LED setup.

[dwilliams87]

I've been having an issue with my across turning brown. The polyps are out but they don't have the coloration they should under my T5's. Well, Greg lives near me and brought the par meter by and at the top of my rock it was only 250. My montiporas are thriving really well but the Across not so much so my question is does.anyone have any experience building Led's? I want to add a couple of strips to supplement the T5's.

 

[gmoney243]

Quit a few of us have built leds its much easier than most think.

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[p woodard]

I have super easy to do just takes time

 

[pickupman66]

Yes. fairly easy. if you can cut wires and use a soldering iron, you are in GOOD shape. they even make some that have Solderless connections so you dont have to get anything hot! after that, it is just wiring up some light bulbs and adding up the wattages...

 

[dwilliams87]

Well I have an electronics background. I've built circuit boards and soldered too many components to count. But I would love some help on what I should get and the design idea. Also do you think doing some LED's would be enough to supplement me T5s to the par level I would need. Cause if not I think ill just stay away from the Across until I upgrade. But if.it.will allow me to get my par up then it will probably help everything else as well. I'm not planning on upgrading for awoke though because I'm renting my house and I've been told no larger tanks.

 

[gmoney243]

What size is your tank? Led can grow any corals so yes you could add enough to go with or replace t5. Aquastyleonline.com is the kits I use. They are budget friendly and have pwn or manual dimming drivers to choose from. Pm me if you want to see my led in person someday. Lot of us use c-channel alluminum or u-channel same stuff for heatsink to build rack and glue leds too.

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[dwilliams87]

It's a 20 gallon standard.

 

[dwilliams87]

OK, i looked at that website but i dont really know what i need for a 20 gallon. I guess 2 questions, 1) What would I need to supplement my current lights? 2) What would I need to do a whole new setup?

 

[Dowtish]

What bulbs do you have right now, and how many?

I am currently running a 4 bulb T5 over a 90 bowfront, and am using LED to supplement. But the LED's are all blue. I am running 2 geissmen daylight bulbs and 2 ATI coral plus. This way I get the par I need, and then the balanced out blue color I'm looking for from the LED's. That to me, is true "supplemented"

 

[dwilliams87]

I run 2 geissman day lights and 1 geissman pink and 1 geissman actinic plus. I would have thought that would have been good but the par meter says otherwise. Would there be anything else that could possibly be hindering my acros in that way? All my levels are great. the only one that i'm not happy with right now is my nitrates. Most of the time they run at 0 - 2.5 but listening to one of the vendors at the swap he recommended me getting it up to 5. Well It's at ten. but the acros weren't doing any better at 0-2.5

 

[p woodard]

For you tank I would just go all LED you will only need 20 to 36 LEDs and on Aquastyleonline.com they are less than 125 Im running 120 LEDs on a 180 gal tank and I got mine from them and my coral are growing like mad I also have a 28 BIO cube with 12 LEDs and all that will stay alive in it is LPS corals this was a test tank to see what I would need to keep SPS corals

 

[dwilliams87]

So, would you show me what you would get from the site? That's cool. I'll do that.

 

[p woodard]

I would probably get this one aquarium DIY LED kits with optics it looks like it has all you will need and at $85 cant bet it

 

[dwilliams87]

Thanks so much! What color combo do you recommend? Also, are there any other parts to do the job, I'll need?

 

[dwilliams87]

Also, what drivers?

 

[p woodard]

I told you wrong that one is not dimmable this is the one Aquarium 24 LEDs Dimmable DIY LED kit with optics sorry

 

[dwilliams87]

That took me to the same one.

 

[p woodard]

Thanks so much! What color combo do you recommend? Also, are there any other parts to do the job, I'll need?

I would go with more blue and the first is a kit so I dont think so the second one you will need some kind of heat sink

 

[dwilliams87]

I found the dimmable one. Thank you for all of your help. Would you mind explaining to me why the jump to the LED's is so superior to the T5's? I know eveyone is doing it now so it's got to be better. Is it because of the par? My 150w MH that is on my 10g frag tank has great par readings but when I put it on my 20, it doesn't look near as good as my t5"s. So i"m a little confused.