Planning my 24" heat sink lighting

[trido]

Yesterday I opened up my Christmas present from ReefLEDLights.com and started the thought process of the wiring etc.
I ordered a 48 light kit with XP-E 36 premium royal blue/12 XP-E cool white for a 12-20K set up. I plan to add a high noon kit later this summer or early fall in order to get a more 10K blast and get more growth from the acros I'll be keeping.
This leaves me with five rows on my heat sink and 12 empty spots (what I perceive as a problem) for likely six months. I've come up with a lighting configuration that I feel is going to be a wiring nightmare unless I drill and run alot of my white wires on the top of the heat sink in order to not have a rats nest.

Here is a pic of what Ive come up with. The X's are the whites I have now and the filled circles are the future High noon's. Any suggestions on how to do this differently?

 

[estanoche]

hmmmm having the high noons more to the middle makes sense to me, thats where your corals will be....

I guess the only thing I would consider is light color in the end - do you want to put a few more blues to the front of your tank to give it more of a 20K look maybe??

 

[eww]

That looks like a tricky pattern to wire without crossing wires all over the place. It's not a problem to do that and I have seen many done well and done not so well. I guess it just depends on how visible it will be and how much crossed wires bug you. If it were me I would probably try to arrange them a bit different to ease the wiring nightmare.

 

[trido]

hmmmm having the high noons more to the middle makes sense to me, thats where your corals will be....

I guess the only thing I would consider is light color in the end - do you want to put a few more blues to the front of your tank to give it more of a 20K look maybe??

My interpretation of a high noon set up will only be to give the corals an intense par blast with a more 10k look for a couple hours of the day.

If I know myself well enough now, this 24" light over a 36" tank will need lighting at both ends. I typically have acro's growing from glass to glass on both ends.

I may be wrong, but isn't even spacing important with LEDS in order to prevent spotlighting? Wouldn't I end up with a whiter back and bluer front I do it this way? I thought that K rating color change was done just by dimming down or brightening the whites or blues. So, a 20K look is done by running the blues at 60-75% and then only running the whites at 40%. Or a 12K look would be achieved by running both colors at 70%.

 

[trido]

That looks like a tricky pattern to wire without crossing wires all over the place. It's not a problem to do that and I have seen many done well and done not so well. I guess it just depends on how visible it will be and how much crossed wires bug you. If it were me I would probably try to arrange them a bit different to ease the wiring nightmare.

Ya, I do believe the wiring will be a nightmare with this set up. My first "squiggle" wiring diagram was all crossed up and wouild look like Poo compared to your's or Guerry's set ups. I flipped my cardboard over and tried to figure out a different lighting pattern with only the 12 original whites and cant figure out a pattern that will give an even spread (avoiding spotlighting) without being dependant on the high noon set up. I did however figure out a wiring array that will work without cross over's as long as I drill through the sink and run from row to row on the top. I'm figuring I'll have to hide the extra wires underneath some of the hanging brackets I may or may not make for it.

I want to run the new tank open top but my wife is not so keen on the idea.

 

[BigAl07]

Wife's "typically" don't appreciate the open top/hanging fixture look.

Can you stagger the colors (row of blues, row of whites, row of blues) in order to simplify your wiring? If you start criss-crossing the wires and you have to go back and trouble shoot for whatever reason you'll resent the criss-crossing for sure.

 

[eww]

How many drivers will you have running the initial 84 leds? I think I might have an idea... I will sketch it out once I know how many drivers.

 

[trido]

The initial 48 will be ran off of four dimmable drivers the fifth driver will control the 12 4500K high noon LED's.

As per Big Al's suggestion, I could run a row of solid blues on the outsides with a row of white/blue inside of that and then run the solid white high noon down the center.

Do you think I will get even blending with a pattern like that? There are 60 degree optics on all of the cree's and I will have 80 Degree optics on the high noon (bridgelux)

 

[trido]

Here is a revised drawing according the colors in rows proposal. BTW. I ordered two reds that will be part of the fixture as well. If Todd (TJL) has extra greens left over I will add one or two of those in the future.

Again, the X's are white and the circles are the High noon.



Do you think I will get an even "white" light spread with this?

