Aurora Dual Puck LED Build

5Bucks · Jan 14, 2015

Starting this thread to track my build of a dual Aurora puck build. Comments/suggestions are welcome. I'll try and include lots of photos. Have not seen many build threads here or elsewhere on this. I'll do my best to keep up on this and report results down the road for other considering this setup.

I've researched for way to long. Been considering going LED for about 4 months. My current setup details:
55g display tank on main floor of house
20g long remote sump in basement
Setup active for 14 months
Current lighting T5: 2x34" 39w Fluval Power Spectrum 18K, 2x34" 39w Fluval Sea Actinic 1
Bubble Magnus 3.5 Skimmer in sump
DIY GFO reactor
DIY Algae Scrubber
Dosing: Carbon & Alk

I started considering LED when I thought I had an algae issue due to aging lights. That was not the case. Turns out PO4 was through the roof. Got that under control - maybe to much. After starting carbon dosing, replacing socked GFO with DIY reactor and adding algae scrubber my PO4 was under .01 a couple weeks ago. Working on slowly edging that up to something more reasonable like .04 - .06. Algae issues are solved with PO4 reduction. But still time to replace those T5's. Rather than drop $60 - $80 once a year I figured more economical (and more fun to) DIY an LED system. Think my original T5's were a little underpowered anyway. Not certain on that however. LPS, Bubble Tip Anemone and other light dependent items have been just fine for months with current lighting. I am intrigued with the ability to do finer light control like ramping, intensity and color mixing. Also recently started adding some SPS about a month ago. Figuring it will do better with more light although no problems at the moment.

After much consideration I got it down to either 2 Aurora pucks from Rapid LED or 2 Lumina 5.2 from LED Group Buy. I've read positive things about both. Honestly, I liked the Lumina 5.2 a little better. There's a lot of debate about cool white vs. neutral white vs. warm white LEDs and how they affect color rendition. Some mix of the warmer or neutral seem to be winning the debates, but honestly who knows? So many opinions! Problem was a Lumina setup was more $'s if I bought all the stuff from them. Rapid LED has a package. LED Group Buy was a la carte. Seems like the Auroras make up for the lack of the warm white with some red/orange. I contacted LED GB multiple times to see if they would put together a package and was turned down. In the end, the package from Rapid LED was about 25% less for essentially the same thing than it would have been from LED Group Buy. At some point I think the details of all these colors are a bit of marketing hype. Could one get by with just pure white and actinic? Hopefully I don't regret my stinginess! One other difference was 4 color channels on the Aurora and 5 on the Lumina. Really did like the Lumina 5.2 more - just not 25% more - maybe 10% more. Also, like the newer heat sinks that come with the package from Rapid better than the Makers sinks from LED GB. They have a more streamlined looked with flat top and recessed fan. This is not a commercial for Rapid LED. Heck, haven't even seen them in person yet. But, they were more willing to work with me.

Here's what I purchased:
*Dual Aurora Puck Dimmable kit with 2x1000 and 2x750 Meanwell LDD drivers. It comes with everything needed from power supply (350w) to lenses (i went with the narrower angle ones) etc.. Builds the whole unit except for the controller. I opted for the 20" heatsink rather than 2x6"
*Storm controller with the case, temp probe and 4x jumper cables.

I really liked that the kit comes with everything. No soldering, includes heat sink hanging cables, heat sink paste etc. In the end everything was less than $400. This was at least $100 less than going with close to the same setup from LED Group buy with the Lumina 5.2. And not bad for a soup to nuts controllable/dim-able system with 42 cree LEDs. I really tried to get LED GB to put together a package with a discount for purchasing all at once and no deal - asked twice and it was a no and then no response after 36 hours. Funny story, I crossed emails to these LED suppliers when looking for a package from LED GB. I sent it to Rapid LED. Within in hour Rapid LED emailed back with a 10% discount code. Now that's SWEET!!!

Below are a couple pics of my current setup. From what I've read, I'll have a ton more light with the LEDs. I'll have to be very careful about acclimating. I'd love to hear from others who have gone from T5 to LED. Especially if using Aurora pucks. Unfortunately, I have no access to PAR meter. No local club here with one.

