29G Coralife Biocube Build-Feedback please!

[homer1475]

ReefWreak could help you out there. Pretty sure that's the exact kit he has. You need cool whites, royal blues, and UV. The rest is up to you. Shoot them guys an email and let them know what your plans are, and let them know your unsure on what color combinations. I will guarantee you will get a response, probably not today(holiday), but certainly first thing tomorrow.

 

[Ariela]

Will do, thanks!

 

[homer1475]

Your welcome! Like I said, those guys have top notch CS. I have yet to have a call for help go unanswered.

 

[ReefWreak]

Just saw that. I can help with that!

I would make sure to add at least 2 neutral white instead of cool whites, and maybe swap out the green Cree for a lime. Or buy an extra lime (and keep the stock green) and you can swap them out and play with them as you like. I bought the stock full-spectrum kit, and also bought 4 neutral whites and a lime so I could play with them down the road (I haven't played with anything yet, but I did add in 2 neutral whites instead of cool whites when I did the initial install).

Also, I love the colors I'm getting out of my corals. Make sure to add additional longer solderless connectors (maybe 4, since they're pretty cheap) just so you can play with the wiring. Figuring out positioning of the LEDs was an interesting experience (since there is no good way to do it the way I wanted. I set up one string with all of the non-RoyalBlue colors, and the other string just royal blues, so I could have a "white" light and a "blue" light, so I can do sunset/dimming/etc. with lighting controllers and only 2 drivers.

 

[homer1475]

Why the neutral whites as opposed to the cool whites?

When I bought my extras, I bought 4 cool whites and 4 neutrals. To my eyes the neutrals seemed duller looking(had a yellow tint, and not bright white), and the cool whites had more pop to them.

 

[Ariela]

Awesome! Thanks you two, just the stuff we wanted to know!

 

[ReefWreak]

Why the neutral whites as opposed to the cool whites?

When I bought my extras, I bought 4 cool whites and 4 neutrals. To my eyes the neutrals seemed duller looking(had a yellow tint, and not bright white), and the cool whites had more pop to them.

The reason for the neutrals instead of the cool is exactly what you stated. The yellow tint (though I dunno how much "duller" [darker/dimmer?] they are) is what is desired, because the shift of the spectrum is away from the blues (already fully supported/saturated by the Royal Blues and UVs) towards the under-represented red/yellow end of the spectrum.

Worth noting if you don't know, greens/lime/cyan do NOT add color, they ONLY "brighten" the light. It's a weird trick that doesn't make intuitive sense, but the reality is that green light mixed in with the heavy blue focus of the Royal Blues actually makes the tank look brighter and whiter. The important thing to note is that they make it look brighter, not actually be brighter.

I'm sad to admit that I'm lazier than I am curious, so I haven't swapped out my Cree green LED for the lime that I have. The lime has fantastic reviews here and on NR, with a whole thread dedicated to people's experiences in adding it into the mix, that's why I bought one, figure $3-4 now, or if I want to add it down the line, that plus shipping.

And I'm glad I ordered spares, because I did break one of my solderless "pucks" when adding the solderless connectors, because they can be VERY stiff.

And when assembling the kit, use TWO nylon washers when screwing them down. That wasn't made apparent to me, so i only used one on the first half of the board, then noticed that I didn't make a dent in the washer pile so went back and did double for the rest of the LED mountings and then went back and added a second washer to the rest of the pucks.

It's sadly surprisingly how little documentation and experience there is with a kit that I think is selling pretty well (It sounds like RapidLED is doing really well, coming out with new models and having lots of experience with people posting on the forums about them, just not actually documenting their process).

If you need ideas or pictures of the build, I took a lot and have them somewhere in the series of tubes known as the internet. Just drop me a line.

 

[soulpatch]

I would get a kessil a360we and not worry about having to adjust one spectrum or another or which LEDs you bought.

I look at the added coloration and growth I have been enjoying (especialy with my acans) since switching from the aurora puck to my kessil. Sure it requires going open top but I find that has its pros and cons as well. The biggest issue I had with the rapid led is that you need to manually dim each channel of lights (blue, white, mix, uv) or get an undimmable set which is probably worse. most of us are hobbyists so knowing which mix other then what looks good to us is hard.

Companies have figured this out and especially kessil. You twist one knob for intensity and another for color. It auto adjusts the spectrum for you. I believe the new radion has a similar presets though you can also adjust. And since Ecotech owns AI I believe they are similar.

 

[ReefWreak]

I would get a kessil a360we and not worry about having to adjust one spectrum or another or which LEDs you bought.

I look at the added coloration and growth I have been enjoying (especialy with my acans) since switching from the aurora puck to my kessil. Sure it requires going open top but I find that has its pros and cons as well. The biggest issue I had with the rapid led is that you need to manually dim each channel of lights (blue, white, mix, uv) or get an undimmable set which is probably worse. most of us are hobbyists so knowing which mix other then what looks good to us is hard.

Kessil makes life easier, no question, but I still prefer the customization available with the solderless full-custom kit (if you are comfortable with basic electronics stuff and DIY, if not do NOT get any of the RapidLED kits!).

