Becoming a club member again and curious about a DIY LED group buy.

[HillbillyYoda]

I'm becoming a member again (within days). I think the last time was back in 2007. Anyway - I am curious to know if anyone is really putting some thought into DIY LED kits. I'm wet behind the ears just like I was in 2007.

 

[HillbillyYoda]

Who's accepting the club due's now-a-days?

 

[MemphisTigers]

I would be interested in led

 

[BassandReef]

Welcome back to the club. You can go to the club site at http://www.wtmrac.com/join.html to join.

 

[stlcard]

Ive got a DIY LED setup via Rapidled. Works well. i like it.

 

[HillbillyYoda]

Ive got a DIY LED setup via Rapidled. Works well. i like it.

What angle did you go with and how far up are they? I want mine to be somewhere in the ballpark of 6 to 8 inches above. Would the 90's be better for me since I'm that close? I've emailed Rapid about it. Those guys don't mess around when it comes to responding by email.

 

[stlcard]

What angle did you go with and how far up are they? I want mine to be somewhere in the ballpark of 6 to 8 inches above. Would the 90's be better for me since I'm that close? I've emailed Rapid about it. Those guys don't mess around when it comes to responding by email.

No they do not. They have great customer service. My tank is 33gal. It's 36x12x18 tall.

I have two 6x10 heat sinks mounted on a flat panel tv mount under my canopy. 28 leds total( i just recently added 2 extra neutral whites 2 greens) i opted for the solderless kit so i could switch out colors easily to tweak to my color preference. Solderless is great and a breeze to assemble. It is run via two mean well drivers. 1 blue channel of 8 Rb, 4 blue and 2cyan. 1 channel of white 10 cool white 4 neutral white. Dimmable of course via an apex and vdm module.

Don't even waste your time thinking about saving money on non dim able. Dimming is a MUST with LEDs. I've seen too many people fry their corals with non dimming units.

I have a sunrise 1hr and sunset 1 hr period. The full photoperiod is at 9 hrs I believe. I acclimated from 30% up to its current 90% blue and 80% white over a 6 week acclimation period. I can run mine this high because I did not install the optics. It came with 80s though. My unit is about 8 inches off the water level.

IMO the optics aren't that great and created a color banding and spotlighting effect from another rapid build I've seen. I have had zero issues with my corals. And like the way the colors blend better. Corals have taking nicely to the lights and continue to prosper. I have zoas Rics Lps low and near sand bed. Sps up high. Everything is doing great with excellent polyp extension.

Check out my thread "rapidled diy'ers, are you happy" it has lots of pics and input from owners who have had rapid longer than myself. A pic of my fixture setup is included in that thread.

Any additional questions feel free to ask away. I've been on LEDs for about 3-4 months. I am pleased so far. I had t5s prior too.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rudolph]

George: For someone getting back in the hobby, I would take a more conservative approach to ensure you get off to the right start. T5 and MH have a known and successul history. I know you have not seen the discussions on LED over the last couple of years, but the LED's are still "working the bugs out". A lot of people jumped on the LED wagon and it did not work out. They experienced coral bleaching and die offs. Now there is debate over the right color, right color combinations, right dim levels, how long, etc. It is not a plug and play deal.

If you search the topic you will see a ton of debate over LED's. There are many that claim success stories and many that claim disasters. I always factor in the ones that failed probably do not start a thread to tell the world that they failed, whereas those that are new to LED's are excited to tell success stories well in advance of true long term success. So, I tend to believe LED has more downside then upside at this stage of its evlolution.

Locally, we have club members that tried them without success. One is probably the most O.C.D. reefer (that is a compliment) I know, and if he cannot get it to work successfully, I don't think most of us could either. He did his homework and picked up some of the most advanced LED's on the market and it did not work for him.

Certainly it sounds like Jason (and others) is on a good path and we all are pulling for his success so we can jump on board. But, there are a lot of things that can go wrong when you are restarting the hobby and adding the uncertainity of an unproven item raises your odds of failure. I have been with the club for a few years and many have come and gone with only a handfull of regulars during that time. I know life gets in the way sometimes, but I bet the second bigggest factor for not coming back is a tank failure of some type.

