RFBF's Five Footer

[redfishbluefish]

My LUX meter has arrived! I just used it below the Fathoms above, and here's what I found....

With the lights at 100% blue and 60% white, at the waterline, directly below the fixture I was getting between 25K to 30K LUX. Now here's the interesting thing....the one side is off except for the four white LED's, and there I got slightly over 100K. For me, that's a head scratcher??? Why would only 4 LED's give me a higher number (by almost a factor of 4) than a total of 12 LED's (that include those same 4 whites as well)?

 

[Flippers4pups]

My LUX meter has arrived! I just used it below the Fathoms above, and here's what I found....

With the lights at 100% blue and 60% white, at the waterline, directly below the fixture I was getting between 25K to 30K LUX. Now here's the interesting thing....the one side is off except for the four white LED's, and there I got slightly over 100K. For me, that's a head scratcher??? Why would only 4 LED's give me a higher number (by almost a factor of 4) than a total of 12 LED's (that include those same 4 whites as well)?

Lenses? I'll go with lenses.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Lenses? I'll go with lenses.

Both sides have the same lenses...and same series of LED's. Let me clarify. Here's the fixture, where the left side has all LED's lit, where the center row are the whites. On the right, the 4 whites are lit, but the 8 other LED's are out because the first in the row (UV bead) is burnt out:

I measure the left side, with 12 LED's lit, and I get 25-30K LUX. I measure the right side with only 4 LED's lit, and I get over 100K

 

[Flippers4pups]

Both sides have the same lenses...and same series of LED's. Let me clarify. Here's the fixture, where the left side has all LED's lit, where the center row are the whites. On the right, the 4 whites are lit, but the 8 other LED's are out because the first in the row (UV bead) is burnt out:

I measure the left side, with 12 LED's lit, and I get 25-30K LUX. I measure the right side with only 4 LED's lit, and I get over 100K

Okay, got it. @saltyfilmfolks might be able to answer why this is happening. My guess is that the blue spectrum is interfering with the sensor, blocking or interfering with some of the white.
@Dana Riddle might know as well.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Oops! Another DOH! moment for me. I think I might be the idiot here. Playing with this new LUX meter, it appears that it automatically changes scale. My lights are no longer at the same setting above, but I believe it dropped down a scale for the whites....so that the white side wasn't 100K, but only 10K.....that makes more sense to me. I'll have to verify tomorrow when the lights are at 100% blue/60% white.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Oops! Another DOH! moment for me. I think I might be the idiot here. Playing with this new LUX meter, it appears that it automatically changes scale. My lights are no longer at the same setting above, but I believe it dropped down a scale for the whites....so that the white side wasn't 100K, but only 10K.....that makes more sense to me. I'll have to verify tomorrow when the lights are at 100% blue/60% white.

Okay that explains it.

 

[Dana Riddle]

Honestly, I haven't read all 12 pages of this thread - which brand lux meter re you using?

 

[redfishbluefish]

Honestly, I haven't read all 12 pages of this thread - which brand lux meter re you using?

Dana, thanks for replying, but we've got it figured out....I'm the idiot who didn't realize the scale automatically changes to the light levels....it wasn't 100K I was seeing, it was only 10K. So we're good. Thanks.

 

[Dana Riddle]

Instrumentation makes our lives easier.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I fixed the Fathom Fixtures

I didn't think I had any more UV beads, so just to get it back up and running, I put in a blue bead (that I had many of). I'm putting away the soldering iron and I find the little bag with one more UV bead. DOH! I've already closed up the fixtures and hung them again, so the blue is staying for now.

With my history of burning up blue LEDs that run at 100%, I also cut back the midday setting of blue's from 100% to 90%.

Set Point--Time---White %--Blue %
-----1------10:00-------0--------0
-----2------11:00-------0-------20
-----3------12:00-----20-------40
-----4------14:00-----40-------90
-----5------15:00-----60------990
-----6------17:00-----60----..--90
-----7------18:00-----40-------90
-----8------20:00----20-------40
-----9------21:00------0-------20
-----10-----22:00------0--------0

 

[redfishbluefish]

I recieved the two SB Reef fixtures today. Woo Hoo! Still waiting for the new PCB board (to go into a Mars Aqua)....but their website specifically states that boards are shipped separately from fixtures.

