8' ATI Dimmable Sunpower Aurora Puck Hybrid
- Thread starter AZRippster
- Start date
AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
Corey,
There are probably 3 reasons.
#1. The tank is 36" deep and I need a little extra Punch to get down that far. If you notice the layout of the LEDs, I didn't place them in the center of the fixture. Our aquascape is like many where the rock structure is shallower towards the back of the tank whereas deep towards the front. The LEDs are positioned more towards the front of the tank.
#2. I grew up on MH/VHO in the '80s and love that shimmer. After being on LED exclusive for the past 4+ years, losing all shimmer doesn't sound so great.
#3. I honestly dig the Sunrise/Sunset. I'm going to have the LEDs do that and have the T5s kick on/off after those effects are at the point I want. I'm not overly fond of the weather effects (although clouds are cool), so that's not a big deal for me. Although, the BlueFish can be connected to a Blue Tooth speaker for actual thunder/lightning sound effects when those events occur. These can also be tied to an actual location, say Fiji, that are occurring in real-time.
There are probably 3 reasons.
#1. The tank is 36" deep and I need a little extra Punch to get down that far. If you notice the layout of the LEDs, I didn't place them in the center of the fixture. Our aquascape is like many where the rock structure is shallower towards the back of the tank whereas deep towards the front. The LEDs are positioned more towards the front of the tank.
#2. I grew up on MH/VHO in the '80s and love that shimmer. After being on LED exclusive for the past 4+ years, losing all shimmer doesn't sound so great.
#3. I honestly dig the Sunrise/Sunset. I'm going to have the LEDs do that and have the T5s kick on/off after those effects are at the point I want. I'm not overly fond of the weather effects (although clouds are cool), so that's not a big deal for me. Although, the BlueFish can be connected to a Blue Tooth speaker for actual thunder/lightning sound effects when those events occur. These can also be tied to an actual location, say Fiji, that are occurring in real-time.
sahin
Ultimate Reefer
Excellent job. I carried out something along these lines many years ago before ATI released their hybrid lights. I know too well how dealing with the heat is an issue but I can see you've thought about that.
A lot of air needs to be pulled into the unit to keep the heatsinks for the LED's cool, but also to keep the internal temperature low enough so that the air that passes over the T5 tubes isnt too hot; otherwise you lose the active cooling effect over the T5's and they will degrade faster than they should on an ATI unit.
I also own an ATI LED Powermodule and I can tell you that the shimmer effect is pretty good on the LED Powermodule despite having 8 T5 tubes.
All in all an excellent job and I look forward to knowing how it all works out. I'd put it all together and run it for some hours to see if the heat is managed well. It from what I see, all appears well thought out.
An excellent job indeed. :beer:
A lot of air needs to be pulled into the unit to keep the heatsinks for the LED's cool, but also to keep the internal temperature low enough so that the air that passes over the T5 tubes isnt too hot; otherwise you lose the active cooling effect over the T5's and they will degrade faster than they should on an ATI unit.
I also own an ATI LED Powermodule and I can tell you that the shimmer effect is pretty good on the LED Powermodule despite having 8 T5 tubes.
All in all an excellent job and I look forward to knowing how it all works out. I'd put it all together and run it for some hours to see if the heat is managed well. It from what I see, all appears well thought out.
An excellent job indeed. :beer:
jdm1114
New member
So here are some final shots as the master fixture came together. The slave is the same except orientation reversed and minus the ATI Controller.
So once fully assembled and running both fixture in concert, it looks something like this. The first shows them running with the slave's reflectors off followed by them being installed.
So there you have it. If you've been considering doing something like this, hopefully it gave you some ideas and even considerations for possibly ways to better suit your needs. After running all T5 and LED at 100% for about an hour, the internal temperature is right at 37C.
You are the man, good work!
AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
Thanks for the compliment.
I ran both fixtures tethered for an hour and the ATI controller read 37C. If I do start to experience some heat issues, I'm going to build little cowlings that will direct the air that crosses the heat sinks and through the fixture in exactly the same path the original ATI airflow integrated. I'm also going to plug, as necessary, the rectangular mounting holes the T5 stand offs mounted into.
Thanks again!
Take a gander at the photo here. The BlueFish uses simple 1/8" Stereo M/M cables for its signaling. What I did to make things serviceable and easier for my purposes, was to cut these stereo cables and run them to a terminal block (The little green blocks in the photo). From here there they are run to each channel of the Rapid LED LDD 4-Up boards. This photo only shows 2 of the 4-Up boards, which is one half of the overall dual 48" fixture. You have to "splice" the lines (parallel) so that each channel receives the same signal for that channel. In other words, Channel #1 out of the BlueFish is "split or spliced" to the Blue channel of All the 4-Up LDD boards. Then Channel #2 is done the same way to the Color channel and so on.
IMPORTANT - The Mini BlueFish can only be split off of each channel to 3 LDD (3.4V limitation). I needed it to split 4 ways, so I had to go with the full BlueFish controller, otherwise the Mini would have done it for me. The Full version can provide 5V PWM signals.
As far as the final two Channels of the BlueFish, I use one to control my Moonlights and the other my LED fans.
Hope this helps, if not, ask again and I'll try to clear up the fuzzy.
