Reefkid88 Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 Ummmm,I think so. I am not 110% positive though. I had mine on a simple $10 digital timer and it worked perfect. Regardless if you have led,T5 or metal halides,you are going to get spillage. I think the least spillage I had was t5's. Leds usually have a 120* degree spread of light,and halides are just dumb bright. Quote Link to comment
HookedOnAquariums Posted September 29, 2018 Author Share Posted September 29, 2018 Yeah i'm not that worried about spillage. would you trust your diy lights with acros? and im already sketching up a lighting diagram for the placement of the 21 leds, i'm thinking 3 pucks of 7. Should i pm you with deets or let others benefit from the info? Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 Absolutely,if you look about midway or so thru my 7g thread,I had a 2g pico crammed with acro's,mille's,monti's. I think at one point I had about 20 acro's in the tank. It's ultimately your call. I'm down to help either way. Quote Link to comment
HookedOnAquariums Posted September 29, 2018 Author Share Posted September 29, 2018 6 minutes ago, Reefkid88 said: Absolutely,if you look about midway or so thru my 7g thread,I had a 2g pico crammed with acro's,mille's,monti's. I think at one point I had about 20 acro's in the tank. It's ultimately your call. I'm down to help either way. Thanks! Im glad i finally got onto a forum! What led configuration were you running on your 2 gal so i can scale that up? Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 Which time lol. I ran about 10 different led systems on the 7g and 2g lol. I would probably go with 8x semi royal blues,4x semi neutral whites,2x luxeon es true blues and 4x semi violets and call it a day. Have the violets on its on driver,seeming 4 will be close to maxing it out since it tops out at 25v. have the 6 royal blues on its on driver because all 8 with be too much,and the the whites,true blues and 2 royal blues on the last driver. Drivers is where it can get tricky. Really the only other viable option is the Nano driver from RapidLed which is $30 but can handle 36v,or the drivers from LedGroupBuy which can handle as much or a little less than a LDD driver which is in the 50v category. The only way you could run a ldd without a controller would be a coralux board but will run them at full power or a MakersLed basic 2 up which I loved and can handle 14 leds on 1 or its 2 channels of a max of 48v combined for both channels. Quote Link to comment
HookedOnAquariums Posted September 29, 2018 Author Share Posted September 29, 2018 5 minutes ago, Reefkid88 said: Which time lol. I ran about 10 different led systems on the 7g and 2g lol. I would probably go with 8x semi royal blues,4x semi neutral whites,2x luxeon es true blues and 4x semi violets and call it a day. Have the violets on its on driver,seeming 4 will be close to maxing it out since it tops out at 25v. have the 6 royal blues on its on driver because all 8 with be too much,and the the whites,true blues and 2 royal blues on the last driver. Drivers is where it can get tricky. Really the only other viable option is the Nano driver from RapidLed which is $30 but can handle 36v,or the drivers from LedGroupBuy which can handle as much or a little less than a LDD driver which is in the 50v category. The only way you could run a ldd without a controller would be a coralux board but will run them at full power or a MakersLed basic 2 up which I loved and can handle 14 leds on 1 or its 2 channels of a max of 48v combined for both channels. I would probably do the digital driver. I would think the way potetiometers work as a dimmer and the cost it would be my best bet. and heatsinks are cheap so i wouldn't work about them producing extra heat. Would i need active cooling if i kept everything in a case? or would the heatsinks work properly Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 Depending on how cool your house is,and how high you run the lights. IF you have them cranked all the way up,yeah they will get warm. I never ran a fan on my leds but they only got warm to the touch,and I had 18 leds on a 6" makers led @ 700mah ldd's running the blue channel at 100% and whites at about 30% and the heatsink only got warm to the touch and my apartment was at 74 all day every day. There is also this light you could use to get started. For $45 shipped is a reaaaaally good starting point and a steal. Quote Link to comment
HookedOnAquariums Posted September 29, 2018 Author Share Posted September 29, 2018 16 minutes ago, Reefkid88 said: Depending on how cool your house is,and how high you run the lights. IF you have them cranked all the way up,yeah they will get warm. I never ran a fan on my leds but they only got warm to the touch,and I had 18 leds on a 6" makers led @ 700mah ldd's running the blue channel at 100% and whites at about 30% and the heatsink only got warm to the touch and my apartment was at 74 all day every day. There is also this light you could use to get started. For $45 shipped is a reaaaaally good starting point and a steal. would it be that hard to switch out some of the leds for colors i want? Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 I mean you'd have to pull the while led board out and put your own leds in. Quote Link to comment
