Troylee
all about the diy!!!!!
80's would be fine on that little tank... 70's will cook stuff.. Your po4 is up there thou and will effect Sps growth and color... How's your flow??
I'm sick of my LEDs! Please! help me figure out the problem.
- Thread starter Bongo Shrimp
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Bongo Shrimp
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I know I'm still on the tail end of defeating the phos. I have a vortech mp10 es for flow. Plus the general biocube return.
chrisjj625
Active Member
I don't know man I have bleached a lot of LPS since I got my LEDs as you can see my tank is almost all Sps. I know your in Michigan if your intrested you could come see my setup maybe that would help you out with ideas. I'm sorry don't have a lot of good answers.
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Bongo Shrimp
Well-Known Member
Do you know how they attach to the LEDs? And do they have to be a specific type for my LEDs? I looked on one site that has a few different ones with different mounts and stuff. IDK what I'm looking for.
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Bongo Shrimp
Well-Known Member
Thanks! Any answers are good I'm just trying to figure out the problem. Are you in SE Michigan?
Troylee
all about the diy!!!!!
They just snap on for the most part... You would have to figure out what LEDs are in there I'm guessing xre by the age of the fixture.. Xpg and xpe are the newer style crees..
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Bongo Shrimp
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Thanks troy lee I think you are right. Since a few of you say you have the same fixtures, I wonder if the par readings are incorrect. I took the meter to my buddy's house and he has two 400w MH over his tank and at 18" above the water the par was only around 400ish.
GR808
Well-Known Member
Since you have the 60-48 I believe maybe you should be putting out the maximum allowed current to the leds. If so, maybe you could put a meter in-line to take a current reading and make sure you get correct current readings. Not sure if yours is 700ma on a 12 string or what but I'm sure Reefled lights can give you the correct answer for that.
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Bongo Shrimp
Well-Known Member
If I am going to go that route I will need very specific instructions ie. where to put the current meter contacts and what setting to put it on. Plus I don't want to get shocked. I have a meter but it says not to plug it into a wall outlet. I know the current is less than a wall outlet but still I'm no electrician.
XavierZ06
Active Member
2 drivers should only run 24 leds max. anything over that and you are greatly reducing the intensity of the leds. i made that mistake on my DIY kit. not sure why nanotuners made 15 led strands to begin with but your losing a lot of intensity that way due to overexerting the forward voltage. If your any handy try taking 3 off each strand and seeing how that works. I know when i ran 15 and went down to 12 the intensity doubled almost.
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Bongo Shrimp
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Bongo Shrimp
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Not that handy.
Well actually I could just cut the wires and reconnect them with those plastic tubes with metal on the inside that you crimp with pliers. Know what I'm talking about? Anyways, the area with the highest par is narrow as it is. I would hate to loose more area.
KJAG
Rogue
Theres different brands of optics, You need to get the ones made for whatever particular Diodes you have in your array. Reefledlights has them I believe. They just pop right onto the LED.
the meanwells have tested as high as 1.8 amps and if ran in 2 parallel strings of 12 IF the driver kicked out 1.8 amps this would run each string of 12 at 900 mA. If the driver ran at the rated 1.3 that still has the set of 12 running at 650 mA which IMO/E is fine. Thats if you want to have a single driver run 18-24. If you dont want to run parallel strings I agree 12 would be the max, you coild go 9 but thats the minimum before you over drive your LEDs
If the have the XR-E leds, the optics troylee was talking do snap on and you could ask Bill at reefledlighs what style/name those are ( for the XR-E), again if thats what you got.
Another great option are the carlico ripple and you will ned to get the holder for them. You would glue them to the star and they are pretty slick.
I have Troylees old fixture that has those snap ons, i have the ones for the XP-E that reefledlights sells and I have the carlico, IME the Carlico are the better of the 3 but you glue them. The glue is "no mess" by loctite
Good luck
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Onedesign1
Active Member
who wired your fixture? did it come from nano tuners turn-key? It seems you have one driver for whites and one for blues. If correct as someone said 15 in a string is no good and probably clipping the output of the driver. I have run XPG/XPEs 14 in series and 28 in parallel but thats pushing it. You said they were XRE's and so I would not do more than 13.
The other thing is that the Meanwells are adjustable internally and may be turned down...its possible depending if anyone went into them
As for my opinion of Cree LEDs over a 29G cube...you only need 20 LEDs and you can grow anything...30 was a mistake to begin with IMO.
on that small tank with a stock hood I would skip the lenses completely...you're only 2" off the water and they're not needed.
The other thing is that the Meanwells are adjustable internally and may be turned down...its possible depending if anyone went into them
As for my opinion of Cree LEDs over a 29G cube...you only need 20 LEDs and you can grow anything...30 was a mistake to begin with IMO.
on that small tank with a stock hood I would skip the lenses completely...you're only 2" off the water and they're not needed.
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Bongo Shrimp
Well-Known Member
Finally figured out the problem and got it fixed.
First off- I was right. There was something wrong with the LEDs, it wasn't the fixture itself.
Luckily Evilcc (who used to work with nano tuners/nanocustoms) lives near me and was nice enough to let me bring over the LEDs so he could check them out. It ended up that the drivers were not calibrated properly and one had too many LEDs on it. He cut two white LEDs off the white circuit and filed up both drivers. Before he fixed them he measured the par at about 132 PAR @ 6". After fixing it, 500 PAR @ 6" (no water).
So there you go.
First off- I was right. There was something wrong with the LEDs, it wasn't the fixture itself.
Luckily Evilcc (who used to work with nano tuners/nanocustoms) lives near me and was nice enough to let me bring over the LEDs so he could check them out. It ended up that the drivers were not calibrated properly and one had too many LEDs on it. He cut two white LEDs off the white circuit and filed up both drivers. Before he fixed them he measured the par at about 132 PAR @ 6". After fixing it, 500 PAR @ 6" (no water).
So there you go.
They must have set it up without calibrating the driver, it should always be adjusted, especially the meanwells.
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