DreamChip build
- Thread starter acabgd
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Thanks Lassef and others
I'm more sure every day than the best configuration for my 51"x 16" x 21" tank will be 3 of Lumia 5.1 dream chips (100w), with a dimmer option in order to increase a little the blue color in the general view.
I think will me at 60-70% of his power (70w x 3 units=210w)
I'm more sure every day than the best configuration for my 51"x 16" x 21" tank will be 3 of Lumia 5.1 dream chips (100w), with a dimmer option in order to increase a little the blue color in the general view.
I think will me at 60-70% of his power (70w x 3 units=210w)
Sun
Sun
don't really get it why people are so concerned with the "beaming effect". The biggest one in the nature comes from the Sun. It's a single source of light, the shadows are more than evident, especially when shining from right above like over tropical reefs.
I would say that T5 lighting is much more "unnatural" than a single led. There is no "continuous coverage" in nature.
Sorry to post on something from pages 2 & 3
But as far as shadows you forget that the Sun shines 360 degrees(but at 93,000,000 miles away it's essentially striking the earth like a one degree optic) not the limited 90 degrees of a LED and the Sun also changes its location slowly in 12 hours and last but not least is more than 12 inches away from the tank and doesn't produce a cone shaped light pattern (go see a public Sun lit aquarium and you see rays coming in all at the same angle and a few hours later at another angle with different parts of aquarium exposed to light).
So even if the Sun is a single point source of light its shadows are constantly changing and the closest way I could think to mimic that effect would be to have LEDS mounted on 15 ft ceilings with 5 degree optics(if optics exist) with a controller on rails pointing at tank as it slowly in the course of a day moves across the room.
IMHO better yet get a few T5's in there like the latest hybrid LED fixtures out there as the parts it the shadows are used to lower light levels and is more pleasing on the eye.
In the design phase with next fixture 4pc T5s + 4pc(or 3pc) 100w multichips on my 5ft 180G
Sun
Quote acabgd
don't really get it why people are so concerned with the "beaming effect". The biggest one in the nature comes from the Sun. It's a single source of light, the shadows are more than evident, especially when shining from right above like over tropical reefs.
I would say that T5 lighting is much more "unnatural" than a single led. There is no "continuous coverage" in nature.
Sorry to post on something from pages 2 & 3
But as far as shadows you forget that the Sun shines 360 degrees(but at 93,000,000 miles away it's essentially striking the earth like a one degree optic) not the limited 90 degrees of a LED and the Sun also changes its location slowly in 12 hours and last but not least is more than 12 inches away from the tank and doesn't produce a cone shaped light pattern (go see a public Sun lit aquarium and you see rays coming in all at the same angle and a few hours later at another angle with different parts of aquarium exposed to light).
So even if the Sun is a single point source of light its shadows are constantly changing and the closest way I could think to mimic that effect would be to have LEDS mounted on 15 ft ceilings with 5 degree optics(if optics exist) with a controller on rails pointing at tank as it slowly in the course of a day moves across the room.
IMHO better yet get a few T5's in there like the latest hybrid LED fixtures out there as the parts it the shadows are used to lower light levels and is more pleasing on the eye.
In the design phase with next fixture 4pc T5s + 4pc(or 3pc) 100w multichips on my 5ft 180G
Last edited:
sfsuphysics
Active member
Not just from page 2 & 3 but over a year ago 
That said, people like what they like and someone taste in what looks "good" or "natural" is perfectly acceptable if that's what they like.
Now for some fun Sun comparison facts.
The Sun should not be considered as a point source in the same sense that LEDs are.
- The Sun is 93M miles away, so the energy loss from being 2 feet further away is negligible, in fact the only thing that really reduces energy is going through more water which our tanks don't get anywhere near as deep.
- The light rays from the Sun are pretty close to parallel, very good approximation over a "small" area. This means if you put two objects up separated by say 5 feet, the shadows cast from the Sun will be parallel to one another, to do so with a nearby light source (on Earth) and the shadows will point away from the light source and not parallel to one another.
That said, people like what they like and someone taste in what looks "good" or "natural" is perfectly acceptable if that's what they like.
Now for some fun Sun comparison facts.
