My 500 + gallon system. Last 13 years to now. Build, Aquascaping & more. Lots of pics
- Thread starter slief
- Start date
slief
RC Sponsor
I have spent the morning getting the new LED's setup. First was wiring.. Then came firmware updates and then some basic programming. They are now up and running and I am VERY impressed. The sunrise effect goes from one end of the tank to the next. The coverage is excellent. I currently have my whites at 60%, blues at 80% and royal blues at 70%. Not only is the color excellent, but it much bright and more even as far as coverage compared to the 400 watt 20K halides that they replaced.
I still need to dial things in with my par meter as I dont want to start off with too much light. I also need to finish cleaning up all my wires of which I am about half way done. Once I get everything tidy and nice, I will snap a few more pictures.
I still need to dial things in with my par meter as I dont want to start off with too much light. I also need to finish cleaning up all my wires of which I am about half way done. Once I get everything tidy and nice, I will snap a few more pictures.
AGYDAL
New member
I felt like a kid in a candy store reading about all your tanks gadgets , nice!
As far as checking your PAR, I'd check it ASAP...I run the Vertex fixture above my tank and have the whites set at 45%...granted I have a tank that looks like a goldfish bowl to yours
but the PAR on some of these LEDs fixtures can be pretty surprising, and make corals unhappy quickly.
I am interested in seeing if your "bad" algae growth changes with the LEDs and Mg dosing...seems like I have less (if any at all) running the LED.
As far as checking your PAR, I'd check it ASAP...I run the Vertex fixture above my tank and have the whites set at 45%...granted I have a tank that looks like a goldfish bowl to yours
but the PAR on some of these LEDs fixtures can be pretty surprising, and make corals unhappy quickly.I am interested in seeing if your "bad" algae growth changes with the LEDs and Mg dosing...seems like I have less (if any at all) running the LED.
slief
RC Sponsor
It will end up being at least 3 parts as it was a pretty complicated swap. My guess is he will start uploading in the next week or so.
I felt like a kid in a candy store reading about all your tanks gadgets , nice!
As far as checking your PAR, I'd check it ASAP...I run the Vertex fixture above my tank and have the whites set at 45%...granted I have a tank that looks like a goldfish bowl to yours
I am interested in seeing if your "bad" algae growth changes with the LEDs and Mg dosing...seems like I have less (if any at all) running the LED.
I ran a quick par test last night on one side of the tank. With the fixture 8" or so above the water, I was getting a par reading that was jumping between 370 and 420 PAR at 8" underwater directly under one of the fixtures. I have since turned the LED's down a bit and raised the fixtures just to be safe. In comparison, I was getting less than half those numbers with my 400 watt halides, but the bulbs were several month old and I ran those lights about 24" off the water. I did lower them some before the swap to increase the PAR in an effort to prepare the corals for the LED's.
As for the bad algae, its on the decline. I haven't dosed Mg in a couple weeks but things are definately looking a bit better.
slief
RC Sponsor
I do have a youtube page. My user name is slief. Not much there other than a couple few tank videos as well as a couple other things.
I spend some more time today messing with my colors. I think I found a combination I like color wise and intensity wise that is still low enough on the par for acclimation. Right now I'm at 65% white, 40% blue and 20% royal blue. The coloring is about perfect. I ran a quick par test at about 10" deep with the lights 12" off the water and saw par numbers in the 150-200 range. If I crank things up, I get to about 420 at the same depth. This is centered under the fixture so as I move away from center, things drop off..
My halides were around 100 par at the same depth but I ran the 20-24" off the water to get the spread I needed.
The light cover in very even though the lights along the overflow have to shoot through "well seasoned" acrylic that needs a good scrubbing and cleaning> the par levels in that area are degraded substantially.
All said and done, I am really happy with the swap. The level of control in color and intensity is pretty cool. That and I love to have something else to tinker with.
