The original post you quoted said 16,000 kelvin............
Minimalistic multichip DIY LED build
- Thread starter maglofster
- Start date
The original post you quoted said 16,000 kelvin............
If I remember correctly peltiers are using a lot of energy in itself thus IMHO not worth the effort as that is why they fell out of line for us in PC's.
Hey Bmanzie,...my tank is similar to yours. I started long time ago following this thread at its beginning. There is lots of information here, and I ended up leaning towards the 100w Dream Chips. The thing with them, is they have the ability to be driven to a max of 252w and that along with optics help to get lighting to the sand bed of deep tanks. Todays multichips have made strides since the Dream Chips first became available, in fact most all led's have,... so you need to start searching the internet for information on them. Reef Central has some other threads on led lighting,... sometime they get to be heated debates:lol: If/when you find some info on the use of led's in deep tanks,...please post it up :thumbsup:.---Rick
bmanzie
New member
Thank you for your response. I did read about the dream chips and the lumina 5.1 being very similar.
I wanted to get a start and knowing that I need to look at 100w multichips helps.
I did read that the par on the lumina wasn't that great when looking to cover a big tank. They also said it was not energy efficient.
I wanted to get a start and knowing that I need to look at 100w multichips helps.
I did read that the par on the lumina wasn't that great when looking to cover a big tank. They also said it was not energy efficient.
Yeah,...there's lot of debate over the two, it's pretty hard to find posted information from end users. As I said I looked to the DC's because you can power them above the listed 100 watts, and there will be arguments about this ie. longevity, effeciency ect.ect. You need to sift through it all the information you can find and decide what sounds best for your situation. Like I said,...posted info is hard to come by.Good luck---Rick
themaddhatter
New member
Wow! , I followed thus thread a few months ago and just popped back in. It certainly is ALOT of information! My system has been mothballed for 5 years, and I'm just getting ready to restart. I'm designing a small fish room with 2 6' tanks and possibly a third 42" tank. The first two are 125 gallons (22" H) and 100 gallons (18" H). I don't want to reuse my T5s since I need new bulbs anyway, so I've decided to take on this project. It'll keep me busy while my tanks cycle up. I'm thinking of going with 3 pendants for each tank, based on what I've read here, and leaning towards 50w chips. I'm trying to decide between lumias, DC, and some of the eBay no name chips. I plan to have corals in both tanks eventually. I want to plan to be able to accommodate SPS in the future so I don't want to understand size, but electricity consumption is a big concern too. Suggestions?
hi bmanzie,
i dont know if you know it already, but this is my multi-chip build, maybe it helps. the tank is 33.5" high.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2418979
rillaboratories
New member
Finally finished reading through this thread. What will the process be in making your own custom multichip. Is it even possible to purchase all the parts separately to assemble a 100w multichip, i would like the ability to choose the colors and the drivers each one aligns to that are not available at the moment.
Did you read the whole thread?...woooo! Check this guys build>http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2414567
rillaboratories
New member
I've started looking at the jedi & evil's cluster builds, which eventually led me to this thread. I was debating if I should go an evil's cluster build or multichip build, but after the first hundred pages, the multichip seems very convincing.
I saw the dreamchip and the wilson chip so it looks like there are possiblities of getting customized multichips was hoping there was more options of getting one or even if you can diy with a customize board and leds.
I saw the dreamchip and the wilson chip so it looks like there are possiblities of getting customized multichips was hoping there was more options of getting one or even if you can diy with a customize board and leds.
Hi guys! I need some help regarding my 20w Epileds Multichip hybrid which I got from AC RC.
I got AC85-265V 4*20W Waterproof PWM Dimmable Driver then PWM Dimmer and 4 pcs of EPISTAR 20W 19500K/455nm Hybrid Multichip.
My problem is when I open my light at 10% everything seems fine. But when at 20% one of my multichip starts to flickr and then cool white starts to turn on and off. THen at 40% all for are now starting to turn on and off.
I've been running it for a month now the only thing I did before this problem happen is I added 10 3w bulb though it is in completely different series as well as different driver I only used the same frame. Also I forgot to unplug the driver for 24hrs though dimmer is at 0.
Help please. Thanks!
I got AC85-265V 4*20W Waterproof PWM Dimmable Driver then PWM Dimmer and 4 pcs of EPISTAR 20W 19500K/455nm Hybrid Multichip.
My problem is when I open my light at 10% everything seems fine. But when at 20% one of my multichip starts to flickr and then cool white starts to turn on and off. THen at 40% all for are now starting to turn on and off.
I've been running it for a month now the only thing I did before this problem happen is I added 10 3w bulb though it is in completely different series as well as different driver I only used the same frame. Also I forgot to unplug the driver for 24hrs though dimmer is at 0.
Help please. Thanks!
Krazie4Acans
New member
So I came late to this party and took a long time to read the whole thread. I have built many LED lights from the time that this thread started until now. I to have my own opinion of what spectrum works and what doesn't. I tend to lean toward slower growth and premium coral colors (after all aren't we all trying to enjoy the colors of the things we are growing?).
I've done 1W, 3W, 5W, 10W, 20W, 50W, 100W, Dream Chip, Lumia 5.1 and Lumia 5.2 builds. All of them have had pluses and minuses. The interesting part is that I finally found a setup that is truly working better than I ever could have expected and the only mentions of it in this thread have been negative with no good reason to back it up.
