kupadupapupa
New member
Could you elaborate on your die off from phosphate? I'm dealing with phosphate issues myself. I was told I completely stripped all phosphates and nutrients using gfo and now most off my lps and sps is dying.
Minimalistic multichip DIY LED build
- Thread starter maglofster
- Start date
Could you elaborate on your die off from phosphate? I'm dealing with phosphate issues myself. I was told I completely stripped all phosphates and nutrients using gfo and now most off my lps and sps is dying.
hey there, great thread. im in the process of building my second multichip fixture, with the first i got my 3 10w chips in a package with the right power source.
now i plan on building 2 pendants with 2 x 10w each:
Forward Voltage
9-10V
Forward Current
900mA
for a powersource for 2 10w chips, what kind of specs for the power source do i need?
i could choose between
1750mA (9-34V)
1050mA (9-30V)
or do i need a totally different one?
the pendants will be actively cooled.
thanks in advance!
now i plan on building 2 pendants with 2 x 10w each:
Forward Voltage
9-10V
Forward Current
900mA
for a powersource for 2 10w chips, what kind of specs for the power source do i need?
i could choose between
1750mA (9-34V)
1050mA (9-30V)
or do i need a totally different one?
the pendants will be actively cooled.
thanks in advance!
Sort of off topic since not really DIY but anyone ever try these little 10W lights? I wanted something small to suppliment an area that wasn't getting a ton of light and was planning on making a small 20-30w light but saw these and figured if they worked they would look better and are not much different price wise.
miatawnt2b
New member
Sort of off topic since not really DIY but anyone ever try these little 10W lights? I wanted something small to suppliment an area that wasn't getting a ton of light and was planning on making a small 20-30w light but saw these and figured if they worked they would look better and are not much different price wise.
I have this light lighting my 10g sump. Works well. Very yellow.
-J
Cool thanks, I actually talked to someone who said I could get 20k or 450nm if I wanted so maybe this could work.
TropTrea
New member
Is this the only lighting you have? A total of 100 Watts on a 120 Gallon tank especialy with SPS seems to be very little light. I'm running at least twice that wattage per gallon on all my tanks.
I've been told, but can't seem to find any info backing this up or disproving it, that drivers use the same wattage all the time. Even when dimmed down.
So a 60W dimmable driver would use 60W input even when supplying a 50% dimmed 30W to the LED's.
Is this true? I hope not, otherwise that would be a huge waste of energy.
So a 60W dimmable driver would use 60W input even when supplying a 50% dimmed 30W to the LED's.
Is this true? I hope not, otherwise that would be a huge waste of energy.
I can tell you that is not true. I have an APC battery backup on my tank that also reports how many watts are being used. I can clearly see the wattage go down and up as I ramp the lights up throughout the day (razor LED's in this case). The same can also be said for my meanwell drivers that I have on a DIY setup.
miatawnt2b
New member
that is all the light I am running and my SPS are growing
I run a 9 hour photo period.
people told me I was running too little light when I had my 450gal
I had 3-250W MH 12K coralvues and 4 T5 actinics and had good coral growth
since I downgraded from 450 my electric bill is down $275.00 per month :thumbsup:
TropTrea
New member
Sounds like about 216 watts watts to 320 watts of MH's amd 750 Watts of on LED's for a total of 966 to 1050 watts of light. That is between 3.01 and 3.33 watts per gallon. compared to the 100 watts of LED's over a 120 gallon for 0.83 Watts per gallon. I will agree with the effeciency differences as I myself have gone from 5.5 Watts per Galllon when I used MH's to 3.6 Watts per gallon with T-5's and then to the 1.2 Watts per gallon using DIY LED's. But I'm now starting to switch back as my best tank is using a combination of T-5's and LED's and is running roughly just uder 2 Watts per gallon.
Yes Lights do use up the most electricity when running a reef tank but a savings of $225 per month is hard to believe. Locally we pay .14 per KWH so your reducing your monthly usage by 1,600 KWH, or 53,700 Watts per day, which breaks down to over 2,000 Watts per hour on a 24 hour bases. If your lights were using 1,000 Watts for 12 hours a day that means your pumps and other equipment must have been using around 2,000 Watts per hour.
I would have looked at more effecient pumps for starters.
Details please.
Not many details. But they said they would make them with different LEDs, I specifically asked about the 20k and 450 blue. They said it would cost $2 ( I think there original price was $16 shipped) more because they would have to make them special and I was only ordering a couple. Personally, I think they look nice enough that when I plan on buying them I was going to see if anyone else was interested hopefully getting higher numbers to drop the cost???
In my observation the 50W Multichip Led produces close to the equivalent of a 250W MH, granted I haven't measured the PAR but I am happy with the way the tank looks and growth.
As far as the 450 I was running a super dart as a return with sea swirls, reefoctopus SRO 5000 int, 4 tunze power heads.
no regrets here like my 120
BTW I pay 18cents a KW plus a 5 cent per KW delivery charge
I'm in socal and my rates are tiered but I always and up in tier 5, which is the highest, at 36 cents per KWH and I don't even have my tank set up yet! :sad1: I think Saving $225 per month is definitely doable depending on what you pay.
miatawnt2b
New member
I'm thinking about lighting a 30x30x30 cube with multichips. Do you think a single 100w with optic and a pair of 50W no optics will do the trick? Or can I get away with two 100W without optics?
-J
-J
kupadupapupa
New member
I was only running 2x250 MH and when I switched to led my power bill went down $100. Led lights pay for themselves very quickly, much faster then what some people think, especially using the cheaper multi chips.
