Mojo's Red Sea max LED transformation.

mojo

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Ok all, I have wanted to run LEDS for some time. I have always been impressed with the color from them and what better time than with my red sea max.
Goal is to keep a stock look.
keep it cool
and adjust the color to my liking.
Because if the narrow opening on the red sea max I will be doing 2 rows of 12 most likely. Got the dimmable drivers. So it should be pretty cool.
The plan is to do a Full write up for the red sea max. I have only found 1 red sea max retro. and they modded the hood slightly.

So the plan is to run 12 xp g's cool whites and 12 XR-e Royal blues.
will also have 2 led stunner strips for a dusk dawn.

Just ordered them tonight and ill try to get pics and do the best I can at helping you all learn along the way. This is pretty new to me as well.

Mojo~

Running the Mean well ELN 60-48 drivers.
 

TopNotchCorals

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Nice,can't wait to see the pics this should be very exciting.I just went LED too but went with one of Luke's fixtures and I am very impressed to say the lease:)
 
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Like fixtures do look really nice.

I actually thought about one for my tank. However I want to keep it covered and looking stock.

The RSM (red sea max) is different from many of the other all in one tanks. The hood has a small narrow area for the lighting. It is only about 4.5 inches ~22 inches. So that leaves me with running two rows of leds. I will run the stunners on the out most edge of the heat sink. I really want it to look stock and it was made that way. So ill be doing my best to hide wires and not modify the tanks hood. I am hoping this will be a good step by step for other RSM owners that want to do the same.

I have done other mods in the past with halides.
 

wld1783

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mojo

Everything is boxed will ship tomorrow AM. Please post pics and details as most of our DIY retro kits are for larger canopies or as a stand alone fixture.

Bill
 
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Will do. Thanks for the call tonight. And yes, I purchased everything from Reef LED Lights a R2R sponsor !

Thanks for confirmation on the phone. Looks like I will get them for the weekend to play with. I ll make sure the camera is charged.
 
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ok how about a few before pics of the tank and corals...

P1020654.jpg

P1020655.jpg

P1020656.jpg

P1020658.jpg

P1020659.jpg

P1020660.jpg
 
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I have cleaned up a little since these were taken.
 

johnanddawn

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cool - i own a rsm - nice little tanks IMO - i'm def following - i was thinking about doing this to mine as well because i like LEDs so much already
i also recently did an LED build for my 135 DT getting my array from bill as well - nice kits he offers
you should have plenty of light with 24 LEDs in that foot print (you may need those dimmable ballsts :) )
what optics are you going with? 80 or none because it is so close to the water?
 
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probably none. i did get 80's for the xr-e's but none out for the xp -g 's yet. or at least he doesnt have them yet. nota big deal. I wasnt planning on running them. maybe play with them a bit.
 
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mojo

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my leds will be here today ! woot
 

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I used to have an RSM 130 and they are nice AIO tanks. I've never seen one with LEDs tho. Can't wait to see the tank later today. Are you running all stock?
 
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The tank is running stock lights with 2 led blue stunner strips. using a tunze 9002 skimmer and a inTank media basket. Vortech mp10ES
 

Mavjoy

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Just make sure your water level in the back chambers is consistent for the Tunze skimmer to work efficiently. Are you gonna try to put a sump?
 
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part of me wants too and part of me just wants to leave it the way it is. I have a ATO hooked up on it.
 
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here are a couple pics as it gets started

stock
0726002335.jpg


gutted 5 min later
0726002350.jpg


now just have to fit the heat sink in there...
0726002357.jpg
 
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I should of ordered the next size up heat sink. When I cut this one in half it left me about .25 inches short of being perfect. so I just had to make a little bracket. So off to bed for now but tonight comes the fun stuff. wiring !!!
 
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ok made soe headway last night. Got all the leds mounted and wired up. Actually I have it on and running on my tank. but dont have it all together yet. playing with the pots a little for the white.

I set the pot for the blue XRE 's all the way down. Turn it on and adjusted it up to 700 mA. I left that one there and closed it back up. I then opened up the driver for the white leds and adjusted it until I got the color i liked... ended up about 650 mA. ill get some pics up later. And more process of what I did as well. everything does look good and nothing caught on fire yet !
 
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Ok all, been really busy but I did get a chance to work on this and actually have it running....

Let me just say if you are doing this on a red sea max you need the heat sink to be 4.5 inches by 20 inches. Exactly and it will fit in perfect where the old reflector was. I ordered mine knowing I would have to cut it and make it with 2 pieces. I would not suggest this. I would buy it the way it needs to be right off the bat. This would save a lot of time.


That being said the Kit I got from reef LED lights was great. Came with very good instructions and everything you need except wire, solder and iron.

In all my reading people have said to pre tin the LED's and the wire. I DID do this and I am so glad I did. Jus simply put solder on the pads of the star and pre sldered all the wire.

The hardest part was getting the heat sink installed due to my lack of measuring exactly. But once that was done everything else went smooth. I had measured out my spacing and went with 12 led's in each row. I did this as I was worried about spot lighting. and wanted side to side coverage. I mixed up half the 2 part thermo paste and mounted all the blue LED's. the paste sets up pretty quick so I did waste some of the first batch. So I mixed up about half of what I had left to do the white XPG's. This was enough to do the last 12 leds.. I let it sit for about 45 minutes or so while I cut all the wire and tinned it. By the Time I had that all done the LED's were secure and I started wiring up the Leds in series. I used white wire for the white leds and blue for the blue..... go figure right ? I trimmed a few of the wires along the way so that the wires fit perfectly. I thought about drilling holes and hiding all the wires but was kind of excited to get this done and back on the tank.

After all the leds were wired up i still had to get the drivers hooked up. I used the 2 Mean Well ELN 60-48 drivers. I took out everything from the stock setup but the 12v power supply and used it for the fans. Both drivers fit in the stock hood. I took the cover off the driver for the XRE royal blues and dialed it in to a nice 700mA and replaced the cover. This drives the XRE's at 70% and gives me good output and low heat output. I replaced the cover and that driver and put setup on the tank and turned it on. From there I adjusted the driver on the XPG r5's until I got the color I liked on the tank. it was pretty simple and made me appreciate the fact that I spent the extra money on dimmable drivers. I highly suggest it. The XPG driver ended up around 600mA when it was all said and done.

Both mean well drivers fit in the stock hood where the old ballast would fit. its a snug fit but everything fits in there . 2 drivers and the stock 12v ps. I went a head and hooked up the stock timer and made everything work just like it did before. Minus the stock led moonlights. I do still use the led stunner strips for dusk to dawn. I could of wired up the XRE royal blues for this but thought I would just use what I have and keep it simple. LEss cords coming out of the stock hood as well.


0728000325.jpg


little sample of the wiring. I have to get more pics taken and posted.

All in all I am happy I did it. Learned a lot about leds for sure. I now ordered 2 new fans for the hood as the stock Red Sea MAx fans are getting noisey. So i will have to open the hood back up and replace the fans. Not a big deal but maybe then I can get some more pictures. Waiting to see how the corals respond. So far so good. The shimmer is great. No spot light at all. very good color spread. I am NOT using optics. leds are 1.5 in apart.

Will update more this sunday.

Mojo~
 

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