I finished cleaning up most of my wires. Still a bit more cleaning to do where I have all my power and moon modules as well as LED network stuff. I will probably add some black wire covering to the wires when I get my second wind.
Here are a few more pictures.
This is where all the wires and power go to on the light rack. Like a said, a bit more cleaning to do.
A couple shots of the tank. The pictures do absolutely no justice. I will try to take some video of it tomorrow and post a link.
slief
RC Sponsor
Its been a few days since I updated the thread. I have not really touched the lights since my last post. All the tanks inhabitants seem to like or at least not mind the new lighting.
I have taken some time to compare my amp draw from before the light change to now and quite frankly, I am a bit surprised by just how much less power I am using. Having the Apex really makes it easy to compare.. The halides used about 6.2 amps.. With the leds at my current settings of 65% white, 40% blues and 20% power to the royal blues, the leds are drawing a whopping 2.2 amps and providing so much more light to the tank that I am kind of astonished! I will be acclimating the tanks to the lights for the next month or so and come first of the week will start to increase the power a bit. I dont expect I will ever get near 100% on any of the lights so I should still see at least a 50-60% savings in that power alone.
In this screen capture from the apex graph of a seven day period the blue line on the graph is the power bar that had the metal halides and the red line is the power bar that now has the led's. You can see where the power dropped off from 8.3 to 2.1 amps when the halides were removed. That 2.1 amps are the other devices on that bar. The blue line kicks in at about 3.3 amps for the first day and part of the second until I dialed it down a bit to its present 2.2 to 2.3 amp draw for acclimation and color.
On the subject of power, I just got a new JBJ Arctica 1/2HP chiller. My plan is to install it tomorrow. My existing West Coast Aquatics 1/2HP chiller has provided me flawless faithful service for several years but it also uses 10.4 to 10.8 amps depending on the time of day and how hot my garage (where the chiller resides) is. The Arctica is rated at 5.1 amps max. My chiller turns on 6-7 times a day for about an hour. Dropping the temp from about 80 to 78.5. I just hope the Arctica proves to be as efficient as its rated and is as quick to cool my tank and equally reliable. If so, I should see an appreciable savings there as well.
Im sure some of you are wondering how much the LED's reduced the temp of my tank..
The LED's dont spare me much on the heat because my light soffit is well ventilated with a large duct fan sending the heated air outside through a vent. Even with the halides, it stayed cool in the light area. I think much of the heat is due to the lack of ventilation under the tank and the pair of 65watt fuge lights built into the fuge lids. My next plan is to add a duct fan below the tank and vent it outside as well. That will eliminate most if not all the heat generated by the lights and pumps. I also plan on modifying the fuge light fixtures so I can use lower wattage bulbs. The only other potential heat generators on my tank would be the hammerhead and dart pumps, 114 watt UV as well as the two Red Dragon Pumps running my skimmer All things that will benifit from adding a good exhuast fan down below.
Back on the subject of power.. Looking back to about a year ago just prior to installing the new sumps and and replacing all of my other pumps to just prior to the LED change, my power bill dropped by upwards of 50% as a result of the pumps alone. With the LED change and the chiller change, that will spare me quite a bit more.
Once the chiller is in and the fuge lights are modified, I have a dart gold pump to replace my existing standard dart recirc pump. That wont save me much on power but it will bump my recirc flow a decent amount. The standard dart will become the backup. I am also planning a hammerhead gold to replace my existing hammerhead return pump with. The hammer head gold uses a fair amount less power (50-60 watts) than the hammerhead I have now. My existing hammerhead will become the spare return pump.
When I am done with everything, I estimate that I will have reduced the power usage of my tank by over 80% in the last 15 months. That amount to several hundred dollars a month in electricty which really makes me happy!
