tango's LED-powered rimless nano

[wangotango]

The back story: I'll be starting my senior year of college this fall and want to have a tank with me at school (I'll be going to grad school too). For my first two years I went to Penn State and was one of the head student volunteers on the 530gal reef tank there so that was enough to keep me busy. Since then I've transferred and don't have a tank to do anything with 7-8 months out of the year (my 55gal is at home).
The new tank: 24x18x14 (~26gal) rimless. It's actually a turtle habitat from exo-terra but one of my LFS has one set up as a lagoon, and it looked pretty cool so I decided to get one. I'm going to light it with (24) Cree LEDs, (16) CREE XP-E Royal Blues, and (8) CREE XP-G Neutral Whites mounted on aluminum channel with dimmable drivers.
Other miscl equipment; Koralia 425, Finnex 100w titanium heater, ato.com top-off kit, old Aquaclear something HOB filter turned into a fuge, and ~10lb BRS dry Pukani rock.
Livestock: Very simple. Mostly LPS and softies with maybe a few SPS. My goal is to be able to fit everything into (2-3) 5gal buckets to transport home/back so I don't want colonies that will get too big or be too delicate to move. As for fish I was thinking a Clown Goby, Tailspot Blenny, and a pair of Bangaii Cardinals, but this is something that is constantly changing as I want to keep the tank open and not worry about keeping fish that will jump.
So far I have the tank painted with newspaper wads for aquascaping. I'm gonna try and work on the stand this weekend and maybe order the LEDs. PROGRESS WILL BE SLOW....

 

[sweatervest13]

Looks good so far. Is the turtle tank going to hold up in the long run?? I have heard turtle/reptile tanks were not designed to hold water the way fish tanks were. I am sure that they can just be careful. lol Nobody wants 26g of water on the floor.
Those LED's should be sick. Can't wait to see the progress on those. Are you doing the LED build on this thread or starting a new one? Good Luck!!!

 

[acrylic51]

 

[wangotango]

According to the manufacturer the tank can hold water. There weren't any "DON'T FILL THIS WITH WATER" labels on the box or tank like on other semi-aquatic tank setups I've had or seen before. I'm still not going to put the Vortech I wanted on it just in case haha.
Probably gonna do all the build stuff here. I've been trying to hunt down aluminum U-channel locally but can't find the size I need. Either I'm gonna have to order it online or just spend the $90 on heatsinks.
As of tonight the basic framing for the stand is done. Gonna start wrapping it tomorrow I think.


Quote:
Originally Posted by sweatervest13 http:///forum/thread/386310/tango-s-led-powered-rimless-nano#post_3392585
Looks good so far. Is the turtle tank going to hold up in the long run?? I have heard turtle/reptile tanks were not designed to hold water the way fish tanks were. I am sure that they can just be careful. lol Nobody wants 26g of water on the floor.
Those LED's should be sick. Can't wait to see the progress on those. Are you doing the LED build on this thread or starting a new one? Good Luck!!!

 

[2quills]

Looks like it will make a pretty cool nano tank.
Curious on your led and driver selection. Are you wanting to keep your colors on separate drivers? I noticed on the big thread you posed the question about running some of the xp--e blues on the same driver as the xp-g's. If you are using the ELN drivers one option you could do is run 8 xp-g whites on one driver in series and run the 16 xp-e's in two parallel strings of 8 on the other driver. That way you could keep the colors separate. Just a thought.
Curious on your choice of rock work as well. Are you using the sports section or going with the funnys?

 

[wangotango]

Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Quills http:///forum/thread/386310/tango-s-led-powered-rimless-nano#post_3392714
Looks like it will make a pretty cool nano tank.
Curious on your led and driver selection. Are you wanting to keep your colors on separate drivers? I noticed on the big thread you posed the question about running some of the xp--e blues on the same driver as the xp-g's. If you are using the ELN drivers one option you could do is run 8 xp-g whites on one driver in series and run the 16 xp-e's in two parallel strings of 8 on the other driver. That way you could keep the colors separate. Just a thought.
Curious on your choice of rock work as well. Are you using the sports section or going with the funnys?

I was planning on two Meanwell ELN-60-48-Ds with (12) RB on one and the remaining (4) RB and the (8) NW on the other. As long as I have a dedicated driver for just blue I'm fine with mixing the others.
Business and local news for the rock

 

[wangotango]

Finished the stand today. I'm not Norm Abrams by any means but it's all square and level so I guess that's something. I plan on ordering the parts for my LED fixture next weekend.

 

[acrylic51]

Looks good!!!!!!

