Taqpol's DIY LED prototype build, detailed pictures, and PAR readings!

[abushr]

Wow! very interesting....wish I had the skills to build this myself.

 

[Katchupoy]

Taqpol, as always, great contribution you are doing here for the hobby.

1) I assume that all combos were from the same height above the water??? ie: no optics, 80 optics, and 60 optics?

2) Also, camera settings, are they all on manual both aperture and speed? so that there is a base control for all pics?

I like the 80 optics... better par than 60???

 

[Taqpol]

In one of the pictures you can see the PVC structure I built, it was used in every single test to hold the lights 12" above the rim of the tank.

Unfortunately I did not "normalize" my camera data. The light and color temperature that the LEDs put out already makes my cameras sensor think it is on an acid trip, so I set the camera on shutter speed priority (1/60), messed with exposure bracketing until I got a decently representative picture, and then let it pick its own aperture (somewhere around f3.5-5.0 at ISO400). After that I just did a lot of post processing in photoshop to get the colors as close as I could and the exposure to show the actual coverage of the tank that I was seeing.

The better displayed PAR of the 80 degree optics is an artifact of the way I measured it. All of the PAR numbers you see are measured directly in front of the coral that they are printed on. So even though in front of my zoanthid colony the 80's read 140 and the 60's read 100, it is due to the fact that my zoanthids are right near the front glass, 12" horizontal from the center of the fixture. I am sure the 60's would get better PAR on the sand then the 80's, but you would have to measure directly under the fixture, which in my case is compltely filled with rock. Look at the numbers near the top of the tank, while the 40's still put out more light then an 8 bulb T5HO fixture (which is enough to grow any coral) the 60's absolutely blow them away.

In my future tank which will be 72"x30"x24" with two major SPS islands on the side and a clam or two in the central sandy valley I plan on using five fixtures. Two pairs will be clustered directly over the islands on either side of the tank and they will be turned so that the 10" long side of the 8.4"x10" heatsink will run front to back to get the most coverage on the 30" wide tank. I'll have acess to a PAR meter down there so if I can swing it the outside edges of the fixtures will have 80 degree optics and the inside bulbs will have 60 degree optics. The center fixture will be smack dab in the center of the tank, mounted at the same height, but will have no optics and will be primarily used for coverage (no need to intensely light a sandy valley). That being said I will probably use four or six 40 degree optics strategically placed on the center fixture to really spotlight and blast the clams all the way down on the sandbed.

 

[wpitrof]

so in your opinion on a 30x30x20 which optics would work the best and do you think i would need to go up to 36 leds to cover that foot print. i do want to have some lower light areas for lps and softies

thanks wayne

 

[Taqpol]

so in your opinion on a 30x30x20 which optics would work the best and do you think i would need to go up to 36 leds to cover that foot print. i do want to have some lower light areas for lps and softies

thanks wayne

If you did 24 bulbs I would use 80 degree optics and mount it 12-18" off the water. That should give you about as much PAR as a T5 setup while looking sleeker, using less power, and still maintaining lower light areas in the tank.

If you went with 36 bulbs I would use 60 degree optics and mount it a minimum of 18-24" off the surface, to taste. This setup would definitely get you a lot more PAR, equivalent to a 250w MH, I would assume.

 

[Katchupoy]

stupid question.

does the optics have like glass in front of them???

or if you can try this...

how much do we loose on par if we put an acrylic sheet between led and water???? just to protect them from splash???

 

[Katchupoy]

Taqpol... what was you previous lighting setup??? and do you have or what par do you have on that old setup?

 

[Taqpol]

The optics have what looks like plastic in them. I don't have any acrylic for a shield on hand, and I have to give the PAR meter back tomorrow so it looks like I won't be able to get you that data. I would assume you would not lose much PAR until the shield gets covered in salt creep.

My current setup is an 8 bulb IceCap T5HO retrofit mounted in my canopy. I posted the PAR reading for it back on the first page.

 

[Katchupoy]

Taqpol... thanks for getting back so fast.... I checked the first page and saw the PAR on T5's and on LEDs... One thing I noticed also is that you ordered a Meanwell "P" version which is a PWM version and yet you used an analog 10V pot to control it...

I thought that you need the "D" version for that... are you saying that we can also control the "P" with analog 10V pot supply???

 

[Katchupoy]

nevermind i saw your answer on post #43

 

[Taqpol]

I ordered "P" because I thought I was going to dim it with PWM at the beginning, but the circuit kept not working for some reason. There is come circuitry stuff behind this, but considering I don't understand it I think it will suffice to say that it is possible to control a "P" meanwell with a 0-10v dimming source, but not the other way around. I do think this lowers the efficiency of the dimming, so now the LEDs only go from ~50%-100% power instead of the full 15%-100% they'd get with true PWM. This setup was good enough for me to dim the colors individually to see if I wanted to vary my ratio of blue:white.

That being said, unless you plan on controlling the dimming with a microcontroller I would just use the "D" version. It gets better dimming (5%-100%), is much easier to build a simple controller for it, and all the big name pre-built reef controllers have some sort of option for 0-10v dimming (APEX, RKE).

 

[Katchupoy]

I will order the "D" then... thanks for your help...

 

[Cobyjf]

I think I really like the looks of it with that mix of optics! Wish I could see that in person!! Any idea when you might start working on lighting for your bigger tank? I've been starting a build to do LED's over my 72" long 125g. You make it look easy, but I'm still hesitant lol

 

[glasscabbage]

nice breakdown, lots to consider

 

[tyson256031]

Hi so for your 120 standard 48"x24"x24" tank how many leds would you go with? I have an acrylic tank with two holes cut out on the top they are roughly 14x14" holes or a little bigger? Would the heat of these effect acrylic at all like metal halides do?

Thank you!

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

I don't think the heat would affect them at all since LED heat is radiated totally different than MH heat. MH shoots the heat straight out from it's beam right at your tank where LEDs generate their heat in the back of the diode and are dissipated by the heatsink. So you should see little to no heat coming from the front of the LEDs on to your acrylic.

 

[Taqpol]

Hi so for your 120 standard 48"x24"x24" tank how many leds would you go with? I have an acrylic tank with two holes cut out on the top they are roughly 14x14" holes or a little bigger? Would the heat of these effect acrylic at all like metal halides do?

Thank you!

As MGDMIRAGE said, heat is not a very big issue with LEDs as they do not put out nearly as much infrared radiation as MH, plus they use significantly less wattage.

Depending on your rock layout, coral care requirements, and coverage needs, I would probably suggest three pendants of 24 bulbs. That means that you're center pendant would be shooting through acrylic, but that is ok as long as you keep the underside of it really clean.

 

[tyson256031]

I plan on doing a rock wall on the back and having a mixed reef with clams sps lps and zoos. So I will go with 3-24 led arrangments, how would i wire the disables aspect of this? Would each ballast be on it's own dimable circuit? I was thinking it would be cool to wire it up to those dime light switches and mount those on the inside of my stand and have the switch sticking out? Would these work or does the dials have to be a specific type?

 

[tyson256031]

Should i get the d drivers or the p drivers? What's the difference? Thanks for all the help!