As far as mounting these fixtures...they differ from the old fixtures I had by not having the four little nubs (that were used to clip the hanging cable to.) The fixtures also came with two mounting options.....one was four 90 degree bent rods that slide into the fixture and then attaches to two u-shape pieces that would fit over the edge of the tank...holding the fixture maybe 7-8 inches over the tank. The other mounting option were those four wire cables with clips that attach to the fixture and then go back to a single S-hook.....does anyone use this to hang their fixtures? Anyway, neither of these will work for me....here's the hanging kit hardware that came with the new lights:

My old fixtures were hung on two wood rails using aluminum angle that bolted into the nubs on the up-side of the fixtures, and then to the wood rails.

I'm going to scratch my head and see if I can come up with a way to hang these SB Lights on the wood rails that fit into my canopy.....I have an idea that I'll work on first thing tomorrow morning.

 

[redfishbluefish]

HOW TO HANG SB REEF LIGHTS IN AN OPEN TOP CANOPY


This turned out better than I thought.....using the hanging kits that came with the lights...with modification. I needed to mount these fixtures high up in my open-top canopy. The fixtures will hang on two wood L-rails made from inexpensive fir strips.

The hanging hardware that came with the lights had two options....open top tank resting on upper glass edge of tank, OR hanging off four wire cables. Neither of these options would work for me. Here is an example picture of the light mounted using the first mentioned hardware kit:

Modification time...... What I did notice was that the holes in the sides of the fixtures for the mounting hardware passed all the way through the fixture (in a channel). So What I did was to take the bent hanging rods and straightened them out so that they would slide throught this channel. This resulted in a couple inches protruding from each side of the fixture.

Another part of the hanging kit that came with these lights were two U-shaped aluminum pieces that would normally be used on each side of your tank, attached to the bent rods, holding up the fixture. With the straightened rods protruding from the fixtures, I slid the U-shaped bracket onto the rods. The light fixtures were rested on the wood channels and holes were drilled throw the rails and U-shaped bracket. Stainless nuts and bolts were used to attach the backet to the rails. Here are a couple shots of the U-shaped bracket with the straigheded rods attached.

Here's a front shot of the mounted fixtures (the center Mars Aqua is awaiting a new PCB board from SB that hasn't arrived yet):

Here's the back side shot.

Now just need to wait for the new PCB board and I can then get this guy up and running.

 

[TheEngineer]

Nice!

 

[redfishbluefish]

Since I'm now going to have three SB Reef lights, I wanted to include this info in my built thread for if and when I need it:

 

[Flippers4pups]

Nice mod to make them work!

 

[Flippers4pups]

The way I hung mine was attaching screw eyelets to my canopy frame on each side and one in the middle. Then taking a aluminum rod, running it through the eyelets. Using the hanging wire kit that comes with each light, run the wire over the rod and attach to the fixtures.

I modded that to chain later to allow for adjustments of the fixtures up and down as needed.

 

[redfishbluefish]

The way I hung mine was attaching screw eyelets to my canopy frame on each side and one in the middle. Then taking a aluminum rod, running it through the eyelets. Using the hanging wire kit that comes with each light, run the wire over the rod and attach to the fixtures.

I modded that to chain later to allow for adjustments of the fixtures up and down as needed.

Nice! If the rod was thin enough, you could have run it in the open channel and still used the eye hooks.

This whole mounting process had me questioning how many folks actually use the two mounting options as included with the fixtures. I've seen a couple of these:

But I've never seen anybody use the four point cable hangers....it hangs the fixtures too low.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Well, it's been two weeks since I placed the order with SB Reef, and as mentioned above, the two fixtures have arrived, but I still haven't received the new PCB Board. So I sent customer service the following:

On April 4th I placed an order for two Basic light fixtures and a PCB board. On April 10th I received an email stating the items were shipped, along with a DHL tracking number (9********CN DHL). Every time I checked this number, I got the following message:

Some of your queries resulted in an error
9********CN (Not found): No result found for your DHL query. Please try again.

On April 13th UPS (Not DHL), delivered two fixtures, but no PCB board.

I continued to check the DHL tracking number, and continue to get the same error message.

It's now been two weeks since the order was placed and I am now concerned that the PCB board might be lost.

Please advise.

 

[TheEngineer]

Ugh! Where did the package you receibed originate? In the US?

 

[redfishbluefish]

Ugh! Where did the package you received originate? In the US?

I assume it came from their place in Florida. From the email about being shipped, and when I received the two fixtures, it was three days. Both were still in the boxes from China, and my guess is that they mistakenly scanned the DHL shipping bar from when it was shipped from China to Florida....the number ending in "CN", I believe, is the China designation. Again, for me, it was delivered by UPS. Would DHL China first ship to UPS to make the final delivery??? I wouldn't think so.

I'm just hoping I hear back from them....I've got this impression that it's a mom and pop operation (literally, husband and wife), and therefore, with the apparent demand, things move slow.