Future plans, suggestions welcome

btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
I will have my husband post exactly what our setup is running.
As for aesthetics, I'm very pleased with the look. I have had people from our local reef club come to look at our tank/buy corals/etc who are convinced we are running numerous colors until we show them the setup.
The majority of my LED's do NOT have lenses. We have a few over some SPS. All my LEDs are CREE 3 watts, royal blue and cool whites. We did have the older style Cree 3 watts and upgraded to newer ones recently and do like the color and growth more. I run HLG drivers. My whites are at 60% and blues at 80%. (Again, my husband can be more specific as he builds them). The fixture sites about 6-8" above the water line. This was done simply because it was the only way it worked with our canopy without modding it, bit it's ended up working well.
As for being the only one who's happy with the classic look, I'm not alone. My husband has built lights for numerous hobbyists locally who are all happy with growth and color.
The President of my reef club is Joe Yaiullo, owner of Long Island Aquarium and Exhibition Center (formerly Atlantis Marine World). He is impressed with our setup. When Sanjay spoke at NERAC 2012, we spoke at length with him about our setup and was impressed. Both liked the look.
It may not meet the needs of the entire light spectrum, but I have found it is NOT necessary. Bottom line, I have fantastic growth and amazing colors from my corals.
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Nope, thats why we ask. Your info is a little sketchy. You dont have 3watt leds TL...you have 5watt leds. See what we mean?
 
mr btldreef

mr btldreef

Member
What is so sketchy?
We ran 3w xre Cree LEDs for a long time. No optics.... Experimented but did not like them so removed them after a month. Past months I have slowly replaced them with xpg r5, yes those are 5w now. And xte which I am sure those are 3w LEDs.
so total leds 120 Crees.
60 xte 3w
60 xpg r5 5w
On each heatsink 16x9 oversized to keep heat down, there 40 LEDs.
20 cool whites and 20 royal blues.
2 hlg 240-48.driver I will have to look if its the a or b model. Using 1k ohm resistors on each string with pico fuses.
Audrino typhoon controller reverse polarity to run the hlg drivers.
Whites 60% when totally ramped up with 1:30 on the ramping time.
Royal blues 80% when totally ramped up with. 1:00 ramping time.
Royal blues turn on at 10 am and turn off at 11 pm
Cool whites turn on at 12 and turn off at 7.
That includes the ramping up and down times.
NONE OF MY PHOTOS ARE PHOTOSHOPPED OR EDITES BESIDES CROPPING. Recent pics are all with my iPhone 5. Can I go back to work now?
If the boys want to ask about my tank feel free to pm me or call me 6312411615 and I will gladly explain LEDs to you. There is only so much "research" needed. Reef tank are hands on and those who tell others what to do should have built or have the same setup that they are talking about. Otherwise it's just talk.
"They wouldn't put things on the Internet that isn't true, right?"
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Im not trying to argue with ya, TL. I hope you realize that. Just trying to get down to the bottom line of what is what so that someone else doesnt run out trying to copy what you're telling them and wind up scratching their head when they dont see the same things as you.
Lois runs a mix a blue, royal blue, cool white and neutral white. Or at least on her diy fixture she does. I dont necessarily think that full spectrum is needed in most cases but indications show improved results in most cases for those who have switched.
If you are running XTE and XPG leds then they are most certainly 5 watt capable. So I dont know who's telling you that they are 3 watt but they are incorect. If you follow ohms law (voltage x current = watts) you'll see the truth. Ofcorse it doesnt help when the suppliers had XTEs miss labelled when they first came out. And pretty much everyone knows that xte royal blue produce better color than xpe royal blue due to their peak a little lower on down the spectral range closer to actinic.
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
What is so sketchy?
We ran 3w xre Cree LEDs for a long time. No optics.... Experimented but did not like them so removed them after a month. Past months I have slowly replaced them with xpg r5, yes those are 5w now. And xte which I am sure those are 3w LEDs.
so total leds 120 Crees.
60 xte 3w
60 xpg r5 5w
On each heatsink 16x9 oversized to keep heat down, there 40 LEDs.
20 cool whites and 20 royal blues.
2 hlg 240-48.driver I will have to look if its the a or b model. Using 1k ohm resistors on each string with pico fuses.
Audrino typhoon controller reverse polarity to run the hlg drivers.
Whites 60% when totally ramped up with 1:30 on the ramping time.
Royal blues 80% when totally ramped up with. 1:00 ramping time.
Royal blues turn on at 10 am and turn off at 11 pm
Cool whites turn on at 12 and turn off at 7.
That includes the ramping up and down times.
NONE OF MY PHOTOS ARE PHOTOSHOPPED OR EDITES BESIDES CROPPING. Recent pics are all with my iPhone 5. Can I go back to work now?
If the boys want to ask about my tank feel free to pm me or call me 6312411615 and I will gladly explain LEDs to you. There is only so much "research" needed. Reef tank are hands on and those who tell others what to do should have built or have the same setup that they are talking about. Otherwise it's just talk.
"They wouldn't put things on the Internet that isn't true, right?"
Ofcorse they would. Which is why we cant take the word of just one or two hobbyists as gospel.
Only so much research needed did I hear that correctly?
Come on guys. This is why there is so much confusion on this topic. For a hobbyist turned ameture led builder you know better than this. Ive been working with electronics and elementary circuitry for many years. What you're doing is very basic. The problem that I see and why there is much confusion is because of all the non electricians running around making building these things spreading around a bunch of missinformed info and making generalizations that one product is virtually the same as another when they clearly are not.
The only way we can decern truth from fiction is to build something repeatedly and end up with the same results. So for someone looking to replicate the same results with different products then folks need to know specific information...
Led types
Counts
Drive currents (which I still haven't heard). Because current will differ in every situation depending on driver types, led and string counts. So saying my driver output is at 60% is not telling us what is being pushed through the leds. Which im sure you know. :)
Optics spread
And height above the water.
And just so you know, I thought this was old news already but yes...there was a discrepancy n in crees data sheet when XTEs hit the scene so suppliers miss labeled them as 3w. Cree corrected their data sheet quite a while ago but last I looked most suppliers had not. They are capable of a maximum 1500mA drive current.
I'd have no problem calling ya though so you can explain this technology to me. Clearly my understanding is lacking a bit and could use some clarification.
And yes, you can go back to work now. :p
 
