Future LED setup

[zemuss]

As I am planning to move back to florida, the first thing for my new tank is a LED setup for the tank. This will reduce the cost of energy that I spend on my tank. My question/s is below and I hope you guys can help me out with this project.

I already have the Meanwell 60-48 P drivers but was wondering if there is a way to make them the D driver, or should i just hook them up to a PWM device? If so which would I use or which is the best to use.

Questions:

I have been doing some research on LEDs and manufacturing designs. I notice ECOTECH uses a CREE cluster and was wondering where I can find this type of setup?
I also saw the AI Leds are in clusters of three, but was curious to what the heat output would be and if it was easy to dissipate onto the heat sink?
I have been thinking of doing a cluster of 6 to 8 and the breakdown of colors has me thinking and needed some input here. Thoughts?
Does anyone know why Ecotech and others are using Red / Green / Blue / Royal Blue / Cool White and Warm white color combinations? Is it that much better to cover the specturm of colors? I thought only Royal Blues and Cool Whites were preferred?
What type of optics combination should I use? 40 and 60 or just 60?
What type of LEDS should I use? CREE XP-E?

Depending on the tank size, either a 90 or 120, I want to do the arrays as pendant or pendant like setups. Each pendant will have three dimmable channels. I am a programmer by trade and the next project is a DIY controller type device. I want full control of brightness and color combinations. I was thinking of audrino but has anyone thought of creating a board for your computer that uses software to control the device? This is what I want to do and if anyone know of a PC board I can buy to start the research let me know.

Oh! Just a thought that came to mind, I know a welder so I will have the housings made but first want to get the heat sinks bought so we know dimensions of the housing.

I am thinking each light is going to cost 500 to 700 am I right?

I appreciated all the feedback you can provide in making the right choices.

 

[zemuss]

Anyone out there with advice?

 

[harley]

Ok here's what i have above my 55g, a rapidled.com 64 Cree system, 24 cw's, 18 rb's, 10 blues and 12 uv/violets! From reading TONS of threads, although the rb and cw only route will certainly grow corals, to get fast growth and better colors, you need to round out the spectrum with blues, nw's cyan's reds etc.

I started with the only rb and cw standard kit, now i run my blues and uvs at 70% and my whites at 35%! Colors wash out with a 50/50 mix, and the tank looks tons better blue heavy!

Why the love of pendants? IMO, they will limit your expansion in the future. If ya get a rapidled plug and play kit with traditional heatsinks you'll be able to very easily swap leds and colors out!

I also use the boostled typhoon controller which is arduino based and only $54!

 

[CJO]

You can't change a PWM driver to a voltage-dimmed one so you need to keep with something that sends out a PWM signal (or buy new drivers).

I like to cluster my LEDs, you get less color banding and more shimmer than you do spreading them out. There are no issues with heat dissipation as long as you are using a heat sink, rather than just aluminum channel.

Royal blues and cool whites were what were first used (actually they were regular blues). Some experimenting has shown that it is good to have a mix of colors, but a few of them (cyan, green, red) can be overpowering if you put too many. I would use neutral whites instead of warm whites, the warm whites can throw the colors off. The other colors would be at your discretion, but be sure you can dim them separately if you want to run them.

The cool thing about LEDs is that you can change things around fairly easily. This is especially true of the optics. I would get some 40, 60, 70 and 80 degree optics and play around with them. 40 is pretty tight, so I tend to stay with the 60-80 degree range, but it is great for spotlighting an SPS or other high-light organism.

XP-E (or XR-E) are about the only choices for colored LEDs and they are pretty comparable to each other. For whites, I would look at the XP-G or XM-Ls since they are much more efficient and powerful.

Computers are great, but I wouldn't want to rely on one for controlling my tank. Besides the amount of power they use, they are still not nearly as reliable as a controller.

As far as cost, I think you are a little high. I originally spent $500 on mine, which included a large heatsink 2 drivers and 36 LEDs. This was also about 2 years ago when the prices for LEDs were quite a bit higher.

CJ

 

[KJAG]

As I am planning to move back to florida, the first thing for my new tank is a LED setup for the tank. This will reduce the cost of energy that I spend on my tank. My question/s is below and I hope you guys can help me out with this project.

I already have the Meanwell 60-48 P drivers but was wondering if there is a way to make them the D driver, or should i just hook them up to a PWM device? If so which would I use or which is the best to use.

Questions:

I have been doing some research on LEDs and manufacturing designs. I notice ECOTECH uses a CREE cluster and was wondering where I can find this type of setup?
I also saw the AI Leds are in clusters of three, but was curious to what the heat output would be and if it was easy to dissipate onto the heat sink?
I have been thinking of doing a cluster of 6 to 8 and the breakdown of colors has me thinking and needed some input here. Thoughts?
Does anyone know why Ecotech and others are using Red / Green / Blue / Royal Blue / Cool White and Warm white color combinations? Is it that much better to cover the specturm of colors? I thought only Royal Blues and Cool Whites were preferred?
What type of optics combination should I use? 40 and 60 or just 60?
What type of LEDS should I use? CREE XP-E?

Depending on the tank size, either a 90 or 120, I want to do the arrays as pendant or pendant like setups. Each pendant will have three dimmable channels. I am a programmer by trade and the next project is a DIY controller type device. I want full control of brightness and color combinations. I was thinking of audrino but has anyone thought of creating a board for your computer that uses software to control the device? This is what I want to do and if anyone know of a PC board I can buy to start the research let me know.

Oh! Just a thought that came to mind, I know a welder so I will have the housings made but first want to get the heat sinks bought so we know dimensions of the housing.

I am thinking each light is going to cost 500 to 700 am I right?

I appreciated all the feedback you can provide in making the right choices.

CJO is pretty much right on. A couple thoughts based on a few builds Ive done: If you use red, use it at a very low ratio in your array and on its own channel,easily overpowers everything.Green-unnecessary imo- doesnt add anything that regular blues wont already pop. 495nm(turqouise) I bought ome of these and took them out of my last build.Extremely green and overpowering.Royal Blues-essential, use at a 2:1 ratio. A combo of CW/NW brings out some warmer colors than just CW but I personally like a higher ratio of CW than NW. Warm White: have never used these but have heard theyre very overpowering and some are now using a 3:1 RB/WW ratio.

 

[zemuss]

Thanks for the input and its greatly appreciated.

I will put some more thought in to the build tonight as its on the back burner for now until I move back to Florida. I actually am going to start experimenting with the GU10 bulbs.

Does anyone have any experience with the 50 wat LED clusters? I think Radion and another commercial vendor are using the 50 watt LEDS.