HookedOnAquariums Posted September 29, 2018 Author Share Posted September 29, 2018 1 minute ago, Reefkid88 said: I mean you'd have to pull the while led board out and put your own leds in. Yes but the wiring would be relatively simple correct? Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 Correct,it would be the same as if you were wiring up your own leds in a fixture you built yourself. All the hard work is already done for you really. Quote Link to comment
HookedOnAquariums Posted September 29, 2018 Author Share Posted September 29, 2018 12 hours ago, Reefkid88 said: Correct,it would be the same as if you were wiring up your own leds in a fixture you built yourself. All the hard work is already done for you really. Thanks for the help! Quote Link to comment
HookedOnAquariums Posted October 2, 2018 Author Share Posted October 2, 2018 Guess what guys! one step closer to the tank having coral. Getting some lighting stuff shipped in soon! Thank reefkid88 for swaying me to do a diy fixture and for all the help hes given me so far! 1 Quote Link to comment
HookedOnAquariums Posted October 3, 2018 Author Share Posted October 3, 2018 I’m excited to announce that the tank is fully cycled! The Tests (API) say... ph 8.1 ammonia 0 ppm nitrites 0 ppm nitrates >20 ppm now all I need to do is get that dang light set up and shove in some corals. I know this is a noob question but could one add fish without a light? Some sources say stress is inevitable and others say they do better without the lights so I’m a bit confused. Thanks for all your help! HookedonAquariums Quote Link to comment
Firefish15 Posted October 3, 2018 Share Posted October 3, 2018 Lighting is not as critical for fish, but they do like a schedule once they're acclimated. It's mostly just the first day that you shouldn't have lights on for them. Enjoyed reading this so far! Keep it up! 1 Quote Link to comment
HookedOnAquariums Posted October 3, 2018 Author Share Posted October 3, 2018 5 minutes ago, Firefish15 said: Lighting is not as critical for fish, but they do like a schedule once they're acclimated. It's mostly just the first day that you shouldn't have lights on for them. Enjoyed reading this so far! Keep it up! Will do, have decided to put my funds into a light at the moment, only need a couple more jeffersons and this tank will have coral! Quote Link to comment
HookedOnAquariums Posted October 12, 2018 Author Share Posted October 12, 2018 First living thing spotted! I was a bit worried when I didn’t have any hitchhikers but now I have spotted two brown asterina starfish in my tank! I think these are part of the good guys isn’t there red asterinas that eat coral? Quote Link to comment
Firefish15 Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 3 hours ago, HookedOnAquariums said: First living thing spotted! I was a bit worried when I didn’t have any hitchhikers but now I have spotted two brown asterina starfish in my tank! I think these are part of the good guys isn’t there red asterinas that eat coral? That's the first one? I'm surprised it wasn't copepods! Pretty cool looking though. I haven't found any of those in my tank. Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 Be careful,in my experience they all like Zoa's. I even had a gray one devour my high end expensive Zoa's. Quote Link to comment
HookedOnAquariums Posted October 12, 2018 Author Share Posted October 12, 2018 3 hours ago, Reefkid88 said: Be careful,in my experience they all like Zoa's. I even had a gray one devour my high end expensive Zoa's. According to my research on 5% of asterina species eat coral Quote Link to comment
HookedOnAquariums Posted October 15, 2018 Author Share Posted October 15, 2018 (edited) FEAST YOUR EYES KIDDOS, Took a trip to the nice lfs in my area to get some freshwater junk (RIP king Francis, cthulu owns the tank now) and saw this little bugger. he has an amazing personality and good looks which made purchasing him a smokin' deal. Here is some eye candy to the first and newest addition to my tank. (Grief will make you spend all your money setting back your lighting project which makes it harder to get corals) In the Halloween spirit which I have been in since august this fabulous fishes name is beetlejuice. EDIT: After less than an hour of being in my tank he ate some omega 1 marine pellets with garlic (I smashed em a bit) Edited October 15, 2018 by HookedOnAquariums Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted October 15, 2018 Share Posted October 15, 2018 Nice,that's a good looking Clown. How about a FTS ? Quote Link to comment
HookedOnAquariums Posted October 15, 2018 Author Share Posted October 15, 2018 24 minutes ago, Reefkid88 said: Nice,that's a good looking Clown. How about a FTS ? Thanks the nicest platinum clown i've ever seen. The tank is not suitable for a fts at the moment. It is currently lit by a 5k florescent in a clip on lamp and I haven't cleaned the front glass after i spilled some water on it. Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted October 15, 2018 Share Posted October 15, 2018 All I hear is excuses 😄 Quote Link to comment
HookedOnAquariums Posted October 16, 2018 Author Share Posted October 16, 2018 23 hours ago, Reefkid88 said: All I hear is excuses 😄 Here's your FTS Reef Kid but i got something else on my mind. Saw my first bad guy today, Vermentid snail i think? Anyone got tips on how to get rid of these guys? 1 Quote Link to comment
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