YES!!!! Finally got my Phoenix 45 LED kits running

**trplxj** · 02-25-2012, 06:20 PM

It's been a long process but today I finally got them all done, hung up, and running. I got a few pictures and I'll post them later tonight. I am very happy and impressed with the lights and how they make my tank look. Now I just need to get this stupid Apex to dim the lights. I'm having issues with the dimming profiles and getting them to work right. I finally got a long network cable so I can hook it up to my router so I can try setting up the Apex with my laptop.

Here's afew pics. I'm not very good at taking pics as I go. So I have some of all the parts, the whitle LED's on the heat sinks, then some final shots of them over the tank.

**Reef Breeders** · 02-25-2012, 06:30 PM

Congrats, the computer config. is definitely way easier.

**trplxj** · 02-26-2012, 08:01 PM

Found two more pictures. One of the heat sinks with all the LED's, and one of the small shelf unit that I mounted the drivers to.

I would also like to add a few comments about the reefledlights.com kits. First, I think that the kit(s) are very well thought out and had most everything that I needed. One thing that I would have liked to see would be a simple piece of paper with some basic instructions. That would have been helpful. Their website has pretty much all the information that you need, but you do have to search a little. Two problems I had were first I didn't look at the LED's and the solderless holders very well. I ended up mounting all 90 LED's wrong. The contacts on the LED's did not touch the contacts on the solderless holders. Not a big problem, and it was my fault for not paying attention to what I was doing. But it was a pain to turn all of them 45* so the contacts all lined up. Second, It would have helped me out to know that if I didn't want to run the Inventronics drivers in a non-dimmable mood that all I had to do was hook the purple and yellow wires together. This information is on their website but was not included with the kit(s).

Those are honestly my only two complaints. And like I said before had I paid attention to what I was doing when I was mounting the LED's to the heat sinks problem one wouldn't have been a problem. And problem two wasn't too much of a problem less that 2 minutes of searching their website and I had the information that I needed.

For anyone that is on the fence about going LED, or getting LED's for reefledlights.com I highly recommend that you do it. The LED's make my 90 gallon tank look like a million bucks. I love them. And my clam is open further and looking better than it ever has.

I almost forgot. I was trying to figure out how I was going to run the wires from the LED fixtures to the drivers that I mount in the self unit next to the tank and was really struggling with that. I was trying to figure out how I was going to run 12 different wires and keep it as clean as possible. I was wondering around my local Home Depot when it hit me........sprinkler wire. I bought a roll of 18-5 sprinkler wire. It worked awesome.

**Reef Breeders** · 02-26-2012, 08:08 PM

Looks great, reef led lights sells a cord organizer that looks pretty good. I like the look of those mars shields, do they accumulate any salt?

**trplxj** · 02-26-2012, 08:11 PM

Originally Posted by anemonekeeper

Looks great, reef led lights sells a cord organizer that looks pretty good. I like the look of those mars shields, do they accumulate any salt?

I looked at their organizer but decided against it. I didn't want to run a bunch of individual wires. I don't know if the mars shields will accumulate any salt or not. They have only been up and running for a little over 24 hours. But I don't think they will. The lights are mounted about 14 inches above the tank.

**ruppertb** · 02-26-2012, 08:55 PM

any chance you could edit the pic of the heatsink with all leds mounted in paint or photoshop to show the placement of each led type, blue white and high noon if used?

**trplxj** · 02-26-2012, 08:59 PM

Originally Posted by ruppertb

any chance you could edit the pic of the heatsink with all leds mounted in paint or photoshop to show the placement of each led type, blue white and high noon if used?

Sure, I could do that.

**trplxj** · 02-26-2012, 09:12 PM

Originally Posted by ruppertb

any chance you could edit the pic of the heatsink with all leds mounted in paint or photoshop to show the placement of each led type, blue white and high noon if used?

Here ya go. I don't have the high noon LED's.

**trplxj** · 02-26-2012, 09:20 PM

I think if I was to do this again I would spreed the blues in the center of the heat sink out a little more. I could move them but at this point I don't really want to.

**ruppertb** · 02-26-2012, 09:22 PM

wow that was fast, where about did you mount the 6 reg blue, and how did you decide to hook them to the drivers. all white on one, some royal blue on 2nd one and then some more royal blue with the reg blue on 3rd?

thanks, trying to figure out my plan of attack b4 i make the leap and order them.

also is that a 75gallon?

