Heatsink is in, went with a solid piece 6 feet long

For the LEDs I decided im going to use myself as a genuine pig for a new board design we are working on. I should have the new board within the next two months. Once I have the LEDs on the new board, it will literally be a 30min install process.

I will be going with the new XM-Ls NW/CW and XP-E RB.

Cool, thanks for the up-date. looking forward for the finished product.

I've never seen a build thread without any pictures at all. It appears you are waiting for the end result but most people like to show how they got there. For the LED newbie, all that technical talk without photos just creates confusion.

Well build thread was happening, stopped, redesigned, redesigned, redesigned, and now its getting back on track. The only thing I have to take pictures of is the heatsink.

I like to really plan things out before I do them!

This thread isnt going to be your standard build thread such as one for a for a tank where it lasts days/weeks. Since the design is going to simpilized as much as possible so anyone can follow it, i expect it to be lots of planning and 30-60min of building.

well.... where is it :mrgreen:

Steve

updates?

Only update I have is im waiting on the new LEDs/Boards to get to me. I was assured they would be ready for production within the next 5 weeks.

I do have to say, ive done much more research into corals and what they need in terms of light and this build is going to be interesting.

I do have to say, ive done much more research into corals and what they need in terms of light and this build is going to be interesting


do you mind to share this info, and background, to bad for that knowledge to stay wihit you, while you could share !!

For you Kevin, ill share. But you must understand im not an expert on what im about to talk about, ive just been really sticking my nose in books, articles, studies to get the information I need.


There is alot of science behind plants/corals growth. They have what is called chlorophyll A and Chlorophyll B. There is much more A than B but there both important.

A peeks at 425ish 453ish and 660ish. B peeks at 455 and 660.
The LEDs we bring in are the Royal Blue which peeks @ 455. This is great. We also now have an ultra violet that peeks at 425. Again, amazing for the corals/plants.

What we currently don't have is something that peeks at 660. We are working with a manufacturer to bring in a 455 + 660 LED. This would be an LED that is mixed, which is also called magenta. So very pink, not super nice to look at but in theory should make corals go crazy - Similar to a fat kid in a candy store.

What im going to be testing is running these magenta LEDs when I am not home. Basically right in the middle of the day so the corals can color up and grow. Before I get home, they would be off so you see the nice pleasant 14k look. In the future I may also add a motion sensor to have the magenta LEDs shut off is someone is near by the tank.

So what everyone has been doing works great. Royal Blue and Cool Whites are really popping corals, making them grow, etc. What im going to try to do is take it to the next level and see if I can get the correct mix of Royal Blue and 660red for "off hours" to make the corals pop even more and grow even faster.

Here is the activation spectrum im talking about:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/LEDG...m/Spectrum.jpg

It is the mix of A and B.
So as you can see, having the ability to "dial in" the LEDs is a huge bonus over other lighting.

hey Milad,

In theory 660nm should make the corals grow while 450-460nm (blue and royal blue) makes them color up and I've tested the concept with a custom built PAR 38 bulb, the result were far from pleasing.

The test was done in 1 system, where I had put a custom (5RB, 3CW, 1R) into the sump with adequate flow and movement and only limited the spot for corals to 6x6" with the PAR 38 hung above it at 6" so I'm getting a ton of PAR. The display uses PAR38 with 5RB and 4CW only. Since its the same setup the parameters are the same for the test and what I found was this.

Almost every SPS coral I put under the custom red PAR38 bulb had turned a brown color. There is a bit of color but majority of them lost that shine they had when they were under the none red LED. The test was started since last christmas and it is still going on today since i had a few times where I had gotten busy and the parameters were not optimal. But now that I have stablized the paramaters and my display is coloring up, the corals in the sump under the custom red PAR38 is still the same.

Which leads me to think that corals dont need as much red spectrum as we think they do. Infact from reading a few papers green spectrum seems to do more for corals then reds,and from my experience at 660nm everything just turns brown. Theres no point imo to bring in magenta colored multidie LED when in the end it'll turn all the SPS brown. Even if i was to cover up the red LED in that PAR38 bulb the result of the colors dont come back instantly, chances are they wont come back for a good 2-3weeks.