my 135 rimless - updated with new LED build!!

[johnanddawn]

no i don't think so - the spread is definitly going to be enough but i don't know about the par
it should be fine for the zoas and lps but i will be doing 2 par38's to start and maybe 4 if need be to spotlight my sps
i will know more after i get it finished and set up so i can get my clubs par meter on it
but i am committed to this now and know i can make it work, the biggest issue is going to be the transition, i hope my corals handle it, it would have been better if i started with LED's instead of changing them. we all know how much sps hate change

 

[johnanddawn]

step 5 - change mind
instead of reusing the T5 pendent i decided to built a new 24" oak pendent and cut the legs down to fit. i received the rest of my components from bill at reefledlights and installed and wired everything up

so far everything has been going together quite well but i still have a few things to do - going to stain the pendent today and install the optics, as well as a few other details that need to be worked out

 

[johnanddawn]

step 6
stained and varnished pendent, installed optics, and installed 4 powerbrights at a 22
1/2* angle. i already owned the powerbrights so i thought i would keep them and use them as part of my dusk/dawn cycle, and the slight angle ensures a little better coverage in the middle and less on the glass. i've always liked the powerbrights for extending viewing time and this should work out nice.

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

Nice work! Your more brave than me, I'm waiting until people like you unravel the whole led debate until I invest. I hope your stuff acclimates well.

Did you do a DIY because of cost or because you couldn't get a fixture with what you wanted? What are your opinions on the spectrums available in leds?

 

[johnanddawn]

thanks
i went diy cause
1) i like to build stuff - and generally i find it is not cheaper to do it myself unfortunetly, i tend to overdo things
2) its the little details you can't get in a factory "one size fits all" fixture. my LED array has 2 different optics that are arranged to match my rockscape and coral placement, angled powerbrights to give me some twilight, and par 38's to give me that japanese spotlight effect all at the same time. noone else has a fixture exactly like this
3) adjustability - can't rework a factory job as easily if something comes up. i may need more LED's or diferent colored or who knows what i may want to change

i don't think there is much debate left - at least that is what i am betting on. the germans were running T5's when most people here were saying you can't do sps with florescents. most diyers are not having the trouble. i think LED's got a bad rep due to poorly made fixtures with cheap LEDs
as far as spectrum the cool whites are rated from 5 - 10 K and the royal blues spike at 450nm. so its kinda like mixing a iwasaki 6.5k with a radium 20K - both have been proven to grow corals
the mix may be lacking in the red end. to solve this issue some are running neutral whites (3.7 - 5K) in the mix. i don't know what i will find????
and your right my only fear is the transition - LPS and zoas tend to be forgiving when it comes to change but SPS are not - if i'm not careful i can see the whole lot of them rtning on me - the next month will tell the tale
btw i bet your acans would glow like magic koolaid under this fixture

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

btw i bet your acans would glow like magic koolaid under this fixture

Why did you have to say that!!! Now I pretty much have to get some led's real soon. I want magic koolaid acans, mmmmm koolaid. going to get a drink now lol

Looking forward to seeing your progress. I would like also to know what your par levels change to under the led's.

 

[johnanddawn]

blue LED's are almost a neccessity - the day i put my powerbrights on my tank i knew i was going LED, T5's just can't do what they do for you

step 7
attached 2 PAR 38's 12K with 60* optics and suspended it over the tank for a sneak peek
first impression is it looks really nice as far as color goes but seems "dimmer" although i don't think it really is cause the details in the corals are far more pronounced. i hope to get the PAR meter soon so i know. i will be out of town working all next week so it is coming back off but i snapped a quick pic. it is not very good and i couldn't get the settings right but it gives a general feel for the new look:

 

[johnanddawn]

ok luckily i got the PAR meter from my club today and took some preliminary readings just to get a basic idea - nothing scientific i just measured the PAR over several prominent corals
i recorded the numbers for both light sets on the pic i took this morning - of course the tank actually looks different with the T5light set

T5's first
numbers are easy and obvious - very consistent - the only real change is depth, otherwise the numbers are faily constant across the tank - very good numbers in general, just about right actually - no wonder T5's are so good

LED's next
wow what a difference! the numbers are very much like a MH. the center of the array has the highest numbers and the perimeters the lowest, but then you have to add in the PAR 38's - i was a bit surprised by the extremes. on the edges all the way around i have less then 50 and almost no light hitting the glass (yeah! less algae on the glass!) and the highest number i found was in the center of the left PAR 38 at over 500. over all i think the numbers are close enough that i can start acclimating them if i only run the PAR 38's a couple hours a day at first. the only really low number i got was on the front left zoa penninsula, it stretches right out to the front left corner and therfore doesn't get much light - i may have to curl them in toward the center some. i also have 3-4 acros (the ones near the overflow) that are just out of the PAR38's reach that are a bit low - i may have to buy two more ??? maybe a couple 20K's ??we'll see

