XSiVE's 120 in-wall

[XSiVE]

I love DIY's, as a matter of fact ripped my fish room/lab apart today and completely re built it. I really want to and very tempted to pull the trigger on a DIY LED kit. Any tips or pointers for a 25x25x25 cube, sticks up top acans and favias down low. Also advice on a solder gun would be helpful!

Yeah, DIY is probably more enjoyable to me than sitting back and enjoying my handywork, I've always gotta have a project.. my next one might be a DIY wave box LOL.. just not sure I like the idea of a big box in my DT ;-)

I can't really suggest anything specific for your cube because I don't know what you're looking for, or the restrictions that you have regarding space, do you need it to dim, what kind of color temp are you looking for... the list goes on ;-)

Im slowly working on a "LED Guide" thread that will have a lot of basic info as to how (in my opinion / experience) to light a tank with LEDs, not just the basics of you need x,y,z, more like a synopsis of how it all comes together and how to apply the basics. I hope to have it done soon and it might be able to help answer some questions like yours.

As for the soldering iron, I strongly suggest getting something that has temperature control, not just wattage control. I picked up a TENMA temperature controlled unit on ebay (refurb or new i couldnt quite tell) for only $60 and love it. It's so much better than the piece of crap radio shack one I used to use.

[XSiVE]

Whit is PIF? Also that is cool, all those babies.
What does a simpler led setup like you have run? (in cost)

Pay it forward, basically I'll just give them away in hopes that the receipients will give something else away, or if theirs dies / spawns babies that those will be given away.

LED setups can vary wildly in cost depending on what you want to do, how nice you want the fixture to look, how deep your tank is, do you want to be able to dim them, etc.. I think a general rule of thumb is probably "about $12 per gallon" I know it seems silly to estimate on gallons but I was just throwing numbers around on what I would need to do to light a different tank and it worked out to around that as well. you could go cheaper, or a lot more expensive depending on what you need.

[XSiVE]

Great shot of the Mandarin! I saw the lights in person and they are awesome, quite impressive.

BTW, PIF= Pay it forward.

Thanks Tal, now I just need a mate for it but Im unsure of the pod population and I would rather have one very healthy instead of two kinda healthy.

[ReeferRob]

Yeah, DIY is probably more enjoyable to me than sitting back and enjoying my handywork, I've always gotta have a project.. my next one might be a DIY wave box LOL.. just not sure I like the idea of a big box in my DT ;-)

I can't really suggest anything specific for your cube because I don't know what you're looking for, or the restrictions that you have regarding space, do you need it to dim, what kind of color temp are you looking for... the list goes on ;-)

Im slowly working on a "LED Guide" thread that will have a lot of basic info as to how (in my opinion / experience) to light a tank with LEDs, not just the basics of you need x,y,z, more like a synopsis of how it all comes together and how to apply the basics. I hope to have it done soon and it might be able to help answer some questions like yours.

As for the soldering iron, I strongly suggest getting something that has temperature control, not just wattage control. I picked up a TENMA temperature controlled unit on ebay (refurb or new i couldnt quite tell) for only $60 and love it. It's so much better than the piece of crap radio shack one I used to use.

Thanks for the advice, can't wait for the write up. Maybe we can make it a feature article here on CR!!?
As for restrictions, Im a fiddler so dimming is a must, no restrictions for space, would love a sleek pendant style hanging form ceiling I don't like canopies very much. I like 20k+ look but again dimming would be nice.

[Tom@HaslettMI]

awesome
Great looking tank and very informative LED build. Did you ever have any light acclimation issues with the corals?

Looking forward to the Fungia PIF!


Tom

[XSiVE]

awesome
Great looking tank and very informative LED build. Did you ever have any light acclimation issues with the corals?

Looking forward to the Fungia PIF!


Tom

Thanks Tom; I'd like to get ahold of a PAR meter to check the actual numbers, but I'd guess Im not getting over 500 at the highest levels of rock, but again, thats a guess. I am basing it off of this guy's use of 60 degree optics suspended 12" over the same size tank as I am using, as seen here in post #73. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showpo...9&postcount=73 He has only 24 LEDs in the array, but they are a lot more tightly arranged, I have 50% more LEDs, but spread over a significantly larger area.

Surprisingly I did not have light acclimation issues with the corals, but that's probably because of a few things.

1. My array is not super-dense, 36 LEDs per side, 72 total over this 4x2x2 tank is on the lower side of "how many sq inches per LED" scale, the recommended is 1 for every 10 to 20, I am at 1 for every 16sq/in. still plenty of light IMO.

2. I was very careful to set the current output of the drivers so I would not be over-driving my arrays. The MeanWell ELN-60-48D's come from the factory with the current setting's maximum dim set to 1500mA, but the recommended current for Cree XR-E's is 700mA to 1A. I was sure to turn down the internal settings to max them out at the values I mentioned earlier in the thread. Anyone who is using these drivers and does not adjust this initial setting (or at least check the drive current) is possibly roasting their corals and cutting the lifespan of their LEDs. Many people just wire things up without checking or adjusting so I'd bet that this could be why some have light acclimation probs.

3. I ran the arrays dimmed to 60% or so for the first few days and slowly ramped up the power. I am currently running 100%, but I feel this gave my corals some time to adjust as I have seen no evidence of bleaching.

This is, of course all anecdotal, and I could be producing less light output than my MH's ever did, but whatever, Im seeing happier corals now than I did before just with the difference in polyp extension alone.

[cg5071]

Thanks. oh! PIF,lol. Ok that is great. I wouldnt mind jumping in either. At one point I was actually hoping that mine would die so I could watch it produce but I just let things take their course.

I am looking at a frag tank also. Probably 20 long or half of a 55. It doesnt need to look purty "yet" Maybe if I was doing one for my main tank which has an ugly light system over it now. I would want a deep blue I guess as I am getting into sps slowly but surely and want them to have nice colors. My main isnt really blue atm since I was growing lps and zoas mostly But will probably change the halide there from a 10k. What do people use for both good growth and bluer color for sps? The halide is over the back of the tank and most of the rock, and I have a couple t5s over the front.

Money of course is important and I am sure I can do most of the work myself. Thanks for the guestimate of cost, and no I dont need it to dim.

[XSiVE]

First glimpse of PAR numbers (Huge** Thanks to Tom, CalmSeasQuest for letting me borrow the meter!) I will have much more detailed analysis over the next few days.

This is a graph of the light level at about 1cm below the water surface. Think of the bottom, flat section of the graph as a "slice" of my water column, The X-axis (labeled A-I) is the front glass, Z-axis is the side glass, labeled in 6 inch measurements relative to the front glass.


Im very happy with the initial findings. It's nothing like ZOMG SO MUCH LIGHT, but when you think about it you realistically dont need much, if any more light than Im pumping into the display to keep everything you could ever want. Sure the 1cm below water surface on a hawaiian reef is something like 1600-2000 PAR but most of the biodiversity happens at significantly lower light levels.


Side note: Im getting ~150-250PAR on the rack, 400? at the water surface in my frag tank with only 8 emitters, going to add 4 more emitters to that pendant so I can have it more focused on growth for SPS either before they go into the display, or after they get clipped and get to wait for sale. I'll have solid data on the frag tank tomorrow.

[XSiVE]

More PAR graphs

this time a little easier to read.





In these next two, if the reading was not up against the front glass, and in the 0-50 range, Live Rock was in the way of getting the sensor to the point where the reading was supposed to be taken.

[CalmSeasQuest]

Great job on all the plotting Ryan! You'll have to show me how - all done in Excel?