my diy mh setup with color changing moon lights

[troylee]

ok so i tryed this in one post and it would'nt let me so im gonna break it up....
here is the start of the reflector....

this was all made using silver polished aluminum.......probally not the best reflective material but it's getting the job done....it has 3 bays one for each 250mh bulb....and the second and third part is coming in just a min....

 

[troylee]

here is the ballast box i built it contains all 3 magnatex m58 ballast and four fans 2 pulling in and 2 pushing out which keeps them at room temp it's amazing....also you will notice a plug outlet that is for the fans on top of the reflector one is mounted above each socket in the hood this allowed me to only have one plug out of the can which plugs into a timer and runns all 3 bulbs and fans....

and now the third part the moon light's which are way cool...

 

[troylee]

here are the moon light's which i yanked out of a old sign each module contains 6 led's 2blue 2red and 2 green which give me 1.3 million colors to choose from via a color wash board and flipping dip switches once i get a dmx controller i can do it via remote control on the couch lol....

and now the pics of it all fired up the mh are all 250w xm 20k bulb's and a few samples of the moon light's......

please feel free with any comment's or suggestions or questions....thanks

 

[chimmike]

Love the red lights, actually. That must bring an awesome feel to the room, and it doesn't bother the fishies!

 

[MrRyanT]

I really like your lights. I am little surprised at how focused the moonlights appear to be, I would of thought that the light would have been more spread out.

 

[GlaringToast]

If you don't like the "spotlight" effect of the lights you can buy a few toys from the machines at walmart, etc. for the plastic bubbles they come in. Then sand the bubble and fix it in front of the light, it will spread the light out more and eliminate the spotlight effect you're getting from the leds. It's all personal preference though.

 

[GlaringToast]

Also, what material did you use for the reflector, and where did you get it?

 

[troylee]

i actually love the spot light look it gives off.....the question i have about them is being able to dim change colors etc. i ran the blue at a spec of 465 suppose to be the same as the moon.....anyways at the highest intensity my corals responded well and shut when the mh went off but the fish stayed very active not like they used to before the moon lights it used to just be dark so i turned the intensity down like half way and now they are responding well and doing the normal night behavior i seen before the moon lights were installed.....so i here that inverts cant pick up red is this true???? im gonna try it maybe tonight and crank the red all the way up and just leave the blue at it's setting and see how well everything resonds it will put off a cool purple color that really flouresces the corals and fish......as for the meatal it is just a .040 silver polished aluminum that you can pick up and any local supply house that carrys steel sheetmetal etc...

 

[catman78]

Great Job on the fixture. Looks like you have a few hours into it.

 

[gumbii]

what i do to my led's is sand the tip of the led itself... flatten it out and it will give a wider spectrum... and that's pretty cool... i would want to do the same color changing led trick tool... hmm... where did you get the module to do all that...?

 

[troylee]

it is a color wash board made by boca flasher commonly used in the sign industry I will answer more questions when I get home

 

[gumbii]

i've been going nuts online (ebay) looking for anything simular... lol... i'll look for a wash board... are those them DJ lights...???

 

[troylee]

a dmx controller is used to program the board which in turn might be able to find the board with the dmx controller tomorrow when I am at work I will talk to the lighting guru who hooked me up and get info on where to purchase these and prices

 

[troylee]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14191308#post14191308 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chimmike
Love the red lights, actually. That must bring an awesome feel to the room, and it doesn't bother the fishies!

Is this true? I cranked up the red last night and my fish went haywire I observed wierd behavior my clarki who normally fights with my mated pair of percs was hanging out all together in a nice orderly conduct down in the bottom corner while some other fish shot back and forth across the tank....... The corals and inverts didn't seem to mind it at all..... Also for those of you who asked about the board it is a dmx reciever board that I use to change the colors if you google dmx reciever board you will find them also look for one with a dmx controller and get the combo you need the controller to program the presets in the wash board the one I have is used so there was some programming already in it...

 

[sohal1025]

Where did you get the moon lights?

 

[troylee]

from a old sign we took down lol...........i know it is no help but the whole setup is from boca flasher my lighting guru here at work told me you can call them and get this whole set up no problem....... all the led's are is what is called a pixel/module which contains 6 led's on a little board with the resistor's all in one little unit or circut board i should say 2blue 2 red and 2 green which when they are lit at different intesitys gives you different spectrums and colors 1.3 million to be exact let me search for a simiular pixel on the net and i will post a link if i don't get in trouble for it im not sure the rules on that.......

 

[jonathanws]

they have light changing strips at ikea. pretty neat LEDs

 

[ecoreefer]

That's an awesome DIY lighting setup right there! I personally like the "spotlight" effect of the LED's. They must look really cool in person.

 

[troylee]

thanks.......ya they look sweet in person i will have to get ahold of a good camera and take some nice clean photos these were all done using my phone lol.....the pic's do them no justice i got a lot of playing to do thou it's wierd the way the led's look in the water in the pic's it looks like a nice clean color and far away it does to but if you get right up on the tank it almost looks like a disco ball lol you can see each color hit the bottom of the tank....or i should say you can see red green and blue dot's on the bottom of the tank but in the middle where the light is just going through it is a even color..

 

[lvsuckerfish]

now I can get some boxes from you for my ballast.