I think that's a sweet setup!!!!!!

 

[1guydude]

+1 diggin the stripes...lol idk why just am

 

[wangotango]

Not much new to report. Just ordered 10lbs of BRS dry Pukani rock, a 100w Finnex titanium heater, a Koralia nano 425, and a vertex refractometer. Still trying to find aluminum channel locally and there's one more store that I'm almost positive will have it. LEDs will be ordered this weekend once my paycheck clears. After that all that's left to buy is my ATO system (autotopoff.com single switch kit and a Tom's Aquatics Aqualifter pump).
As far as mounting my fixture I plan on using one of those metal closet shelving systems that has the notched "tracks" and the triangle-shaped brackets. This way I can adjust the height of the fixture pretty easily and attach/detach it easily as well (with just a few bolts or screws to the back of the stand). This is another reason why I want to avoid the weight of a large solid aluminum heatsink.

 

[wangotango]

And the build is complete with the lighting (today's project). Eventually the drivers and pots will be in the cabinet and the wires tidied up. No water or livestock until beginning of September though...
The LED rig consists of four 1-1/2" 1/8" thick aluminum "L" channels, each with six LEDS (the arrangement is in one of the pics). I stuck with the 2:1 ratio of Royal Blue to Neutral White. At some point I'm gonna try and put this thing over my 55 just to see how different colors are rendered. I'm also gonna try and get my hands on a PAR meter for some comparisons against my T5s.
The kit from RapidLED (they sent me ten extra whites so I've gotta send them back haha):

Channels marked for LED location:

LEDs secured:

Quick layout and wiring diagram:

Finished product:

 

[acrylic51]

Looks good!!!!!! Can't wait to see more!!!!!

 

[1guydude]

hmm looks simple enough?!?! Was it?
Ive looked into these package things they have at rapids...but to worried i wouldnt be able to do it!
looks sleek and nice...are u gonna in house the aluminum any more or leave as is?

 

[wangotango]

Quote:
Originally Posted by 1guyDude http:///forum/thread/386310/tango-s-led-powered-rimless-nano#post_3402691
hmm looks simple enough?!?! Was it?
Ive looked into these package things they have at rapids...but to worried i wouldnt be able to do it!
looks sleek and nice...are u gonna in house the aluminum any more or leave as is?
It wasn't too complicated actually. There are a lot of build threads on other forums and step by step videos on youtube which are very helpful. The most time consuming and tedious part was just cutting/tinning/soldering all of the wires and LEDs. You can't go wrong with the Rapidled packages. Excellent customer service, and very good prices. You can also request a different number of the whites/blues instead of the 50/50 split that comes with the packages.
I'm on the fence about an enclosure, and if I do build one it won't be outrageously elaborate. At the very least I'll put an acrylic splash-guard underneath.

 

[wangotango]

Extra technical tid-bits I left out. The LEDs are spaced 2-1/2" OC left-to-right, and 3" OC front-to-back. I also went with 80 degree optics.

 

[2quills]

Looks good! Is that the potentiometer on the front of the fixture? Definately would go with a splash gaurd at the very least. From what I'm hearing the moisture will reak havok in a year or two if you don't. How hot would you say that the L channel gets after running the fixture for a little bit?

 

[wangotango]

Yes it's one of the pots (it's not the final location though haha).
Yeah I'm definitely going to add a splash shield. I've also seen a spray sealer for LEDs/electrical components and wanna give that a shot.
I havn't run the fixture for a full day yet but even after the 1/2 hour or so the aluminum doesn't get that hot and the drivers are still cool. The LEDs themselves get too hot to touch even after a few minutes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Quills http:///forum/thread/386310/tango-s-led-powered-rimless-nano#post_3402824
Looks good! Is that the potentiometer on the front of the fixture? Definately would go with a splash gaurd at the very least. From what I'm hearing the moisture will reak havok in a year or two if you don't. How hot would you say that the L channel gets after running the fixture for a little bit?

 

[wangotango]

Late update. Because of the hurricane at the end of August I wasn't able to bring the tank with me to school, so it sat empty at my house until now. The more I think of my finances and my schedule (I rarely have days where I'm not in class or working fewer than 12-14 hours a day), it's looking like the tank is going to stay at home for the immediate future (at least until this summer). The lights now have an acrylic enclosure and the electrical tidbits are all enclosed.
I did put some water in it though... The only way I could get decent pictures from my iThing was to turn off my string of twelve blue leds, otherwise the pictures got washed out. Actually, the pictures are pretty close to what the tank looks like with everything on 100% (maybe a little less blue though).