frag tank with LED's

[Chiefmcfuz]

Chris there is absolutely no blame at all on you at all if it doesn't work for me or anyone else. Like you said you're testing for yourself.

Patience is a virtue my grandmother always said. I have learned this through alot of aspects in this hobby and I plan on going VERY slow.

I applaud you for doing what you are doing.

 

[loismustdie]

Thanks Cheif.
I would love to see what Icecap has going on for LED's. I love Icecap. All my ballasts MH and VHO are theirs. I'm sure they will have an awsome product with LEDs. I'm just worried about costs.
So far, I really can't say much about the performance of the lights. I added 2 monti caps last night. Everything that was in there before still looks good, but it has only been around 2 weeks, so growth is unnoticable.

 

[FRY]

chris i absolutely agree with chief in no way can you be blame, this is a hobby, you shouldnt feel that way,

frank

 

[Doc]

<TABLE id=HB_Mail_Container height="100%" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0 UNSELECTABLE="on"><TBODY><TR height="100%" UNSELECTABLE="on" width="100%"><TD id=HB_Focus_Element vAlign=top width="100%" background="" height=250 UNSELECTABLE="off">I like the set-up in the picture and have contacted autolumnatation. the only thing I don't have is something to secure the track lights to. What house-ing did you place the strips in? Where could I get one that was about 14" long?

Doc
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[ARAD]

I think it is pretty cool what some hobbyist are doing these days with LED's and frankly the results do not surprise me. But do not be confused by some of the so called results of many of the do it yourself projects. While the results have been good, the real fact is it gets a whole lot better than that!!!

While you may be able to get an LED to work, without the proper design and components you will never get the full output, or longevity of the device. The output difference can be staggering. I covered this in my talk at NERAC last month and will be covering it more at IMAC at the end of the month.

I have a pair of LED fixtures that I recently designed for IceCap that will be at the Pratt university this weekend with a specialized reflector. I have attached two photos one with the full spectrum and one with the actinic. I demonstrated them at NERAC and everyone was simply blown away.

The fixtures in the attachments are only 24 inches long by the way and really designed for a 24 inch aquarium for a trade show. But I put them on my new 65 Gallon I am setting up just to see what they would look like. Incidentally I do commend the post on the board, good work that is an impressive set up.

And by the way you are correct that reflector is not doing a thing for your performance. If anyone in the club has any questions regarding LED's I will be glad to answer them.

Tullio Dell Aquila

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Arad welcome to MR and thank you for your post and your contribution for the swap. Let us know how they look on your 65g.

 

[herman]

Welcome to MR Arad. Im looking forward to meeting you this weekend!!

 

[prattreef]

Welcome Tullio!!! Herman, I don't think Tullio will be here himself, though he is of course welcome, but the LED arrays will be RD

 

[loismustdie]

Tullio, thanks for posting the pics. Amazing. Wish I could see these things for real at the swap, but I won't be going. Either way, tremendous work on the research done for the lights.
Doc, I built a hood out of acrylic.
Acroporas have been added to the frag tank.

 

[loismustdie]

Doc, here's the hood I built. I originally made it out of wood, but I wanted to use something smaller like this since it's a frag tank, I wanted to make accessibility a little easier. I wanted to make it black, but I got the acrylic from an MR member and red was all he had left. I appreciate his help.

 

[loismustdie]

Here is a pic of the acro frags I added. I also built a shelf out of clear acrylic today. Because of the room that was taken up by my returns, I was unable to put in the PVC legs for eggcrate to make a 3rd shelf. This worked out well for me. More places to put frags

 

[loismustdie]

I had 3 leftover blue bulbs, so I did my moonlights over. These are from my main display only lit by the moonlights.

 

[loismustdie]

Update

One month in and I'll say that I'm very happy. Growth has been good. This works great for a frag tank/smaller tanks, but I doubt it would be worth it on larger tanks. Icecap seems to have a much better product for that. I can't wait until that's available.

 

[ctxmonitor]

That is great to hear. Look like all of them looks happy and growing. How is the color of the acro? Did you noitced them getting better or worst or no change?

 

[loismustdie]

Ctx, they all got darker and the polyp extension in the frag tank is better than in my main display. If a coral was doing poorly in my main display, I would put it in there for a few days, then put it back at the bottom of my main display, slowly move it up.
My camera takes really bad pics of my coral, so color doesn't show well.

 

[FRY]

chris looks great hows the temp.doing

 

[loismustdie]

Frank, I honestly don't remember the last time my chiller has come on. The bulbs themselves are warm to touch, but I don't think they radiate much if any heat.

 

[SlamaJama]

saw chris's frag tank set up first hand and it looks sweet..i need a frag tank set up like this.

 

[GQ22]

Very very nice work. Did you say your electric was unnoticeable increased with the addition of a the LED fixture or was unnoticeable compared to a MH fixture as in they both cost about the same?

 

[Tonyscoots84]

great work chris..... good to hear that the frags are doing great polyping and growing... great job... maybe a new thing for nano tanks and frag tanks...