RapidLED Aurora Build
- Thread starter AZRippster
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AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
Incredibly easy. The Coralux Storm X is very simple to use. You pretty much find your color balance during the peak daylight hours and the controller ramps the intensity up from dawn, through the day, and then dims to sunset. That about it. My wife and I played with the setting a little more yesterday and raised the fixture another 3" or so for a little more light spread.
AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
They have been great, but on a tank this size the Blues are not as prevalent or strong as I would like. I'm in the process of adding 4 50W multi-chip Royal Blue LED fixtures right now. I have the housings fabricated and today I should have the mounts done. They will sit in between the primary fixtures providing the supplemental spectrum I feel the tank needs.
Regardless, I've had great growth and in 6 months the rock is almost completely covered in coralline.
Regardless, I've had great growth and in 6 months the rock is almost completely covered in coralline.
AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
DodgerBlu,
Here are some shots of the add-on Royal Blue LED (can be swapped out with any color really) housing and mount setup I'm using. Obviously not done, but making progress. I'm hoping to have how the wiring will be setup and run today. There will be a fan mounted to the heatsink that sits inside each housing. It will draw air through the vent grooves I put in the housing. I tested them on Tuesday and they are nice and silent. I decided to go with the same Vantec Stealth fans that Rapid LED provides with their Aurora Puck setup due to how quite they are. My favorite are Noctua, but for the $$ I just opted for the Vantec.
I'll try and get some shots posted this weekend that kinda shows the tank over the past 6 1/2 months with the Rapid LED Aurora pucks providing the only light. I highly doubt I'll have the supplemental Royal Blue fixtures mounted by this weekend.
Here are some shots of the add-on Royal Blue LED (can be swapped out with any color really) housing and mount setup I'm using. Obviously not done, but making progress. I'm hoping to have how the wiring will be setup and run today. There will be a fan mounted to the heatsink that sits inside each housing. It will draw air through the vent grooves I put in the housing. I tested them on Tuesday and they are nice and silent. I decided to go with the same Vantec Stealth fans that Rapid LED provides with their Aurora Puck setup due to how quite they are. My favorite are Noctua, but for the $$ I just opted for the Vantec.
I'll try and get some shots posted this weekend that kinda shows the tank over the past 6 1/2 months with the Rapid LED Aurora pucks providing the only light. I highly doubt I'll have the supplemental Royal Blue fixtures mounted by this weekend.
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AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
Hmmm, I'm not sure about a single Aurora Puck. If you look at the first posting, you can see how I placed mine. Not that mine are correct, but based off of Rapid LED's recommendation, I needed 8 Pucks. Spacing them as evenly as I could, they are 12" in from the ends, and then spaced 24" apart. I'll attach my plans and hopefully you can see what I did. In your situation, I wouldn't be concerned with penetration in the least bit, the Aurora's are very bright. I'm more concerned about a single puck's spread on your 24" width measurement. Two pucks may be best. Then again, your depth may allow you to use their "Wide Degree" lens instead and a single puck. I used their standard, which is around 90 (they are actually Ecotech), so that I could get the penetration on a 36" tank depth. With the Wide Degree lens you may have to keep the fixture closer to the water. If you hop on Rapid's site, they have a chat window available. Oftentimes Mike or Vince chime in and will answer questions. Give them your tank's dimensions and have them make a recommendation.
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AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
DodgerBlu,
Here are some shots from about day 4 from migrating our previous tank to this tank. We are now a little shy of 5 1/2 months. We've had the Rapid LED Aurora Pucks running since the beginning. Many adjustments have been made to the 4 Channels trying to get things were the coral like it best. I'm sure there will be even more adjustments made, but we're getting close. As can be seen in the earlier months, we were running things in a very full spectrum mode. We still are, but have backed off of the "color" channel a bit. Also, the rock has really gotten covered with coralline algae which seems to absorb some of the whiter light.
Here are some shots from about day 4 from migrating our previous tank to this tank. We are now a little shy of 5 1/2 months. We've had the Rapid LED Aurora Pucks running since the beginning. Many adjustments have been made to the 4 Channels trying to get things were the coral like it best. I'm sure there will be even more adjustments made, but we're getting close. As can be seen in the earlier months, we were running things in a very full spectrum mode. We still are, but have backed off of the "color" channel a bit. Also, the rock has really gotten covered with coralline algae which seems to absorb some of the whiter light.
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AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
Here is the tank as of yesterday. I waited until the sun had gone down to avoid some reflections and shadowing. The problem is, the "daytime" mode has shifted to sunset. With the days getting longer it makes it tough getting a good shot during the day. The room where our tank is has several windows which causes gobs of reflections.
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AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
Thanks for the compliment. It's still very young with gobs of growth needed to fill it in, but it's on it's way. My wife and I were tickled last night to find our female cleaner shrimp released her babies. After the lights went out we were feeding the coral and found hundreds if not thousands of these little guys swimming everywhere. Today when I came home and was feeding our sun coral I found it has finally put on two new heads, so things are coming around. I have no doubt that the Rapid LED Aurora pucks can grow coral. Since about month 4 /12, we've seen big changes. I completed one of the supplemental Royal Blue fixtures tonight. I'm hoping to have them both done this week and in play this weekend. I'll post pics once they are up and running.
AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
Yes you should and they have all been doing well. The only very slow grower has been the one to the right of the sour apple. In the past couple of months we've seen the biggest changes in him.
AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
Hmmm, OK. I thought the orange digi was the one in my Coral 2 shot above the Hollywood stunner. I wish I could get a good shot of the sunset monti. It's looking awesome, but due the the thickness of the acrylic and the angle in which I have to shoot it, it never turns out worth a crap. Actually, photography through the acrylic, and especially on the bull-nose portions of the tank, is incredibly rough.
AZRippster
Diver & Reef Aquarium Nut
The multichip LED supplemental Royal Blue DIY fixtures are done. I'm hoping to have them integrated and into the existing fixture this weekend. The cool thing now is if I want to change out a color combination, I can just change the 50W chips.
