DIY rapid LED biocube refugium LIGHT build

[kayakNCSD]

Hello all,

First off my intentions, i am to build a light a quality. led light i cano use in the future as an awesome refugium light light when i build am external sump and refugium for my 29g.

First step- I need help identify the color balances (led bulb wise) u have the 1.1/4 in by 12 inch heat sink. This heat sink will initially run the full.lemgrh of my back wall vertically. I will scrap all the paint off of the rear wall.

ANd cram the center chamber after my mechanical filtration(overflow), with live rock rubble and chateo, also plan on having a shrimp.shrimp . and snail in there.just preferences from previous fuges..

so i want to maybe have 5-7 cree led bulbs on my 12 inch heat sink strip. I want to have a balance of cool white, 10,000k, blue, and red...........do you think this is over kill, one with wattage or overall power?




sum/refugium


And I plan on building a bigger external fuge underneath the tank stand. Should be fun. In this.much larger external refugium I plan to house frags. There for do you think my 25-35 watt led light build over kill or not. ( External refugium will be built from a 10g glass aquarium)

So this will be a dual purpose frag and refugium tank in a few months. And a simple chateo live rock and cope pod haven.

I never have built a led from rapid led and would love to hear from somebody to explain most streamline or collectively organized way to purchase my heatsink? Soldering wireing, connections possible dimmer? bulbs, power supply

[kayakNCSD]

NO LOVE kind of itching to get one built

[DiverDave]

I've got some experience with this. What are the dimensions of your heat sink? Given the number of leds and color configuration your looking at here's my recommendation. Start with an OCW (Ocean Coral White) 3-up star. Then surround it with one Neutral White or warm white, one Royal Blue, and one hyper, or one true violet led. If you went with 7 leds, do both a hyper and a true violet. Here is a link that talks more about these led's in particular. You can also take a look at my threads below.

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/29473...tank-pictures/

Let us know.

Dave

[DiverDave]

I just saw that your heat sink is 1.25x12. 4x4 with 1" fins would be better but lets work with what you have...

First is power. Your white can be powered with more current (up to 1500ma) than the rest of your bulbs. The royal blue are usually up to 1000ma, with the 'color' lights between 500 and 700ma. The good news is that, where PAR is concerned, the Blue and Violet light, generally speaking, produce more PAR even though they appear dimmer to our eyes. I suggest the following...

Driver 1 will have 1 hyper violet and 1 true violet in the center of the heatsink and run them at 700ma on a dimmer. I use a 24v 6.1A power supply and buck pucks for drivers.
Driver 2 will have 1 neutral white, or warm white led on each side of the violets (total of 2) driven at 1000-1400ma. Using the neutral or warm whites will deliver some of the red spectrum to your configuration without using the red leds.
Driver 3 will have 1 royal blue led on each side of the white leds and run them at 1000ma with, or without a dimmer. Dimm your whites up or down to adjust the look to your preferences.

Here's a really bad look at what I'm describing...


[ (RB) (W) (TV) (HV) (W) (RB) ]

Depending on how high above the water line, you may want to consider optics. My lights are approx 10-16 inches above the corals in my tank and I use 80/90 degree optics.

Good luck and again, let us know what you decide on.

Cheers,
D Dave

[kayakNCSD]

Dave your the man. Thank you so much for your insight. Very thorough and exactly what I was looking for

[kayakNCSD]

Dave thank you so much. But due to the AMAZING CUSTOMER SERVICE I have no need to do my build. Ecoxotic was amazing and I received my warranty replacement lights in 2 days. Great company.