5Bucks · Jan 16, 2015

Waiting and Thinking

All the goodies are on their way and should arrive next Wednesday. While waiting I've been considering the following:

1. Hanging the fixture. I want a very minimal look with no brackets or excess support for the fixture. I plan on hanging from ceiling and want the wires to drop straight through the drywall with no external hooks, tie offs, bars etc. Unlikely it will work out that I can directly hit a stud with the wires so I've been researching drywall anchors capable of supporting the weight. On the ceiling I'll need some kind of a guide for the wire to go through - a bulkhead adapter for lack of better term. This as flat an inconspicous as possible.

2. Power wires to the fixture. Plan is to mount the LDD driver board on the heat sink within the fixture itself. I've seen that on Lumina Puck build with the Makers heat sinks. Not sure if it will fit that way in mine. The DC 350w/48v power supply will mount remotely. For wiring to and from the fixture Ive got DC for LED, DC for Storm, DC for Fan and temperature probe. I'm not sure if it's possible but it would be nice If I could knock down the number of wires carrying DC to the fixture from 6 to 2. I've got plenty of power - 350w from the power supply but it's at 48v. Need to research or get advice on if it's possible to run just 2 DC wires to the fixture and tap off power for the Storm and fan. Guessing those need 12v power. At first glance seems kinda silly to have to wall plug separate AC/DC power supplies for the Storm and fan when there's so much excess available from 350/48v. I can do home AC wiring, but knocking down 48v to 12v or whatever is needed is beyond my expertise. Whatever wires I end up with I'm hoping to make them as inconspicous as possible. Have not come up with a good way to do that yet short of running them up the fixture hanging wires and into the ceiling.

3. Glass over the top of the tank. I have it now. Most tanks I see don't have it but I think I want to keep it. Limited research seems to indicate the reason for not having it is for better gas transfer between water and air. Or maybe easy access to the tank itself. I really think I get plenty of transfer via the sump, skimmer and algae scrubber. The vent feeding my overflow is under the glass top and judging by the bubbles in the return of my basement sump I think plenty of fresh air gets pulled in between the water surface and glass. The photographer part of me knows anytime light travels through glass there is some loss. But guessing I'll never run any of the LED at 100% anyway so that's not an issue. Maybe some odd refraction issue I'm not aware of?

Maximo · Jan 16, 2015

Be very careful acclimating this light! LEDs are a very advanced product! Start slow and ramp up slow! It should take about 4 months! Try not to shock the corals or it will take forever for them to recover if they get sunburnt! That's when most people say LEDs are crap and convert back to the easy lighting methods! LEDs have little to no heat, low energy, no bulb replacement! I save 15 bucks a month by getting rid of my halides!

5Bucks · Jan 19, 2015

Maximo said:
Be very careful acclimating this light! LEDs are a very advanced product! Start slow and ramp up slow! It should take about 4 months! Try not to shock the corals or it will take forever for them to recover if they get sunburnt! That's when most people say LEDs are crap and convert back to the easy lighting methods! LEDs have little to no heat, low energy, no bulb replacement! I save 15 bucks a month by getting rid of my halides!

I'll be careful with acclimation. That's one reason I would only consider a setup with computer controlled dimmable fixtures. I'll have the ability to slowly and accuratley acclimate. I'm lucky to live in a community with public power (municipal non-profit electric service). Rates are about $.07/kWh. That's about half the average rate for NY. Property taxes not so much! I calculated my current T5's cost $.09/day to operate or $32/yr. With LEDs running at 50% Im calculating $.05/day or $17.85/yr. So I'll save about $14/yr on the electric bill. My big savings will come from bulb replacement which I figure is about $100/yr in T5's.

5Bucks · Jan 22, 2015

Everything arrived from Rapid LED yesterday with the exception of the case for the Storm Controller. Coralux makes the case and business was closed until yesterday. Rapid LED promised to expedite the case when available. Spent a couple hours working on things. I epoxied the lenses to the pucks, mounted the fan in the heat sink and test wired everything including the Storm controller. It all worked perfectly on the first attempt. Was able to control all 4 color channels. Rapid LED has an easy to follow and detailed pdf build guide which I skimmed. Also used pdf documentation from Coralux to assist in wiring up the Storm. Only a few moments of slight confusion. The biggest one was where to connect the negative leads from the Storm controller to the 4up LDD board. After paying better attention to Coralux doc. I found that the negative leads connect to the V-. Same spot as the V- coming from the 48v power supply. The package came with 2 AC to DC bricks. One for the heat sink fan and the other for the Storm. I'm not sure which one goes to which. One is 9v output, the other is 12v. I'm guessing doesn't make a difference so I'll use the 12v for fan and 9v for Storm. Fan has pigtails so I'll cut the plug in connector off it's power supply. I purchased the temperature probe for the Storm. It requires soldering the 3 pin connector to the board and crimp/solder of the pigtails on the connector itself.

I probably spent most of my time last night trying to figure out where to put everything. My goal is to not have wires going all over the place. Plan (for now) is to mount the Storm on top of the heat sink. I was hoping to mount the LDD driver/board within the heat sink on the same plane as the LED pucks. But there's not enough clearance behind the splashguard to do that. So it'll probably go on top of the heat sink in a small black ventilated project box mounted behind the Storm. The 4up LDD driver board requires 9 wire pairs to operate 4 LED channels (1 for 48v power, 4 to LEDs, 4 to Storm). Locating the 4up board away from the controller or LEDs would mean running a lot of wires. I'm sure I could make it neat with bundling them all up but I'd rather have everything centrally located as opposed to scattered about. I do not have a cabinet below the tank to hide components. Plan for this evening is to mount the pucks on the heat sink, solder the temp probe connector to storm board and crimp/solder temp probe pigtails. If I can find a suitable project box I may play with mounting that to the top of the heat sink as well as drilling holes to run wiring through the heat sink. Goal is to have only the DC power wires visible exiting from the rear.

Photo's below show package contents as it arrived, blue channel only at 1% and all channels at 100%.

ptreef · Jan 22, 2015

nice looking build!

5Bucks · Jan 22, 2015

ptreef said:
nice looking build!

Hey, Thanks ptreef!

I stopped by Radio Shack on lunch today and picked up a little project box to house the 4up board for about $5. Also picked up some cable clamps and vinyl grommets. I'll use the grommets to cushion the wiring where it goes through drilled holes in the project box and heat sink cover. I'll mount the project box to the top of the heat sink cover and drill through the bottom to run wires to LEDs and the Storm controller. I plan on mounting the Storm to the front of the project box and drill hole underneath for wiring.

5Bucks · Feb 1, 2015

Finished up the project last weekend. LEDs are over the tank. I'll detail some of the things I did with photos below. In the end, my total cost was under $400 for what is a fairly similar setup to a Radion XR30 that would've been in the $800 - $900 with the same control. I'm not saying it is a Radion, but the LED mix is very similar with Cree and the Semiled UV's. Who knows what the bin quality of either is. I think the Radions do 6 channels of control and wireless with more programming options. With the Storm controller I've got 4 channels and it's hard wired.

When I left of last, I picked up a Radio Shack project box to mount the 4up Coralux board and drivers.

All wiring connections reside in this box which I mounted to the top the heat sink enclosure. I drilled up from the bottom of the heat sink to run the LED power wires to this box. DC power for the LEDs, fan and Storm all come through the box. I drilled access holes through the back of the heat sink enclosure to run wires in and out. The aluminum heat sink drills very easily. There's not much clearance between the fins of the heat sink and the external enclosure so I ended up drilling horizontally through the fins to run wires to the project box for power. Also drilled some a series of holes in the upper and lower edges of the rear of the project box to allow heat to escape from the dimming drivers. The drivers don't seem to produce much heat. Project box has not felt warm to the touch to this point. But, I'm only running LEDs at around 30% as I acclimate the tank. I put rubber grommets in all holes drilled through the fixtures aluminum enclosure. Helps protect wires from sharp edges. As a bonus it makes for a positive seal where the project box meets the fixture's enclosure. With that seal, and the fan pushing air by the fins within the enclosure a small amount gets moved thru the project box helping to cool things in there.

