DreamChip build

its not the chip its the reefer.

I'm not claiming I'm the guru of SPS growth, but it's not as if I've never grown SPS coral.

I find it quite unfair to bash another reefer (in this case myself), saying he' incompetent for not being able to grow SPS under the DreamChip.

As you said:
Dreamchip with a ring of rb/b around the chip.

I didn't have any supplemental lighting and was trying only the DreamChips. My conclusion is that DreamChip by itself cannot sustain SPS growth.
 
Thanks Ice,...I'll take a look. I was watching your controller thread, but it was a bit over my head. I am looking a the storm-x for 16 channels.---Rick
 
I have had a dream chip going on a year now. After 3 months I retrofitted 6 three watt Cree less to balance color. (2 near uv, 2 royal blue, 2 warm white and 2 neutral white) My corals are growing. Some well and some very slowly. As some have pointed out the dream chip doesn't seem to be providing the best spectrum. I will be switching in the near future to a different light. I will be sticking with leds for sure. Check out my dream chip thread.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2283850
 
Thanks Ice,...I'll take a look. I was watching your controller thread, but it was a bit over my head. I am looking a the storm-x for 16 channels.---Rick

Good luck sir, let me know if you run into issues. Chip wise I like the color but do run the whites 20% lower than the blues. - I guess with a few extra blues I could get more output.

they sell a more closely matched version of my knockoff on ebay right now (two rows of UV vs one on mine) for $80.
 
I have followed the Dream Chip from its beginning. I thought I had my mind made up, but not so sure now. I like the ability of adjusting the different channels outputs, and able to run the DC up to 252w as I have a deep tank and need the the high output to reach the bottom. This is why I have been looking for other Dream Chip users experiences.---Rick
 
Hi guys!

I have a problem and need some help.

I have one of these 5 channel chips but the positive wire of one channel is broken from the base (plastic end) and i can't solder or so. Any way i can fix this?

Thanks in advance!:worried2:
 
Hi guys!

I have a problem and need some help.

I have one of these 5 channel chips but the positive wire of one channel is broken from the base (plastic end) and i can't solder or so. Any way i can fix this?

Thanks in advance!:worried2:

picture please, your description leaves me guessing.....

thanks,
 
what do you think about these lay outs
Layout:

Channel 1 - 3 Hyper Violet and 2 CREE XT-E Royal Blue (Actinic channel) (18v @ 700mA)

Channel 2 - Royal Blue (base blue spectrum) (16.5V @ 1500mA)

Channel 3 - 3 XT-E Netural White and 2 XT-E Warm White (base white color) (16.5V @ 1500mA)

Channel 4 - Turquoise / CREE XPE2 Blue (enhanced color spectrum) (17.2V @ 700mA)

Channel 5 - - 3 Hyper Violet and 2 CREE XT-E Royal Blue (Actinic channel) (18v @ 700mA)



or

Channel 1 - Neutral White (base white spectrum) (36V @ 700mA)

Channel 2 - Royal Blue (base blue spectrum) (36V @ 700mA)

Channel 3 - Hyper Violet (enhanced growth) (38V @ 700mA)

Channel 4 - Deep Red / Turquoise (enhanced color spectrum) (32V @ 700mA)

Channel 5 - True Violet / Cool Blue (enhanced growth and color spectrum) (38V @ 700mA)
 
Here you can see my lights. I've been using them for 8-9 month and I'm happy with the growth that I get. I use 3x 100 chips, with no other additional lights on a 75 gal SPS tank.
 

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picture please, your description leaves me guessing.....

thanks,

Ok, later i can take a picture, but take this one for example:
jeze61ec1


See the red line? There's where the metal is broken, from the base of the white protective plastic. I think the only way is to cut the white plastic in that area so i can have have a little peace of metal to solder a wire...:debi:
 
It is nice to see the chips, how they are setup & how they look, but WHERE THE HECK are the tank shots & the coral shots? Where are the youtube videos of wonderfully dream chip/sun bathed corals?

Is there anyone we can follow with many pictures of tanks/corals or videos to truly see the end result or are we still missing something with the dream chip?

Be honest.
 
it is nice to see the chips, how they are setup & how they look, but where the heck are the tank shots & the coral shots? Where are the youtube videos of wonderfully dream chip/sun bathed corals?

Is there anyone we can follow with many pictures of tanks/corals or videos to truly see the end result or are we still missing something with the dream chip?

Be honest.

+111111
 
After being called "incompetent" for not having success with DreamChips, I would certainly also love to see some photo/video proof of DreamChip color and growth.
 
I see AC-RC has 50W 5 channel led's up for sale again. I don't know if they changed any of the led's in the channels from the original 50W that they sold before in the group buy?
 
I want to THANK acabgd for posting on this thread & doing so honestly instead of cowering away. It is people like you, although who may experience error or loss, that help the field push forward.

You did not have to enlighten us all, but you did. Perhaps they are simply unusable, or perhaps someone can improve on your design in the future.

I am trying to play catch-up on DIY LED. Is it known for the older 50W LED's to be tried, tested & proven as far as the internal DIY'ers are concerned? I actually saw a local guy who had 2x 50W dream chips installed in his 120g tank. All his corals survived & nothing looked bad. It was one of the best LED systems that I have seen.

I have only seen two LED lighting systems that came "close" to a MH lighting system. The kessils (5x & the newer type on a 60" tank) & the 50W DIY LED's.

When I inspected the corals on the DIY system, I noticed that some of them did not exhibit exuberant colors & were slightly washed out. Some of the corals we both had. Mine were in a MH/T5 system. He also mentioned that he received a particular coral in a time frame & it happens to be within 2-3 weeks of me obtaining mine. Mine however grew 3x as large.

I know this guy is busy, but I will try and get some tank shots. He did have a mixed reef & a rather healthy one overall.
 
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.

ACABGD, I found this which might be of interest to you and maybe also explain why you have been experiencing problems. Read the whole forum and also there is a video link attached to a seminar which is very very interesting. it seems we might be pumping the wrong spectrum into our tanks.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2315500&page=1
 
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