mr btldreef

mr btldreef

Member
here we go again. I have over 11 years experience with basic to somewhat advanced electronics. its not hard to figure out Fv or current on circuit. This is not a peeing contest. so chill out..........
TL tells me constantly that certain people have been pushing their weight around on others and telling them what they should do as far as Leds go. I was told to state what I have on my 180g tank that has been running these leds, recently upgraded, for 1 year and 6 months. Due to the fact that those offering the help to others do not have leds up and running on their own tank. Also the fact of when I asked 2quills on this site on what my issue was when I had the problem running the hlg 240h-48b drivers..... sent me links that were completely unhelpful and didn't answer any of the questions. Therefore even when I didn't know the answer I had to research and figured it out by doing it by myself. TRIAL AND ERROR are what I usually end up doing when I can't find an answer.
YES I build DIY LED FIXTURES FOR LOCAL HOBBYISTS. I don't need to boast or brag. If It helps a fellow hobbyist save money and love their tank more then before then I am all for it.
led types ACCORDING TO RAPID LED>
xte x60
xpg r5 x60
50/50 ratio
2 hlg-240h-48b said to run 60 3w leds at 850mA not the case it hit a high +/-1100mA when i first tested. I then ran a 1k Ohm resistor inline to remove the higher current. This had brought 60 3w xre leds down to a 950mA, which is what I had run originally when running the xre. Each one of my ELN drivers were set at 950mA.
AS of right now: I have this last month replaced the last string of leds..... my xre to xpg/xte upgrade. I have not measured yet. The unfortunate thing is that there is no current adjustable knob like in the ELN drivers. Granted measuring out all my voltages would have helped but, I figures why not give a try. worse comes worse I would have just blown a fuse....in which I didn't. therefore felt no need to go any further and to just monitor the first week to make sure no over heating would occur.
NO OPTICS at all. NO SPLASH GUARD.
the 60% is what my percentage that my audrino controller is set to dim/ramp the drivers for the xpg r5 leds to achieve my 20k look. this voltage is approximately 6.3 volts due to the fact I had to reprogram the PWM outputs to reverse polarity on the controller.
height above the water is aprox 7" to the water line.
as far as taking pictures and the colors you see...... I take pictures at different times and sometimes I catch my tank dimming down into a dusky purple color which I love. Still no one believes me until they come see my tank for themselves. they all think i supplement with t5s or something.
MY OPINION:
for every 24x24 section of tank 40 3-5w cree leds seem to work great for a mixed reef 48-50 3w-5w cree leds seem to do amazing with sps.
now with the newer leds not as much are needed to produce the growth from corals
NO need for optics, unless wanting to grow sps on sand beds. obviously it changes the spread of each led so you will get different effects/par/etc. if you want your leds to act more like a halide use optics and have it focus more in certain areas. if you are a t5 fan then no optics... you will get a soft spread of light all around... you won't get that disco effect on the sand either.
NO need for uv, red, green, other color leds.... unless its really what you want. MY corals have no problem maintaining good color and growth under just white and blue. hqi halides use uv blocking glass to keep uv out of the tank....why add it then????
I have seen and built leds with green and reds..... it looks like a rainbow and not very appealing.
Apex will dim ELN drivers no problem. it WiLL NOT RUN HLG Drivers correctly. This is why I still run the audrino, very easy to program and dims in selectable increments.
I have noticed very little par/lux drop when raising leds higher. I did not try going lower....IMO my lights being 7" above water is too close anyways.
ALL I can say is use what others have tried as a staring point and then modify to where you see fit. every tank is different. what works for my tank may not for yours. sorry 2quill for the confusion. typing on my phone is a pita. I was also troubleshooting an 48v golf car that had been submerged due to sandy....so mind was else where.
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
