giving coralife fixture a little kick

[JAustin]

Ive decided to add a little more light to my 29BC. Ive got a 24" coralife ficture over it now with two 65w Pc actinics and one 14k phoenix 150w mh. I bought a 420nm 4 led kit and added two cool white Crees and two cyan leds. The fixtire has room for two heatsinks on each side of the halide and that's where ill mount them. The idea is you wont even know they are in there without looking under the fixture. They will be driven by a constant 700ma driver and I will not be using optics. Ive got clear acrylic to protect from splashing. Leds will be attached with thermal pads.

Pics to come once stuff arrives.

Jason

 

[ghellin]

Awesome post lots of pics!

 

[Mylilreef]

where's the old parts going?

where's the old parts going?

I sent you a PM. I would be interested in the removed parts for a little DIY project i'm tring to get going . any help would be appreciated!:rollface:

thanks, cory

 

[JAustin]

Pm sent back to ya Cory. I won't be having any gutted parts since the pc bulbs are staying I there. I may retro to T5s in the future. If I do it in the near future ill hit you up.

 

[JAustin]

Gutted the moonlights last night.

To the left and right of the halide is where the two heat sinks will go. Each head sink containing two 420nm one cyan and one cool white led. I'll have to relocate the pc ballast and the cooling fan. Not too sure about what I'm going to do with the cooling fan. I may have to mount the fan on top of the fixture. In that case I'll use two fans, one pusher and one puller just to keep things balanced looking.

 

[JAustin]

This thread may take a little turn. I have the LEDs I was talking about on the way from rapidled….lets see how rapid. I remembered I have a dual, 250w HQI PFO MH ballast. I also had the PFO fixtures and two bulbs….one crap ebay 12K and one Aquamax 14K that didn’t appear to be that old. The Aquamax has the same spectral analysis as the Phoenix 14K only 100 more watts. The Phoenix 150W 14K puts out 33 PPFD and the 250W
Aquamax 14K puts out 55 PPFD. I would say that’s a nice improvement.
That being said I swapped out the internals on the Coralife fixture and installed the 250W internals. The ballast cord goes through the stock hole (I made larger) that the 150w power supply went through, so it looks very clean.

I guess I’ll hold off on the LEDs until I see how the corals respond to the additional light. I can tell you for sure my 150w 14K Phoenix just wasn’t enough for some of the SPS I keep. The ORA German Blue Polyp Acropora requires a great deal of light. Ever since it’s been in the BC it’s been more brown than green. Other Acroporas do hold their color but more are brown than not.

Pics

The 150W

The 250W

 

[JAustin]

FTS with the 250w MH.

 

[Jedidad]

very nice. i hope everything acclimates well to the new lighting

 

[JAustin]

They should acclimate well. I've reduced the light cycle. My Sps was used to 4 AI Sol over a 4 ft tank. On a side note, the aquamax bulb is nice.