Help a noob with LED's

[J-Dog]

Hello everyone....I am doing my first tank build and would like a little advice on LED lighting. I was looking into getting a Cree LED kit from Reefledlights.com, but I'm not really sure what I would need. My new tank will be 60x30x24. I have no idea what kind of drivers or optics to get....hell, I don't even know what color combination of LED's would look the best for my tank. I guess what I am saying is that I could use a lot of help figuring out what I need. I am in no way set on buying an LED kit from the listed website, so if anyone could help shed a little light on my problem, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks :angel:

 

[ReefLEDLights]

good timing to post this question! I just got back in town yesterday so I can help you out.

There's a 100 different ways to do a build and 1000 to do it wrong but we have helped out lots of folks who have had the same questions.

Drivers are dependent if you want dimmable or constant.
Dimmable with potentiometers or done with a controller like an apex or profilux.

Optics relates to tanks that are really deep or the height of the fixture over the water line. Most folks hang their fixture over 8" so typically they go with the Carclo Ripple wide optics.

Color combo is based on your personal taste, no one can tell you what kind of burger you like to eat. If you like it really blue then go for a 3blue to 1white ratio. Most folks go with a 2b to 1w ratio so we based our phoenix kits on those numerics, it looks like a phoenix 14k bulb :).

I am looking at doing your size tank or a bit deeper for my next tank and there is two different ways you can do it but its dependent on your rockwork and budget. I am going to use the Phoenix kits as an example but you can use comparable quantity LED kits with different options. We just use them as the recommendation since they are the highest quality kits on the market.

(photos from here LED My TANK! « « ReefLEDLights | LED Aquarium Lighting ReefLEDLights | LED Aquarium Lighting)
You can do
2 24"x8.46" heatsinks with a Phoenix 55 kit

Or you can do 3 18"x8.46" heatsinks running perpindicular to the front pane with less LEDs on each heatsink.

Hope this helps you out.

-Rick

 

[boehm742]

ReefLedLights helped me out alot as well as others on the forum! They are great to work with! So take a look around at others builds! There is a link in my sig of my biocube build if that helps at all.

 

[typicalwhiteazn]

Yeah, Panel idea is probably the most popular one... Right now I'm starting my own CREE DIY lighting but going with the t5 Concept. Its waaay more work definitely, but it, within itself gives more customizing options.

for example, not that I plan on building mine this way:
Heatsink strip 1: All royal blue
" strip 2: 1 blue: 1 white
" strip 3: 4 blue: 1 Red
" strip 4: All cool white
" strip 5: All blue

Down the road, I could add/replace LED strip with other color combos that I feel best fitted.... More work definitely but room to change the color scheme

 

[J-Dog]

good timing to post this question! I just got back in town yesterday so I can help you out.

There's a 100 different ways to do a build and 1000 to do it wrong but we have helped out lots of folks who have had the same questions.

Drivers are dependent if you want dimmable or constant.
Dimmable with potentiometers or done with a controller like an apex or profilux.

Optics relates to tanks that are really deep or the height of the fixture over the water line. Most folks hang their fixture over 8" so typically they go with the Carclo Ripple wide optics.

Color combo is based on your personal taste, no one can tell you what kind of burger you like to eat. If you like it really blue then go for a 3blue to 1white ratio. Most folks go with a 2b to 1w ratio so we based our phoenix kits on those numerics, it looks like a phoenix 14k bulb :).

I am looking at doing your size tank or a bit deeper for my next tank and there is two different ways you can do it but its dependent on your rockwork and budget. I am going to use the Phoenix kits as an example but you can use comparable quantity LED kits with different options. We just use them as the recommendation since they are the highest quality kits on the market.

(photos from here LED My TANK! « « ReefLEDLights | LED Aquarium Lighting ReefLEDLights | LED Aquarium Lighting)
You can do
2 24"x8.46" heatsinks with a Phoenix 55 kit

Or you can do 3 18"x8.46" heatsinks running perpindicular to the front pane with less LEDs on each heatsink.

Hope this helps you out.

-Rick

Thanks for the help, Rick....I had a couple more questions for u.

With my tank being 60x30x24, will 2-24" heatsinks be enough to cover the 30' width of the tank? It looks it wouldn't since the sinks are only 8" wide.

When u talk about drivers, what exactly are potentiometers? And what is the advantage of having the LED's be dimmable?