I only had to solder a couple of things. I bought the optional temperature probe. That required soldering a modular connector to the Storm board and contact pins on the wires coming from the probe itself. I also soldered the fan wires to the power supply wires within the project box and covered the result with heat shrink. Also put heat shrink on the wires running from the bottom of Storm to the drivers in the box. One complaint on the Storm enclosure is how all the wires just come raw out the bottom showing modular plugs and all. Wish these were hidden within the enclosure and all the wires could come out in a single heat shrunk bundle.

Here's the Storm mounted to the project box. I used 3M double sided foam tape.

Here's how I hung the fixture from the ceiling. Fixture doesn't weigh much maybe 5lbs. Wires are hanging from standard drywall wings. Didn't need to hang from studs. Was always confused seeing people mounting pipes from ceiling to hang fixtures from.

Wires coming out of ceiling. Super glued a couple of washers together and painted. Keeps wires from digging into drywall.

And here's the light over the tank.

So far I'm loving the LED light. I've been playing with the mix of the 4 channels. Here's how I have it running today.

My daylight setting is 12 hours in duration with 90 minute ramp up/down.
Ch1: Royal Blue/Blue 30%
Ch2: Green/Blue/Red/Red-Orange 15%
Ch3: Cool White 22% with 90 minute delay
Ch4: Violet UV 25% with 30 minute delay

I have the cloud function set to a 2 out of 5 and set to dim the White channel only. Set lightning frequency to a 2 so I get an occasional flash when the Whites dim with a passing cloud. I don't think the lightning serves any useful purpose other than freaking out people who haven't seen it before and the dog. Fish don't seem to care at all.

I have the moonlight function on. This varies the intensity of the night time setting based on the actual moon phase. My night setting has everything off except for Royal/Blue at 3% and Violet UV at 3%. Only problem with this a channel must be set to at least 10% or so to actually give a different intensity for everyday of the moon cycle. 10% is just way to much light at night. I still have to open channels on the storm so I might had a couple low power LEDs on a lower power driver so I can realize the full variation of the moon cycle.

So my impressions so far. Wow, fluorescing colors! Doesn't take much on the UV channel to makes things really pop. Especially green stuff: Duncans and some Acros. I have a tiny red Chalice frag. Never saw the purple stripes when under T5s. The Storm controller makes the unit set and forget. I'd never keep up if I had to manually dim things and have a tough time repeating settings even if I did. I waffled forever on where to put the controller. For now, I'm glad it's where it is. Tank temp is always in my face, controller at eye level where I can make changes and see them without looking from the controller to the tank. It's not has elegant having the project box mounted to the fixture but I would have been running a large group of wires somewhere else if it was not. I'm trying to be really careful acclimating the tank to the new lights. Going to run at levels described above for another week and start to ramp up a couple percent per week if everything seems okay. I doubt I'll ever get near to running any of the channels at 100% - it's incredibly bright! I was concerned I wouldn't have enough spread with the LEDs. Right now, I'm 10" off the water surface and I get good coverage for the 48" lenght of the 55g tank. It falls off a bit at the ends but that's where shrooms etc can go. LEDs are a lot more directional than T5s so there's less fill/darker spots under overhangs and caves. This look more closely resembles what I see when scuba diving. I like the shimmer which is very connected to surface ripples created by the sump return.

I'll try and report back from time to time with growth etc.

Duncans glowing under UV only

Tiny Chalice with purple stripes

LILBUDDHA · Feb 23, 2015

Nice build but the attachments don't work . :sad: . Would love to see the details .

ReefLEDLights · Mar 2, 2015

Toss us some PAR numbers and total wattage consumed..

Nice build BTW, Good choice on the storm controller and LDD Drivers.

Bill

5Bucks · Mar 2, 2015

ReefLEDLights said:
Toss us some PAR numbers and total wattage consumed..

Nice build BTW, Good choice on the storm controller and LDD Drivers.

Bill

Thanks!
Sure, I'd be happy to give you PAR numbers - toss me a PAR meter.:yo:
As for watts consumed, I'm no electrical engineer but think each puck is 75w at full draw. I'm running at about 40% of max power (60w) for 7 hours with 3 hours of ramp in/out so average that to 30w. So 7x60 and 3x30 so 510w/hrs per day. At my $.07/kwh rate electric cost is approx $.035/day or $12.75/yr.

