Aquastyleonline.com LED questions.

[psteeleb]

Here is my LED build for my 29g using the Aquastyle products

The build is for 2 light bars; one mainly white with a couple royal blue and 2 reds) the reds are more a test to see if I like them.

First up is the control box. It contains 2 on/off switches, 2 potentiometers, and the 2 ballasts. I ended up changing out the potentiometer knobs as the ones I got from Aquastyle where nice but of two difference sizes.

Here is the end connection where I plug in the light cables to the control box

and here is a closer veiw of the new potentiometer knobs.

Next up are the light bars. They are made up of 1/8" by 2" wide aluminum bar that is thermally bonded and rivited to 2" wide heat sinks. I did this as I wanted a little more lenght then the stock heat sinks provided.

Testing the LED's

A completed light bar - the bar is bolted to the tank lid using stainless bolts that are threaded into the light bar.

I've been running them for about 2 weeks now and so far no issues. I had a concern with the control box getting hot but as long as it is not sitting flat on anything allowing for air circulation around the back it seems to be fine. I may still cut in a screen for internal ventilation.

 

[scarytoast47]

you should know that your 20k look does not equal someone else's 20k look.
same was and is for halide bulbs, the 20k look differ by brand.
with that said, i would go with at least 72 leds, to get good spread over your tank, if you choose to go with channels, that would be 18 leds per channel with about 2-3 inches between each channel.

for ratio, you can just go with a 50/50 kit 10k white and RB, for extra pop, just replace two rb's with violet. keep the whites and blues on separate dimmers. for optics, i think 80 would be good.

you will grow any coral you want with this kit.
i went with 72 so you get less disco effect from the leds not being close together. plus you will get good spread.

happy building. for those of you that want to put these on a controller, order your leds and don't get drivers, instead get this one:

controller:
http://www.rapidled.com/0-10v-dimmable-nano-driver/

or Pot:
http://www.rapidled.com/0-10v-dimmable-nano-driver-with-potentiometer/

Be warned though, the maxwellen drivers can handle 18-20 leds per driver while the mean wells max out at about 12 i believe.
which means more drivers.
that's 8 drivers for a 72 led kit verses four.

Thanks for the info

 

[travisgerard]

Looking at getting a 36 kit from aquastyle for a 40b. Looking for a little feedback... I was thinking about 24 RB, 2 violet, and 10 W (5/6500 and 5/4500) with 60 degree optics. I'm looking to be able to eventually grow coral and for some good color pop. Would this combo give the "traditional" aquarium look?

Thanks for the input

 

[MADtanks]

Whats up guys im glad this thread has made so much progress! Well I have downgraded from my 210G and will be going down to something that will allow me to move my office to my main floor of the house.

Probably a 48X18 or 48X24 or maybe even 48X30 foot print, that is still in the works. For now i am going to be collecting all i need for a system in that general size(120ish gallons). Really what killed me with the 210 was teh foot print, just took up too much room in what would be my office.

Question now, for the Lighting of course i will stay LED bc i have had such great success thus far. I originally had 120 kit from Ray for the 72X24 foot print, now im going to use my old Solaris 36unit which the PSU have gone to crap, and i really am tired of collectin them lol, so im going to remove all the old LED's and use the existing cooling system, along with some C channel taht will fit right on the heatsinks(3 total in a 36").

The plan is to run 3 Cluster of 24 LED in each in a 36X8 Fixture
4 - XPG-R5 @ 1400ma Per cluster This is for sure
X - BL Royal Blue @ 650ma
X - BL Blue @ 650ma
X - Violet @ 650ma

Here are the options i have come up with and basically im wondering what may provide the best blend, and color of course. The way i see it, the 4 XPG will actually act as 8 to 10 BL whites, since the BL output about 160 to 180lm where the XPG will put out around 400lm @ around 1400ma(348lm @ 1A and 463 @ 1.5A). This should still give me around 60/40% mix or 70/30% mix depending on Driving current of the XPG's

Here are my options:

Which one do you guys think will get better blending of the white and blues, trying to I guess mimmic the Radion style of LED placement as well as how they drive their XPGs at 5W as well.

The middle of the Clusters will have some holes for all the wiring, and try to keep things clean, and i forgot to mention that at this point the plan is to keep it without optics for the best blending. The whichever tank i go with will be at 20" and no more than 24" if i go with the 24, then 60/80* optics mix would come into play, 60 around the perimeter, and 80 on all the inside.

Thank you in advance!