 

[eww]

Sorry I added wrong there. I thought there were 84 leds going on initially and then you were adding the 12 high noons. Now I see what you are doing. I agree with Al in leaving the center row open for all your high noons later. The whites and blues I would do in four rows. So it would basically be:

Row 1 - All blues
Row 2 - Alternating blue/white/blue/white etc.
Row 3 - Open for the High Noons
Row 4 - Alternating white/blue/white/blue etc.
Row 5 - All blues

You could probably even get away with no optics on the High Noons when you set them up as it sounds like those buggers are big time bright.

 

[eww]

Here is a revised drawing according the colors in rows proposal. BTW. I ordered two reds that will be part of the fixture as well. If Todd (TJL) has extra greens left over I will add one or two of those in the future.

Again, the X's are white and the circles are the High noon.

View attachment 42748

Do you think I will get an even "white" light spread with this?

Man I type slow... Yes your drawing is just like what I was thinking. I see you have two reds in there as well. I might swap those with the RB one more position toward the center. Are you running optics on the Reds? They might spotlight too much for you if you are. Are you putting any greens in also?

 

[trido]

Sounds good then. I'll move the reds in closer to the middle (no optic) and wire it in rows of colors. Since I am only going to be using the high noon's as much for color as growth I decided to order brigdelux LED's instead of cree. I will be using a meanwell driver still. This saved me over half on cost.
Also, I'm feeling like 60 LED's over my 65 gallon tank might be a bit of overkill so the XP-G emitters might actually be too much par. Beleive it or not, I regretted putting 400 watt MH over my 210 and wished I would have stuck with 250's.


EDIT: Im still torn over the first lighting array design. I'll post a pic of the wiring diagram I came up with for it.

 

[trido]

So I end up with this.
View attachment 42749

I think if I take my time can be done just as nicely as this.

View attachment 42750

 

[eww]

So I end up with this.
View attachment 42749

I think if I take my time can be done just as nicely as this.

View attachment 42750

Your attachments didn't work bud

 

[eww]

Also, I'm feeling like 60 LED's over my 65 gallon tank might be a bit of overkill so the XP-G emitters might actually be too much par. Beleive it or not, I regretted putting 400 watt MH over my 210 and wished I would have stuck with 250's.

Honestly I think it's more about more LED's run at a lower percentage of power = a more even spread of light instead of the spotlight effect of fewer LED's cranked all the way up that would probably give plenty of PAR. Just my opinion though and by no means based on anything but conjecture. I don't think our 144 lamp array will ever exceed 40% of it's potential power but there should be a nice blend of all the colors. FWIW we are only running 3 reds on our entire system and 6 greens (1 red/2 greens with no optics on them on each heat sink). The powers that be that I am listening to on this build recommended it as they felt after trial and error on their own systems that too much red didn't look right.

 

[trido]

Thanks for all the input.

I'm surprised the links didn't work. They work for me. I'll post them to my bucket account so you can see them as a pic right here then.

Im already wondering why I was thinking I would want 4500K's for my high noon over 6500 or 10's/ What was I thinking?

Trial and error i guess.

 

[trido]

Here is my first lighting plan with rough wiring diagram

and this is the linear array. I 'm afraid I wont get the front to back light spread from the high noon or white if I use this style.

 

[trido]

The powers that be that I am listening to on this build recommended it as they felt after trial and error on their own systems that too much red didn't look right.

I haven't asked them directly, but take a lot of stock in what they say regarding this topic. I'm glad you are finished with yours and are giving me this input. Thanks for your time.

 

[trido]

I went with my first lighting lay out despite the extra work and extra wiring it will require topside on the fins. Today I ordered the resistors and fuse holders from Radio Shack and bought two potentiometers for my dimmers. MY single red LED and high noon kit should be here on WEdnesday and I hope to finish my soldering over the weekend. Any way, this is where Im at as of now. The two red strings have been tested and fire right up.

 

[user 2204]

Looking good Duane. I am glad to see you went with your first wiring idea. I think you'll be much happier with it. I might have to swing by and check your lighting out soon. I've decided to use LED lighting for my fuge and supplemental lighting on my build.

Cheers,
Alex