LEDS for Actinic suppliment

S

ss95003

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OK I really have not kept up with the new lighting technology lately. But I think I want to remove my 2 bulb VHO actinic and replace with 1 Blue LED strip.

What are my options? I am looking for something that is dimmable with my APEX (not 100% necessary though). the tank is 72" long.
 
Steve,

I would look into a meanwell driver, heatsinks and about 40 royal blue led's. It's really easy to make a what you want for under $200. Another option is to investigate exotic led's, go check out his tank under led's and you will be impressed.

Cheers,
 
So does the apex control the meanwell driver?
And are you saying for $250 you will build everything I need? :)
 
@ss95003 wrote:
So does the apex control the meanwell driver? And are you saying for $250 you will build everything I need? :) said:
the APEX can be set up to controll a dimable meanwell
I agree 100% with Ron - go with the Cree Royal blue leds for the best color pop

take a look at my build log starting on page 4 for my led actinic build using the APEX to control the dim/intensity, and look at the pages later in the log for a bunch of pictures of the corals under the LED's
viewtopic.php?f=100&t=67695&start=120
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I was looking more along the lines of prebuild something like the Reefbrite that Bill (blide) has but that one does not look dimmable.
 
@bimmerzs wrote:
Steve said:
I agree there is a DIY option, but make sure you have a good soldering iron and have some expierence soldering. I've read that there's not much room for error and you can ruin the LED's pretty fast. That's why I went with the pre-made option because I didn't want to buy $50 of hardware plus the $200 LED setup and then mess it up because I'm not the best DIY. [smilie=rofl.gif]
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@blide wrote:
[I]@bimmerzs wrote:[/I][quote="Steve said:
I agree there is a DIY option, but make sure you have a good soldering iron and have some expierence soldering. I've read that there's not much room for error and you can ruin the LED's pretty fast. That's why I went with the pre-made option because I didn't want to buy $50 of hardware plus the $200 LED setup and then mess it up because I'm not the best DIY. [smilie=rofl.gif]"]

The skills and tools for the DIY are not the issue, the lazyness is the issue. [smilie=rofl.gif]
At this point and that many points to solder I would rather pay someone else.
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@bimmerzs wrote:
Steve said:
I am looking on rapid LED to see what is out there. Are you refering to the CREE XP-E Royal Blue? Also it says the medwell drivers only drive 8-14 bulbs...am i reading that correctly? if so i would need atleast 4 of those correct?

If what i have listed above is right we are talking about $400 and still hours of work.
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@ss95003 wrote:
[I]@blide wrote:[/I][quote="[I]@bimmerzs wrote:[/I][quote="Steve said:
I agree there is a DIY option, but make sure you have a good soldering iron and have some expierence soldering. I've read that there's not much room for error and you can ruin the LED's pretty fast. That's why I went with the pre-made option because I didn't want to buy $50 of hardware plus the $200 LED setup and then mess it up because I'm not the best DIY. [smilie=rofl.gif]"]

The skills and tools for the DIY are not the issue, the lazyness is the issue. [smilie=rofl.gif]
At this point and that many points to solder I would rather pay someone else."]

If you are interested in an LED setup, you can come see my DIY fixture over my 34g viewtopic.php?f=1&t=87357

I can build you a setup if you want, but 40 Cree LED's are not going to be had for $200. Assume about $5 per LED, and another $40 per 12 LEDs for the driver, and that is the cost of the 2 major components. Heatsink will vary, depending on what you are wanting, and how hard you want to push the LED's. For actinics, you probably won't need to run them 100%, so you can do the small heatsink, but they still aren't cheap at 72". Even if you went with a Steve's LED setup, I believe his 42 LED DIY kit is nearing $400.

If I were you, I would go with 36 LED's, along with 3 dimmable meanwell drivers on either 1 or 2 long heatsinks. As long as your apex has a 0-10v output, it can easily be controlled via the apex. What is your current lighting? Is it in a canopy? Is there a splash shield between the water and where the LED's will go?
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I'll send you a pm but after looking at the cost keeping the VHO seems like the smart thing, or going with a 72" reef bright strip, it's not dimmable but i don't have my VHO on a dimmer either so that not a big deal.
 
Is it just me, or does 40 seem like a large number of Royal Blue XP-Es for just actinic supplementation on a 6' tank?

Steve, since you've seen my tanks recently, just for perspective, the freshwater tank was lit by a dozen XP-G Neutral Whites, and the 6' tank in the bedroom was lit entirely with 48 (previous generation, about 30% less efficient) cree LEDs, only 24 royal blues for the whole tank, running at about 60% brightness.

If I was looking to do direct replacement of a pair of VHOs on a 6' tank, I'd maybe consider starting with 2 1" x 72" heatsinks ($66 ea), 24 RB XP-Es ($4 ea), and a pair of meanwell eln-60-48D drivers (dimmable by Apex, $34 ea) (all prices rapidled, you could probably beat them somewhat if you shopped around). That's about $290 worth of materials and an hour or two of soldering, and if it does happen to be less blue than you want after all, you can add another string of 12 on each heatsink down the road.

