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#31
12-20-2011, 12:39 PM
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Looks great, i've been watching your build on these and you've done some great research. One thing to look at is what your corals will activly use. With LED's you can put out a wavelength very close to what the corals will need, and also what makes them bright. check out:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/9/aafeature - article on fluorescence, the chart at the bottom shows the excitation wavelength of most common coral's fluorescence http://jeb.biologists.org/content/20....full.pdf+html - Paper on how corals respond to light, interesting info on polyp extension based one what wavelengths are present. It's great that you are taking a mix of blue's and some TV. The mix should hit the peak's of lots of different corals providing great results. This is where LED's far surpass any other tank lighting, because you are going to hit everything in the 400 - 550 wavelength, and not just have one peak in there like most halides. Can't wait to see the results.
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My 150 In Wall Build Last edited by Lampshade; 12-20-2011 at 01:07 PM. 
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#32
12-20-2011, 07:50 PM
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You're probably going to want to play with things even after you're done. I would drill and tap your heat sinks so you can change you LEDs if you want to make changes.
Everyone has their own taste in colors. Based on what I like and since your CWs are going to be crazy bright, I was thinking more like this: Might be too blue for you?
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#33
12-20-2011, 08:01 PM
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Robs suggestion looks good, you can also throw wider lenses on the whites to get less Intensity and more spread to help out.
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My 150 In Wall Build
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#34
12-21-2011, 03:16 AM
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Quote:
One thing I noticed though is that the 420nm true violets don't have too much of the 390 - 400nm range. I am tempted to throw one 400nm LED in per lighting strip, or use 410 nm violets. Anyone on here have any experience in the near UV spectrum? Results? Rob, still not blue enough for yeah eh?! Ha ha! I was looking through some of your pictures, your tank doesn't seem that blue to me, do you mind briefly describing your lighting setup, and any reasoning behind all the royal blues you recommend? I do understand that lighting preference is very subjective. In one of my pics with 3 RB's to 4 CW XM-L's you can see that the light is already fairly blue. Personally I had hoped to vary my lighting conditions throughout a 24 hour cycle, towards night I would have a very Avatar thing going on with lots of florescence and actinic light  , as it got later in the night switch to more of a violet dominated color. During the day I would go with more of a bright white look more like MH's. And in the morning more of a warmer color.
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#35
12-21-2011, 03:21 AM
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Quote:
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I'm not 'fallow' you must be talking about my tank!
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#37
12-21-2011, 04:24 PM
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There are no pictures of my current setup out there yet. They are all of my old 180, which was lit by 3 250W halides with T5 supplementation.
My current setup is a 75G standard with 56 3W LEDs, 18 NW and 38 RB. You've obviously been doing way more reading than me, but I decided on this because people had posted on they got a nice balanced color and a 14K look. I think its a little bluer than that. My decision was really about aesthetics, but the corals are really responding fantastic. I'm trying not to get too excited about it since its only been running for 3 weeks, and there could be problems with LEDs I might not notice for a few months, but... oh no here I go again. The colors change of the few corals I have has been amazing! A couple of the remnants from my 180 that I've been growing out under a 150W halide, that were never really that exciting, have morphed into truly stunning corals. With your added colors you may get even better results, who knows. Like I said, just make sure its easy to change them if you don't like what you're seeing.
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#38
12-26-2011, 07:56 AM
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Well I think the winning plan is below. It should allow for more then enough flexibility that I should be able to dial in a lighting option I like. I would consider running optics on the Cool Whites, Neutral whites, and the royal blues. I only would consideroptics becuase I have a very tall tank 38" to be exact, so light penetration may be an issue. I hit a little snag with the tank so it will be a while before I will actually have the fixtures over the tank.
The wiring is going to be messy as I had only planned on Cool whites and Royal Blues. It would be a little less messy if I bought another 100 W 2.8 A driver so I could split my Cool whites up better, but cost is starting to be a factor. For those of you potential DIY'ers I really don't think there is much of a cost savings by doing your own lighting, by the time everything is said and done, I am sure I would have spent at least $1200 plus many many hours of research. But in my case with an odd shapped tank, the desire for full lighting control, and me being super particular DIY is the only option! BTW the snag is that the shop I had lined up to build my curved wooden panels is no longer able to do it. And apparently curved wood panels take like 60 - 90 days to manufacture...plus they need my steel frame while they do the build. Last edited by Seth81; 12-26-2011 at 07:59 AM. Reason: Forgot the Pic
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#39
01-07-2012, 08:32 PM
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So I ordered all the new/replacement LED's. I got the royal blues and the Neutral whites from Cutter, and the TV and UV from Aquastyle online. I like Cutter as you have choice of bin, but they take forever to ship from Austrialia. Now its just a matter of waiting! I'll post on this thread again when I get everything installed.
A big thank you to everyone who has been participating in this thread! Cheers for now -Seth Last edited by Seth81; 01-07-2012 at 08:50 PM.
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#40
09-18-2012, 02:51 PM
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Just thought I would update this with a few things I have learned from running my DIY lights for a while now.
1. UV and True Violet LED's bring out a little bit of extra color, and at night I can make the tank glow purple instead of blue...but IMO don't seem to be worth it if I were going to be doing it over. 2. Running XML's at 2.8 amps is a difficult venture. I was using thermal tape, becuase it can be removed if necessary, however at 2.8Amps the star PCB's tend to get hot enough to make the Thermal tape adhesive start to let go, and if nothing else is holding the PCB against the heat sink...prepare for burnt out LED's! I have burnt out at least 5 XML's because of this thermal tape and am now going with arctic silver compound for a more permanent bond. Also a heat sink fan is 100% necessary! 3. I really like the Color I get with Warm White and Cool white mixed. Cool white by itself is missing something, and warm white by itself does not look good. 4. I do like the amount of Royal blue LED's I have. With my whites fully on I can still get a nice color. And for night time I have to cut back my blues to about 65% 5. If you are troubleshooting LED's do not attempt to trouble shoot while your LED driver is energized!! I burnt out an entire bank of LED's this way. I will be adding a 5th CW led per LED strip, mostly becuase I can...so why not? Ha ha ha...
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