Of course Jason's tank is the same in gallons as yours, but his is 50% deeper. So, what might work in his, could possibly not work in yours? Maybe six inches doesn't doesn't matter? Or does it? Would you be better with a widder beam/optical? So often you don't have apples-to-apples.

You still have plenty of fun topics like bio-pellets, skimmers, algae scrubers, dosing, RO water, water parameters, water testing kits, etc. etc. to keep you up at night......

That's my 2 cents (Foster/Jabo will say it is not that much) worth. Best of luck!

 

[HillbillyYoda]

ouch:fun5:

 

[stlcard]

haha, i agree that leds have not been a "proven" go to yet, and thats just because of their relative "youth" as compared to the "tried and true"

I see perks and cons for both. Spent some time debating it and decided the only true way to find out if LEDs are worth it is on my system, the way i designed it.

I added the neutral whites to help with spectrum balancing. and havent seen any issues yet. My corals are happy and perky. SPS included. Ive never had halide before so i cant compare the two.

I have had t5 only and in my opinion, i have upgraded to a better setup with the led. I wasnt happy with what i had t5-wise so i opted to try out the DIY. I have seen several build that utilize a combo of LED and t5. so far these systems have had explosive growth. Granted, theres sooo many factors involved its hard to say what exactly contributes to success vs failure in this hobby.

IF i discover i have light issues, i MAY add some t5 to supplement. Time will tell.

Given your tank dimensions t5 is a viable option since your setup is so long in relation to width. LED is also plausible, but a DIY (strip heatsinks) would be a better option than fixtures like radions or AquaIllumination.

 

[HillbillyYoda]

I appreciate the concern. The reason(s) I've decided to give LED's is #1 OVERALL cost, #2 I like the look, and #3 they are going over a "fresh tank".

 

[HillbillyYoda]

haha, i agree that leds have not been a "proven" go to yet, and thats just because of their relative "youth" as compared to the "tried and true"

I see perks and cons for both. Spent some time debating it and decided the only true way to find out if LEDs are worth it is on my system, the way i designed it.

I added the neutral whites to help with spectrum balancing. and havent seen any issues yet. My corals are happy and perky. SPS included. Ive never had halide before so i cant compare the two.

I have had t5 only and in my opinion, i have upgraded to a better setup with the led. I wasnt happy with what i had t5-wise so i opted to try out the DIY. I have seen several build that utilize a combo of LED and t5. so far these systems have had explosive growth. Granted, theres sooo many factors involved its hard to say what exactly contributes to success vs failure in this hobby.

IF i discover i have light issues, i MAY add some t5 to supplement. Time will tell.

Given your tank dimensions t5 is a viable option since your setup is so long in relation to width. LED is also plausible, but a DIY (strip heatsinks) would be a better option than fixtures like radions or AquaIllumination.

I went ahead and ordered the Drilled/tapped 1.4" x 48" Aluminum Heatsink, DDC-02 PWM Controller, 60mm Vantec Stealth Fan Kit, 24 Solderless LED Kit Dimmable
(Lens Color: White, Lens Width: 80 Degree, Driver Type: P (PWM), Thermal Compound Type: Thermal Grease (use with drilled/tapped heatsinks), Wire Length: 3" , LED Color Ratio: 2:1 Ratio - 8 Cool White, 10 Royal Blue, 6 UV)

 

[Rudolph]

I appreciate the concern. The reason(s) I've decided to give LED's is #1 OVERALL cost, #2 I like the look, and #3 they are going over a "fresh tank".

Yes, LED's are great when looking at long term cost if you truely keep them five years for so. But odds are they will continue to tweak everything and you will want to get the latest and greatest and those earlier LED lights will become shop lights. The slim fixture look is fantastic, and that tank you have is awesome (wonder where you got it).....

Hey, I am trying LED's over my planted tank, so I will see how it does with plants! However, I have my T5's waiting in the bullpin......

