW RB ------- CW CW CW V RB---V---RB V CW ------- CW CW RB CW --- RB --- CW RB Link to comment
msujeff Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 What about using the nanotuners new drivers and driver enclosure? I believe it's between $120 and $140 and you get a sweet looking enclosure. (they are a few weeks away for the DIY crowd) Link to comment
C4rN4gE Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Yes I too am most interested in the new drivers. Also, the reason for 24 LED's on the biocube is footprint. With 24, my tank is perfectly covered, and I think if I went with any less, the edges would suffer greatly - but if you dont need the edges lit, then by all means, go for it. Link to comment
racerfreak Posted April 10, 2011 Author Share Posted April 10, 2011 Sorry for the long delay to anyone who is following. I just now purchased the leds and drivers and power supplies. Hopefully it will all be done by the end of the month, and I have decided to go with a 12rb and a 12cw setup. Link to comment
racerfreak Posted July 1, 2011 Author Share Posted July 1, 2011 Build is 90% done, I can't decide if I should use blue or white moon lights. White moon lights will look more realistic, but the blue is more calming. Pics will be posted soon. Link to comment
Maroon Clown Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 why not use both with diffusers so that it is a cool blue white? (have your cake and eat it too) Link to comment
racerfreak Posted July 2, 2011 Author Share Posted July 2, 2011 why not use both with diffusers so that it is a cool blue white? (have your cake and eat it too) Not reallytoo sure about the color I want. I have some factory BioCube leds I'm thinking about hooking up, but I'm still undecided I am basically 95% done with the build, just have to wire the moon lights and put on knobs. I ordered some nice matte black aluminum knobs, cost me $35 but I think it will be worth the look. Should have picture up Sunday morning Link to comment
racerfreak Posted July 3, 2011 Author Share Posted July 3, 2011 Here is my build in picture form First I labeled the led pads white and blue in configuration to how i wanted my LEDs setup, this allowed me to play with designs. Stuck the pads in the spots where I wanted and begun to place the LEDs, after testing the of course My lovely workstation at the dining room table Quick idea placement Did some final testing before final soldering of the main wires I used 18 gauge wire and 3/8" vinyl tubing for the main wires, got tubing at Home Depot and wires at RadioShack LEDs and SilenX fans all wired up, still no moonlights No knobs yet either Obligatory FTS with lights on Link to comment
Maroon Clown Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Here is my build in picture form First I labeled the led pads white and blue in configuration to how i wanted my LEDs setup, this allowed me to play with designs. Stuck the pads in the spots where I wanted and begun to place the LEDs, after testing the of course My lovely workstation at the dining room table Quick idea placement Did some final testing before final soldering of the main wires I used 18 gauge wire and 3/8" vinyl tubing for the main wires, got tubing at Home Depot and wires at RadioShack LEDs and SilenX fans all wired up, still no moonlights No knobs yet either Obligatory FTS with lights on this DIY looks great man, good job Link to comment
SaltyFlip Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Where'd you order your LED's? Link to comment
Milad LEDGroupBuy.com Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Nice clean build, interesting you went with WW instead of NW all around if you are mixing them with CW. Link to comment
racerfreak Posted July 5, 2011 Author Share Posted July 5, 2011 Where'd you order your LED's? I got just the LEDs from rapidled.com Nice clean build, interesting you went with WW instead of NW all around if you are mixing them with CW. Thank you, I ended up just going with CW and RB LEDs, was the easiest and got more bang for my $$. In my build the blue wires link to all the RB LEDs and the white wires link to all the CW LEDs. Link to comment
racerfreak Posted July 12, 2011 Author Share Posted July 12, 2011 I'm not 100% happy with the color, seems very violet to me. I wish it was more blue hue with a pop of pink, like using all blue t5's with a fiji purple look. Link to comment
racerfreak Posted July 13, 2011 Author Share Posted July 13, 2011 I'm not 100% happy with the color, seems to violet. I'm probably going to add regular Blue Cree LEDs to get that blue green tint. Also I was considering throwing in a red for that Fiji Purple T5 look. If you look at the spectrum for the Fiji Purple you will see it peaks at 660nm and 440nm. My Royal Blues cover the 450nm (close enough to 440nm) but I have nothing touching the red spectrum. Even the Cool White peaks in the 450nm and 550nm range. The blues should pickup the that 500nm range and the reds should pick up that 600nm+ that I'm missing from both RB and CW LEDs. The only color I'm missing is the 300nm-400nm UV / Violet range and those are the tricky LEDs to find, so I may just get a stunner strip or a simple 1w led strand. Fiji Purple range: Link to comment