I have taken some time to compare my amp draw from before the light change to now and quite frankly, I am a bit surprised by just how much less power I am using. Having the Apex really makes it easy to compare.. The halides used about 6.2 amps.. With the leds at my current settings of 65% white, 40% blues and 20% power to the royal blues, the leds are drawing a whopping 2.2 amps and providing so much more light to the tank that I am kind of astonished! I will be acclimating the tanks to the lights for the next month or so and come first of the week will start to increase the power a bit. I dont expect I will ever get near 100% on any of the lights so I should still see at least a 50-60% savings in that power alone.
In this screen capture from the apex graph of a seven day period the blue line on the graph is the power bar that had the metal halides and the red line is the power bar that now has the led's. You can see where the power dropped off from 8.3 to 2.1 amps when the halides were removed. That 2.1 amps are the other devices on that bar. The blue line kicks in at about 3.3 amps for the first day and part of the second until I dialed it down a bit to its present 2.2 to 2.3 amp draw for acclimation and color.
On the subject of power, I just got a new JBJ Arctica 1/2HP chiller. My plan is to install it tomorrow. My existing West Coast Aquatics 1/2HP chiller has provided me flawless faithful service for several years but it also uses 10.4 to 10.8 amps depending on the time of day and how hot my garage (where the chiller resides) is. The Arctica is rated at 5.1 amps max. My chiller turns on 6-7 times a day for about an hour. Dropping the temp from about 80 to 78.5. I just hope the Arctica proves to be as efficient as its rated and is as quick to cool my tank and equally reliable. If so, I should see an appreciable savings there as well.
Im sure some of you are wondering how much the LED's reduced the temp of my tank..
The LED's dont spare me much on the heat because my light soffit is well ventilated with a large duct fan sending the heated air outside through a vent. Even with the halides, it stayed cool in the light area. I think much of the heat is due to the lack of ventilation under the tank and the pair of 65watt fuge lights built into the fuge lids. My next plan is to add a duct fan below the tank and vent it outside as well. That will eliminate most if not all the heat generated by the lights and pumps. I also plan on modifying the fuge light fixtures so I can use lower wattage bulbs. The only other potential heat generators on my tank would be the hammerhead and dart pumps, 114 watt UV as well as the two Red Dragon Pumps running my skimmer All things that will benifit from adding a good exhuast fan down below.
Back on the subject of power.. Looking back to about a year ago just prior to installing the new sumps and and replacing all of my other pumps to just prior to the LED change, my power bill dropped by upwards of 50% as a result of the pumps alone. With the LED change and the chiller change, that will spare me quite a bit more.
Once the chiller is in and the fuge lights are modified, I have a dart gold pump to replace my existing standard dart recirc pump. That wont save me much on power but it will bump my recirc flow a decent amount. The standard dart will become the backup. I am also planning a hammerhead gold to replace my existing hammerhead return pump with. The hammer head gold uses a fair amount less power (50-60 watts) than the hammerhead I have now. My existing hammerhead will become the spare return pump.
When I am done with everything, I estimate that I will have reduced the power usage of my tank by over 80% in the last 15 months. That amount to several hundred dollars a month in electricty which really makes me happy!
TheFishTeen
New member
I guess the only reason you spend more money on new equipment is because in the long run it saves on power bill, but won't it take a while to make back all the money you spent on the new LEDs, pumps and chiller?
slief
RC Sponsor
With pumps, I always keep spares. Before the the sump swap, I had 4 wave 1/8HP pumps, an Iwaki 100RLT and a little giant all running 24x7. Plus the back up pumps. I slimmed that down to 2 main pumps (Hammerhead and Dart) plus some Tunze's.
Before the LED's my bill dropped from up to $1100+ per month in the summer to just under $700 in the summer since the sump swap. Winter was was from $900 down to $500-600 depending on how cold it is and how much the house heater is on. The led and chiller power savings should be equivilent to about 1200 watts running for 7 hours a day. Becuase I'm at such a high tier due to my power usage, I get raked on the rates. The next bill will give me a good idea on the LED and chiller savings but I do expect to see $150-$200 a month in savings from the leds and chiller alone. Maybe even more.
