AndyReef's 110g Reef Build
- Thread starter AndyReef
- Start date
tangtang clown
New member
Lookin good so far, I just finished my stand and I will be drilling my DT for a closed loop. Keep up the nice work.
Reef_Matrix29
Water Lover
I'm not sure if I would really want to take the chance to find out how "moisture" proof they are after all of the soldering that you did for 96 stars. However, the optics seem more important for penetration than protection. I am almost finish with my two 36 LED's arrays and will simply raise them higher off the water level to prevent splashing, salt creep and burning the corals.
AndyReef
New member
Wesley: I like the raising it higher method. I have plenty of room in my hood and with the optics I will want it up a little bit just to decrease the spotlighting effects. As far as the moisture goes, I was thinking of getting a sheet of acrylic and drilling holes so that the optics protrude but the wiring will be behind a splash guard.
Oldude: Tank is 30" deep. I am not sure about the light penetration at the moment. I am waiting for my optics to arrive, and I am going to be doing some PAR measurements.
scrapING: Thanks!
Oldude: Tank is 30" deep. I am not sure about the light penetration at the moment. I am waiting for my optics to arrive, and I am going to be doing some PAR measurements.
scrapING: Thanks!
tangtang clown
New member
Did you DIY your LEDs? How many watts?
Reef_Matrix29
Water Lover
AndyReef, that is a beautiful array and I can't wait to see what your corals look like under it in the coming weeks/months. I too am thinking of adding an acrylic shield to prevent moisture once my canopy is done being built. I think that 1/4" should be sturdy enough to span the distance without buckling over time, but not too thick to cut down on light penetration.
AndyReef
New member
tangtang: Yes they are DIY. I used 96 Crees; 48 Q5s and 48 royal blues. I am driving them with 8 Meanwell Eln 60-48-D constant current drivers. The Crees can be driven at 1000mA. I don't have them running at that current at the moment because I am working on improving the cooling system (adding some more fans and drilling some holes in the canopy). So right now they are each running at 40 watts for a total of 320 watts. Once I have them at full strength, they will be 48 watts each for a total of 384. I am not really sure that total watts means as much with LEDs as it does with MH. I will post pictures with PAR levels once the optics are in place. Also, I left some spaces on the heatsink to place more/brighter LEDs in the future if I need to grow.
Reef_Matrix29
Water Lover
Sounds good to me. I have my meanwell's pushing 12 LED's per string at 700mA for both Q5's and Royal Blues. Good thinking about leaving space for other LED's in the future, but I look at this build as my tester and my next will consist of more effects like dimming, cpu controlled sunrise/sunset and weather (cloud cover) if the equipment is available and reasonably priced.
AndyReef
New member
Wesley: The MeanWell drivers that I am using are the D model which means that they have 0-10v dimming. I am using my RKE with the ALC module to do dimming. Since I have the whites and blues on separate dimming channels I am able to alter the color temperature and do fairly decent sunrise/sunset effects. I haven't spent too much time with the ALC to see if there are any decent lunar cycle controls but I will likely work on that in the future. I too will likely upgrade in the future when brighter/more efficient LEDs hit the market.
bobbyrocco
In Memoriam
Hey Andy Great build so far!
Can you maybe post some pictures or explain how you hooked up the meanwells to your RKE. I am in the process of doing the same thing right now with 12 Meanwell 60-48D's. Six for blue and six for white. Also how many power cords did you use? Keep up the good work. Thanks
Can you maybe post some pictures or explain how you hooked up the meanwells to your RKE. I am in the process of doing the same thing right now with 12 Meanwell 60-48D's. Six for blue and six for white. Also how many power cords did you use? Keep up the good work. Thanks
AndyReef
New member
Its been a while since I updated. There is water in the tank now, it has been cycled for about 3 weeks now. I have adjusted the calcium, magnesium, and alkalinity up to the levels I want and I am starting to see some coralline patches forming on the DIY rock. I added about 15 pounds of Fiji and Vanuatu rock to get the whole thing going.
Early on in the cycling I had a major outbreak of bryopsis. I ended up turning up the skimmer, covering the whole tank with a dark sheet for about a week with the lights off, added about 20 snails and pulled off every piece that I could see/reach. When I pulled the sheet off there was just a little very yellow residual bryopsis. I restarted the lights and added a rabbitfish for good measure and added a few more snails. I let it go for a few days with no intervention and the rabbitfish and snails pretty much eradicated what was left. I should also mention that I boosted my magnesium up to about 1400 and boosted the pH up to about 8.3.
By the way, I personally don't think that the magnesium had much to do with it since I wasn't using Kent tech M which has really been the only reproducible bryopsis control with mag that I know of. However, I didn't want to leave any stone unturned in terms of getting rid of that vile stuff. Also, I should mention that I have used this method of lights out, increased skimming and boosting pH to get rid of bryopsis in another tank. Which means that I have reproduced the result 2 times now.
I will post some pictures when I get a chance.
Early on in the cycling I had a major outbreak of bryopsis. I ended up turning up the skimmer, covering the whole tank with a dark sheet for about a week with the lights off, added about 20 snails and pulled off every piece that I could see/reach. When I pulled the sheet off there was just a little very yellow residual bryopsis. I restarted the lights and added a rabbitfish for good measure and added a few more snails. I let it go for a few days with no intervention and the rabbitfish and snails pretty much eradicated what was left. I should also mention that I boosted my magnesium up to about 1400 and boosted the pH up to about 8.3.
By the way, I personally don't think that the magnesium had much to do with it since I wasn't using Kent tech M which has really been the only reproducible bryopsis control with mag that I know of. However, I didn't want to leave any stone unturned in terms of getting rid of that vile stuff. Also, I should mention that I have used this method of lights out, increased skimming and boosting pH to get rid of bryopsis in another tank. Which means that I have reproduced the result 2 times now.
I will post some pictures when I get a chance.
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