Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted December 22, 2012 Share Posted December 22, 2012 Does anyone have one of the fixtures from Buildmyled.com? Chris (oozarkawater) told me about them for the first time yesterday, but I wanted to see them in action and how they do with corals before I committed to them. Anyone have any pics or opinions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+o0zarkawater Posted December 22, 2012 Share Posted December 22, 2012 I'd probably start in their sponsor forum if you haven't already. Should help you get an idea of who has them. http://www.austinreefclub.com/forum/184-buildmyled/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juiceman Posted December 22, 2012 Share Posted December 22, 2012 Yeah, I have one on my 10g office tank. I put a pic in my build thread. I have a super actinic i'm installing on my 200 today. Will post pic with it on there once I finish tonight! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted December 22, 2012 Share Posted December 22, 2012 Ill be letting my fixture go. It's custom reef with an added blue instead of the center white. Going to order new lights for my build in progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juiceman Posted December 22, 2012 Share Posted December 22, 2012 Ill be letting my fixture go. It's custom reef with an added blue instead of the center white. Going to order new lights for my build in progress I'd recommend you to replace that center white with a UV instead of a blue. Based on what I've seen and my experience with my EVO fixtures. If you look at the 10 gal I did you can see it. Looks like a solid 14k-16k. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted December 22, 2012 Author Share Posted December 22, 2012 Thanks C, some of those photos were helpful. Ill be letting my fixture go. It's custom reef with an added blue instead of the center white. Going to order new lights for my build in progress. Are you going to order another BML fixture? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juiceman Posted December 22, 2012 Share Posted December 22, 2012 Contact Nick from BML. You can go by the office and look at a few different examples and see what you like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted December 22, 2012 Author Share Posted December 22, 2012 Good idea, I think I will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted December 22, 2012 Share Posted December 22, 2012 Nope I'll be buying vegas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted December 23, 2012 Author Share Posted December 23, 2012 What about them didn't you like? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+o0zarkawater Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 What about them didn't you like? He just got extra Gelt for Chanukah and needs to spend it ASAP! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 What about them didn't you like? What about them didn't you like? He just got extra Gelt for Chanukah and needs to spend it ASAP! I dont like the fact that I'm losing too many apex outlets/ports to control the light. I'll take the Vega's 20 channel control where I can dim each led on its own. Also once built the BMl fixture is done, although custom its still solidified. The vega I can swap out power pucks and always change around. Depending on how true oozarka's statement is I might go radion gen2 instead of vega, but still definitely going a different route. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 Does anyone have one of the fixtures from Buildmyled.com? Chris (oozarkawater) told me about them for the first time yesterday, but I wanted to see them in action and how they do with corals before I committed to them. Anyone have any pics or opinions? BML lights are also on display at the Austin Aquadome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 Ill be letting my fixture go. It's custom reef with an added blue instead of the center white. Going to order new lights for my build in progress I'd recommend you to replace that center white with a UV instead of a blue. Based on what I've seen and my experience with my EVO fixtures. If you look at the 10 gal I did you can see it. Looks like a solid 14k-16k. If you are just going to be using just a single fixture I would add a 400nm UV like Juiceman said. The 400nm catches a lot of the flourescing protiens that absorb lower wavelengths than the 450nm and 470nm LEDs. If you are going to be using two or more fixtures the BML superactininc is using a good mix of the 400nm, 450nm and 470nm LEDs and I would not bother changing the LED combination of the "Custom Reef" spectrum when those two are used together. If you look at BMLs video of four different lighting configurations for reef tanks they give you the LED combinations for different "color Temperatures". The "Custom Reef" looks very much like the light you would get from a quality 12000K MH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted December 24, 2012 Author Share Posted December 24, 2012 If I did use BML it would be 3 36" lights, probably 2 custom reefs with their actinic in the middle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SChrisEV Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 I have a 36" BML Custom Reef Spectrum, and I like it a lot. I'll be ordering another one in Jan, probably the super actininc. Then Once I see how well that lights my tank I might buy a third light. My tank is odd shaped so the third would probably be a 2' fixture to just cover the back part of the tank. Overall I like the light and love the price. I don't currently have a controller, but do plan on getting one, and once I do, I'll likely hang a 2 or 3 port power strip off one controlled outlet, then have them all power on at the same time, at the lowest power (10%), and ramp the individual lights up over time to simulate sunrise, then reverse that for sunset. Is it perfect... probably not, but the 10% setting is pretty low, and it will address/save the outlets that BIO was talking about, and be a lot less expensive than most other LED options. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 Everytime I see someone overload outlets like that I see fire hazards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SChrisEV Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 19 watts x 3' fixture is 57 watts. With three fixtures that is 171 watts. The computer in my office has a 450 watt power supply... I'm not an electrician, It's my worse "handy-man skill", but I have a hard time buying into a fire hazard with this set up. NOW all that said, if I'm wrong about this PLEASE let me know, cuz I definitively do not want to cause a fire, or even have a hazard of that. Bad enough we all play with electricity and salt water in such a close proximity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 Now all that is on one apex outlet. Plus everything else on the apex and all out that is on one wall outlet. When I had an electrician in my house who saw that he told me how it's a fire hazard and not to overload an outlet like that. Too many failure or spark points. Also was told it violates electrical code and if anything happens insurance can refuse due to that. Everyone takes their own risks, I just don't need to take one when my DIY and other companies can avoid this exact issue by allowing full dim on the signal wire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 The wall outlet is probably on a 15 amp circuit breaker or might be a 20 amp circuit. Assuming it's a 15 amp circuit multiply times 120 VAC and you get a max wattage rating of 1800 watts total for ALL THE OUTLETS ON THAT ONE CIRCUIT NOT ONE OUTLET. It is generally reccomended to use a safety margin of 10 to 20% lowering maximum total wattage for all the outlets on the circuit of 1440 watts. Total wattage needs to be added up for the circuit not total number of plugs in a power strip or outlet. In some municipalities it is illeagal to daisy chain power strips together (generally not a good idea anyway) in businesses and businesses are inspected periodicly. Also the fine print on the back of most powerstrips say they are not to be used for aquaria. My own experiences some electricians are honest and take pride in thier work and some some of them will use peoples ignorance of the electrical code to do unneccessary work. I had one electrician that tried to say I needed seperate circuits for each pump and MH fixture and insisted a seperate electrical subpanel had to be installed to accomodate all the additioanal circuits. I had to email the city's code inspectors and show the contractor the electrician was trying to do a bunch of unneccesary work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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