Challenge: lighting a drop off

[weiserboy]

I ended up going 18. Send me your email address and I'll send you some pics. To large to place here.

 

[weiserboy]

The stand is tight. I just had enough room for the sump.

 

[RiddleEagle18]

Challenge: lighting a drop off

Thanks for the pictures. Youve gotta start a build thread. Top notch work! Great wood work on the stand.

 

[weiserboy]

Thanks..I wouldn't know where to begin or really what to say.

 

[RiddleEagle18]

Just start it and walk through the build process. Attach all those pictures. It will be a hit.

 

[anbosu]

I like the Kessil idea. If you want them all to be controllable you can go with the 360s over the whole tank and just dial them back on the shallower portion. I have a 150 over my biocube and it's an awesome light. Small, clean, and relatively inexpensive.

 

[Sonicboom]

I like this a lot, if you're going to put any kind of rock structure in the deep end it will probably be around 6 or more inches high so lighting 24 to 26 inches deep is more of what should be considered. A kessil or Hydra 26 would look very minimalistic and get the job done.

 

[Samfish18]

Would really like to see a build thread on this. Its such a unique tank.

 

[RiddleEagle18]

Would really like to see a build thread on this. Its such a unique tank.

Hopefully going to get the tank this week and there will be a build thread for sure.


Hopefully in the meantime weiserboy starts a thread. He sent me a ton of pictures last night of his build and it is top notch.

 

[Live4hockey11]

Awesome will be following along

 

[hoohoohdillyo]

If you went with the Kessils you could do this build without a hood. I bet that would look awesome.

 

[RiddleEagle18]

Challenge: lighting a drop off

I think im gonna save for the kessils or diy using the evil cluster from that other small reef forum. Shhhhhh.

Which kessils? Do you think 2 360s would be sufficient. Ive seen some pictures of a 90g with 2 but they dont have the shelf issue.

 

[Egkid]

I think it'll be tough with just two, unless you can have the lights mounted at different heights. For one to light the 32" section it'd have to be a lot higher than the one over the 16" "drop off" section.

How many pucks/clusters would you go with if you went that route? It may be more cost effective for you. You'd probably be around $200 per cluster versus $400 per Kessil. I haven't seen a Kessil in person so I'm not sure how the light spread is on them.

 

[RiddleEagle18]

I think it'll be tough with just two, unless you can have the lights mounted at different heights. For one to light the 32" section it'd have to be a lot higher than the one over the 16" "drop off" section.

How many pucks/clusters would you go with if you went that route? It may be more cost effective for you. You'd probably be around $200 per cluster versus $400 per Kessil. I haven't seen a Kessil in person so I'm not sure how the light spread is on them.

I still need to price the cluster out but i was thinking 4 clusters.

3 over the shallow with no optics and 1 over the deep end with 90 degree optics.

 

[RiddleEagle18]

Hey guys check out weiserboy's build.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2435062

 

[anbosu]

I think im gonna save for the kessils or diy using the evil cluster from that other small reef forum. Shhhhhh.

Which kessils? Do you think 2 360s would be sufficient. Ive seen some pictures of a 90g with 2 but they dont have the shelf issue.

I think 1 360 and 2 150s would work pretty well.

 

[CrazyEyes]

If you're going DIY, couldn't you just make a 48" fixture and put the drop off on a different channel to increase the intensity. Since hardly anyone can max out intensity on their LEDs without frying something. And/or put stronger optics on the drop off, 40 degrees for example.

I personally think this is the best idea. It might take more drivers but I think this is the best way to do it, also doing it this way you could absolutely keep SPS in the deeper part, especially with the right optics. Just get a storm x controller which can do 16 channels. Would actually be fairly simple with LDD drivers, driver boards and a storm controller.

 

[Milfordguy]

If you want to go the DIY LED route feel free to PM me with any questions, I have built several Evil clusters from scratch and have a pretty good idea on what works and what doesn't.

Or just post them here and I can answer the questions too. Mike also knows plenty about LED's as we both tend to stalk Ben from the other smaller forum haha

 

[RiddleEagle18]

Challenge: lighting a drop off

I personally think this is the best idea. It might take more drivers but I think this is the best way to do it, also doing it this way you could absolutely keep SPS in the deeper part, especially with the right optics. Just get a storm x controller which can do 16 channels. Would actually be fairly simple with LDD drivers, driver boards and a storm controller.

After looking at it last night I may have to go this route do to lack of optics on some of the exotic leds in the cluster.

I was hoping to control it with my APEX but i guess its not a huge issue. Maybe Ill sell it and get a reef angel.

There are a ton of slightly different takes on the cluster.

What do you guys suggest?


This is the setup I was thinking about copying. He built 4 of these over a 90.

Channel 1 = 1 Phillips COB (LHC1-4090-1204) 4k,97 typical CRI, and 1600 lumens @ 450mA
Channel 2 = 2 Luxeon M Royal blues (LGB)
Channel 3 = 1 Luxeon Rebel cool blue(475-480nm) and 1 Cree XP-E2 blue(465nm)
Channel 4 = 2 Luxeon Rebel Lime and 1 Luxeon Rebel Cyan(495nm)
Channel 5 = 1 Luxeon Rebel 2700k warm white and 1 Luxeon Rebel deep red(660nm)
Channel 6 = 3 LGB 430nm true violets

 

[Milfordguy]

Okay I'm going to assume each of the 6 channels are per cluster. How many clusters were you planning on?

One for the shallow and one for the deep?