So here is my addition to this thread. I have been running 6 18" fixtures each containing 2 Lumia 5.2 chips on each. These are running over 4 different sized tanks 120g 72x18x24, 65g, 40g breeder, 28g nano. None of them are running at 100% output but they all are setup so that during peak output of the day all channels are running at the same output. They may ramp up and down at different rates but they all meet at there specified output for the daily peak.
I have noticed two very interesting things with this setup and configuration. First, the colors in the corals both during daylight and during the florescent periods are easily twice as vivid as before. Second, growth has been on par or higher then I used to get with T5's. Those two things to me are amazing.
In all of the other configurations and builds that I have done with LED's it has been very hard to get good colorization of Orange, red, and yellow corals. The colors are either pale (dim) or they are over bright (bleaching). With these new chips these colors are bright, deep, and rich! They have turn ok corals into incredible corals. I am attributing this huge difference to a combination of the lower K whites (adding a bit more red and amber to the spectrum)as well as the new turquoise channel that they added. Turning the turquoise channel on by itself makes any red, orange, or yellow just pop (not glow like RB's do) but just make them impossible it ignore in the tank.
Growth on softies, LPS, and SPS has been the best I have had with LEDs. In fact my acans grow so fast I have to keep them on their own islands so they don't grow onto my rock work and take over. Some of them (I wish it was all of them)are producing 1 new head per week. I couldn't ask for more.
I designed a board that in corporates an Arduino and 6 LDD drivers onto it and mounts to the lights. This one board allows for simple connections (2 wires for power and an ethernet cable) for all controls. So the leads from the chips never leave the fixture (very neat). The Arduino on the board can be programmed to either be a 0-10v analog to PWM converter (Like the steve's board), or a stand alone (think Typhoon) light controller just by loading different software on the board.
I'll post some pics of this setup so everyone can see what I'm talking about.
What I'm really trying to say in this long winded post is, As much as you might think that a specific multichip configuration may not seam like it will work, That may not be the case. If you are at all considering doing your own multichip build I personally would tell you to look into the Lumia 5.2 (no I am not affiliated with the group buy site). They are working great.... no better than great for me and I am extremely happy with them. I put my tried and true Radion G3 Pro and one of my Lumia 5.2 lights over the same tank 1 week ago. I'm taking pictures of the entire process and will have a thread to show the results. I've got my money on the Lumia. The change to Cree, Exotic and Osram seems to be paying off in that chip.
All I can say is wow! Krazie :jester:
I've done 1W, 3W, 5W, 10W, 20W, 50W, 100W, Dream Chip, Lumia 5.1 and Lumia 5.2 builds. All of them have had pluses and minuses. The interesting part is that I finally found a setup that is truly working better than I ever could have expected and the only mentions of it in this thread have been negative with no good reason to back it up.
So here is my addition to this thread. I have been running 6 18" fixtures each containing 2 Lumia 5.2 chips on each. These are running over 4 different sized tanks 120g 72x18x24, 65g, 40g breeder, 28g nano. None of them are running at 100% output but they all are setup so that during peak output of the day all channels are running at the same output. They may ramp up and down at different rates but they all meet at there specified output for the daily peak.
I have noticed two very interesting things with this setup and configuration. First, the colors in the corals both during daylight and during the florescent periods are easily twice as vivid as before. Second, growth has been on par or higher then I used to get with T5's. Those two things to me are amazing.
In all of the other configurations and builds that I have done with LED's it has been very hard to get good colorization of Orange, red, and yellow corals. The colors are either pale (dim) or they are over bright (bleaching). With these new chips these colors are bright, deep, and rich! They have turn ok corals into incredible corals. I am attributing this huge difference to a combination of the lower K whites (adding a bit more red and amber to the spectrum)as well as the new turquoise channel that they added. Turning the turquoise channel on by itself makes any red, orange, or yellow just pop (not glow like RB's do) but just make them impossible it ignore in the tank.
Growth on softies, LPS, and SPS has been the best I have had with LEDs. In fact my acans grow so fast I have to keep them on their own islands so they don't grow onto my rock work and take over. Some of them (I wish it was all of them)are producing 1 new head per week. I couldn't ask for more.
I designed a board that in corporates an Arduino and 6 LDD drivers onto it and mounts to the lights. This one board allows for simple connections (2 wires for power and an ethernet cable) for all controls. So the leads from the chips never leave the fixture (very neat). The Arduino on the board can be programmed to either be a 0-10v analog to PWM converter (Like the steve's board), or a stand alone (think Typhoon) light controller just by loading different software on the board.
I'll post some pics of this setup so everyone can see what I'm talking about.
What I'm really trying to say in this long winded post is, As much as you might think that a specific multichip configuration may not seam like it will work, That may not be the case. If you are at all considering doing your own multichip build I personally would tell you to look into the Lumia 5.2 (no I am not affiliated with the group buy site). They are working great.... no better than great for me and I am extremely happy with them. I put my tried and true Radion G3 Pro and one of my Lumia 5.2 lights over the same tank 1 week ago. I'm taking pictures of the entire process and will have a thread to show the results. I've got my money on the Lumia. The change to Cree, Exotic and Osram seems to be paying off in that chip.
All I can say is wow! Krazie :jester:
