Project Erebor

Duc1098

Duc1098

Member
Instead of the Exotic Turquoise you might want to look into the Exotic Ocean Coral White which has the Turquoise 495nm, Deep Red 660nm and Cree XP-E Blue 465nm on one chip. One other thing and I'm not sure if you have already looked into this, but have you thought of a way to mount those Meanwell LDD-H drivers. I ordered 10 LDD-H drivers for my build and have been researching a clean way of doing it and came across this:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=21055031&postcount=489

I'm still looking into it but I would like to get some for my build. I can look into ordering extra if you would be interested.
 
Reeflogic

Reeflogic

New member
I use the OCW and love the look it adds. I also chose the MakersLED controllers because you just push on 2 drivers, screw them to the top of the heatsink and forget about them, then just daisy chain the sunrise / sunset controller. Super easy, protects the drivers and keeps them cool and more importantly, doesn't look like Sh*t.
 
Y

yman182

Active member
Duc1098 said:
Instead of the Exotic Turquoise you might want to look into the Exotic Ocean Coral White which has the Turquoise 495nm, Deep Red 660nm and Cree XP-E Blue 465nm on one chip. One other thing and I'm not sure if you have already looked into this, but have you thought of a way to mount those Meanwell LDD-H drivers. I ordered 10 LDD-H drivers for my build and have been researching a clean way of doing it and came across this:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=21055031&postcount=489

I'm still looking into it but I would like to get some for my build. I can look into ordering extra if you would be interested.
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That would be great. Those things look like they will make everything look cleaner.

I asked the guys on Nano-reef about using more colors like red, blue, etc and this was the response I got.

The reason that other full spectrum builds use so many colors is that they need to compensate for the poor color rendering of the white LED. Fix that, and you don't need as many supplemental colors to make up the difference. Evil clusters do work well, and have great color overall, but are powerful and need to be treated carefully. I think with a tank as deep as yours, you shouldn't have any issues with it.
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Reeflogic

Reeflogic

New member
I spoke to Milad in length about the OCW, it is pretty much to add a nice pop to fish and coral colors. If I turn just the OCW's on, the tank has a funky psychedelic coloration, but if I turn it off when the CW, HV and RB's are set, it does dull the colors. It doesn't look BAD without them and I could probably go without them, but once you adjust to having the OCW on, it just makes it THAT much nicer. The guys who complain about it not being necessary are the guys who built theirs before the OCW were available and are just jealous ;)

Hell it's probably all a fad and a ploy to sell stuff and they will probably be in a old coffee can collecting dust in a year. There is so much controversy over LEDs right now, you could read every forum for the next 2 weeks straight and still be confused. I enjoy the HD effect my LEDs provide, but sure seems easier to just slap 2 MH and some T5's and call it a day lol.
 
Y

yman182

Active member
Reeflogic said:
Hell it's probably all a fad and a ploy to sell stuff and they will probably be in a old coffee can collecting dust in a year. There is so much controversy over LEDs right now, you could read every forum for the next 2 weeks straight and still be confused. I enjoy the HD effect my LEDs provide, but sure seems easier to just slap 2 MH and some T5's and call it a day lol.
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where is the fun in that?
 
Reeflogic

Reeflogic

New member
I can save you the research! ;) As I said above, Milad, with ledgroupbuy, said pretty much word for word that the OCW are for color pop only, they have no other bearing on your reef other than adding specific wavelengths for coloration. (Unless you were talking about something else and if you were , sorry!!)

The problem that I hear about over and over is that the LED's do not produce UV, which some argue, cause corals, such as SPS to feel it needs to protect itself and kicks in the UV protection within their tissue and that causes the coral pigmentation to color up. Since LEDs lack UV , people claim that over a year or 2 they sustain great coral growth but have washed coloration. Then you get to the next post and someone argues that this is simply not the case and that they have seen better coloration from LEDs than T5 / MH combos... So welcome to the wonderful world of LEDs. I'm still new to LED, as I was out of the hobby since 2008 and had MH/T5 prior, plus my tank is only nearing 3 months old, but I think I have digested enough LED data in the last 5 months to make a normal person vomit. Time will tell I guess. I've already learned more today, so keep the info coming guys :)
 
Y

yman182

Active member
Reeflogic said:
I can save you the research! ;) As I said above, Milad, with ledgroupbuy, said pretty much word for word that the OCW are for color pop only, they have no other bearing on your reef other than adding specific wavelengths for coloration. (Unless you were talking about something else and if you were , sorry!!)

The problem that I hear about over and over is that the LED's do not produce UV, which some argue, cause corals, such as SPS to feel it needs to protect itself and kicks in the UV protection within their tissue and that causes the coral pigmentation to color up. Since LEDs lack UV , people claim that over a year or 2 they sustain great coral growth but have washed coloration. Then you get to the next post and someone argues that this is simply not the case and that they have seen better coloration from LEDs than T5 / MH combos... So welcome to the wonderful world of LEDs. I'm still new to LED, as I was out of the hobby since 2008 and had MH/T5 prior, plus my tank is only nearing 3 months old, but I think I have digested enough LED data in the last 5 months to make a normal person vomit. Time will tell I guess. I've already learned more today, so keep the info coming guys :)
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I have been reading similar which is why I think I may change to something more like this:

I would have 2 clusters of 1 bridgelux surrounded by 3 Luxeon M. Those would be surrounded by the Luxeon ES Cyan and True Cool Blue

Then spread out through the heatsink would be the Hyper Violet (I think as close to Ultraviolet as the LEDs will get)

The bridgelux would have the Brooke-W optic
The luxeons M would have the Leil 63 optic
Luxeon Cyans would have no optics
The True Cool blue would have the 90 optics
The Hyper Violets would hav the 60 optics

the 2 bridgelux 950 would be driven by one Meanwell 1000HW drivers
the 6 luxeon M would be driven by 2 Meanwell 1000HW drivers
All the Cool Blue and Cyan luxeons would be driven by 1 Meanwell 1000HW drivers
the Hyper Violets would be driven by one Meanwell 700HW driver

I would use the 250w 48v 5.2A DC power supply to power everything.

All would be mounted on a 24" makers heatsink.



Still a work in progress. I am thinking I may be able to do with a smaller heatsink.
 
Y

yman182

Active member
Ordered my Apex unit today!

Do you guys use activated Carbon or GFO?

I have been reading mixed reviews on activated carbon.
 
Y

yman182

Active member
yman182 said:
I have been reading similar which is why I think I may change to something more like this:

I would have 2 clusters of 1 bridgelux surrounded by 3 Luxeon M. Those would be surrounded by the Luxeon ES Cyan and True Cool Blue

Then spread out through the heatsink would be the Hyper Violet (I think as close to Ultraviolet as the LEDs will get)

The bridgelux would have the Brooke-W optic
The luxeons M would have the Leil 63 optic
Luxeon Cyans would have no optics
The True Cool blue would have the 90 optics
The Hyper Violets would hav the 60 optics

the 2 bridgelux 950 would be driven by one Meanwell 1000HW drivers
the 6 luxeon M would be driven by 2 Meanwell 1000HW drivers
All the Cool Blue and Cyan luxeons would be driven by 1 Meanwell 1000HW drivers
the Hyper Violets would be driven by one Meanwell 700HW driver

I would use the 250w 48v 5.2A DC power supply to power everything.

All would be mounted on a 24" makers heatsink.



Still a work in progress. I am thinking I may be able to do with a smaller heatsink.
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I think I am going with this design. I will be using a 24" heatsink because I think it will look better over my 36" tank.
 
Duc1098

Duc1098

Member
I think you can ordered a 30" makers heatsink as well.


As for GFO and GAC, I haven't noticed any issues with GAC but definitely have seen STN/RTN with to much GFO. I have also seen alk swings with GFO usage to. Definitely know what you are getting into with GFO and start off well below the "recommended" dosage. I had BRS tell me I needed 1-1/2 cups of high capacity GFO and I have been using 1/8 a cup for 6 months and its been working perfectly. Heck, I started at 1/4 cup and saw a couple of my more delicate SPS showing signs of stress.
 
Y

yman182

Active member
A few updates! I picked up the stand today! Woo!

It is now sitting in my parents garage where we will work on all the plumbing. Once it is done we will bring it over to my condo. This is probably a few weeks out though! A few not so exciting pics...



and the back...



I really like that this stand does not have a center brace like many stands I saw did.

As you can see I have a 5 gallon tank in there. I was going to use this as an ATO tank, but then decided against it. I am going to have Mr. William Lutman build me a custom sump and ATO tank (hopefully he doesnt get sick of me asking a lot of questions...)

The Sump will be 27" L x 15.5" w x 15.5" H

and the ATO tank will be is 4" L x 16" W x 20" H.

the short with, but tall height will gave me about an extra 3 inches in sump length while only losing about .2 gallons of ATO space.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how big of a return pump I will need? I will be splitting it off so that the return pump will return water to the tank and funnel some water to the refugium im my sump. I was thinking a 950 or so.

I also ordered the LEDs and heatsink this weekend.

Very very excited!!
 
Reeflogic

Reeflogic

New member
Nice Yury, good to see you getting closer to lift off!!

I recently started using a combo of Brightwell products. I converted my BP reactor to a media reactor and am running Extrax Phos and the Brightwell carbon. So far I am VERY pleased with the combo. Charlie Trayner who owns Aquarium Obsessions down in the Peoria area, convinced me to try the combo and I'm glad I did. No messy GFO and it's significantly cheaper in the long run. I have absolutely ZERO nuisance algae in my tank and the daily green film deposited on my glass is now appearing every 2 days or so, as opposed to twice a day.... My nitrates have been pretty much undetectable and my PO4 was hanging around .04 to .05 and now I am getting readings of .02, and I feed pretty dang heavy and have a moderate fish load. I think I definitely found my no3 + po4 combo for many years to come. I will eventually put the BP reactor back on and give it another try.
 
Y

yman182

Active member
so you are running one reactor with carbon and the other with the ExtraxPhos in it..interesting. I will have to take a look at that. I was planning on just running one reactor and mixing the carbon and GFO.
 
Y

yman182

Active member
Duc1098 said:
http://coralux.net/?wpsc-product=ldd-5-driver-board

If you want you can order them on your own, or if you want to save on shipping we can order them together. I ordered the storm x controller from them and didn't notice the pcb boards for meanwell drivers. Oh well... Let me know if you want to do a group buy.
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I only need one of these and it says shipping is like 2 bucks. I think I may just do that! Thanks for finding these. These will make everything look a lot cleaner.
 
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