ReefLEDLights · Mar 2, 2015

5Bucks said:
Thanks!
Sure, I'd be happy to give you PAR numbers - toss me a PAR meter.:yo:
As for watts consumed, I'm no electrical engineer but think each puck is 75w at full draw. I'm running at about 40% of max power (60w) for 7 hours with 3 hours of ramp in/out so average that to 30w. So 7x60 and 3x30 so 510w/hrs per day. At my $.07/kwh rate electric cost is approx $.035/day or $12.75/yr.

PAR Meters can be rented cheaply.

As far as watts, watts are no indication of how bright a LED fixture is. Some LEDs given the same wattage can be over 2 times as bright. Then you have the efficiency of the optics.

Acclimate carefully

Bill

5Bucks · Mar 2, 2015

Acclimating very carefully - kinda hard to miss that advice when researching switch to LED.

Not sure I understand your comment about the watts. In your previous post you asked: "Toss us some numbers and total wattage consumed". So I answer with the watts consumed and you reply with same wattage can be 2x as bright. I get some LEDs more efficient than other. But why ask about watts consumed??? Were you looking to make a comparison on watts vs. PAR?

ReefLEDLights · Mar 2, 2015

Yes Watts per PAR.

Ive measured 120 watt black box fixtures at 200 PAR at 24" against an 118 watt fixture that produced 450 PAR at 24"

Just curious on your performance.

5Bucks · Mar 21, 2015

ReefLEDLights said:
Yes Watts per PAR.

Ive measured 120 watt black box fixtures at 200 PAR at 24" against an 118 watt fixture that produced 450 PAR at 24"

Just curious on your performance.

I get watts don't translate in any way to PAR. Lens, and boat loads of other variables would have major impacts.

Anyway, LFS loaned me a PAR meter. I'm not overly concerned with numbers but was curious as to how my numbers compared to those in the frag tank at the LFS. I was warned, and have read elsewhere that PAR meters are not very accurate when measuring LEDs. My purpose in taking some readings was to make sure I wasn't blasting and acclimating too fast. Based on averages I got in my tank compared to averages at LFS I have, if anything, been acclimating to slowly. Also found out (based on averages) my LEDs are perfectly capable of putting out way more PAR (for what that's worth) than what's growing things beautifully at the LFS. Lesson for me, I'll never need 100% output from mine. I've been running mine for a couple months now and could not be happier. I love the look and the control-ability.

Honestly, all this PAR crap reminds me of RMS watts per channel ratings for stereo amplifiers back in the '70s-'80s. Does it mean something? Sure. But, it can be played with to the point that it just becomes marketing Bull Sh**!

One thing not mentioned in image below: All readings taken with tanks cover glass in place. Did a couple without and it seems like glass knocks intensity by ~20%. But so do surface ripples and other variables.

sparky45 · Apr 5, 2015

How are you liking the aurora pucks. I went the other way with the lumia 5.2's i also have the storm x controller for expansion. I love my lights. There turned up not even half way over my 40b. My sps has great color and great growth.

5Bucks · Apr 5, 2015

So far I love them!

sparky45 said:
How are you liking the aurora pucks. I went the other way with the lumia 5.2's i also have the storm x controller for expansion. I love my lights. There turned up not even half way over my 40b. My sps has great color and great growth.

I'm really loving them. SPS is doing well. Seems to be better growth than what I had under T5 but I may have not enough watts of T5 in the first place. Only thing I would change is going for the Storm X rather than the regular Storm. I like a little moonlight, but Storm doesn't have enough resolution to keep it to just a little when cycle hits full moon. I still have an open channel so I may go with a single lower power LED won a less powerful driver for the moonlight

NoStRaThOmAs · Jul 13, 2015

sparky45 said:
How are you liking the aurora pucks. I went the other way with the lumia 5.2's i also have the storm x controller for expansion. I love my lights. There turned up not even half way over my 40b. My sps has great color and great growth.