Exactly the info I was looking for. Thank you so much. Incredible job.
If you are able to get the shimmer to persist with the T5s on I will definitely go this route instead of MH on the new tank.
biecacka
Active member
Ok question (again) do you plan on relying more towards the leds for growth and the T5 for color and anti shadowing, or t5 for growth and led for the rest.
I have the same LEDs abd am slowly switching my tank over to sps and am a bit concerned about lights. Not sure if I should ditch the LEDs and go all T5 or do something like what you've done.
Corey
I have the same LEDs abd am slowly switching my tank over to sps and am a bit concerned about lights. Not sure if I should ditch the LEDs and go all T5 or do something like what you've done.
Corey
AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
Corey,
Not sure yet. My wife and I are planning to hang the fixtures this coming Saturday morning before the tank's sunrise. I'm going to take PAR readings with the MH/T5 running tomorrow so I can hopefully gauge where we are currently and where I need to be with the LED/T5. We've had absolutely incredible growth and coloring since going back to MH this past November. I'm actually really worried. Hopefully the change will be positive or at least on PAR, otherwise I'll be looking forward to the winter months when the MH/T5 go back up.
Not sure yet. My wife and I are planning to hang the fixtures this coming Saturday morning before the tank's sunrise. I'm going to take PAR readings with the MH/T5 running tomorrow so I can hopefully gauge where we are currently and where I need to be with the LED/T5. We've had absolutely incredible growth and coloring since going back to MH this past November. I'm actually really worried. Hopefully the change will be positive or at least on PAR, otherwise I'll be looking forward to the winter months when the MH/T5 go back up.
biecacka
Active member
Yeah I understand. I just spoke to Dave @ Hamilton technology about maybe going back to halide but adding T5 this time. Then I can shorten the halide time to help with the heat. I'm in Ohio, not as hot but it gets humid. Plus I'm in a small apartment so it holds heat.
Corey
Corey
I'll be interested in the growth and coloration along with shimmer then. If the LED/T5 combo falls short of the MH performance.. I'll be looking to put a Radium setup over the new tank.
AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
It's 96L x 31W x36H
AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
Corey,
Dave is a great guy and super helpful. Are you looking at integrating one of their retrofit kits?
AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
The lights have been hung and from what I can tell, the shimmer is very similar to the 400W Hamilton Cebu Sun with T5. Definitely not as pronounced as MH only or LED only, but still very much there.
AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
Me Too! :spin1:
biecacka
Active member
Yeah Dave is super helpful. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Halide and T5 combo or what. I'm confused slightly :lol: I almost feel as if I'm going to use LEDs at all, I might as well keep what I have and stay ALL LED. But not sure about the shadowing down the road etc, then buying more units or switching to all T5. I am not sure which route to take. I have also considered switching to Kessil, primarily because I can't mess up the spectrum!
Corey
Corey
fishinthewall
New member
This is amazing. Exactly what I have been looking for 
my only question is the total amount of leds. Those pucks equal 168 total leds. Wouldn't that alone be overkill for this tank?
my only question is the total amount of leds. Those pucks equal 168 total leds. Wouldn't that alone be overkill for this tank?
AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
Actually, I had just the pucks originally lighting the tank beginning Nov '14 and quickly found it wasn't enough. Shadowing was always problematic. Eventually I added 4 more multi-chip LED in Royal Blue, and then settled on a Neutral White/Royal Blue multi-chip LED supplementation. Even with all that, the shadowing was a challenge. It was Fall '15 when my wife and I went back to MH/T5 and the shadowing was gone and the growth/coloration began returning. I began building this fixture(s) in January of this year when the Dimmable and Non-Dimmable ATI fixtures became available again.
Keep in mind, I did not install the optics on this fixture. I wanted the 120 degrees versus the 80ish EcoTech TIR lenses. I didn't see a need to install the 120 degree TIR lenses as that is the default spread on the LEDs. I also figured it was worth a shot because you'll notice the new Giesemann Aurora Hybrids do not use optics.
It's only been been 4 days since hanging these fixtures, but so far things have not digressed, thankfully. After taking PAR readings from the Hamilton Cebu Sun 400W MH/T5 fixtures prior to installing this hybrid, I tailored the fixtures LED levels to be as close as possible. The Blues and Whites are at 100% during midday with Color at 45% and UV at 75%. I will say my ALK consumption has increased which to me indicates stuff is at a minimum growing like it was under 14K 400W MH.
I'm still waiting to see what happens after a couple weeks go by.
Keep in mind, I did not install the optics on this fixture. I wanted the 120 degrees versus the 80ish EcoTech TIR lenses. I didn't see a need to install the 120 degree TIR lenses as that is the default spread on the LEDs. I also figured it was worth a shot because you'll notice the new Giesemann Aurora Hybrids do not use optics.
It's only been been 4 days since hanging these fixtures, but so far things have not digressed, thankfully. After taking PAR readings from the Hamilton Cebu Sun 400W MH/T5 fixtures prior to installing this hybrid, I tailored the fixtures LED levels to be as close as possible. The Blues and Whites are at 100% during midday with Color at 45% and UV at 75%. I will say my ALK consumption has increased which to me indicates stuff is at a minimum growing like it was under 14K 400W MH.
I'm still waiting to see what happens after a couple weeks go by.
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