Led Build
- Thread starter nkd5024
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nkd5024
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The entire project was around $600 with about 90% of the cost being the actually leds etc. The arduino part was quite cheap considering I didn't even have a breadboard or anything.
If you have questions about anything feel free to pm me.
It'll take some time to tell how the corals life the new lighting as the leds were made in order to replace my failing halides, which had left one side of my tank in darkness for around 2-weeks while I was away.
So the corals started STN'ing which has slowed but it looked like I am going to lose around 50% of my acro's and monti's
If you have questions about anything feel free to pm me.
It'll take some time to tell how the corals life the new lighting as the leds were made in order to replace my failing halides, which had left one side of my tank in darkness for around 2-weeks while I was away.
So the corals started STN'ing which has slowed but it looked like I am going to lose around 50% of my acro's and monti's
nkd5024
New member
Alright, so I figure its time for an update.
I just replaced the Green and Red leds that blew when I accidently plugged the meanwell for the blues into them and blew them. :headwalls:
This time I added two Philips Rebel Cyan's into the string to add color as well as increase the voltage requirement of the string as the meanwell needs 8 led running at full power. So since the Cree Reds max drive is 700mA they don't use enough power, which results in a blinking of the leds by the meanwell.
So now I have 12 Royal Blue, 8 Cool White, 2 620nm Red, 2 520nm Green, and a single 490 Cyan on each fixture, plus 4 total Royal blue moonlights.
After doing some planning I am going for the arduino mega based controller and will hopefully start that in the next week. Does anyone know of a cheap way to DIY some peristaltic pumps? I did find some replacement pumps for a chinese made doser at around $25, but couldn't find to much on them.
I also finally found my dream fish, a Radiata Lionfish locally which was quite surprising as in 2 years of looking for one I never even saw one in person let alone one that looked healthy. I have kept dwarf lionfish before but none of the more finicky ones so any advice to getting him on frozen foods would be appreciated. As of now he is enthusiastically eating ghost shrimp. (fed omega one flakes and A Acid vitamin soaked mysis) He does seem interested in frozen krill when the float past, but not from my tongs so I got him to start eating the ghost shrimp from the tongs to get him to associate them with food.
Nick D.
I just replaced the Green and Red leds that blew when I accidently plugged the meanwell for the blues into them and blew them. :headwalls:
This time I added two Philips Rebel Cyan's into the string to add color as well as increase the voltage requirement of the string as the meanwell needs 8 led running at full power. So since the Cree Reds max drive is 700mA they don't use enough power, which results in a blinking of the leds by the meanwell.
So now I have 12 Royal Blue, 8 Cool White, 2 620nm Red, 2 520nm Green, and a single 490 Cyan on each fixture, plus 4 total Royal blue moonlights.
After doing some planning I am going for the arduino mega based controller and will hopefully start that in the next week. Does anyone know of a cheap way to DIY some peristaltic pumps? I did find some replacement pumps for a chinese made doser at around $25, but couldn't find to much on them.
I also finally found my dream fish, a Radiata Lionfish locally which was quite surprising as in 2 years of looking for one I never even saw one in person let alone one that looked healthy. I have kept dwarf lionfish before but none of the more finicky ones so any advice to getting him on frozen foods would be appreciated. As of now he is enthusiastically eating ghost shrimp. (fed omega one flakes and A Acid vitamin soaked mysis) He does seem interested in frozen krill when the float past, but not from my tongs so I got him to start eating the ghost shrimp from the tongs to get him to associate them with food.
Nick D.
Last edited:
nkd5024
New member
Some good news on the Lionfish front, today I decided to see if he would pay any attention to some frozen krill. He's a little on the small side so I cut a decent sized piece about the size of the small ghost shrimp he's been eating and held it with my tweezers making sure the legs were free to move in the water to make it look more alive. After about 5 minutes of "walking" it around the tank as if it were another shrimp, he went for it and ate it!
I'm guessing i've just been lucky with him as other people seem to have trouble getting them to eat what so ever. I've had him for 4 days now and he's already starting to eat frozen food, which is quicker than the dwarf lions I had a while back...?
Either way I am quite pleased with him and I will get some nice pictures of him up tomorrow.
I'm guessing i've just been lucky with him as other people seem to have trouble getting them to eat what so ever. I've had him for 4 days now and he's already starting to eat frozen food, which is quicker than the dwarf lions I had a while back...?
Either way I am quite pleased with him and I will get some nice pictures of him up tomorrow.
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