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

Very cool. Par meters rock

 

[johnanddawn]

yeah i couldn't wait to get my hands on it - wish i owned my own so i could have it all the time
the numbers look good but i don't know if they tell the whole story
no surprise that the T5 numbers were so predictable but some of the LED numbers have me wondering a bit - tomorrow i'm going to do a retest on the LED's and see if i can add it up - optics/color/distance between the LED's/depth - just think i need to understand them a bit more the numbers on the right seem to be higher then the left for some reason. could be as simple as the pendent not hanging perfectly level - gotta find out
i really like the variety in values - but i may have to rearrange things a bit which i didn't want to do, if i can't find a more simple solution

 

[Rickyrooz]

Thanks for the update

 

[johnanddawn]

hey no prob - thanks for following - hopefully now i can document some coral reactions
i made a couple small changes yesterday. i did find that the pendent was 3/4" off center so i centered it a little better, and the numbers on the left went up a bit

i also curled the zoa penninsula inward i little bit - some of my favs were out on the very edge of the limb and i didn't want them out of the light

i also moved 2 sps from the far left to the center right. they were up pretty high on the left side and the 60* optics wasn't spreading out to them. i was planning on moving these anyway because they were starting to grow and would have soon been to close to the glass anyway. i still have a couple acros outside of the PAR 38'd that i want to watch for a while to see what happens. i also have my M. setosa that may get moved the other way. it may be getting too much light where it is now
by next weekend i should be able to see some changes if any

 

[Rickyrooz]

How much lower would the PAR ratings be for the SPS if you didn't turn on the PAR 38 LED's?

 

[blankenship76]

Like the layout1

 

[johnanddawn]

How much lower would the PAR ratings be for the SPS if you didn't turn on the PAR 38 LED's?

i've been busy but will get the numbers today - i am curious about that too but didn't have the time the other day to really play around

Like the layout1

thanks

well not quit a week yet but so far everything is really looking good. the zoas i was worried about on the bottom left are stretching a bit for light but not bad, and the polyp extention on my sps is great

its kinda hard to explain but the detail you see in the corals is phenomenal under LEDs - its like each individual color is popping showing more natural contrast

and so far almost no algae on the glass - running the outer perimeter with 60* optics seems to be working on keeping all the light in the tank on the rock and corals and off the glass and out of the room - very little light wasted to spill!

 

[johnanddawn]

How much lower would the PAR ratings be for the SPS if you didn't turn on the PAR 38 LED's?

ok i did some more testing and the PAR 38's really add to the SPS section
because the layout of my scape was based on the fact i had planned to use T5's some SPS on the far left, far right, and far back by the overflow do not get much light from a centered 48 bulb LED array (much like you would see in a small MH pendent)
The PAR 38's spotlight the SPS section. each one boosts the PAR in about a small circle, about 8" around.
the measurements were taken by finding the hot spot in the center and then taking 4-5 readings about 3-4" away from it in a circle
its amazing how an inch or two one way or the other really effects the numbers
here is the spots off

here is the spots on

 

[blankenship76]

Looks Awesome!

 

[Rickyrooz]

Wow, I guess I'll wait until the LED technology develops a little further before I make the switch. Thanks for the info!

 

[johnanddawn]

Wow, I guess I'll wait until the LED technology develops a little further before I make the switch. Thanks for the info!

yeah i understand why you think that way, but 48 LED's shouldn't be expected to light a 36x36x24 tank if you wanted an even full coverage it would take 72 - 96. to get full tank coverage on a 120 like yours it would take 2 @ 36 or 48 LED arrays
i KNEW this would not give me full coverage and considered going with more LED's, but thought spotlights would be a lot more interesting so the PAR 38's were a part of the plan from the beginning. i wanted a tank that had very high light areas and very low light areas.

its really a different way of thinking about reef lighting then in the past - your not lighting up a tank, your lighting regions of your tank and specifically matching light to coral. my highest # with T5's was just over 300 and now i have 400 and 500 in some spots

i really like the spotlight effect and am going to order a couple more. i think i want one more aimed toward my SPS and one 20K aimed toward my zoa penninsula maybe

 

[johnanddawn]

Looks Awesome!

thanks - i really like the numbers