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Milad LEDGroupBuy.com

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True...it may be because my tank is lined in black(background/sand/equip) and doesn't refract all the light giving the water a blue hue washing out the colors

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jedimasterben
True...it may be because my tank is lined in black(background/sand/equip) and doesn't refract all the light giving the water a blue hue washing out the colors

A very interesting thought. My new tank will be the same, back painted black, black sand, etc, but I'm still only going to start with 7x cool blue Rebel ES and go from there.

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Definitely don't use cool white. Neutrals give you better coloration.

 

What kind of corals do you want to keep? That would determine how many of your base colors you will need.

 

In terms of corals, to be honest, I'd eventually really like to be able to keep a bit of everything (sps,lps, softies). I'd like my lighting to be somewhat "general purpose" as I'm still new, and would like to keep my options open for the future. I'm sure some of my first corals will be zoas, frogspawn, torch, mushrooms; but really like acropora and montiporas as well. Hopefully this doesn't complicate things too much.

 

Maybe I'm trying to overcomplicate things too much to start with by wanting TV and OCW but again I'd like whatever i choose to be as long term of a solution as possible, and would like to take advantage of the improved color and growth.

 

Run each on a separate driver, white, royals, OCW, and violet. I'm anal am ordering seven drivers, one for each color so I can have complete control over my color.

 

As far as drivers go, Milad @ LEDGroupBuy sells only Inventronics. They are quality drivers, but they are very expensive. For my build, it would cost over $350 in drivers alone, and I paid that for my entire fixture, using all Rebel ES LEDs. Drivers are from Steve's LEDs, they are custom built for running these type of LEDs and all have PWM control for use with a controller. The drivers use DC input, so you need a power supply to run them, but Steve sells those as well, and they are Meanwell units, and they are high quality as well.

 

I was looking at Steve's drivers, and they look slightly more complicated to work with. My understanding is that I would need 4 x Singles as the quads do not have individual external dimming on each channel? Also it looks the drivers need to run on their own heatsync as well? I do like the advantage that there would only be one power cord required when using the power supply. Also trying to figure out if this could be all tucked in the hood or if I would have to have an exernal "driver / control" box.

 

I'm not ruling out Steve's drivers yet, but I haven't had much luck yet finding detailed build threads. Can anyone can suggest any?

 

So given the following:

 

  • Tank : Oceanic Biocube 29 with the fixture retrofit into the stock hood
  • Color Combo: 3ups (RB,NW), OCW, TV
  • Want to keep SPS, LPS, Softies

 

What # of each would be suggested?

 

If I understand the threads I've been reading through, some of the LEDS have different current requirements. I think the TV need to be run at around 500-600ma? If I were to run meanwell drivers, and keeping in mind I would like to keep open the possibility of using a controller eventually, what Meanwell drivers would be suggested (one for each channel RB, NW, OCW, TV) -- what current would be max for each channel?

 

If there is a better place to post this .. let me know and I'll gladly do so. I dont want to hijack the thread.

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jedimasterben
Also could i reduce the drivers needed if i use a dim4? Probably too many leds per channel?

The DIM4 has a forward voltage of ~10v and can only drive up to three LEDs per channel. Only if you were using 12x LEDs total or less would this be a viable option.

 

Steve's drivers can be put onto the same heatsink that the LEDs go onto. You probably won't find any build threads about someone using them - I haven't, but people that I've talked to that have used them haven't had any issues.

 

You can definitely throw them into a "driver box", but there would need to be a small heatsink (the drivers are supposed to be pretty tiny) with a small fan. The power supply is larger and already has its own fan and will need to either sit outside of the driver box or have one fabricated around it. That's definitely complicating things lol.

 

 

You can stick with the NW:RB:RB combo, a lot of people stick with that, but there are areas where the spectrum is lacking, and to get a true metal halide look and feel, that's where the rest of the colors come in, for the "fine tuning", per se.

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jedimasterben
How would 6 x 3up , 2 x OCW, 4 tv be? Driver for blues, one for white, and ocw amd tv on one?

You should get pretty good PAR numbers with that. As long as you keep SPS in the top half of the tank or so, and run the XP-G and XT-E at 1A, you should be golden!

