AquaJohn Posted November 5, 2011 Share Posted November 5, 2011 Well I did after I figured out I had sold my bc29 and kept the 28nano hqi. I was all happy when the package got here and dug out the tank to find my mistake, but all is well it fits in there pefect after some fine tuning A shot of the hood with the hqi light removed http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae187/aquajohn/hood.png The .090 alum bracket I had to make to fit the old lights mounting points they were about 3/4 of an inch wider than the heat sink. Its also where I added the rapidled's fans. I did have to sand down the small 1/8 ribs that go over the vents of the hood for the light to fit under the stock glass. http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae187/aquajohn/hood2.jpg I also had to remove one of the inner braces to fit the dimmer into the hood I used a dremmel but I would say you could do it with a razor. Look ma!! it fit. The heat sink actualy holds the fans from moving I was going to epoxy them to the alumminum but there was no need.I had to replace the kits mounting screws with #8X2" stanless bolts they were a bit short. http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae187/aquajohn/hood5.png And here it is with the stock glass and frame back in place. Oh nice shot of my toe. http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae187/aquajohn/hood4-1.png let there be light http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae187/aquajohn/hood7.png and the tank sorry my pics suck but at least you know it can be done. http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae187/aquajohn/hood6.jpg Well there ya go it all fits . I also left the stock 4 fans in the hood and just wired them to the powersupply of the 2 new fans that came in the kit. So I got 6 fans going now that I dont need them lol. the 4 stock night lights are still in there and work over all it was fun to do and I will have no problems ordering more for my big 110 tank. that was the whole point of buying this one to see if I could do it and save some cash over buying AI sol's. I would say over all it was not to hard other than the normal lerning of doing something new but youtube is your friend and a few nice post here and reef central. I did buy a 40 watt solder iron and was very glad I did. Do not even think of trying it with a gun. I was lucky and only had one short and it only blew out one of the white led's so the fixture is 10 White and 10 Royal Blue. And I would say if I crank it to 100% it would fry anything in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wix Posted November 5, 2011 Share Posted November 5, 2011 I have rapidled lighting on my 3.5, it's awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon12345 Posted November 6, 2011 Share Posted November 6, 2011 a lot brighter than before? if so, youre going to phase in the new intensity over several weeks? looks good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaJohn Posted November 6, 2011 Author Share Posted November 6, 2011 the tank has not been up long and only has 5 peperment shrimp in it and a gobie, the foam and rock back wall is all new stuff I added about 10lbs of live rock from my main some of it is over 5 years old. Added about 20 gal from my main to start it when I did a water change. So it should be good to go. Its WAY brighter than before and when the return pump kicks on the shimmer is amazing. The only negitive I found is that the rocks only down 1-3" from the serface do have some spotting but when the return I have set to ripple the serface comes on they disapear. Im running the wavemaker thing that came with the 29 I have one that is pointed up and one down to help with random flow. My big tank is mostly fish and inverts and softies.I have not had much luck with hard corals so I am going to try some in this one and see how she goes . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaJohn Posted November 6, 2011 Author Share Posted November 6, 2011 And after running all after noon the chiller did not pop on one time Even with cooler temps the chiller would kick on several times a day with the MH from the hqi and ran ALOT in the summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 I just bought a second biocube 29 so I can have it drilled, after that I plan to save for this kit, was it hard to do? Also nice job on your final outcome its part of my inspiration! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teresa Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 dang it - Why is there always something else I want to buy??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaJohn Posted November 7, 2011 Author Share Posted November 7, 2011 its not hard there are just more steps to do than the docs you get from rapid if you want to do it right. there are several detailed diy's out there I would say read all of them you can find and make sure to test each led for shorts before you put power to them. I had several that were shorted by the screws and if I had put power to the light I would have fried at least 6. I recomend getting #2 or #4 nylon washers and use them on all the screws. I could only find #6 localy and only 20 of them so only used them on the shorted out screws. Basicly the head of the screws will touch the solder pads and thats not good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Your posts got me to looking into this. I found some real nice threads on RC. Nice work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaJohn Posted November 9, 2011 Author Share Posted November 9, 2011 I did it because I wanted to try making a led fixture. You can buy one of the new led hoods for like 50-100 bucks more than I ended up paying for the kit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 You will love it in the long run since all my tank are running under RapidCreeLED. