Bought new led light fixture from China.

conix67 said:
I have 4' tank and S300 fits just fine, even with 120deg optics, there's very little light spill.

I swapped 8 green LEDs with UV. Now I have 4 channels with each having one spectrum only - 12000K white, blue, royal blue, UV.
Click to expand...

Conix, when you get a chance can you post a picture of your tank with just the UV channel on like you did in your past pics. Probably not much visible color output but I bet the corals love them. just curious.
 
Gillguy said:
Conix, when you get a chance can you post a picture of your tank with just the UV channel on like you did in your past pics. Probably not much visible color output but I bet the corals love them. just curious.
Click to expand...

It's true that the light doesn't appear to be very visible, but this is still not true UV which is actually a good thing.

I did take a picture yesterday, but it did not come out well. I will try again and post the picture.

I was very surprised by amount of florescence I was getting on some corals, and all of them were glowing with bright green/cyan color - hammer coral, some acros, some zoos (mouth). It was more striking than blue alone, as not much else is visible.

Read up on the link of article, it's long but it says what most LED fixture is lacking is 400nm to 450nm spectrum range, and this (near) UV LEDs are supposed to fill that in, although it may still not be close to ideal.
 
conix67 said:
It's true that the light doesn't appear to be very visible, but this is still not true UV which is actually a good thing.

I did take a picture yesterday, but it did not come out well. I will try again and post the picture.

I was very surprised by amount of florescence I was getting on some corals, and all of them were glowing with bright green/cyan color - hammer coral, some acros, some zoos (mouth). It was more striking than blue alone, as not much else is visible.

Read up on the link of article, it's long but it says what most LED fixture is lacking is 400nm to 450nm spectrum range, and this (near) UV LEDs are supposed to fill that in, although it may still not be close to ideal.
Click to expand...

Yea I read that article when it first came out while doing some research. That range is definitely necessary. The UV leds you used were from ledzeal or someone else.
 
Gillguy said:
Yea I read that article when it first came out while doing some research. That range is definitely necessary. The UV leds you used were from ledzeal or someone else.
Click to expand...

Yes, I got the additional UV LEDs from LedZeal.

The article also suggests that these UV LEDs are not available widely from manufacturers like Cree, but mostly from Chinese companies and not strong enough or reliable. However, I think they are plenty strong.. we'll see about reliability but since LedZeal is providing 3 year warranty, that is good enough already.
 
conix67 said:
Currently I have L1 - 6 x white (12000K), L2 - 6 x Royal Blue, L3 - 6 x Blue, L4 - 6 x UV

I think I could use some more warm whites, but I'll consider that later..
Click to expand...

Thanks

I was considering the warm whites to give some of the red/orange without actually having red. Then I decided that I needed to order and left them out

I take it that replacing the LEDs worked out easy enough then?
 
SteJ said:
Thanks

I was considering the warm whites to give some of the red/orange without actually having red. Then I decided that I needed to order and left them out

I take it that replacing the LEDs worked out easy enough then?
Click to expand...

Fortunately, it is not hard. You don't need a fancy equipment, just a soldering iron and a pair of twizzers. However, I recommend to avoid it if possible. Besides the LEDs, you'll also need the special heat sink silicon grease to ensure proper cooling.
 
conix67 said:
Well, there's no such thing as "standard size" cooling fan, I was just referring to those off-the-shelf cooling fans commonly used by, typically, DIY computer systems. Many companies do order use custom made cooling fans of specific size/speed/voltage for their own specific needs.

By looking at the specs and size, we'd be able to tell if there's a replacement part that is quieter than what came with the power supply. My concern is that the noise mostly comes from the fan itself, and if that speed is indeed necessary to move so much air for cooling purpose, we may not have a good solution *even if* the replacement model is available.

However, there's still a chance to do some custom mod on it, something like adding a larger fan (may need to drill some holes for ventilation) that runs more quietly and be able to provide necessary cooling capacity. For this, ideally, I need to be able to monitor the temperature of the part/place where the thermal sensor is attached to, since it appears to kick in at certain temperature.
Click to expand...

So, I was bored and opened up the power supply. The dimensions are 60mm x 15mm. And I believe, you MIGHT be able to use a 60x20 if the fan has recessed hole for the nuts (so they are not adding width to the bottom of the fan.) Here's a photo of the fan in the LED Zeal power supply and a link to the manufacturer website for the specs. http://www.poweryear.net/english/table1.htm



The only difficult part will be having to DIY the wiring. hard to tell from the pic below but the fan doesn't use a standard plug. you'll need to crimp one end to the thermostat and the negative can just be pinched with the set screw.