I'm also a smart shopper. I got a GREAT deal on the chiller as the place I got it from had it sitting in inventory for a couple months and wanted to move it. Most of my purchases are cost driven so I do my homework and even got some great deals on this forum for things like pumps.
Then there are all the things to clean up and sell. Pumps, protein skimmers, sumps, halides, ballasts etc all brought money in to offset the costs on the new stuff. You'd be surprised how much when you factor in all the back up duplicate equipment. My original chiller alone will bring $400-$500 which covers half or more of my cost on the new chiller. This assuming I don't decide to keep it as backup.
I can honestly say that all the upgrades I have done in the last year from sumps to pumps to LED's and chillers will have more than paid for themselves in that time alone. Especially when you offset the costs with the revenue generated from the sale of the stuff that comes out of service.
The other reason to replace the old stuff with newer stuff is to make the tank and its inhabitants happier which I have accomplished. That and future proofing it. My tank hadn't seen an upgrade to its filters, plumbing, pumps, cooling etc since I installed it here in 97. It was long overdue.
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RootsRockReefer
New member
Those pulleys look like they are doing the trick for your rack.
No linear rails : )
You have done alot since the last time I looked at your thread.
Looks like your tank is headed for a bright future for sure.
No linear rails : )
You have done alot since the last time I looked at your thread.
Looks like your tank is headed for a bright future for sure.
dahenley
New member
i would say that when i hopped on this thread (back when you were talking about the sump upgrade)
there have been lots of changes, and every one of them has been talked about and thoroughly thought threw. (no impulse buys to dread later)
im glad everything is working out and making a difference.
there have been lots of changes, and every one of them has been talked about and thoroughly thought threw. (no impulse buys to dread later)
im glad everything is working out and making a difference.
bullitr
broke but happy
Scott.
did you recieved the sunshine ozone generator yet?
i just got mine yesterday and its already hook up but i am concern about the seal on my reeflo dart gold pump for skimmer so i am thinking of getting a reactor instead but i dont think it will work since it doesnt need a lump pump.
did you recieved the sunshine ozone generator yet?
i just got mine yesterday and its already hook up but i am concern about the seal on my reeflo dart gold pump for skimmer so i am thinking of getting a reactor instead but i dont think it will work since it doesnt need a lump pump.
slief
RC Sponsor
I did get it. I hooked it up and had it online for a day or 2 before I had to remove my reactor to re-do my light rack wire rope cables. The ozone generator needed to be modified out of the box as there is no airline hose connection directly to the corona unit inside it. By default it uses the plastic case as the conduit for air into the corona. The case isnt quite airtight so there was an ozone smell that leaked out when you feed it with air. I did the modification which helped but I still smelled ozone in the closet when I pulled it offline. I need to open it up again and cinch the hoses down inside of it and see if that fixes it.
For the price ($100 for a 500Mg unit), if I can resolve the smell issue, its a great deal. If not, I will put the Poseidon unit back in.
As for your using a reactor instead of the skimmer, the reactor uses minimal flow so if you can tap into a return pump line you would be set. You would just need to route the reactors effluent through a carbon reactor and back into the sump or into your protein skimmer.
slief
RC Sponsor
A bit of an update. I just got through swapping out my Hammerhead and Dart for the Hammerhead Gold and Dart Gold. The Hammerhead Gold sure adds bling to the underside of the tank. :lolspin:
The original dart and hammerhead will now to go the shed as backup pumps.
A week or so ago just prior to installing my new chiller, I raised the temp on the tank from a max of 80 to a max of 81. That change was enough to make a huge difference on chiller run times. Prior to the change my chiller was coming on between 5 and seven times a day for 1 hour. That one hour dropped it a little over a degree. Now with the new chiller, its been coming on every 22-23 hours for one hour with a drop of 1.5 degrees. The new chiller isnt as efficient as its rated as far as amps though. Its drawing around 8 amps max instead of the rated 5.5, but its still better than my previous one and cools the tank a bit more in the same amount of run time. At the end of the day, I went from over 1200 watts of chiller running 6 or so hours a day, sometimes more down to about 900 watts running 1 hour a day. That was shocking and will make a huge difference in cost.