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White @ 2100mA - 100%, 180min slope 30 min delay

Royal blue @ 1000mA - 100%, 90min slope 30 min advance

Violet @ 700mA(600) - 85%, 90min slope 30 min advance

Blue @ 1000mA - 100%, 90 min slope no del/adv

Red @ 700mA - 85%, 180min slope 30min delay

Turquoise @ 700mA - 85%, 180min slope 30 min delay

380nm UV @ 700mA - 85%, 90min slope no del/adv

 

All 60deg optics 11.75"above waterline, 16"high tank - 13" of water to sandbed

 

By delay or advance my controller creates a sun cycle with one rise or set time...for example rise at 8am set at 6pm. Advance means rise at 730 delay means rise at 830, set advance means set at 630 set delay means set at 530

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I run 6CW & 6RB Crees inside the cover of my NC12. I used to run them near 100% and everything just stagnated. I've dropped the whites down to about 20% and the blues to about 70%. Things look much happier.

 

The SPS which barely grew in a year has started to encrust around its base and the branches are growing out thicker and taller.

 

I dropped them down to the point where I "think" they match the levels in my LFS.

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Yea I have 6cw,6rb,6tv,2dr,and 2tq. My turquoise, red, and tv are all at 550ma. I run my rb at 100% @700ma. Whites are about 45percent @700ma so about 300ma. No optics about 5inches above the water line. And stuff just seems stagnant. So I guess Imma turn my blues down for a while a see what happens

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jedimasterben
Yea I have 6cw,6rb,6tv,2dr,and 2tq. My turquoise, red, and tv are all at 550ma. I run my rb at 100% @700ma. Whites are about 45percent @700ma so about 300ma. No optics about 5inches above the water line. And stuff just seems stagnant. So I guess Imma turn my blues down for a while a see what happens

What do you mean by stagnant? No growth? If you are giving too much light, stuff will just retract or bleach out.

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Growth just has been slow. I know are my parameters are Ok. So I think it's either my lights or this instant ocean sea salt.

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jedimasterben
Growth just has been slow. I know are my parameters are Ok. So I think it's either my lights or this instant ocean sea salt.

Is your pH normally 7.8 like in your sig?

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I would say yes its normally 7.8. My calcium is normally 425-420.and alk I try to keep in the 9s.

 

Phosphate is normally. 03-.04 (not the. 11 you see.. Just changed gfo)

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If your params are as your sig states likely they are not. With a ph of 7.8 you would not be holding 10.8dkh unless your calc is sub 400....super saturation of 7.8ph allows a balance of around 420calc and 7-8.5dkh or an unbalance of 10+ dkh sub 400calc or the opposite 400+ calc and ultra low.dkh around 6-7. Chemical imbalance will retard growth. Also 0 nitrates is not good. Zoox need it and phosphate otherwise it slowly starves the coral to death

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I think my 10dkh came from topping off with kalk. I used the wrong jug when I went to top off. But even still deckoz you are saying I'm unbalanced by aiming for the 9range dkh? So to correct this I need to let my alk fall or raise my ph?

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420 and 9 is not unbalanced...10.8 and 420 is. With a low ph one of the two can easily precipitate from ionic domination and a low supersaturation threshold cause by low ph. I am by no means saying your wrong - we each have our own ways. Just informing you of what can happen at a lower ph, basically the need to continue the balance is a finer line and can easily be thrown off. Don't chase ph...chase aeration and reverse lighting

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Oh I see. Well now I'm back at square one because normally my alk is in the 9s and calc is in 425 range. But I have never really allowed my alk to continue dropping to see where it stops. If I test (red sea) and get 8.4 I usually dose esv to bring it back into the 9s(I aim for 9.5) is this too ocd? Should I see how low my alk will drop in a week (water change to water change)? If all this is Ok then I'm still thinking my salt or light

 

But I have never "chased ph". Sorry for hijacking this thread

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Nah its not ocd ....you want ocd? I dose daily...by hand... 16ppm calcium. 2.86dkh. 4.8mag. 0.03iodide. 0.02iron. 4.3potassium ,0.74ml of trace, 4ml amino acids, 4ml liquid carbs, 2ml seclon, 1/4cup phyto.

 

However if you are getting a constant reading of 8.4-9dkh and dosing for 9.5dkh that just further proves my point that one is precipitating out(alk) because the water is not capable of keeping it in suspension due to lower ph. I also high jacked...with my #####es.love worlds aladin picture lol

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So what should I do deckoz? Should I continue dosing? all of my corals (about 7) are all about frag size.

 

After I dose I usually wait 45mins and test usually I'm in the 9.5-9.8 range. When I test the next day I'm around 8.something.

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