 

[MADtanks]

Ok so this is what I went with:

I have separated the colors per driver the best possible, this should allow for some good mixing of color, as well as intensity. Will post pictures when I finish the build, few weeks im guessing since Im waiting on LED's as well as going to refinish the Solaris chassis.

 

[nemosworld]

MadTanks, what size tank is that going over?

well, i'm back at it, sold my 225 since i will be moving to an apartment, due to a seperation. i now have a 90 gal and here is the lighting for it.
still working on making the casing and shield. (all lights are from my 225)

 

[MADtanks]

Nice Rig Felix, Funny storry i went from a 210G that I just donated(peoples were low balling me) to a 90ish or 120 with the 48X18 or 48X24 foot print. How are you going to configure it on the 90 and is it a standard or cube? from the pics looks like you have some kind of cube maybe?

cool stuff man, and i was actually thinking of switching the XPG to XML but got tired of trying to mix the color! lol

Thanks.

 

[nemosworld]

Nice Rig Felix, Funny storry i went from a 210G that I just donated(peoples were low balling me) to a 90ish or 120 with the 48X18 or 48X24 foot print. How are you going to configure it on the 90 and is it a standard or cube? from the pics looks like you have some kind of cube maybe?

cool stuff man, and i was actually thinking of switching the XPG to XML but got tired of trying to mix the color! lol

Thanks.

yeah it's a cube with pvc bottom, have not figured out how i am going to hang the lights yet. was thinking to go with the galvanized bent pipe from lowes.

 

[nemosworld]

cool stuff man, and i was actually thinking of switching the XPG to XML but got tired of trying to mix the color! lol

Thanks.

get the XTE's they are nice.
what i did not show in the picture is that i have 2 deep red and two uv in the center.
the xml's will not have optics and will be for high noon light, unless it blends in nicely with the whole setup. i have the non dimming drivers for the xpg and xml. 1050 driver and 1750 from mean well. so just on and off.

 

[MADtanks]

For sure, behind the tank up then bent forward? tank is killer man. Dims? looks like 36X24 ish?

going with a wooden enclosure?

Im still up in the air on the LED build man, since im more than likely gonna have a brace in the middle(unless i find custom) i just split the leds in the middle and put more on the left and right heatsinks lol and thinking of either 72 or 60 LED total, for some nice coverage, and punch! When you do a build thread link me, looks like its gonna be a killer build!

My old 36X30X18

Had 48 Cree's XPG/XRE mix....

 

[MADtanks]

get the XTE's they are nice.
what i did not show in the picture is that i have 2 deep red and two uv in the center.
the xml's will not have optics and will be for high noon light, unless it blends in nicely with the whole setup. i have the non dimming drivers for the xpg and xml. 1050 driver and 1750 from mean well. so just on and off.

yea man, honestly dont care for ramping myself bro.... i never saw it with my old tank, leave to work they ramp, get back from work almost off lol.

im in the air man,

12 XPG CW @ 1.3A 60/48P Driver
24 XPE RB @ .7A
12 XTE Blue@ .7A
12 Violet @ .7A

or

12 XPG CW @ 1.4(driver on aquastyle)
36 BL RB @ 650ma
12 BL Blue @ 650ma
12 Violet @650ma


Big price diff, but par is also diff lol :headwalls:

 

[nemosworld]

i would put the xpg's on a meanwell driver or inventronics, this will allow you to adjust your colors. i say this becuase you have 2 types of blues and so much violet, the violets and whites will bring you close to 10k but with good coral pop, from what i hear, but i'm not sure how the blues will blend in.
for 72 leds, i don't think more than 4 uv/violets are needed. and i do not put optics on them either.

 

[nemosworld]

For sure, behind the tank up then bent forward? tank is killer man. Dims? looks like 36X24 ish?

going with a wooden enclosure?

Im still up in the air on the LED build man, since im more than likely gonna have a brace in the middle(unless i find custom) i just split the leds in the middle and put more on the left and right heatsinks lol and thinking of either 72 or 60 LED total, for some nice coverage, and punch! When you do a build thread link me, looks like its gonna be a killer build!

My old 36X30X18

Had 48 Cree's XPG/XRE mix....

you are right on the dims, i have a build thread but it's on my local forum.
here is where i am with it as of today:

Stand is over kill i know, but it's the wood from the 225 when i broke it down. no need to buy more wood, heck even the screws are re-usable.
if anyone is interested: here is my entire 22 and 90 gal build in one.
http://www.marsh-reef.org/marine-re...rld-aka-flexracs-225-journal-video-added.html

 

[MADtanks]

Thanks for the heads up on the Violets Felix, I have spare royal Blues, so i may just replace some of the violets. I was going with dimable meanwell but found that i could get 100 more ma with the non dim at 1400ma for a bit more par.... Which is why i put in so much blue and hope i can control the color with 2 drivers of dimable R-Blue. The 3rd driver has all the Blue and Violet, so i will dim it down if its too over powering.