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 I did it because I wanted to try making a led fixture. You can buy one of the new led hoods for like 50-100 bucks more than I ended up paying for the kit Oh and i hope you mention my name so Mike would hook you up with a discount. Maybe iam too late now, but iam sure there is always next time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 I did it because I wanted to try making a led fixture. You can buy one of the new led hoods for like 50-100 bucks more than I ended up paying for the kit Oh and i hope you mention my name so Mike would hook you up with a discount. Maybe iam too late now, but iam sure there is always next time. Can anyone attempt to get this discount when they order? I'm saving for this for my BC29 and anything helps with saving money as a student. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Yes mention to Mike that you know me Tommy and he would hook you up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaJohn Posted November 12, 2011 Author Share Posted November 12, 2011 lol I already had placed my order but thanks for the offer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 I just placed my order for this kit and the 2 color pot dimming kit. Going to get it all wired up.... do you have any links to the DIY posts you found most helpful? This will be the first time I really do much as far as soldering and building a led light system... want to keep my mess up at as low of cost as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaJohn Posted December 3, 2011 Author Share Posted December 3, 2011 http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1973462 http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2089826 http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1952442&highlight=led Hummm there was one other one that was very helpful on RC but im not finding it my links just serch the DIY sec on RC with led in titles and you will get alot of posts most are usless look for the ones with multiple pages like 5+ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaJohn Posted December 3, 2011 Author Share Posted December 3, 2011 one place to look when your strings of led's dont light is to lightly pry up on each solder joint to the led's sometimes when you push down with the probes to check for shorts it will push the wire onto the pad and show good but when you remove the probe the wire will lift and lose contact dont ask me how long I searched for what was wrong on my 60 led build LOL. before I found that one lose contact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 did you put a resistor inline like one of those other threads did? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaJohn Posted December 4, 2011 Author Share Posted December 4, 2011 nope I just used my multi meter inline like the vid shows to set the meanwells. I think they use those mostly when you run the led's I cant remember if its paralles or in series but in a way that lets you run way more led's than the traditional set up and on bigger strings of led's than the biocube retro., I do kind of miss being able to just throw the meter on there and make sure on the mA the drivers are putting out. But with most of the stuff bolted under the hood anyways you would have to take it apart to check them anyways. Did you read the manual on the rapid site yet I am not sure if all the electronics will fit in the bc29's hood but I am not sure if I read that right seeing as I put it in a nanocube Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 Ya I read the instructions, not everything will fit in the biocube. I plan to house everything that wont fit into the stand then add quick disconnects between the stand electronics and the hood. That way I can simply disconnect and pull the hood for work... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 My order has arrived today, missing my fan speed controller, power-Y, and the little peice that converts the male type m dc plug into the molex plug found on the y/fans. Going to send Mike an Email tomorrow about that, otherwise everything looks AWESOME! They also send a tester with your led kit that you pop 2 AA battery into and test your led, very nice IMO and takes away the thought that they might have arrived bad, all my LED are active and ready to be mounted! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaJohn Posted December 9, 2011 Author Share Posted December 9, 2011 always use protection when mounting your led's Good luck let me know if you get stuck ill see if I can help. If you dont want to wait all that stuff can be purhcased at Frys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 We got all the whites wired and they all work. Blues apparently the last two in the string got blown and I've ordered replacements. Not bad for my first time ever doing soldering or anything, going to start integrating ti into the hood tonight while I wait for my new blue LED to show up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaJohn Posted December 12, 2011 Author Share Posted December 12, 2011 ya I killed one white one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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