 

[Rudolph]

ouch:fun5:

....sorry, didn't mean to be a downer when you are all excited about LED's. I am really hopefull for LED's and looking forward to hear about yours and Jason's success a year from now. I hope the corals are growing out of the tank by then.

 

[HillbillyYoda]

George: For someone getting back in the hobby, I would take a more conservative approach to ensure you get off to the right start. T5 and MH have a known and successul history. I know you have not seen the discussions on LED over the last couple of years, but the LED's are still "working the bugs out". A lot of people jumped on the LED wagon and it did not work out. They experienced coral bleaching and die offs. Now there is debate over the right color, right color combinations, right dim levels, how long, etc. It is not a plug and play deal.

If you search the topic you will see a ton of debate over LED's. There are many that claim success stories and many that claim disasters. I always factor in the ones that failed probably do not start a thread to tell the world that they failed, whereas those that are new to LED's are excited to tell success stories well in advance of true long term success. So, I tend to believe LED has more downside then upside at this stage of its evlolution.

Locally, we have club members that tried them without success. One is probably the most O.C.D. reefer (that is a compliment) I know, and if he cannot get it to work successfully, I don't think most of us could either. He did his homework and picked up some of the most advanced LED's on the market and it did not work for him.

Certainly it sounds like Jason (and others) is on a good path and we all are pulling for his success so we can jump on board. But, there are a lot of things that can go wrong when you are restarting the hobby and adding the uncertainity of an unproven item raises your odds of failure. I have been with the club for a few years and many have come and gone with only a handfull of regulars during that time. I know life gets in the way sometimes, but I bet the second bigggest factor for not coming back is a tank failure of some type.

Of course Jason's tank is the same in gallons as yours, but his is 50% deeper. So, what might work in his, could possibly not work in yours? Maybe six inches doesn't doesn't matter? Or does it? Would you be better with a widder beam/optical? So often you don't have apples-to-apples.

You still have plenty of fun topics like bio-pellets, skimmers, algae scrubers, dosing, RO water, water parameters, water testing kits, etc. etc. to keep you up at night......

That's my 2 cents (Foster/Jabo will say it is not that much) worth. Best of luck!

You got me thinking about some possible changes to my Rapid LED purchase. I changed the 80 degree angle to 60 degree so the fixture will be higher. Also, changed the spectrum some, seeing how daylight does contain other colors. I told them to change from 8 cool white, 10 royal blue, and 6 uv, to 8 cool white, 2 cyan, 2 green, 6 royal blue, and 6 uv. Being able to simulate dusk to dawn is another added benefit.

 

[ReefersEdge]

My personal opinion with your tank only being 12" deep I would either use 80* optics or non at all

 

[OneReef]

LEDs are great. Many positives to them. The biggest challenge is finding the correct spectrum, intensity and duration, all to complement each other. They grow coral just fine, and color them nicely. Just takes patience and trial and error to get it optimized. I had decent success with them over a years time, just got tired of tweaking it all, wondering of my settings were optimal or not.

 

[HillbillyYoda]

There's no splash-guard provided. That's one reason I chose the 60 degree. The other reason is to give all the colors ample space to combine with each other before reaching corals.

 

[HillbillyYoda]

LEDs are great. Many positives to them. The biggest challenge is finding the correct spectrum, intensity and duration, all to complement each other. They grow coral just fine, and color them nicely. Just takes patience and trial and error to get it optimized. I had decent success with them over a years time, just got tired of tweaking it all, wondering of my settings were optimal or not.

That's what makes it exciting to me. I'll be giving the tank 2 to 3 weeks of the lighting before adding any fish/corals. This way I can get at least something right.

 

[stlcard]

There's no splash-guard provided. That's one reason I chose the 60 degree. The other reason is to give all the colors ample space to combine with each other before reaching corals.

80 degree lens' is a wider beam pattern than a 60 degree. Which would give the opposite effect you have quoted here. The tighter the angle the more focused the beam, ie: you have greater potential for color banding. (Where the colors dont blend, you see bands of light penetrating the water)

its possible im mis-interpreting your post here though..