Philip271 Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 ah.. but if you look at both the upper and lower 16" mark on the two pic... or just look at the over-all light pattern, the 4x1w is brighter and covers more area. Quote Link to comment
TinyGiant Posted July 30, 2011 Author Share Posted July 30, 2011 (edited) AFBoundguy I started with B W B W B W B W B W B W B W B W B W B W B W but found working with columns i have the blue wasnt popping all over the tank .. so now i have B_______B_ _________Centerbrace B ___B ___B B W B W B W B W B W B W B W B W B W B W B W B___B ____B_______ Centerbrace__ B________B What i did was add extra blues and use them to spot light the areas that just werent popping.. rather than adding tons of light all over the place I did find that a lot of my sps took a while to acclimate to the new lighting.. but now my rainbow monti is super vibrant. A brown acro i had ended up turning into a larry jackson (purple tip green body) and a big brown acro is turning into a baby blue. I have red and orange mushrooms that havent lost any color at all. I have a green favia that is growing faster than anything else in my tank and its toward the bottom of the tank. Same thing with the challice I have .. its growing rapidly also. I think the corals do need a bit of time. but I would just add the blues where you need them to make it look balanced and colorful Edited July 30, 2011 by TinyGiant Quote Link to comment
matt_longview Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Hey guys, I've got a 3 bulb fixture that could hold some of these LEDs. What size tank could I light with three of these LEDs? I'm wanting 2 blues & 1 cool white. If the biggest is a 3g that's fine. If I could do a 7.5g 12" cube... that would be perfect. So should I go with 2w leds also? Quote Link to comment
Philip271 Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Matt, if you are going with the 7.5g 12" cube, get 2 more of the fixture from Ikea. 5blue+4white or 6blue+3white of either the 3w or 4w bulbs would be perfect and you can keep what ever coral you want. Quote Link to comment
MeanGreenEyes Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Subscribed. Just ordered 4cool white & 4blue 4x1w led's & 10 sockets...can't wait til they get here...they'll be going over my 5.5g & if they're as good as everyone says...will be going on my 30g build...and who knows...maybe eventually my planted tanks as well... Quote Link to comment
aklee987 Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 I just ordered 15 blue, 15 white, all with 60 degree optics for my 40 breeder. Probably won't use all of them. I don't keep SPS but I keep a few clams and a couple nems. Everyone here has convinced me, I hope I like them as much as everyone else seems to. Thank you everyone who helped me via PM to help me with my decision. I will post pictures when they arrive. Quote Link to comment
matt_longview Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 I'm going to go with a 3g bowfront for my office. 2 (3x2w) blues and 1 (3x2w) cool white. 18w over the 3g should be plenty. :-) Who is the best ebayer to order 3x2w GU10 LEDs from? Quote Link to comment
afboundguy Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Afb, surprised to hear it took 4weeks and that they sent you the wrong config bulb. The 4 orders I've placed with them all arrived in 12-14 days. You'll get better colors with more blues obviously. 3blue:2whites is a good ratio. if you want more color, go 2blue:1white. Do you have the blues and whites on separate circuits? I can't imagine your acans not look more vibrant under just the blues. hmm... Phil. I have the blues and whites on separate plugs so they're independent... And everything looks awesome with just blues on... And good to hear the lack of coloring in the SPS is only temporary; that's kind of what I was thinking... Quote Link to comment
spoinkster Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 I was unable to retro into a BC29 hood (without completely destroying the hood) So I went a different way and my build is mostly complete. I picked up a 12"x16" shadow box from Michaels to use as a container for the bulbs and a bonus since it has glass, I have a splash shield. I wired up 20 GU10 sockets inside for 10 Blue and 10 White, added 4 60mm fans to keep things nice and cool(2 in and 2 out on opposite ends). I must say the all blue is VERY impressive and for those wondering if they are royal blues, I would say yes but cannot get the camera to actually capture what is going on... I will post pics of the build soon. Quote Link to comment
bulldogpet Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 (edited) Got my bulbs mounted over my 55g Here are a couple of pics I shot today. Sorry for the bad skills It's a P&S I just finished transfering everything from my 40B over to my now 55g. The foam rock wall will look better once it colors up ! Edited July 31, 2011 by bulldogpet Quote Link to comment
dlogfx Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 Just put in the order for 10 4x1w GU10's (5 cool white/5 blue). Do you guys think this will be enough lighting for my 10g? Also this is what I was thinking for the bulb layout. Which one do you think would work better? 2 rows b w b w b w b w b w or 3 rows b w b w b w b b w b Quote Link to comment