Also, you don't have to manually dim anything. My drivers are wired into my Reefkeeper's ALC module (could go to Apex as well) and are all dimmed from there. You could specify color too by adjusting between white and blue LEDs. I imagine all the kessil color-shift does is just dims one of the strings (white+colors) and brightens the other (blues) when you turn the spectrum knob. That's all I do with my colors when I turn dimming up or down on white or blue, and if I want to actually "dim" I just turn them both down together. And it's probably the same if you hook up a kessil to any of the controller interfaces. They probably all use 0-10v for one channel being dimming control (all lights) and the other is dimming control for blue vs. white (spectrum shift, as described above).

Now this makes me wonder if you could just reverse engineer the kessil controller to regular 0-10v drivers and run that way (though why would you). Or set up something nifty to give you "kessil-like" control over a white and blue string where one knob is dimming and one is spectrum shift. Wouldn't be hard, I probably have the stuff to do it, just not the drive, since I already have a solid system set up. Just an interesting thought.

I like DIY and the opportunity it affords (whether or not I take advantage of it )

 

[soulpatch]

Kessil makes life easier, no question, but I still prefer the customization available with the solderless full-custom kit (if you are comfortable with basic electronics stuff and DIY, if not do NOT get any of the RapidLED kits!).

I am both with and against you on this. We tailor for our own eye but without knowledge on what is good for corals we could be doing more harm.

Also, you don't have to manually dim anything. My drivers are wired into my Reefkeeper's ALC module (could go to Apex as well) and are all dimmed from there. You could specify color too by adjusting between white and blue LEDs. I imagine all the kessil color-shift does is just dims one of the strings (white+colors) and brightens the other (blues) when you turn the spectrum knob. That's all I do with my colors when I turn dimming up or down on white or blue, and if I want to actually "dim" I just turn them both down together. And it's probably the same if you hook up a kessil to any of the controller interfaces. They probably all use 0-10v for one channel being dimming control (all lights) and the other is dimming control for blue vs. white (spectrum shift, as described above).

I was not discussing intensity but more the spectrum blend you obtain by dimming one color and upping another or such. Kessil and some other lights automatically change other colors for you to keep a good spectrum for the corals but by manually doing it with many of the lights on the market you could easily overpower one band of the spectruma nd not give another just to get a color that appeases your eyes. So while it looks good it is detrimental for the corals.

Now this makes me wonder if you could just reverse engineer the kessil controller to regular 0-10v drivers and run that way (though why would you). Or set up something nifty to give you "kessil-like" control over a white and blue string where one knob is dimming and one is spectrum shift. Wouldn't be hard, I probably have the stuff to do it, just not the drive, since I already have a solid system set up. Just an interesting thought.

You would need to know the mix at each level of the light to match Kessil and the couple of others out there doing this. Without such we are just playing with spectrum which can be both good and bad for our livestock.

I like DIY and the opportunity it affords (whether or not I take advantage of it )

I do too to an extent. I like messing with controllers, programming, and such but I know what I am doing in many of those instances. I have no idea how much UV vs cool white a stylo likes while also ensuring to have enough mix colors in there as well for color. Sometimes it is better to leave it to the experts. We were all wildly successful with on/off t5/mh lights. I guess I like that Kessil and others are bringing that spectrum knownledge to the world of LED so we aren't blasting things with wrong colors.

 

[ReefWreak]

I have no idea how much UV vs cool white a stylo likes while also ensuring to have enough mix colors in there as well for color. Sometimes it is better to leave it to the experts. We were all wildly successful with on/off t5/mh lights. I guess I like that Kessil and others are bringing that spectrum knownledge to the world of LED so we aren't blasting things with wrong colors.

I wrote out a long explanation, but I don't really want to keep :deadhorse1:

My only closure for this is that I honestly do not believe that the lighting fixture manufactures know much more than hobbyists yet in this field, and I don't think there is much LED-specific "spectrum knowledge". I think the manufactures are learning as much from Sanjay Joshi and Dr. Tim Wijgerde as we are, and in about the same time frame (which is to say that we're all learning right here right now on the fly).

 

[Ariela]

Hey guys....a long overdo quick update! We did the Rapid LED kit and love it! Ty for your help! 1 red, 1 lime, 4 uv , 6 cool white, 2 neutral white, 10 royal blue and 3 more royal blue for moonlight. We have a bluefish controller running at about 55% on blues and 40% white and others at mid day. I am not sure I like the red but the hubby does >< We are still tweaking but the corals are happy!

 

[Ariela]

Oh also ditching the Tunze 9001 skimmer for an Aquaticlife 115. The Tunze was a pain in the a$$ to configure....and yes that was with an ATO!!!

 

[ReefWreak]

Hehe, I'm glad you like my lighting setup I'm surprised at how "crisp white" it makes the coloration compared to without the lime. That is a term that I have heard used for the lighting "god combo" of a radium on an m80 HQI ballast, it's blue with the crisp white, and it's what I'm seeing now with adding the lime color in. If you turn the whites/lime channel down too, it looks like a radium underdriven on a standard 250w magnetic or e-ballast. It's been a while since I've seen those lights, but I think it holds true. Whether the corals color up the same is the next question but I'm very happy with colors so far, and I think you will too.