**trplxj** · 02-26-2012, 09:27 PM

Originally Posted by ruppertb

wow that was fast, where about did you mount the 6 royal blue, and how did you decide to hook them to the drivers. all white on one, some blue on 2nd one and then some more blue with the royals on 3rd?

thanks, trying to figure out my plan of attack b4 i make the leap and order them.

also is that a 75gallon?

I don't remember the exact locations of the royal blues. I wired all the whites to one driver, and 3 royal blues and 12 "regular" blues to one driver. And the same for the 3rd driver. The tank is a 90 gallon.

I understand the plan of attack. I spent a couple months planning and thinking before I pulled the trigger on going LED.

**ReefLEDLights** · 02-26-2012, 09:38 PM

Love the feedback! do you mind if we ask your opinion on a set of directions we have been writing?
I uploaded it briefly for your opinion.
How To DIY LED « « ReefLEDLights | LED Aquarium Lighting ReefLEDLights | LED Aquarium Lighting
its a word doc at the top. We just put it together as of a couple days ago. Thanks!!

**ruppertb** · 02-26-2012, 09:57 PM

I read it and it makes sense, being that I have never done it before i think i would be able to figure it out. I would like to see maybe a little more into wire organization, fan instalation and such. Can the drivers be mounted ontop of the heatsink so it is one structure or do they have to be away from the unit?

my only issue would be that the leds arent evenly placed and it would just drive me nuts, i think i would have to buy a few more just to make it look full and have the lights be evenly placed. lol

**trplxj** · 02-26-2012, 09:58 PM

your directions are excellent. They would have saved me some time and headache. I love the pictures, and the suggestion on how to layout the LED's.

Thanks for a awesome product!!! I love these lights!! My original plan was to move these lights to my 180 once it is set up and add one more phoenix 45 kit and be done. But I like them so much That I'm thinking about leaving them over the 90 and buying 3 more phoenix 45 kits for the 180, when I set it up.

Thanks again for answering all my questions and helping me with this set up. It was well worth the wait (because the Apex was on back order) and time that it took to put them all together. I think the next time I put one of these together it will take me only a few hours.

**ruppertb** · 02-26-2012, 10:01 PM

double post

**trplxj** · 02-26-2012, 10:02 PM

Originally Posted by ruppertb

my only issue would be that the leds arent evenly placed and it would just drive me nuts, i think i would have to buy a few more just to make it look full and have the lights be evenly placed. lol

I felt the same way, but after putting them together and seeing them over my tank.....I don't care about them not being evenly placed. One of the great things about this kit, is you can easily move any of the LED's if you don't like the way the look, or the way they are lighting your tank. I think you have like 20 or so empty spaces on the heat sink.

**ruppertb** · 02-26-2012, 10:05 PM

adding the high noon red and green is a great idea thou. would also like to see the max capacity of leds on the driver, so i dont go ad add the high noons to the whites and fry it all out

**trplxj** · 02-26-2012, 10:07 PM

I think the wire management is gong to be different from one tank to the next, but maybe a few pointers would be nice. You can mount the drivers over the heat sinks if you want. That's what I was going to do, but I decided to mount them away from the heat sinks. The fan mounting is very straight forward. I can take some more pictures tomorrow of the fan mounting if you want.

**trplxj** · 02-26-2012, 10:11 PM

Originally Posted by ruppertb

adding the high noon red and green is a great idea thou. would also like to see the max capacity of leds on the driver, so i dont go ad add the high noons to the whites and fry it all out

I believe that 15 LED's per inventronics driver is the max. If you get the high noon kit I think it comes with another driver, but I could be wrong.

I'm already toying with the idea of getting another driver and adding a few red and green LED's just for the fun of it.

Now that I've got the Apex figured out I'm having a good time messing with the dimming of the LED's.

**ruppertb** · 02-26-2012, 10:25 PM

ok so here is another question and idea, and maybe reefleds will chime in also to say if this has been done.

So in a 45 kit there are: so in 2 there would be:
15 white 30 white
24 royal blue 48 royal blue
6 blue 12 blue
3 drivers 6 drivers

So would it be possible to put like 15 whites on each heatsink and then wire them together so that 1 driver controls half of the whites on each heat sink.
and the same with the blues.

So the dimmers could be set to a certain point and then because i dont have a controller in the am one set of blues would be turned on followed the other 3 and then one set of white, the next white. and then at the end of the day one white off, and then later the other white and so forth. Creating like a 6 section dusk dawn schedual.

would this be super complicated and stupid or does it make sense. I have no idea if it would benifit the corals or fish but it was a thought.