(edit -- whoops, sorry I missed that you wanted to replace it with a single strip; you could do single 71" x 4.23" heatsink from heatsinksusa instead for about $95, saving a bit on the above (probably about enough to cover shipping on everything :))
 
Right now if i do this and not just buy the reefbrite I am leaning towards 1 heat sink 1" x 72", 3 dimmable drives, and 36 RB XP-Es and 80 degree lenses. My deal is i can get the reefbright 72" long for $360, and all the material from rapidled would be about the same price. Granted the rapid LED would be dimmable and probably brighter. But the trade off is no work involved. So I am still unsure at this point. If Ron can make me one for $250 i will pay cash tomorrow. [smilie=rofl.gif]
 
40 was just a random number and I personally don't think you need $5 Cree's for actinic supplementation. There are many sources for everything you need, including Cree's at other places than rapidleds or nanotuners, just takes extra time and effort to seek them out. $400 for actinic supplementation is an out of control number imo. [smilie=smile.gif] What Chuck quoted is more in-line with adding just actinic's to a tank even with those Cree's in the mix. Sorry Steve...my labor rate is pretty high so you will have a very expensive actinic setup if I had to actually do manual work. [smilie=lol.gif]

Cheers,
 
@ss95003 wrote:
Right now if i do this and not just buy the reefbrite I am leaning towards 1 heat sink 1" x 72" said:
Just fwiw -- if it's going to be in a canopy, you'll want to plan on active cooling (a fan of some sort) for 36 of those on a 1" x 72" heatsink... I've got a dozen XP-Gs on a 1" x 48" in a canopy and it's getting towards the edge of the envelope for passive cooling -- any more, and a fan would definitely be required...
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Wow, 1 every 4 inches and you almost need fans? How many ma's are you running through them?

I have 42 on roughly a 16x10 heatsink with no fans, and i can run 1000 ma through all of them and the heatsink stays under 100 and the led star maxed out at 112. Granted, this is not in a canopy, it is open-air, but i would expect even in a typically ventilated canopy that you could run at least an LED every 3 inches on a 1 inch wide heatsink.

I believe you told me that you werent interested in par ratings, that being said, you could always run without optics for a large spread and get away with 24 leds on a 60" heatsink centered over your tank. Also, since you have a fish room, i imagine you have more ventilation than a typical canopy, so i wouldnt worry as much about needing to add active cooling.
 
@CaravanShaka wrote:
Wow said:
1050ma, using a constant current driver. My IR thermometer shows it runs about 120 degrees (ambient room temp is 75). There's no active cooling in the canopy, just venting at the top - I think if I ran any more on this it would need either some active cooling or a larger heatsink.

(This application is just a 105 gallon cichlid tank that I added LEDs to because I got tired of changing the fluorescents).

@CaravanShaka wrote:
I have 42 on roughly a 16x10 heatsink with no fans said:
I'm running 48 each (24 XP-E RB, 24 XP-G NW) on a pair of 8" x 22" passively cooled heatsinks over my 210, open air about 18" off the top of the tank (with 40 degree optics). Temp on these runs about 90 degrees at normal running (about 40%) and about 110 if I turn them all the way up to 1.1 amps. The smaller passively cooled fixtures (running XR-Es) over my 165 run about the same. Ceiling fan in both rooms helps, I'm sure :)
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24 on 60" sounds interesting, definitely more cost effective but i thought the optics helped the spread not hurt it. stopping the spot light effect.
 
There are a few different optic's with varying degree's. The 40* optics help narrow the beam and is good for deeper tanks or if you want the led's much higher off the tank, con of that is that you may need a few more led's. I think most opt for the 60* optics on setups or even no optic's. Here's more info on optic use and purpose. http://reefbuilders.com/2010/01/27/led-optics-explained/
 
I have one 48" heatsink with 28 LEDs for supplementation and I love it! I got my fixture from StevesLEDs and it has worked great. As soon as I put it on the tank all of my corals started to grow faster and color up more. Now he sells a harness that you can hook up to your apex for dimming.
 
I have had steve's and Cree's, and I highly recommend the Cree's. I had a driver and a fan go out with steve's stuff within the first 2 months of ownership, and had 2 LED's dead on arrival that he would not replace. The cree's are much more powerful, and can put out the same light at lower temps and power. Also, from my experience a steve's blue led will really bring out greens and yellows, where as a royal blue cree will be just as effective with greens and yellows, but still highlight reds and oranges, so you get less of a moonlight feel and more of a bluish daytime feel.

as far as optics go, they are for focusing the light. An LED without optics will have somewhere between a 90 and 180 degree spread, depending on the LED. I must confess, I do not know what the XP-G and XP-E led's have from the factory, but I am pretty sure it is closer to the 180 degree side since there is no dome over the emitter. Please do not quote me though.

Here is what I think may be a good option for you. go with the 72"x1" heatsink, but start with 24 LED's, no optics, and 2 drivers. That will keep your initial cost down, and have the cooling capability to run more if needed. If for some reason you do not feel it is enough light, you can always add a 3rd string, and still be right around the price of the reefbrite, but with dimming capabilities.
 
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