nycskp
New member
Hi all,
I've only been in saltwater since November and added corals as soon as I could. I'd read up on lighting and was augmenting LEDs that replaced the stock halogens lamps with a 20 watt 50/50 Coralife CFL. Last week I managed two major improvements.
The first was to install a AquaClear 30 for more water flow. I found the nano powerhead to produce too much current and crowd the tank. This required surgery to both arms on the light bar, cutting them in half lengthwise.
The second was to mount a Bridgelux 1200 lumen cool white LED array I had lying around. It runs on 12V AC, as do the replacement MR11 LEDs, but needed a bigger power supply. I also had a 2500 milliamp 12VDC power supply handy.
While the color profile for the Bridgelux doesn't match what I've read corals need, I'm impressed by how much better the corals are doing and how much cleaner the tank is than it was with the Coralife 50/50 (which I used to illuminate only the left side of tank. I've placed the corals in the center of the tank, as the LED doesn't hit the edges, but even the Zoas and Green Star Polyps which get partial light are looking great!
The LED needs a heatsink, I sawed in half a CPU heatsink and this seems to be keeping things cool enough.
Photo links:
http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e150/NYCSKP/Fluval/
I've only been in saltwater since November and added corals as soon as I could. I'd read up on lighting and was augmenting LEDs that replaced the stock halogens lamps with a 20 watt 50/50 Coralife CFL. Last week I managed two major improvements.
The first was to install a AquaClear 30 for more water flow. I found the nano powerhead to produce too much current and crowd the tank. This required surgery to both arms on the light bar, cutting them in half lengthwise.
The second was to mount a Bridgelux 1200 lumen cool white LED array I had lying around. It runs on 12V AC, as do the replacement MR11 LEDs, but needed a bigger power supply. I also had a 2500 milliamp 12VDC power supply handy.
While the color profile for the Bridgelux doesn't match what I've read corals need, I'm impressed by how much better the corals are doing and how much cleaner the tank is than it was with the Coralife 50/50 (which I used to illuminate only the left side of tank. I've placed the corals in the center of the tank, as the LED doesn't hit the edges, but even the Zoas and Green Star Polyps which get partial light are looking great!
The LED needs a heatsink, I sawed in half a CPU heatsink and this seems to be keeping things cool enough.
Photo links:
http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e150/NYCSKP/Fluval/
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