Rapid LED Questions

[jreimers]

I am about to embark on a DIY LED lighting system for my new NEO 90, replacing the Exotic LED Light that I had hoped would work from my 55. While the 240 watts of LED I have from Exotic produces enough light and worked fantastically on my 55, it does not have enough spread for the 90.

I have contacted Rapid and they have made their suggestions and I just wanted to get more input from others who have done this...

They suggested using a 48 LED retro kit (the solderless kit) with 60 degree lenses and after sending them a drawing of my canopy layout they suggested 3 of their Drilled/tapped 1.4" x 36" Aluminum Heatsinks.

I am not afraid of soldering so I want to know if anyone has used the solderless kit and what they thought of it... also I am curious about the 24 royal blue / 24 cool white LEDs that come in the kit... is that the ratio I should stick with to get maximum light. I realize that Color preferences play a big part in this decision, I can't tell you what temperature color I want. I just know I don't want a blue tank, I just want enough blue to make the florescence pop, if that makes any sense at all. Also do I want to add any reds?

I am attaching the drawing of the canopy and will tell you that the Canopy top is 9" above the water level.

[attachment=0]canopy photo.JPG[/attachment]

Any help anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated..

 

[BigJake]

48 going to be enough for a 90?

 

[jreimers]

That is why I am asking questions before the purchase... They told me 48 was enough... I have no idea... tank Dimensions are 36"x24"x25"

Hoping someone can give me some direction..

 

[Crack31]

I have a 3 to 2 ratio of royal blue to white on my 29 biocube. Gives more of a 20K look.

 

[grawlfang]

I kind of question the 48 LEDs also as they don't spread evenly/same amount per heat sink. I would go with 23 per heatsink (1.56" apart at this number) 10 white, 12 blue, (I like the blue pop so I actually go more blue 16K-20K trying to be conservative here [smilie=lol.gif] ) and 1 red(changing the position on each one such as 1left, 1center and last strip 1right.) that would give you a slight blue tint but I don't think to much and also give you 207 watts but spread out a bit more(for LED's depending on the tank depth and area I do between 1.5-3 watts per gallon). I agree with the 60 degree optic due to the depth though. All this would also depend on what you plan to keep in there? I would also contact CaravanShaka as he has built LED's in the past.

 

[JBsmurf]

I would consider additional colors to go with this but the great thing about diy is if for whatever reason you don't think 48 is enough you can add more. I'd be more concerned about color blending and the spread of light.

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[niteowl03]

I would also add more colors, green, UV, cyan, red, neutral white, blue, pink etc. 48 Will not be enough. I ran 55 on my 70 and it was a little on the short side. I will be posting an LED thread later tonight that I think you will be interested in after my experience @ MACNA and talking to Sanjay Joshi.

 

[mwilk19]

@niteowl03 wrote:

I'm looking forward to it. I'm trying to decide if I should add some other colors to the royal blue and white leds that I'm currently running.

 

[DFW]

Hi Jody!

My experience with the Crees tells me that I want 3 royal blue for every cool white. And I would mix some Luxeons in with the Crees for covering more spectrum of light. The Luxeon cool whites that I got from StevesLEDs are so bright, 4 royal blue to one cool white looks pretty good to me!

Have you thought about having some T5s in with the LEDs? Just a thought. I plan to keep using T5s along with royal blue LEDs in my main display tank.


David

 

[JBsmurf]

Spectrum is something that everyone should really put a lot of thought into if you plan to only light your system with LED's. Additionally, if you had a chance to sit and listen to Sanjay speak at MACNA you already know that there is a lot of cloudiness around how to properly measure LED's and the light they emit. I think something like 24 3w leds is suppose to be equiv to a 250 MH, im sure thats with lesnes. In my expierance LED's while they are bright may not appear as bright as the 250w MH but the par is a totally different thing. The other issue to discuss is quanity vs quality. This is a discussion that niteowl and I have been having for a couple of weeks and it was ironic that it was brought up by Sanjay during his presentation. Niteowl will likely post a lot more detail on that in the coming days as he has been speaking with Sanjay. I know this might throw a couple of loops in the thought process but if you really want to do a solid LED build, get as much of the spectrum as you can and attempt to replicate your favorite MH bulb as closely as possible. It is possible to have a VERY successful tank under LED's if you do it right. If I can be of any help dont hesitate to reach out to me.

