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jones02 link said:
Definitely. I bought one with it, but as expected it's just lexan or plexi and I have that kicking around here. I'll just cut my own.
Tweaking the LED
- Thread starter Salty Cracker
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Definitely. I bought one with it, but as expected it's just lexan or plexi and I have that kicking around here. I'll just cut my own.
Solderless is the way to go, especially of you plan on switching things around after.
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Torx link said:
Very true, except that I am just moving a bunch of LEDs from 2 existing heatsinks. Starting from scratch I def would have gone solderless.
Salty Cracker link said:
Just to note, it is only about $0.10 more per LED to go solderless at RapidLED.com That comes with the wire to connect to the next LED as well. It took less then 20 minutes to put together my heatsink with 24 solderless LEDs.
That drilled/tapped 6" x 20" Black Anodized aluminum heat sink really does look nice and good price, well although you did say shipping killed you though.
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Torx link said:
Just to note, it is only about $0.10 more per LED to go solderless at RapidLED.com That comes with the wire to connect to the next LED as well. It took less then 20 minutes to put together my heatsink with 24 solderless LEDs.
That drilled/tapped 6" x 20" Black Anodized aluminum heat sink really does look nice and good price, well although you did say shipping killed you though.
[/quote]
The heatsink is hefty...at least 5lbs worth of aluminum, and the shipping box was I think overly big, but it's awesome. I'll order 2 more for sure in the near future. It took about 3 hours to solder up 36 LEDs on 3 channels, with double checking polarity, cutting wires, checking colour etc. It would be great if they get around to colour coding the stars so you don't have to guess or hook up the battery to see.
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Okay, got it all up and installed. An amazing amount of light.
That said.
I have 3 channels, set up as below...GREEN and RED channel are dimmable, the black channel is on a smaller driver (non dimmable). It's all good except that I put a white in where a "G" (blue/green) should have been, so I'll have to fix that later. The dimmer control that rapidLED sells is pretty crummy. I guess it's good for morning/might dimming, but not much else. I'm going to set up the apex dimming wires to make it better. Alternatley, the simple potentiometers they sell as a dimming option would likely work really well, and I'll probably order one for the next fixture.
HEAT:
With 2 PC fans on the fins, the fixture runs really cool, without them, it's quite hot.
Colours:
I take it back... putting the UV and a couple of regular blues in the mix does make a difference. With just the UV channel on, the very deepest corals glow, which they don't as much with the royal blues. In particular my xmas favia, on the sandbed, glows like its got batteries. The royal blues are better on the higher corals, visually anyway, so that's good. I only used 8 whites in this mix, and they definitely overpower the other 27 leds. That's right, they completely overpower them (visually). I think there are necessary wavelengths in the whites, so it's good, but at night I definitely would want just blues and UV's going, the effect is incredible.
Installed it's 100x more professional looking than the setup I had previously. Except for the dimming and the one out of place bulb, I'm totally satisfied.
That said.
I have 3 channels, set up as below...GREEN and RED channel are dimmable, the black channel is on a smaller driver (non dimmable). It's all good except that I put a white in where a "G" (blue/green) should have been, so I'll have to fix that later. The dimmer control that rapidLED sells is pretty crummy. I guess it's good for morning/might dimming, but not much else. I'm going to set up the apex dimming wires to make it better. Alternatley, the simple potentiometers they sell as a dimming option would likely work really well, and I'll probably order one for the next fixture.
HEAT:
With 2 PC fans on the fins, the fixture runs really cool, without them, it's quite hot.
Colours:
I take it back... putting the UV and a couple of regular blues in the mix does make a difference. With just the UV channel on, the very deepest corals glow, which they don't as much with the royal blues. In particular my xmas favia, on the sandbed, glows like its got batteries. The royal blues are better on the higher corals, visually anyway, so that's good. I only used 8 whites in this mix, and they definitely overpower the other 27 leds. That's right, they completely overpower them (visually). I think there are necessary wavelengths in the whites, so it's good, but at night I definitely would want just blues and UV's going, the effect is incredible.
Installed it's 100x more professional looking than the setup I had previously. Except for the dimming and the one out of place bulb, I'm totally satisfied.
AdamS
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- London, Ontario
Why would you say all that shit? Do you realize how much money this is going to cost me? Seriously though, when can i see it?
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AdamS link said:
As soon as I change out that one white LED (dammit) and get the dimmer working right. I've got the wire here in front of me for the apex. I think I can have at least that done quite soon.
I'm mostly interested on the effect on the corals. I definitely just shook up the colour spectrum a fair bit.
AdamS
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Chop chop.
Looks like you are doing lots with the arduino, wish I could make time to play with mine :'(
Looks like you are doing lots with the arduino, wish I could make time to play with mine :'(
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AdamS link said:
Heh, I've been making reproduction star trek TOS bridge buttons for no good reason but to see if I can. No idea what I'm going to do with it all, who knows I might make captain kirk's fish tank. I have too much free time.
UV makes corals look radio active, I love it. Sounds like a great rapidLED project almost done. Would like to see it some day.
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Torx link said:
1 or two of them don't do much, but 5 of them def makes a difference, so I figure if I end up with 15 of them in the tank, I should be good. Eventually it will be 3 of these fixtures (once I tweak this one), and then 24 royal blues. So a total of 124 LEDs and very likely that will allow me to grow sps even deep in the tank. It's nice to finally have a splash guard over the lights too. Definitely salt creep and splash can be an issue over time.
I had 5 or 6 of the red LEDs, I didn't use them. Unless there is a spectrum in the red that is beneficial, I don't see me adding any.
