ATI Powermodule with Reef Brites

[BeanMachine]

Has anyone hear added Reef Brites to their T5 fixtures? I am leaning towards this route as opposed to dropping major coin on the ATI LED light.

I have seen a couple, @pciscott has done his in the past, and it looks pretty clean. I would go with the the Reef Tech model, all blue with 24 3 watt leds. The housing is silver so it would somewhat match my fixture. http://www.reefbrite.com/reefbrite-tech-led/

Wondering if anyone else has this setup?

I want to do something like this. This was Scott's garage tank before his upgrade... he made the little brackets and cut about 1.5" off one side of the Reef Brite so the LED strip would be the same length as the Powermodule. He was telling me you can custom order the length so I wouldn't have to do that.

 

[dodgerblew]

I have the 24" dimmable Sunpower and this weekend Johnny and I added a Reefbrite to each side. Front side is the xho blue and backside is the normal tech in blue. Same light but xho has more bulbs. Couldn't be happier. My dawn to dusk are amazing! I didn't realize when I bought that one fixture was blak and the other silver but I'm not real anal that way and I don't see it anymore. Only temporary downside is the power supply for the tech blew out after 30 min so another PS is being shipped today. On the sunpower no mod is necessary. Two allen screws and brackets fit perfectly. Relatively simple other then screws are small. Thx Johnny!

 

[NVTE]

Cody
That is good combination. I would go just 1 Reefbrite XHO. That XHO have no problem spreading your whole tank. I just have regular reefbrite on my 40gallon, 110 gallon, 15 gallon, 22 gallon, and now 70 gallon.

 

[nrike]

I have the same set up, I got the idea from Scott. My reefbrites came with brackets.

 

[dodgerblew]

Cody
That is good combination. I would go just 1 Reefbrite XHO. That XHO have no problem spreading your whole tank. I just have regular reefbrite on my 40gallon, 110 gallon, 15 gallon, 22 gallon, and now 70 gallon.

my xho is mounted to front and I don't get the spread in back like the front. My depth is 24"

 

[BeanMachine]

Cody
That is good combination. I would go just 1 Reefbrite XHO. That XHO have no problem spreading your whole tank. I just have regular reefbrite on my 40gallon, 110 gallon, 15 gallon, 22 gallon, and now 70 gallon.

Thanks... is the spread that noticeable? The fixture is almost the length of my tank. How much brighter is it with the extra leds?

I have the same set up, I got the idea from Scott. My reefbrites came with brackets.

Which fixtre and which reef brite do you have?

my xho is mounted to front and I don't get the spread in back like the front. My depth is 24"

Hmmm, wasn't sure I wanted the black strip hahaha

Are you using the dimmer?

 

[dodgerblew]

No because I don't use an apex. If I did I would. You can program dimming through the apex. Without it, it's a manual dimmer with dimming the same on both fixtures.

I had the same thought about black with silver when it arrived but 5 min later and enjoyment of the amazing color I haven't noticed the fixture since. It doesn't bother me at all.

 

[pciscott]

Rik be careful without a dimmer!

When I added Reefbrites to my frag tank and put them on my dawn to dusk T5 12 hour zone I came home to some peeled acros the first day. They do not show much par, but they need to be acclimated to the intense blue.

I like the dimmer on the Apex, True dawn to dusk from 5% to 40% for 3 extra hours of tank light enjoyment a day. When they get dim at night my fish go nuts spawning!

 

[dodgerblew]

I will heed your advice Scott. Thank you. May I as your recommendation until I get a dimmer or go without one?

 

[Arnel0387]

Can you dim the regular reefbrites on the apex?

 

[nrike]

It's a powermodule with a 48in reefbrite
http://flic.kr/p/mDzkLE

 

[BeanMachine]

Can you dim the regular reefbrites on the apex?

I believe so with this. Maybe someone can confirm.

http://www.reefbrite.com/features/reef-brite-controller-dimmer/

 

[dodgerblew]

I will heed your advice Scott. Thank you. May I as your recommendation until I get a dimmer or go without one?

Scott, this made zero sense. I'm going to take your advice. What's your recommendation on how to handle these either until I get a dimmer or if I elect not to get one for awhile?

I just got home. All corals look good exception being the procoral rainbow where only the very tips of a couple branches look like they might've burned. You think it'll be ok to just run the strip an hour before t5 goes on and an hour after they turn off?

 

[NVTE]

Thanks... is the spread that noticeable? The fixture is almost the length of my tank. How much brighter is it with the extra leds?


It is double the regular size. It is much brighter. I had no problem cover my 110 (30" wide) in my references.

I recommend you borrow reefbrite from reefer and try out so you know what to get.

 

[pciscott]

Rik I think you will be fine for 1 hour in morning and 1.5hours in evening, but they are very powerful even though they show little par. I run mine only 60% max and I have 2 strips on 36" wide tank, they are 8" above water.

The dimmer in my opinion is very cool with Apex.

Cody if you would like to check out the spread, I have a 24" XHO all blue you can try out. I also have a dimmer module you can try out, the dimmer can be used manual, or flip a switch and it is on your controller 1 to 10 volt input.

 

[Lacktaters]

I made brackets out of acrylic to mount Reefbrites to my Powermodule, but I had to cut the LEDs down on a bandsaw so they were the same length as the T5 fixture

 

[Lacktaters]

If you're not comfortable working with acrylic, you can just flatten out the brackets that come with the reefbrites and use the factory screws on the powermodule like so...

Either way, you'll still want to shorten the reefbrites. They look stupid sticking 3/4" out past each end of the powermodule.

 

[ReefHoboBum]

Cody come over and get it from me to try out, you can use the dimmer too.

I ran 2 on my 4' frag tank. sps only 2 inches from the surface of the water, mounted 5 inches above the water. No problem with burning. they ran for 6 hours initially, after a couple of weeks I saw no problems and turned them up to 11 hours.

 

[BeanMachine]

Cody come over and get it from me to try out, you can use the dimmer too.

I ran 2 on my 4' frag tank. sps only 2 inches from the surface of the water, mounted 5 inches above the water. No problem with burning. they ran for 6 hours initially, after a couple of weeks I saw no problems and turned them up to 11 hours.

Thanks I'll do that. I'll give you a ring this week.

 

[BeanMachine]

I made brackets out of acrylic to mount Reefbrites to my Powermodule, but I had to cut the LEDs down on a bandsaw so they were the same length as the T5 fixture

That's pretty cool as well... I came across your post of this when I was doing some internet searching. Thanks for sharing.