 

[mmiller40]

On a tank that size there is no substitute for halides. Skip all the DIY mumbo jumbo and go with what works. 2x250 Hqi will make you a happy reefer

 

[grawlfang]

I want to try a couple of UV but as far as green I have read that it doesn't help corals? can anyone with experience say that green is needed?

 

[JBsmurf]

@grawlfang wrote:

Its in every mh and t5 bulb that has a white look to them so yes green is needed its a matter of how much though.

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[niteowl03]

Here is the post as promised: viewtopic.php?f=94&t=102659 If you have any questions feel free to post them in the thread or send me a PM and I will be happy to answer you.

 

[Jaguar]

There's alot of nitpicking and testing done here and following with the threads. One person has a frag rack he's tested green led with. You need green. The side with a green led is doing much better then the side without.

Have a look at the write up Niteowl did. That follows why I reckon Sanjay stayed with MH on his main. If its not broke don't fix it, might have been the original theory. There's more sophisticated technologies to test results now with, and if your wanting to go with LED do it right.

 

[Grant]

OK, I'm going to side with Rapid on this one and disagree with several people on here: I think 48 LEDs would be enough.

From the other thread:

@mwilk19 wrote:

I have 12 Luxeon LEDs over my little tank from Steve's LEDs. 6 blue and 6 white, each with it's own Meanwell driver. I have the blue turned up all the way to about 50%, and the white at about 40%. Anything more than that and stuff starts to look unhappy. For your tank dimisions, I think Rapid is about right.

Now, should you add other colors to that? Probably. I wish I had, and may still do it since I have room on my heatsink for another 6. Just be aware that most of the blues and whites run at 1000ma, and most of the other colors run at about 700ma max. So you're either going to need to dial down the driver if you're using it for white's also, or add in another driver for the extra colors.

Also, if you can solder I wouldn't bother with the solderless setup. I had very little soldering experience before I built my setup and had no problems with it. That way you can cut the wires between the LEDs to the length you want and not have a bunch of extra wire. It makes the setup a lot cleaner.

 

[jreimers]

OK.. I plan on purchasing this weekend. I sent Rapid another email regarding color choices, etc. Here is their reply:

Talking to bdare about LEDs, he suggested the following:

20 Royal Blues
6 Blues
6 UVs

10 Cool Whites
4 Neutral Whites
4 Warm Whites

3 Greens
3 Reds

for a total of 54 LEDs... the maximum that will fit on my 3 heat sinks.

I would run the blues on 3 Dim-able Drivers, the Whites on 2 Dim-able Drivers and the UVs, Greens, and Reds on a Constant Driver for the time being and Have them power up after blues and whites have reached their set maximum. All of these LEDs will be on 3 1.5"x36" tapped Heat Sinks.

Any comments, criticisms, additions, deletions would be greatly appreciated....

 

[niteowl03]

I like you color choices for the most part. I would eliminate the warm white and just run 8 Neutral Whites. I am also a little concerned with the amount of LEDs total that you are considering. This is for 2 reasons: 1. I ran 52 LEDs on my 70g (36x18x24) and was not happy with the growth that resulted from them. 2. You are replacing "im assuming" (2) 120w fixtures (240w total) for 162w total and truly the effective wattage of about 135 as 3w LEDs do not run effectively at 3w. While the 3w LEDs will give you better penetration you wont get better spread as all LEDs have a 135 degree spread with no optics on them. So going from 240 LEDs to 54 will actually decrease the actual spread and thats not even considering the 60 degree lenses that you are considering.

I am surprised that you arent satisfied with the 2 fixtures you have now. At 120w each you are running similar lighting output to (2) 250w MHs which is a common setup on that tank.

 

[bimmerzs]

I would decrease spacing and add additional led's to each heatsink. Initially eliminate the 60* optic's, integrate a splash shield that will still allow the addition of optic's, later if needed. Add a temp controlled fan to each heatsink and do consider additional color spectrum's. The recommendation from rapid is a pretty basic approach.

Cheers,

 

[jreimers]

@niteowl03 wrote:

I am running a single 240 watt led fixture. The problem is because it is so close to the water level, 8", it acts like a spot light and has too much fall off on the sides. It worked well over my 55 gallon because it was at least 12" off the water. I need much mure spread on this tank.


Jody Reimers
Irving, TX

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