I just redid my to scale print of the Layout, I will upload it to photo-B and post to see what ya think.

I will be following your thread!

Thanks.

 

[MADtanks]

Oh and i absolutely agree on the Stand!!! no point in throwing money away! I have done the same on two occasions lol.

BTW I wish i lived in TX man that 60X30 footprint is AWESOME! Peninsula at that!! its what im going for with this tank.

I think i will go 120G with the 48X24 footprint.... but still contemplating the 48X18 footprint only bc I have a glas one sitting at my pops house still only problem is the overflow is not corner so still in the air lol.

 

[nemosworld]

Oh and i absolutely agree on the Stand!!! no point in throwing money away! I have done the same on two occasions lol.

BTW I wish i lived in TX man that 60X30 footprint is AWESOME! Peninsula at that!! its what im going for with this tank.

I think i will go 120G with the 48X24 footprint.... but still contemplating the 48X18 footprint only bc I have a glas one sitting at my pops house still only problem is the overflow is not corner so still in the air lol.

sigh, i'm missing that tank everyday that goes by.
i like your led plan.

so tonight i made an acrylic case for the lights with black sides, used scrap acrylic laying around my buddies shop. so it's not the best, but it will do.

 

[MADtanks]

Nice Felix, at one point i was going to order from estreetplastics for some black acrylic myself, just never got around to it, and the solaris power supply finally kicked it. I didnt want to repair and instead decided more PAR from less led's lol.

Here is the new sketch, I went with 35LED per cluster this time to try and even out and even remove a few violets just in case, let me know what you think.

This is all to "Scale", in other words, the picture I did @ 36X8, the boxes are same size as drivers, and LED's are all 3/4" I think im going to put Fans on both ends of the Fixture and drill and exhaust port at the center of the fixture shouldn't be too loud i hope lol.

Thanks.

 

[nemosworld]

coule of things, i think that color combo will be very blue, looks like a 3-1 setup, blue to white, i think it should be more 2 to 1. here is why i say that.
i have the xml's (6) running at 1750 ma and then i have 9 royal blues xte running at 1050ma, that combo along gives me a nice 14k look.
xml's on only:

xml and royal blue:

and this is how the violets look lit up, its the faded looking one next to the red:

you do not notice it with your eyes, but it makes a diff with the corals.
you can't tell the reds are on in pics either, same thing with turquoise.

if you are mounting the leds with screws, then you can play around with them.
i also have a few neutral whites in my mix of less from bridgelux.
have not turned on the entire fixture yet, so i do not know what the final color will look like, but so far i am very happy.

unfortunately i do not have a laid out plan like you are doing, i just designed on the fly.
from what i can tell, the royal blues along put out enough par to grow any coral, all other colors can be used to get the overall color your eyes like.
i would like to see in your system, you replacing the blues with some other color options. maybe a few 10k white and deep reds, turquoise and maybe even a ocean white.
like i said, i really don't know how your setup will look, but judging from what i got, i think it will be very blue. i could be wrong though.

 

[MADtanks]

Yea I thought the same thing brodda, only diff is that looking at the data sheets for the XPG@ 1.5A they put out about 460ish lumens per Watt, where the BL(whites anyways put out about 160 - 180) i am not sure what the Blues put out... but when i ran all BL i ran more of a 1:1 ratio so i figured i would need at least 2:1 ratio at this time its like a 2.5:1 ratio of RB/CW. Then i have the V/B at 1:1 ratio within them two. I do feel like it will be a tad on the Blue side, but hopefully dimming down the blue i can get the right mix lol here is to hoping! lol....

I do have some reds still from last build so might throw that into the mix, as wel as i have a few of the 10k BL whites.... and yes deff staying with the Drilled so that i can mix to get the right color. I am only doing the planning bc im bored i guess lol, and the tank is looking good man! Where are the pics of the actual fixture! haha. I can kinda see it unless its just my monitor thats deceiving me.

Thanks.

 

[mcghee33]

I am in the process of building my LED fixture using 72 BL LEDS in aluminum U channel for my 75 gallon tank. So I will have 18 LEDS per U channel. The U channel is 1.5 inches wide and 1/8 inches thick.
Can those of you who are using U channel for your builds let me know if you are having to use fans to cool those LEDS? Or is passive cooling enough?