Wayne's 225

[fishytime]

Well it should be nice and cozy for viewing the tank

[waynemah]

Who would have thought the most stressful part would be lighting the tank! If anyone has any good advice, please feel free to pass it on.


Here are my current choices on the table (in no particular order):


Pacific Sun Metis CRP 4x100W -- Right now, the top of my options. This light has everything that I want and more. It's by far the cleanest unit and will give me a lot of room to get into the tank. The down sides are the price and upgradeability.


Aqua Illuminations 6x75w pendants -- I've *virtually* seen many of these in action (YouTube, how-to’s, reviews etc...). I have a very good idea of what these can do, the price is still slightly high, but I don't want to get stuck in a void of having to add more and more expensive pendants to offset the spotlighting these are known to have.


DIY 4 panels of 42 Cree XP LEDs (cool white and royal blue) -- I have the knowledge and experience of soldering and working with electronics. The price is much lower than the other options and I can change out anything that dies on my own... Most likely having spare parts on hand. Huge down side is looks, I don't have the resources to fabricate an awesome fixture for DIY.


I've considered T5's and MH, but I’m the kind of guy to forget about the initial purchase and gripe about ongoing maintenance costs. With LED I believe it's a pay now or pay later situation.

[waynemah]

Lights are now chosen and ordered!

I'll be going with 4 seperate lights with 36 3w Cree LED's on each! 24 Royal Blue's and 12 Cool whites.

The best part is the ease of building these lights, pre-drilled and tapped heatsync, BJB connectors (solderless) and optics that click right into the BJB!

[lastlight]

Which lights are they? Have a link?

[waynemah]

I purchased them from http://www.reefledlights.com

There are many options, I just built each kit individually to get all the parts at a better price. After that I added a few items that I needed to complete the kit. They ship USPS and it's VERY affordable.

Here is a breakdown of what was ordered:


48 Cree XP-E Kit – 48 XP-E Royal Blue

• 4 CoolTron Fans w Powersupply ($19.90)
• 12 XP-G w ELN60-48D Driver & Carclo Optics ($121.00)
• 4-40 Allen Head Screws W Nylon Washers QTY 100 ($15.00)
• Carclo Frosted Wide w Holder ($69.60)
• 60 BJB Connectors ($51.00)
• 2x 12"x8.46" Pre Drilled & Tapped ($115.00)
• 2 ELN 60-48D Dimmable ($65.00)

48 Cree XP-E Kit – 48 XP-E Royal Blue

• 4 CoolTron Fans w Powersupply ($19.90)
• 12 XP-G w ELN60-48D Driver & Carclo Optics ($121.00)
• 4-40 Allen Head Screws W Nylon Washers QTY 100 ($15.00)
• Carclo Frosted Wide w Holder ($69.60)
• 60 BJB Connectors ($51.00)
• 2x 12"x8.46" Pre Drilled & Tapped ($115.00)
• 4 ELN 60-48D Dimmable ($130.00)
• Set to 700mA ($16.00)

8 x Fuse Holder
10 x 5 Watt 1 Ohm Resistor

25 x CREE XP-G R5 Cool White 3W LED On Star

• No Screws ($0.85)
• Soft Wide ($1.45)
• No Optics ($0.00)

[waynemah]

Picked up the rest of what I needed from Marine Aquaria. They always seem to have stock on special items and Harvey went out of his way to help me out!

Huge thanks guys!

[waynemah]

Received some equipment today!

I'm quite impressed by the Skimz SM201, it's a sexy beast!



Several months into this hobby and I'm already WAY over my head.



Killer sump from Marine Aquaria (Super Dart Gold just fits beside it).

[Parker]

Originally Posted by waynemah

Picked up the rest of what I needed from Marine Aquaria. They always seem to have stock on special items and Harvey went out of his way to help me out!

Huge thanks guys!

I've always been treated very well when I go there as well, it's nice when people know your name when you walk in a store.

I can't believe I missed this build thread... look great so far! I'm looking forward to seeing pics of it lit up with the LED's.