And for a 24" deep tank, are optics necessary to reach the bottom? Would u get too much spread and not enough penetration if u didn't use the optics?

Do most people run their LED's with controllers?

 

[ReefLEDLights]

Thanks for the help, Rick....I had a couple more questions for u.

With my tank being 60x30x24, will 2-24" heatsinks be enough to cover the 30' width of the tank? It looks it wouldn't since the sinks are only 8" wide.

When u talk about drivers, what exactly are potentiometers? And what is the advantage of having the LED's be dimmable?

And for a 24" deep tank, are optics necessary to reach the bottom? Would u get too much spread and not enough penetration if u didn't use the optics?

Do most people run their LED's with controllers?

with the 30" wide it is then dependent on how high and deep your rockwork is going to be. Mine is going to be serverly complicated rockscaping so I am doing the three 18" perpindicular.

for 24" of depth there is not too much worry about light hitting the bottom but the issue is making sure the light gets into the tank. without optics light spill is large and you lose 2/3 your power from the LEDs so then you need MORE LEDs to compensate for the loss from lack of optics. I had no optics on my high noons and the light just spilled out into the room.

Dimmable LEDs allow you to control your color balance as well as dimming in and out the lighting to simulate sun rise and sun set.

I would say about 60% of our customers use controllers with their fixtures.

Here are some example wiring diagrams with controllers at the bottom of this page.
Wiring Diagrams « « ReefLEDLights | LED Aquarium Lighting ReefLEDLights | LED Aquarium Lighting

 

[J-Dog]

with the 30" wide it is then dependent on how high and deep your rockwork is going to be. Mine is going to be serverly complicated rockscaping so I am doing the three 18" perpindicular.

for 24" of depth there is not too much worry about light hitting the bottom but the issue is making sure the light gets into the tank. without optics light spill is large and you lose 2/3 your power from the LEDs so then you need MORE LEDs to compensate for the loss from lack of optics. I had no optics on my high noons and the light just spilled out into the room.

Dimmable LEDs allow you to control your color balance as well as dimming in and out the lighting to simulate sun rise and sun set.

I would say about 60% of our customers use controllers with their fixtures.

Here are some example wiring diagrams with controllers at the bottom of this page.
Wiring Diagrams « « ReefLEDLights | LED Aquarium Lighting ReefLEDLights | LED Aquarium Lighting

Thanks again for the help.

Why does the rockwork matter when u are deciding between 2-24" heatsinks or 3-18" perpendicular heatsinks?

So if u are saying u lose too much light without optics, then they should always be purchased and placed on each light to keep the light directed into the tank?

How do the dimmable LED's help control color balance? I can see how u can dim them for sunrise and sunset, but I don't understand how u control color.

Do u need a controller in order to use the dimmable drivers? If I didn't have a controller, would getting the constant driver be my only option?

 

[ReefLEDLights]

because if the rockwork is taller in some areas and dependent on positioning of the rocks it can cause shadowing with less heatsinks. Raising up the fixtures combats this but then you lose more light.

Correct, some folks have to keep the fixtures close to the water and then they cant use optics.

If you dont have a controller you can either solder a potentiometer onto the inventronics driver or pay a couple bucks and have our technician solder it for you and then do dimming manually.

Here is an example of color balancing with an enercell to adjust the voltage going into the dimming wires on the driver.
[video=youtube;5mDDtA-fqsg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mDDtA-fqsg[/video]

 

[trplxj]

I was in the same boat as you not too long ago. I asked tons of questions and reefledlights.com was very helpful. I ended up going with two of the phoenix 45 kits for my 90 gallon tank. I haven't put them over the tank yet cause I'm still putting them together. The LED world looks (and can be) very complicated but Bill and Rick make it pretty easy. I can also very highly suggest the solderless kit as well. During the wiring process of my first fixture I decided that I wanted to move a couple if the LED's and it was just a matter of taking out the two screws unhooking the wires and moving the LED's and hooking everything back up. Pretty easy. I think the hardest part for me was deciding how I wanted to layout the LED's on the heatsink.

 

[TheEngineer]

I built my own fixture several years ago and I posted a lot of te details for my build on my website. You can check it out if interested, I build everything from scratch including the drivers. No meanwells or others were available at the time.

Http://www.engineersreef.com