frag tank with LED's

[Aqua Pro Builder]

hmm chris sounds like a plan lighting my clown breeder tank. how good do you think these bulbs are to light phytoplankton?

It's very good for phytoplankton!!! The wavelength can be chosen to exactly match the ones for phytoplanton's choro....(haha.... forget how to spell!!!)

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

led schematic

This diagram seems under driving your leds. I am assumming you are using 3.2-3.6 Vf leds. Of course, I could be wrong if the specs of your leds are not the std ones.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Jonsey, no diffuser. They are just a narrow angled beam of light. Also, from what I understand about LED's it's not so much in the watts as it is in the output. For example, a 3 watt LED actually putting out as much light as 50 watts of MH. I guess it's all in the technology of the microchips they use. The better the chip, the more costs go up. Ive got a total of 270 LED's over the frag tank. It's using less than 18 watts. According to the company, you get about the equivalent of 25 watts of MH per 30 bulbs. They said that is a high ball estimate and I agree with that. It doesn't look to me like I've got 200 watts of MH over this frag tank.
Doc, I bought blue and superwhite bulbs. The blues burn at around 455nm, they did not have a nm rating for the white. I get the typical light film of algae on the glass of the frag tank, and I've also got a small piece of culerpa in there too. The culerpa has grow, so this light may do for a fuge. I don't see why you can't use it in a sump. I did a mix of 4 blues and 4 whites.

I think they are actually meaning flourescent instead of MH.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

This is good simple easy one !!!!

Two thumbs up.

FRY, thanks for this handy wizard.

 

[Reefer420]

I wonder why you don't see any commercially made fixtures out there yet... this seems like a great idea and looks like it really works!

 

[loismustdie]

I think it's like tuillo said, it keeps getting better. Seems that they may actually be trying to put out the best product possible. Also, they may be trying to work out bugs prior to sale (ie, Vortech).

 

[loismustdie]

GQ, sorry if I wasn't clear... It costs me between 6 and 12 cents a month to run this.

 

[jhale]

Chris I like the Red hood, it's sexy

I did not see your thread for a while, great progress.
I also can't wait for the LED's to be ready, Imagine the cost saved,
on the e bill, new mh bulbs, vho, t-5 tubes, and like you said before,
no chiller! it's win win.

 

[Reefer420]

do you get the shimmer lines like w/ MH? I know my 1w white LED moonlight definately 'shimmers' on the water after my lights are out...

 

[loismustdie]

Thanks Jhale, I'm back at work now and they are letting me make up overtime missed last year. I'm pretty much at work all the time at the moment. I'm pretty anxious about the LED fixtures as well. I'm sure it would be great for you with the heat issues you have in your apartment.
Not to hijack my own thread, but I remember you asking about the Sequence Snapper. I saw cali reefs Dart running and it is completely silent. I had to put my ear up to it to see if it was running. The Snapper is smaller, so I'm sure it would be just as quiet.
Reefer, you get the shimmer. IMO, not as much as you do with MH.
I should also let you guys know, growth in my main display has been faster... much faster than in the frag tank. PAR issues? I'm not sure. Stuff is growing, but not anywhere near the rate of the corals under my MH.

 

[jhale]

Chris, don't work too hard this summer, at least come to my swap/party on the 24th ;d (june)

I did get the snapper pump, it's pretty quiet, I can't hear it over the ice cap fans in the hood

 

[loismustdie]

Yeah, I don't want to work my summer away, but I really like money. Thanks for the invite to your mini swap. I'll check my scheduel. I'll bring my culinary skills along, Kaesi can back me up on this one.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

I wonder why you don't see any commercially made fixtures out there yet... this seems like a great idea and looks like it really works!

It works well for FO and FOWLR for sure. We just need time to verify how well LED fairs in the reef environment. Commercial land plant grow light made of LEDs are getting more popular(the color looks stupid though) but still costing a lot. Finally, building led array is a biiitcccch or unless those 1W luxeon LED drops in price.

 

[RareZ]

I've done some stuff with the LED's. It's a homemade ACTINIC substitue for one of my 20G tank. It lights up the Zoo's better than some ACTINIC's. I've purchased my LED's from a vendor in HongKong. It's one of those high power jumbo LED's. They work great. I was thinking of creating a plan to make them in 24" Strips so all you have to do is hang it on. Anyway if you guys are doing this too, it would be cool to see what you guys have.

 

[FRY]

wingo thats what i been looking for cheap luxeon cause i thing they will work much better and use less leds

 

[jenniebutterfly]

frank, how much did that cost you to set up on the nano cube lid? my light just stopped working on mine, and i am looking to do something different. i have no clue about wiring led though

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

frank, how much did that cost you to set up on the nano cube lid? my light just stopped working on mine, and i am looking to do something different. i have no clue about wiring led though

How big is your tank and can you show me a pic of the inside of the hood. May be I can estimate for you.

 

[jenniebutterfly]

it looks the same as the one frank (fry) did on the previous page. i think his is a 324 gallon though. i would estimate the hood to be about 14 x 12 or so. i don't have time to measure right now though

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

it looks the same as the one frank (fry) did on the previous page. i think his is a 324 gallon though. i would estimate the hood to be about 14 x 12 or so. i don't have time to measure right now though

Did Fry give you a number how much he has spent on it? If not, you can drop by my club to see a prototype and you can count for yourself how many LEDs you need. Different leds and different designs yields different intensity of lights.

 

[jenniebutterfly]

well, i decided not to mess with it. i bought a 30 breeder to upgrade to eventually so for now i will use my jbj light on it thanks though