The Sun should not be considered as a point source in the same sense that LEDs are.
- The Sun is 93M miles away, so the energy loss from being 2 feet further away is negligible, in fact the only thing that really reduces energy is going through more water which our tanks don't get anywhere near as deep.
- The light rays from the Sun are pretty close to parallel, very good approximation over a "small" area. This means if you put two objects up separated by say 5 feet, the shadows cast from the Sun will be parallel to one another, to do so with a nearby light source (on Earth) and the shadows will point away from the light source and not parallel to one another.
Two DreamChip 100 with only B/RB/UV channels enabled. Tank still mostly empty, got some SPS only last week, will post growth shots.
Currently running DC only 1 hour/day to acclimate coral.
Ok acabgd,....what is your conclusion on your Dream Chips? You started the thread over a year ago,...are they growing your coral, what is your lighting schedule and what are you running power wise to each channel? Any other input you might share. Thank You.---Rick
My conclusion is that I'm due to receive my ATI 6x39W in the next few days... Yes, I'm switching over to T5. This is just too much hassle, for little or no return.
The most difficult thing is to acclimate coral, some do and accept and are okay, most are very difficult to acclimate and find the right spot. Due to the narrow spectrum the color rendition is basically "flat", although I did add some other leds to make the colors pop.
However, the other difficulty was that growth was minimal. I've had same coral grow 3 or 4 times faster in my 7g nano tank than now with this light. I'm not even keeping the DreamChips, I'll look into selling them. I'm looking at a frag tank project and thought about using them, but after all the experiences I've had I don't dare even try to use them on a frag tank.
Note that I've had probably around 30 different SPS corals in my tank, so this is not down to a few pieces, but rather a large collection, carefully acclimated over several weeks. None did exhibit significant, or what I would call "satisfactory" growth.
That is a candid and honest follow-up. Sorry it did not work out as you hoped. But thank you for updating us.
This hobby would be a lot better if more people would follow your lead, and let the community know when things don't work out as hoped. So thank you for your honesty. :thumbsup: And good luck with the T5s.
This hobby would be a lot better if more people would follow your lead, and let the community know when things don't work out as hoped. So thank you for your honesty. :thumbsup: And good luck with the T5s.
That is a candid and honest follow-up. Sorry it did not work out as you hoped. But thank you for updating us.
This hobby would be a lot better if more people would follow your lead, and let the community know when things don't work out as hoped. So thank you for your honesty. :thumbsup: And good luck with the T5s.
Well, why not be honest? I have no commercial interest in DreamChips and my only "mistake" was that I've used the 20W hybrid leds and had great results with SPS. When the DreamChip was announced, or rather when the group buy was started, I jumped on the bandwaggon hoping it would be even better than the hybrids I was using before. However, it turned to actually be much worse, for me almost useless.
I wouldn't be this sure and probably could be accused of "led bashing" if I wasnt' using leds before with good results. Due to personal problems I also had to restart the tank. I didn't have success with DreamChips the first time I've started, then after 6 months I had to empty the tank (take coral and fish out). Only a few shrimp, snails and an urchin remained, but the tank was running the whole time, with some water changes and regular top-off.
Tank was restarted this summer again. By that time it was thoroughly cycled, but I still started slowly, acclimating coral to first the small Cree leds I've had, then slowly ramping up the DreamChips.
I've tried everything - high placement, low placement, high running hours, low running hours, but I just couldn't get any good results. I would take out the coral to another tank (under T5) and the coral would recover within a few weeks. Take some other frags, try again, change placement, change light cycles... No success.
I have some delicate organisms in my tank such as a Coral Banded Shrimp, a Red Fromia Starfish, a Shortspine Urchin and many low light coral (Zoas, Palys, Blastos, Acans...) which are doing fine, so I know it's not the question of water quality. I'm using Salifert, Red Sea and Fauna Marin test kits and obviously have not only kept but also grown SPS before. I did suspect some kind of tank contamination at the beginning, but the coral would be permanently damaged and would not be able to recover within a relatively short time in another tank. Furthermore, delicate organisms such as starfish and urchins cannot tolerate contaminants, yet I have both my urchin and my CBS in this tank for the last 14 months and doing fine.
