Long needed 120 light upgrade

cipher43

cipher43

Member
Hello all. It has been a looooooooooooonnnnnnnnng time since I have been on this forum but I need some help. I have been suffering along with no controller on my tank long enough and have decided to pick up a bluefish mini and LDD 1000 drivers for my 120 lights. The build here https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/index.php?threads/ciphers-diy-120-and-75-gallon-led-build.390510/ . I am also changing out my reds to newer cree bulbs, splitting the red from the green, and adding 8 410 uv bulbs for fun. There will be 10 LDD drivers running on 6 channels since I have 10 strands of lights(3 white,3blue,1 red, 1 green, 1 uv, and 1 with moonlights on a LDD350 driver) The 75 has a typhoon on it and is working great for what she wanted but I figure for a 20 bucks more why not get the bluefish mini.

The problem I am having is I cant remember what these are


I know the first one is a fuse but i don't remember what either are for what I need to buy and where.


Also here is the current state of the aquarium



2quills I tried to look back through our messages we had back when I built it and I don't see them now.
 
cipher43

cipher43

Member
My Mother makes stained glass items and made me these as a payment sort of for building her 75 gallons lights and stand. here are the side panels



 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Wow dude long time no see.

I have a super busy day at work today I'll look at this a little more in depth tonight for you.

But I believe those were 1 watt 1 ohm resistors. We use them for balancing the flow of electrical current across string when running parallel strings.

I usually get that stuff from digikey website but u can order anywhere even radio shack.
 
cipher43

cipher43

Member
Thank you very much. She self taught herself with a few books instead of taking classes I believe.

Yeah 2quills it has been a long time for sure. Ive been busy with having our first child and number 2 is on the way and also a few vehicle projects and I started hombrewing plus work..... We had a GFCI trip on our pumps over a weekend two months ago and it killed all of our fish so with new fish will be light adjust ability I wanted from the start. Plus with the bluefish mini I will hook up a camera so I can check in on weekends from my phone. I replaced my scrubber with a home made skimmer that dumps to a 1 gallon beer jug and my son got a hold of the hose without me seeing letting skimmate dump on a plug flipping the GFCI. I have it fixed now so he cant move the hose like that but the fish didnt make it.
Here is a picture of my skimmer I am using. It works like a champ


I found the spare bag of the green 1A fast blow fuses from the first picture. Will I even need those since the LDD 1000s wont push anymore than that anyway?
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Won't need resistor for individual strings. I would still run fuse protection based on the amp rating for the leds u use. How much current do the drivers put out? And what is the amp rating of the U.V. leds?
 
cipher43

cipher43

Member
I just double checked and the xpg leds can run 1500mA and the xpe leds can run 1A so I will probably keep the 1 A fuses in there to be safe since the xpgs are the whites and I wont need to go that high with them
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
As long as the drivers don't exceed the amp rating of the leds you can forego the fuses and resistors.
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Yeah you're good then.

The fuses were there before because of the larger drivers. Running parallel strings divides the current accross all strings. So in the event that one of the leds failed the extra current wouldn't transfer to the other strings and fry the leds in those strings.

I see u did some more diy lights in the sump, nice!

Those glass panels do look awesome. Congrats on the rug rats btw.
 
cipher43

cipher43

Member
Thanks. He has been fun and number 2 will make it even more fun.

The funny part about the lights in the sump is I dont use them anymore. I made them for my scrubber but when I put this home built skimmer in there it does too good of a job to keep cheato alive. I had a large ball in there and it slowly died away no matter how much flow or weeding it I did.
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Yeah I ditched my scrubber as well.

What leds were you using in the sump? I've been growing chaeto like it's going out of business with 660 reds and a few neutral whites.
 
cipher43

cipher43

Member
4 660 reds, 2 blues and 4 whites (2 neutral whites 2 cool)
The chaeto was growing great until I started using this skimmer but it slowly died no matter what I did.


I had planned on taking pictures of the whole rebuild on the lights but I started at 10 AM on Saturday and didn't finish until 5:30pm that night. I am really happy with how it all turned out. It reduced the cords on the top of my tank and looks cleaner and now I have the color adjust ability and automation I wanted from the start. I thought about taking a video of the aftermath of it but it would be nothing more than the lights turning on and off. I could post a short "thunderstorm mode" video but we will see. The best I can do for now is show you a picture of the top of my tank hood now with the new setup.

I should mention when I ordered this stuff I needed 2 700mA drivers and I forgot to check that box and got 2 1000mA in there place so the new ones are on the way but I am using the 1000mA ones for now with a max of 40% output so I am safe so long as I don't accidentally slide the power up to full on either of those

 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Excellent. You'll be much happier with more control over color balance. I run reds and greens very low on intensity.
 
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