I found this fan as a possible replacement, however reviews are mixed regarding noise. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835119055 Maybe someone else can find a better replacement.
 
jombolo said:
So, I was bored and opened up the power supply. The dimensions are 60mm x 15mm. And I believe, you MIGHT be able to use a 60x20 if the fan has recessed hole for the nuts (so they are not adding width to the bottom of the fan.) Here's a photo of the fan in the LED Zeal power supply and a link to the manufacturer website for the specs.
The only difficult part will be having to DIY the wiring. hard to tell from the pic below but the fan doesn't use a standard plug. you'll need to crimp one end to the thermostat and the negative can just be pinched with the set screw.

I found this fan as a possible replacement, however reviews are mixed regarding noise. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835119055 Maybe someone else can find a better replacement.
Click to expand...

Thanks for doing all the dirty work. As suspected, this fan requires 24V, while the computer case fans are 12V. If you hook up the 12V fan at 24V, it will either run at double the intended speed, or simply burn up.

So, the fans from NewEgg are not suitable replacement, regardless of noise level.
 
So here are the photos for comparison. Both photos are taken with the same settings on the camera (manual shutter speed, etc)

My camera doesn't capture the florescence very well, but you get the idea..

By the way, the water is little cloudy (got a bacteria bloom from vodka dosing)..

Channel 4 blue at 50%

SoFDFWXl76nrCLiiEt3a5Z0PoztgO3nwowQdu1JvBV0=w887-h587-no


Channel 3 UV at 50%

DSC_2715.JPG
 
Last edited:
Here's a little timeline chart i did for my light settings just to help visualize where each channel is at throughout the day. I plan to adjust ch3 up from 30% at 10pm where it dips below ch 1 ...to about 35% or 40%. All critiques are welcome.

 
We finally got both our fixtures from LEDZeal. Serious mess up with FedEx destroying one fixture. Hat's off to Kevin, he took care of the situation. It took a couple weeks, but they replaced the fixture. He even credited back some shipping money when he got a better rate with DHL. Excellent customer support!

One thing I did learn in this mess, is that the shipments are not insured for full replacement value. If your fixture is damaged in shipping be sure to take pictures and file a complaint with FedEx right away. And I strongly recommend asking for supplemental insurance - it's not that expensive. Also - I advise against doing a group shipment unless you are the recipient. By not being the named ship to, FedEx will not talk to you if there is a problem. The few bucks I saved in shipping was not worth the amount of headache and aggravation I went through. When I consider my time gas and tolls spent running around, it probably cost me more...


I'm going to install one of the lights today over half the tank. I'm curious to know what kind of lighting timelines are folks running? I like jombolo's chart, and will probably start with something similar. I set up both lights last night and aimed them at the ceiling, just to play with the controls and to verify the replacement fixture had my custom layout. All I can say is WoW these things are bright! I don't see the need to ever run at 100%.
 
jombolo said:
Here's a little timeline chart i did for my light settings just to help visualize where each channel is at throughout the day. I plan to adjust ch3 up from 30% at 10pm where it dips below ch 1 ...to about 35% or 40%. All critiques are welcome.
Click to expand...

Nice chart!, thanks for sharing.
 
I have an S300 over my 120 4' tank. Got the light from another reefer and I agree these lights are impressive for the price. The corals are loving it. I will have to change the LEDs layout though. Missing RBs.

Agree with the nice chart. I'll have to put one together for my settings and post later.
 
conix67 said:
So here are the photos for comparison. Both photos are taken with the same settings on the camera (manual shutter speed, etc)

My camera doesn't capture the florescence very well, but you get the idea..

By the way, the water is little cloudy (got a bacteria bloom from vodka dosing)..

Channel 4 blue at 50%

SoFDFWXl76nrCLiiEt3a5Z0PoztgO3nwowQdu1JvBV0=w887-h587-no


Channel 3 UV at 50%

DSC_2715.JPG
Click to expand...

Like I thought, not much visible light but I bet in person those corals are glowing!
 
I finally set up one S-200 on legs over half my tank. I'm very happy with the results. Being able to see the LED's and my trusty MH/T5 rig side by side has definitely sold me on the LED's. I spent a couple hours just playing with the DIY settings...

Next project is going to be permanently mounting the fixtures to the canopy. I'm not a fan of the cheap wire rope hanging hardware, so I'm looking for a more flexible mounting rig.
Has anyone tried a simple T-Track system?

http://www.rockler.com/universal-t-track-universal-t-track

T-Track, a couple stainless steel eye bolts with S hooks or caribiners attached to the fixture mounting bolt and you've got a easy way to adjust and safely rig the fixture.

I should add I fly concert size sound and lighting systems for a living, so I'm a bit over the top when it come to rigging anything...
 
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