spoinkster Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 Just put in the order for 10 4x1w GU10's (5 cool white/5 blue). Do you guys think this will be enough lighting for my 10g?Also this is what I was thinking for the bulb layout. Which one do you think would work better? 2 rows b w b w b w b w b w or 3 rows b w b w b w b b w b for a 10 gallon I would stick with two rows Quote Link to comment
dlogfx Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 for a 10 gallon I would stick with two rows yeah 2 rows is what I was leaning toward. thanks! Quote Link to comment
fote03 Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 (edited) dlogfx - two rows will be good on your 10gal bulldogpet - got any pics of your fixture? Tank looks good! Edited August 1, 2011 by fote03 Quote Link to comment
Neya Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 Well I went upstairs to check the tanks and one of the bulbs was slowly blinking. Guessing it's due to the driver heating up(turned down Air conditioning). Unplugged for a few min and worked fine again. Not surprising as I was warned several times about this and the 3x3s (which is why I ordered only 2) A fan might prolong their life. We shall see. Quote Link to comment
TinyGiant Posted August 1, 2011 Author Share Posted August 1, 2011 that had happened to me a couple times too. HK replaced the bulbs that went bad. I had a couple that wouldnt stop blinking. They were the 1x3w I have a feeling the 3x1w will be cooler and run longer more smoothly Quote Link to comment
nar_luvsu Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 I liked all setups and i need help to do for my 75 G tank. How many White and Blue blubs do i need and diagram diagram. Quote Link to comment
Neya Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 that had happened to me a couple times too. HK replaced the bulbs that went bad. I had a couple that wouldnt stop blinking. They were the 1x3w I have a feeling the 3x1w will be cooler and run longer more smoothly I contacted the seller for advice. In the meantime I went to look at it and the optics had shifted. So I took the whole thing apart (for others just following, I'm not using the same bulbs/seller as TinyGiant) My LEDs are soldered down; not free floating. The optics are held in place by the board however there is shifting room. Now either the LEDs melted some of the optics OR the seller did to make them fit in properly. I super glued optics to the metal plate and removed excess melted plastic in the optic and put it all back together. Probably not the best idea. Lol. But it still works. Quote Link to comment
bulldogpet Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 (edited) I will get a pic of the fixture soon. After seeing in person how nice these bulbs look and then going to the livingroom and looking at my Solana with 150watt 20k bulb the difference is night and day ! Looks like my Solana will need an upgrade. SOON ! Edited August 1, 2011 by bulldogpet Quote Link to comment
Philip271 Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 (edited) Tanks look good Bulldog and Tiny! dlog, nar (and others asking for recommendations)- you need to give us the dimentions of your tanks! yeah, after having these LED's over my tank and seeing the crisp bright lights... when i go to the local fish stores, I'm surprised how dim/dark their lights look in comparision. except for the halides of course but close. so, I might have gone too far! I swaped out the 4x1w bulbs i had been running and put the 5x1w bulbs in place yesterday... they are SIGNIFICANTLY brighter! everything looked good except the torch coral i got a week ago that had been very healthy started to look bad in the afternoon... i immediately swaped back to the 4x1w bulbs thinking I might have cooked it... but guess the damage was done.. I had to remove the torch this morning as it was fouling the water and affecting other corals. now, i'm not saying the light was the cause.. could have been many other reasons.. I did also dose alk and calcium that morning after my weekly water change. just weird that nothing else was affected at all but the torch died. so I'm not sure if 30watt of LED over a 4gal tank is just too much...? for now, I'm going back to 4x1w 60degrees. Hey Tiny, with all the different wattage bulbs people are using now, maybe its more fitting to change the original title from "3w LED build Thread.." to "GU10 LED Build Thread..."? Phil. Edited August 1, 2011 by Philip271 Quote Link to comment
TinyGiant Posted August 1, 2011 Author Share Posted August 1, 2011 good idea on the thread title change. i posted in the DIY led build thread to include the gu10.. news yet. lol Quote Link to comment
bulldogpet Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 (edited) Thanks for the compliments. Yea I agree on what you are saying in regard to the LFS...lol The LFS that I go to has a 60g Marineland Cube setup with 2 of the Marineland Reef Capable Fixtures on them and these bulbs blow them away. I was talking with the owner and he says that he is not a sold on the LED's yet. He had several nice pieces of coral in the tank that he lost due to what I think was a lack of light. So he is going to be replacing the LED fixtures with MH. lol.. Edited August 1, 2011 by bulldogpet Quote Link to comment
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