Next meeting ideas

[northbay-reefer]

We were thinking about having Rapid LED comes here and show us how to build LEDs for our reef tank. We are also thinking about having an aquascape, rock work meeting. From the last meeting the show of hands decided to do an LED DIY meeting with Rapid LEDs first so I've contacted them and they are willing to come here and do a demo/workshop in July.

They are also willing to give our club a 10% discount at that meeting. I am sure you can arrange with them on the discount even after the meeting. I took advantage of the discount and built myself a supper blue (blue/royal blue) LED strip light. All I can say is the LEDs strip light is amazing. It's even better with the addition of two VHO actinics. During our aquascape meeting at my house you will get to see it in person plus I have some cool rockwork ideas to share with all of you. If any of you have some rocks and like to turn them into bonsai style rock structures you can bring them to this meeting and I'll try to make it happen for you.

Our club is growing and getting to be very exciting and fun so let's keep it rolling. Your enthusiasm and constant participation on RC and at our meetings will help push our club to the next level.

If you have other meetings ideas, please feel free to share.

Reef on !!!!

 

[Grant W]

Led demo meeting sounds good Tom. Now that we have the saw, maybe we can have a fragging and coralmounting session at an upcoming gathering. Another topic could be a talk by the guys from Reef Nutrition since they have been so generous to date with donations to the club. Coral dipping, inspection and product demo and discussion could also be useful. Thats all I have for now. Everybody feel free to add to the list.

 

[zeroinverse]

I've got a bunch of "dead" coral rock from my old tank builds. Would love to have Mr. Miyagi-Tom tell me how to make bonsai rocks. Maybe it will be for my future "zeroedge" tank.

As for RapidLED, will they actually bring "stock" of stuff so we can just BUY right there?

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Lately I was researching building a few LED setups (one for friend's nano, and one for T5HO complement).

Debating using Meanwell drivers or DIY my own set of "buck regulators" (e.g. BuckPuck brand or otherwise) and connect my own 24~48VDC power supply to it. RapidLED only sells Meanwells. Would love to understand if they do it only b/c of the more "easy to understand" DIY instructions for the lay-reefer.

Even debating making my own LED driver system. Kind of like what they've done on this website...

http://shop.stevesleds.com/Complete-LED-Retrofit-Kits-and-Packages_c22.htm
(too bad we can't invite these guys)...
The tubular heatlink & pressurizing cooling fans sound like good ideas.

 

[northbay-reefer]

Grant fragging and mounting session sounds good, I also have a brand new title saw that we could use to cut bigger thicker corals. Having Reef Nutrition here would be great.

Ron, Bring them dead rocks and we will have some fun putting them together. Let's think extreme counter balance when we put them together. Steveleds got some cool stuff but I am not totaly sold on the tube heat sink, I think some of the LED builds are overlydone. We can always have a list of orders ahead of time and Rapid Led can bring the orders to deliver at the meeting and if you want to you can start your build at that meeting.

 

[zeroinverse]

Agreed not sold on the tube heat sink. But it is not a bad air channeling idea. It does make it a cheaper DIY that may be sufficient.

I think the main thing for me is if I care about using Meanwells that include an AC-DC converter with a DC current regulator... And for a 60+ LED setup, that's maybe 4-5 MW drivers. That means power conversion efficiency is like 85% or so.

With buying one 200W (60LEDs x 3W) AC-DC power supply, I could get like 95% efficiency. With the buckpucks, then I could maybe get 90-95% overall efficiency. That means like 10-20W of power savings... But more importantly, less heat is my power supply. (not like the PS is in my fishtank, hehehe).

Just thinking out loud.

 

[northbay-reefer]

The power supply idea does give you more options on the efficency and you can probably get another 10-20% performance out of your build, but for me sometime I like the simple approach on some stuff because my set up is already way too complicated LOL plus if I can push it to get more I usually do, kinda like overclocking my CPUs and graphics cards. You get more performance but you will also get more heat and more reasons for things to fail so it's a balancing act.

Meanwells non dimable driver gives me what I need and doesn't allow me the ability to tinker so in some way that is good for smaller builds its good.

For a bigger build I'll go with separate power supplies because you want modular when it comes to bigger build (less things that can fail and more flexibilities)

 

[Grant W]

Just thought of another. We could have another Hold Em tournament. I need to defend my title and Beat Jake's A$$ again LOL........ (Jake insert comment here)