And.....I guess your advanced knowledge overrides what Sanjay has found and studied.....Ohhhh and of course what others who started the LED trail with blue/white have concluded.....I guess everyone will just take your word on that 1......Your right no pissing contest just a whole lot more proof out there than what your providing......
You stated you built with red/green and looked like rainbow and again no real specific information....Spacing plays a major factor in this and so does if someone uses optics.....Oh yeah advance electronics and again off on the UV deal.....The UV's most are using aren't actually UV spectrum unless your specifically hunt for them........
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr btldreef http:///t/394359/future-plans-suggestions-welcome/40#post_3511488
What is so sketchy?
We ran 3w xre Cree LEDs for a long time. No optics.... Experimented but did not like them so removed them after a month. Past months I have slowly replaced them with xpg r5, yes those are 5w now. And xte which I am sure those are 3w LEDs.
so total leds 120 Crees.
60 xte 3w
60 xpg r5 5w
On each heatsink 16x9 oversized to keep heat down, there 40 LEDs.
20 cool whites and 20 royal blues.
2 hlg 240-48.driver I will have to look if its the a or b model. Using 1k ohm resistors on each string with pico fuses.
Audrino typhoon controller reverse polarity to run the hlg drivers.
Whites 60% when totally ramped up with 1:30 on the ramping time.
Royal blues 80% when totally ramped up with. 1:00 ramping time.
Royal blues turn on at 10 am and turn off at 11 pm
Cool whites turn on at 12 and turn off at 7.
That includes the ramping up and down times.
NONE OF MY PHOTOS ARE PHOTOSHOPPED OR EDITES BESIDES CROPPING. Recent pics are all with my iPhone 5. Can I go back to work now?
If the boys want to ask about my tank feel free to pm me or call me 6312411615 and I will gladly explain LEDs to you.
There is only so much "research" needed. Reef tank are hands on and those who tell others what to do should have built or have the same setup that they are talking about. Otherwise it's just talk.
"They wouldn't put things on the Internet that isn't true, right?"
Again.....Photoshopped or not.....A camera doesn't capture the rendition of an LED correctly......That's know and been well documented......
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Relax guys.
Mr. BTLD, no one is pushing anything on anyone around here. And if you can pick out one thread here anywhere that suggests this than please point it out. If it's an issue then I will try to correct that. Most of my posts are in the aquarium these days. I don't remember suggesting anything to you about using unproven electronics, if you have evidence of this than please present it. You tried something, got yourself into a jam, I tried to help you but didn't have an answere. Likewise I remeber you showing up on my thread to try and help with a similar situation with the same controller and you were no help either. Had to figure it out along with it's creator.
I came in to the middle of a conversation where I saw an opportunity to help make some clarifications. Your wife was toating about her fixture that produces great color and growth but wasn't giving accurate advice. It wasn't a threat it was me trying to be helpful. The girls' got some experience no doubt about it as I'm sure she's corrected me on many things in the past. It's all good.
But when I see something that is clearly miss information like I'm using 3 watt leds when you really aren't, or that a certain led count "is not enough" I have to say something. Especially when we all know that if you run 120 leds at 50% then why can't somebody else run 60 leds at 100% to nearly the same output. Shall we discuss how the use of optics come into play.
All I asked for were some simple specs so that the rest of the folks reading along and looking for ideas could have a better grasp of the technology. Why is this so hard to understand?
 
kiefers

kiefers

Active Member
Can some one prease speak engrish here? Lol...
It's miller time. I'm buyin, lets go!
(BTW........this is why I stick with T-5's)
 
superman

superman

Member
I can see why this site is losing so many members. Used to come on here and have good, informed conversation. You can take your arguments elsewhere, I'm done with this thread.
 
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