AdamS
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From my understanding, the majority of coral growth comes from radiation in the 400 to 480nm range (http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/10/aafeature), which coincidentally is also the same range that penetrates the water the best (http://www.nserc.und.edu/learning/Dickeyetal2011.pdf). So..
If the majority of your PAR is coming from this range, you should have pretty much the same PAR at the top and bottom of the tank, meaning you could grow just as well at the bottom of the tank as the top, but, you also cannot put something at the bottom of the tank to get it out of the light either.
If the majority of your PAR is coming from this range, you should have pretty much the same PAR at the top and bottom of the tank, meaning you could grow just as well at the bottom of the tank as the top, but, you also cannot put something at the bottom of the tank to get it out of the light either.
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Well I should have that range covered fairly well now.
I wonder if there's special glasses that would help us see into the lower spectrums...could look spectacular.
I wonder if there's special glasses that would help us see into the lower spectrums...could look spectacular.
Victoss
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If you didn't already have an apex you could always use them Arduinos for dimming. Not much to it besides a RTC (real time circuit) and some transistors, it's the programming that hurts. That's what I have running my 4 channels as well as some temp probes and outlets. What more are you looking for regarding dimming any ways that their controller is lacking? Lookin to do lightning or sumting? ???
Also there is a bit of a chlorophyll a and b in the warmer spectrums but not overly important if you don't want to mess around with reds, I know they can sometimes be a little overpowering and create a bit of a disco and spotlight effect if your not careful.
That's what I have running my 4 channels as well as some temp probes and outlets. What more are you looking for regarding dimming any ways that their controller is lacking? Lookin to do lightning or sumting? ???Also there is a bit of a chlorophyll a and b in the warmer spectrums but not overly important if you don't want to mess around with reds, I know they can sometimes be a little overpowering and create a bit of a disco and spotlight effect if your not careful.
AdamS link said:
This sounds good in theory, but just isnt true with our tanks I don't believe. I have used an apogee par meter on my DIY LEDs, and the royal blue/UV's for me drop in PAR the same or even a bit more than the whites as you get deeper, if your tank was 250' deep and you were lighting it with something as powerful as the sun this probably applies but were talking inches and watts.
Victoss
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Duke link said:
This sounds good in theory, but just isnt true with our tanks I don't believe. I have used an apogee par meter on my DIY LEDs, and the royal blue/UV's for me drop in PAR the same or even a bit more than the whites as you get deeper, if your tank was 250' deep and you were lighting it with something as powerful as the sun this probably applies but were talking inches and watts.
[/quote]
I would probably agree with this too, I don't believe there would be that much filtering of different (warmer) spectrums in just 1-2 feet of water. So they all would decay around the same at this depth because of the characteristics of shallow water but once you get down a certain depth the blue lens (water) gets darker and darker only allowing blueish spectrums to pass (but they still decay the more you go too, its not a free ride for them).
Just wanted to point out too that PAR meters weren't meant to read blue all that well so they generally are 20% underrated in the blue spectrum and I believe violet/UV would be even more, just so you know when testing you may be getting more PAR then you think.
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Victoss link said:If you didn't already have an apex you could always use them Arduinos for dimming. Not much to it besides a RTC (real time circuit) and some transistors, it's the programming that hurts.
Also there is a bit of a chlorophyll a and b in the warmer spectrums but not overly important if you don't want to mess around with reds, I know they can sometimes be a little overpowering and create a bit of a disco and spotlight effect if your not careful.
Yeah the reds are just weird, disco/spotlight issues mostly. As for the dimmer from rapid...it's dimming capabilities are very slim. You can dim from BLINDING to ALMOST BLINDING and then it loops over to BLINDING again. In fact, that's the only way I can tell I'm at the end of the range, it ramps back up again. Plus it's not a great interface for changing the settings, where even a pot would let you dial in changes on the fly. In fact, using a selectable power supply for the dimmer circuit works better than the dimming module. Lightning isn't an issue... whenever a dosing pump comes on or off at night it sends a jolt through the drivers and makes for a big flash. I'm working on changing that right now actually, it's annoying.
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I'm def not any kind of expert on depths/pars/output of light or led. All I can say is the UV -seems- to penetrate deeper than the royal blues, but then again the whites penetrate the best since they are so overpowering. Meh, if things grow and I finally get happy with the colour, I'll be a very happy camper.
Victoss link said:
This sounds good in theory, but just isnt true with our tanks I don't believe. I have used an apogee par meter on my DIY LEDs, and the royal blue/UV's for me drop in PAR the same or even a bit more than the whites as you get deeper, if your tank was 250' deep and you were lighting it with something as powerful as the sun this probably applies but were talking inches and watts.
[/quote]
I would probably agree with this too, I don't believe there would be that much filtering of different (warmer) spectrums in just 1-2 feet of water. So they all would decay around the same at this depth because of the characteristics of shallow water but once you get down a certain depth the blue lens (water) gets darker and darker only allowing blueish spectrums to pass (but they still decay the more you go too, its not a free ride for them).
Just wanted to point out too that PAR meters weren't meant to read blue all that well so they generally are 20% underrated in the blue spectrum and I believe violet/UV would be even more, just so you know when testing you may be getting more PAR then you think.
[/quote]
Yes, but its not 20%, apogee says less than 10%, its the same for all artificial lighting tho, I recall the owners manual saying 8% for colored leds. I mean they list coral tanks as one of the 3 uses for the meter.. so im sure they have them somewhat dialed in for use in the hobby.. another brand of meter could be different tho.
http://www.apogeeinstruments.co.uk/quantum/
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