I have also tried researching other threads with DreamChips but have not find any with photos of SPS coral being grown under them. Maybe I'm just a lousy Google user, unable to find such hidden treasures, yet I would suspect there would be more threads about DreamChips (or Lumias...) if these were that successful.
Again, this is just my personal experience. I would have switched to another light much sooner, have there not been other problems which required me to basically leave the tank dormant for 6 months. This, however only solidified my belief that the DreamChip is not a good solution for keeping SPS, as I've had two separate, unsuccessfull tries.
Sorry for the long post....
[I've tried everything - high placement, low placement, high running hours, low running hours, but I just couldn't get any good results. I would take out the coral to another tank (under T5) and the coral would recover within a few weeks. Take some other frags, try again, change placement, change light cycles... No success.]
Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Can you explain in a little more detail what was happening to the SPS corals under the Dream Chip.
Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Can you explain in a little more detail what was happening to the SPS corals under the Dream Chip.
It really depends, there was no uniform response from each and every coral. Some would RTN, others would just have bland colors, some would have burned tips, if placed lower would lose color and exhibit absolutely no growth. Some would just sit there slowly losing coloration and doing absolutely nothing. When you have that after 3 months of having the coral in the tank, I really thought it can't get any better with this light.
That's interesting. I don't have a dreamchip set up, what I have is a cree set up with the addition of 20w multichip UV's and I too am tending to get burnt tips. I know the remaining bulbs I am using have been proved ok by various sources except for the multichip UV (which comes from the same supplier as the Dream Chip) I am starting to wonder about the UV chips being used in my multichip which are effectively the same ones being used in the Dream Chip.
Any thoughts on this?
Any thoughts on this?
Could very well be. I was stupid enough not to think about this earlier and simply switch off the UV channel and see what happens. Again, I've had great results with hybrid chips from Ac-Rc, but there is definitely something wrong with the DreamChip.
If I don't sell them I will try them on a frag tank without the UV channel enabled.
If I don't sell them I will try them on a frag tank without the UV channel enabled.
Hey guys,...thanks for your constructive thoughts. Could be the start of some very interesting posts/input from other Dream Chip users that are following your thread acabgd. I know Lasse for one has posted here and has had the Dream Chips set up on his tank from the original group buy.
I have Googled "Dream Chip" and could find very little information from end users about their outcome. Acabgd's is really the first that I have seen that said they do not work. My build using Dream Chips was going to be very expensive.
The idea of being able to adjust the various channels to your liking or better yet your corals liking is what first got me interested in them. I have followed other threads on the internet from successful LED users, so the use of LED's dose not bother me ---Rick
I have Googled "Dream Chip" and could find very little information from end users about their outcome. Acabgd's is really the first that I have seen that said they do not work. My build using Dream Chips was going to be very expensive.
The idea of being able to adjust the various channels to your liking or better yet your corals liking is what first got me interested in them. I have followed other threads on the internet from successful LED users, so the use of LED's dose not bother me ---Rick
I was going to buy some of the "20W Violet Blue Hybrid Multichip for Aquarium", but never did a while back. I noticed the spectrum graph showed sub 400nm violet not the 420nm/430nm claimed at the time so I asked and he assured me it was an error. I don't buy that since the graphs were only recently updated. I was hopefull for a 420/430/445 or so hybrid chip to use with remote phosphor for making reef specific white LEDs on the cheap for DIY but no luck so far. Still waiting........
Low nanometer violets would explain poor results and excessive burning in corals. China's quality control is not all that good you know....
Dreamchip with a ring of rb/b around the chip.
Great color and great growth on sps its not the chip
its the reefer.
Anyone who thinks that a nice bump in the low spectrum
isnt great for growth for your sps needs to get a look at
a graph for xm10000 mh.
A monster in the 380 to 420nm the real reason for the
xm 10000 great sps growth.
Great color and great growth on sps its not the chip
its the reefer.
Anyone who thinks that a nice bump in the low spectrum
isnt great for growth for your sps needs to get a look at
a graph for xm10000 mh.
A monster in the 380 to 420nm the real reason for the
xm 10000 great sps growth.
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