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My 70g Cadlights Artisan, Radion Powered SPS Reef!


Alex B

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Pic later today I promise!!!

That's what I worry about with mine, though I'll be adding double the amount of LEDs that you have to a 6-bulb Sunpower, so I think it'll be more of an issue for me. The bulbs are 39w, so two of them put out about 80 watts of heat. The LEDs I'll be putting in will use, at maximum, 302 watts if I run them at the maximum current, or 220 watts if I leave them at 700mA, so I'll be putting in significantly more heat (I won't be running the LEDs all the time at these wattages, either, it will ramp up and down all day and will probably peak around 150-175w).

 

My temp is hovering between 38-40 degrees. I could bump the fans up more, but that seems good enough to me. The fans are not running even close to 100% right now.

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jedimasterben

My temp is hovering between 38-40 degrees. I could bump the fans up more, but that seems good enough to me. The fans are not running even close to 100% right now.

Are you measuring with an IR thermometer? If so, badass :D and also if so, what is the temperature of the T5 bulb 'hot spots' (the end of the bulb where the black text is)?

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Are you measuring with an IR thermometer? If so, badass :D and also if so, what is the temperature of the T5 bulb 'hot spots' (the end of the bulb where the black text is)?

 

Yup that was using a IR. Not the most expensive(harbour freight) but it gives you a idea. The controller temp is reading around 40-41 inside the unit. I just boosted the fans to 100% for 5 minutes and the temp went down to 36 inside the unit. I'm pretty stoked with the way it's cooling!

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jedimasterben

Yup that was using a IR. Not the most expensive(harbour freight) but it gives you a idea. The controller temp is reading around 40-41 inside the unit. I just boosted the fans to 100% for 5 minutes and the temp went down to 36 inside the unit. I'm pretty stoked with the way it's cooling!

Sweet. I'm gonna see what the limit is on the stock fans :)

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That's a whole lotta light. Are those custom arrays or Daves 13up?

 

My starting schedule is the following. Hoping this won't bleach anything out.

 

Leds are at 100 blues and 70 whites.

 

8am Leds on with 3 hour ramp up and 2 hour delay on white channel

11:00 pm Leds are full intensisties and all t5 on with 2 hour ramp up

2:00 pm t5s are at 100%

4:00 pm all t5 starts to ramp down

6:00 pm all t5 off and leds starting to dimm down

7:00 pm only blue led

9:00 all lights off

 

It's only got a 2 hour peak, but I want to start slow. Once the corals acclimate I will stop dimming the t5s and run them at 100% for a longer time period. I'm hoping nothing bleaches out. Right now for bulbs I'm running

 

3 blue plus

2 coral plus

1 true actinic

 

Once things aclimate i will mess with the leds to get the perfect spectrum for my taste. It's a very nice color right now. Maybe a little more blue then 14k.

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jedimasterben

If your T5 bulbs are new, stop dimming them ASAP. They aren't made to be dimmed (though ATI will tell you otherwise, which is not correct per Sylvania, the manufacturer) and dimming before they are broken in (100 hours burn time) damages the phosphors used in it.

 

I would also suggest a longer ramp on the LEDs since you're using them only for shimmer.

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If your T5 bulbs are new, stop dimming them ASAP. They aren't made to be dimmed (though ATI will tell you otherwise, which is not correct per Sylvania, the manufacturer) and dimming before they are broken in (100 hours burn time) damages the phosphors used in it.

 

I would also suggest a longer ramp on the LEDs since you're using them only for shimmer.

 

The bulbs are burned in. I gave them 3 weeks before i started dimming them. I actually haven't dimmed them till now! I'm just scared to bleach anything out so I decided to dim them for a few hours. The longest ramp time the storm lets me do is 180min. If I could have made it a little longer, I would have. Does the schedule still sound like too much light to you? I'm thinking it will be ok. What I can do is only run 2 bulbs of t5 for most of the photoperiod. I'll run all 6 bulbs for something short like 2 hours.

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jedimasterben

I would probably still avoid dimming them IMHO, I agree that you should run all six T5 for a short time, and simply increase that time by a half hour or so every couple of weeks or so. The true actinic bulb is gimped in radiometric output compared to the Blue plus or Coral Plus, so that does help out in preventing overillumination :)

 

The longest ramp on the Storm is 3 hours? That's shitty, I could have sworn that it had a 'natural' type mode where it does a parabolic dimming ramp. Carry on :D

 

With the LEDs in there now, even with them at a fairly low total intensity, with six bulbs you're talking shitloads of light. I would consider swapping one of the Blue Plus with another True Actinic, and then from there figure out what combination of all the bulbs being on with the LEDs to find what you like best and then adjust the LED times, ramps, and T5 on/off times to match the time when you are home the most so you can enjoy it at its best color :)

 

 

I think you mentioned a while back that you have access to a PAR meter - that would really help out in figuring out how much is too much.

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As a owner of a fully wire tucked honda, I see you did a decent job of hiding your wires on your tank, how did you go about running them?

 

I built a wire hiding system into the stand. It's a seperate acrylic peice that hides all the cables and what not. I'll try to get some better pics.

 

That's pretty good growth on the OT for 10 days.

 

Actually It looks like I uploaded the wrong pic. That's about 20 days of growth on the oregon tort. Still not bad I guess!

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So far so good with the skimmer!

Already pulling out some wet nog. In a couple days I'll adjust it to skim dry. It's very quite and adjust super easy. Still to early to tell, but so far I'm happy. The build quality and Sicce pump are great.

 

I also removed the acrylic shield today from the ATI. ATI states that it helps cool the tubes, but my light is running around 4-5 degrees cooler without it. The controller is showing 34 degrees from the internal temp sensor. That's with leds and all 6 t5s.

 

I changed the schedule a little bit and I think this is a winner.

9:00 am blue led

11:00 am white leds and 2 t5 (blue+ and coral+

12:00 pm channel 2 of t5 on (all 6 bulbs)

3pm channel 2 t5 off

6 pm channel 1 t5 off

Blue led only till 9:00 pm

 

Its still a little bluer then I like, but in taking it slow with the white leds.

ill give it a couple weeks before bumping anything up. The PE on the sps was crazy today! I almost couldn't believe it.

 

Need me sum Oregon tort!
One of the classic every sps tank needs!
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jedimasterben

The acrylic shield will help with temps in that the fans on the top create a positive pressure inside that pushes out through the side vent. You're adding more heat with the LEDs, though, so its less effective with only the stock fans pushing in.

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The acrylic shield will help with temps in that the fans on the top create a positive pressure inside that pushes out through the side vent. You're adding more heat with the LEDs, though, so its less effective with only the stock fans pushing in.

Yup. I was hoping it would run cooler with the sheild. The only reason I removed it was because the leds heated it up a little too much. I Don't want to run the unit without the shield though. Cleaning the reflectors is a pain!!

 

I'm going to holesaw some holes where the leds are. I would rather run the unit with the shield in. It was only getting up to 39 degrees with it on. That was with the fans on auto. When I turned them up to 60% the unit was in the lower 30s.

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Might have to steal that Oregon.

 

Its not worthy of being stolen yet, maybe in 6 more months lol

 

Did you order the Skimmers attack ninjas. Touch this box I cut you.

 

Lol !!!

I just noticed the sword and super serious face. Damn you teenage mutant ninja turtles!!!

Guess I can't blame them, I was Donatello like 3 years in a row for haloween.

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