racerfreak Posted July 23, 2011 Author Share Posted July 23, 2011 Decided to add more LED's I ordered 4x 400nm-405nm UV 1w ProLight LED's from superbrightleds.com and 8x Blue 3w Cree XR-E LED's and 1x Red Cree XR-E LED from ledsupply.com . This will bring my build to a 37 LED build Link to comment
racerfreak Posted August 5, 2011 Author Share Posted August 5, 2011 Well I got more LEDs 4x 405UV 1W 8x Cree XR-E Blue 3W 1x Cree XR-E Red 3W I swapped 4 RB or 4 UV, I tell you removing those star pads is a PIMA I had to use a razor blade, screw driver, and fine grit sandpaper (didn't want to score up the heat sink too bad). I haven't wired the 8 B, 4 RB, and 1 R yet. I'm excited to see what it looks like, hopefully next week Link to comment
racerfreak Posted March 3, 2012 Author Share Posted March 3, 2012 pics of my 3rd fan install: Link to comment
racerfreak Posted January 4, 2013 Author Share Posted January 4, 2013 Well I've decided to up the anti a bit and add some more LED's. I really hate missing red spectrum and haven't seen anything till now that I like. So I've decided to add 2x 3W Pink LED's. Also I'm planing on replacing the 1W UV LED's with 3W 420nm True Violet LED's. I'm hoping this will give me a useful spectrum. No I am not going to add green or cyan as I feel they hold no real importance in absorbed wavelength and make tanks look horrible. Most of the color spectrum in those area's is taken care of by my white LED's. Link to comment
rO.oster Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 it would be nice to see some FTS's of each setup you had so we can gauge the upgrade in coloration you recieved. PICS!!!! Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 What exactly are your counts at now? Link to comment
zooman72 Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 Well I've decided to up the anti a bit and add some more LED's. I really hate missing red spectrum and haven't seen anything till now that I like. So I've decided to add 2x 3W Pink LED's. Also I'm planing on replacing the 1W UV LED's with 3W 420nm True Violet LED's. I'm hoping this will give me a useful spectrum. No I am not going to add green or cyan as I feel they hold no real importance in absorbed wavelength and make tanks look horrible. Most of the color spectrum in those area's is taken care of by my white LED's. Cyan/ turquoise (~495nm) is actually missing in most whites - call up a spectrum chart for most whites and you will see the lack of it. It also hits the photosynthetic peak of certain carotenoids...I (and others like Ben) agree with you on the green however... Have you considered using some warm whites to help in the red end of the spectrum? Link to comment
racerfreak Posted January 10, 2013 Author Share Posted January 10, 2013 My count is still 42, I'm planning on switching the 1w to 3w LED's. This means my wattage will go up.I am contemplating the cyan, but IDK... it scares me a bit that it will make too much green. My blue's already blend a bit and I like to have some white pop too. As far as adding WW or CW, I already find the CW pretty warm IMO. I actually removed the red LED in the center and swapped it with a Q4 CW LED. I want to add more red but not have it be so in my face red like the 1 red center led was. Maybe some WW will give me a closer magenta look I want or not? I'm also contemplating just adding more red uniformily to the tank, such ass 4 diodes instead of just 1. I love the magenta LED's and they might do the trick, I'm still unsure of how to get the color I want.I really can't add any more LED's than what I have so anything else I'll be swapping. I guess if I swapp out LED's it'll force me to go DIY on my 20H tank. Last time I had my lights running this is how they looked with my 3 settings (no red). Link to comment
zooman72 Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 I have not heard of anyone thinking cool whites are too warm... Sounds like you may have to play around with a few options to find what you like - maybe try Steve'sLED adhesive to mount your stars, as it allows one to remove diodes more easily, and without damaging them... Link to comment
racerfreak Posted January 10, 2013 Author Share Posted January 10, 2013 All I can think about the CW being to warm is that I have light green (used to be blue and sometimes change back) eyes and apparently that allows you to see colors better than people with darker eye colors. This also means lights at night blind me more Link to comment
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