I think all these changes to reduce my power consumption will drop me a tier or 2 in my power usage rating with the electric company. That in turn should reduce the $ percentage per kilowatt that I am chaged for my combined power on top of the amount of power that I am no longer using. :bounce2:
The original dart and hammerhead will now to go the shed as backup pumps.
A week or so ago just prior to installing my new chiller, I raised the temp on the tank from a max of 80 to a max of 81. That change was enough to make a huge difference on chiller run times. Prior to the change my chiller was coming on between 5 and seven times a day for 1 hour. That one hour dropped it a little over a degree. Now with the new chiller, its been coming on every 22-23 hours for one hour with a drop of 1.5 degrees. The new chiller isnt as efficient as its rated as far as amps though. Its drawing around 8 amps max instead of the rated 5.5, but its still better than my previous one and cools the tank a bit more in the same amount of run time. At the end of the day, I went from over 1200 watts of chiller running 6 or so hours a day, sometimes more down to about 900 watts running 1 hour a day. That was shocking and will make a huge difference in cost.
I think all these changes to reduce my power consumption will drop me a tier or 2 in my power usage rating with the electric company. That in turn should reduce the $ percentage per kilowatt that I am chaged for my combined power on top of the amount of power that I am no longer using. :bounce2:
slief
RC Sponsor
I suppose it could be but the cost of cooling my house continually Is more expensive that cooling my tank. I use the AC as needed. My airconditioning system isn't very efficient for my house size. I plan on adding some duct to the underside of my tank to vent it outside. That should help some as well especially during the summer.
slief
RC Sponsor
No comparison. I have so much more control over color. I love having the ability to dial my color in just the way I like it. One thing I hated about the halides was that bulb colors vary from one bulb to the next. You buy a pair and over a short period of time, the color would become different between the two bulbs. In my case, one side of the tank would be slightly more blue than the other. Those days are gone. That and I have much more even and brighter light with better par and I'm still only at 67% power on my whites, 44 on blues and 25% on royal blue. 'm increasing those numbers nice and slow but I will never get to 100% on any of them. Best part is that my corals seem to be very happy with no ill effects.
Today I noticed a trend that really made me happy. My chiller hasn't come on since swapping the pumps. Actually, the last time it was on was at 1:20AM yesterday which is over 40 hours!
My chiller is now set to come on at 81. Today my temp peaked around 80.5 and when my duct fan above in the light soffet turned on at 7:0OAM, It slowly dropped back down to 80.2 and stayed there. I decided to cut a vent under the tank that allows air to flow up the curtain wall to the hole above the tank in the light soffet where the fan is. That allows warm air from under the tank where the pumps and sumps are to be sucked out by the fan above and vented outside the house. That seems to be helping as my temp dropped another 10th. It seems to be on a steady decline. The LED's started turning on at 10:45AM and inspite of the fact that they have been on all day, the temp is still on the decline.
I am pretty excited as my chiller historically came on several times a day for an hour plus at over a 1200 watts draw. The equivelent of runnig a 1200 watt light for 8+ hours a day on the chiller alone. Its been that way for years! I absolutely can't wait to see next months power bill!!! I will probably drop down at least one tier if not more which it will save me on all my electricity on top of what I wont be using anymore.
Oh and there should be part one of the LA Fish Guys LED episode uploaded tonight. Jim came by yesterday and filmed the completion of the lights. There will be several parts as it covers everything from the the light rack build to installing the new pullies and cables and much more. I think most if not all the parts will be up over the next day or two. It should be pretty thorough and even cover what the tank looks like under different colors and different intensities.
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