+Jakedoza Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 I got my new LED setup from BML last week.. I got it installed, but will be building an arduino to handle the lighting schedule. I first tore apart my old canopy and made it shorter.. I also painted it black to match the bottom.. I decided on 2ft fixtures in the event that I ever get a larger tank I can keep the lighting and just add a strip or two if needed. Here is the configuration. ...and here is how they are mounted.. I mounted the drivers on a piece of plywood that I will later mount to the wall. I wired all of the drivers together so they can all be controlled with one pot to dim them. I will later mount this to the wall behind the tank once I get the arduino built. Here is the tank.. That photo is with them turned all the way up. I have them turned back to about 50% at the moment and will slowly over the period of a month or so ramp them up. Thanks to Nick, Randy, and all the BML Crew! The lights are great and look awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 that looks great. i love LEDs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 Nice! Looks good Jake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nwehrman Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 Nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Gott Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 Holy wow, that's a beautiful tank set up. I love how open it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted May 16, 2013 Author Share Posted May 16, 2013 ok.. now for the juicy stuff... Tim (timfish) came over with his trusty rusty PAR meter to take some measurements on my new BML lights on the tank. We were both pretty shocked at the results, but in a way that you wouldn't think. So here is the configuration of the lights in the canopy and they are sitting ~3" from the surface of the water. The shocking results of this configuration were that the PAR measurements were lower than expected, but more shocking was how evenly the light was distributed. We didn't measure the entire tank before Tim suggested on adjusting the lights. Here are the results before we moved the lights. Now a pic of how we reconfigured them.. Note that we did not move them much, yet the results were astonishing. Here is are the measurements after moving the lights. I am not done moving them and have an idea of more angles for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SChrisEV Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 Wow that is a big change for just moving them. I wonder what the PAR is on my tank. What light configuration did you go with? Standard config or custom? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted May 16, 2013 Author Share Posted May 16, 2013 I have 4 of the 14K and 2 of them are custom.. I need to get the specs from either Mike (mframe) or from Nick at BML since I used Mike's custom config for those two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted May 17, 2013 Share Posted May 17, 2013 Very cool Jake! I love the "low-profile" canopy. Definitely need to find out how you're going to dim them as that feature is still missing on mine. I think this is the custom configuration I used: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted May 17, 2013 Author Share Posted May 17, 2013 Thanks for the light profile!right now I have all of them wired together with a potetiometer wired to them, but I'm going to build an ardiuno to handle the dimming in the near future. I'm still kicking around adding the LEDs that I pulled out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckyuv Posted May 17, 2013 Share Posted May 17, 2013 Wow that's kinda low, I was expecting more than that. Didn't you come from mh lamps? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted May 17, 2013 Author Share Posted May 17, 2013 no, from a DIY LED setup... I'll have to look for the DIY thread I started. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckyuv Posted May 17, 2013 Share Posted May 17, 2013 Did you ever get par on your last set up? I'm not to educated on par but do you think that's enough light for your sps? The color looks nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted May 17, 2013 Author Share Posted May 17, 2013 Here is the link to the LED build thread that these replaced. http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/22439-its-time-to-go-from-10-48-t-5s-to-led-pic-update/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+SChrisEV Posted May 17, 2013 Share Posted May 17, 2013 I have no idea what my par reading is on my tank, but I have two 36" BuildMyLED fixtures and my SPS are growing like crazy. I even had a frag of some SPS down on the sand bed (24" deep tank) that was growing. It's now, recently on a frag rack. So I know the output of these LED's can grow SPS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted May 17, 2013 Author Share Posted May 17, 2013 There are spectrums of light that these put out that the PAR meter cannot measure, but I'm not sure on the amount. Nick at BML would be qualified to answer that question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuildMyLED Posted May 17, 2013 Share Posted May 17, 2013 Hi Jake. The tank looks awesome! I'm glad Tim was able to help you reposition the light, as it looks like he did a great job Here is the spectrum we used for the two custom strips. http://www.buildmyled.com/custom-report-details/?partNo=PS2460S101LMATLPMALOMJAML While most scientists refuse to give a min PAR (PPFD) number for a large/diverse group of corals, many people say you want a minimum of 100 PPFD for SPS. Most can handle much more than that, and the increased light levels will typically lead to different colors and growth rates. Unfortunately, PAR meters do not provide accurate readings. In general, the less the meter costs, the less accurate it will be. Take a look at this recent article by Dana Riddle. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2013/2/equipment Dana shows the sensor response curve over various wavelengths in Figure 7. Many hobbyists use the Apogee unit since it is the least expensive PAR meter. However, the Apogee will under-report the amount of PAR in the blue range. This is an issue with reef tanks, as most reef lighting systems have between 60-75% blue wavelengths. Hence, you need to account for this 'loss' to get a true PAR reading in your tank. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted May 17, 2013 Author Share Posted May 17, 2013 Cool, Thanks for the info. The second link is a dead link, but I did a search on that page for apogee and I think I found the article that was intended. I'm going to clean the tank this weekend sometime and then break out the camera and take some high res images. Will be posting those in the photo section, but I'll put a link in here to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildman926 Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 Any updates on this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Cob Posted November 26, 2013 Share Posted November 26, 2013 curious how your SPS are doing? I'm also using BML lights only and have about a month of use with them. Will post a thread later of my results so far but curious on longterm use growing SPS. So far I'm very pleased. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted December 7, 2013 Author Share Posted December 7, 2013 ok.. so it has been a few months since I've had the BML lights and I couldn't be happier. Here are a few photos of the tank. These were taken with my phone, so they will not win any contests, but I hope they give you an idea of the growth and color. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bige Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 Your tank looks awesome. I love my bml lights too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 Looks nice. I guess being photodude I shouldn't beat myself up too badly that your cell phone pics are better than what I can to take with my real camera . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted December 8, 2013 Author Share Posted December 8, 2013 Looks nice. I guess being photodude I should beat myself up too badly that your cell phone pics are better than what I can to take with my real camera . hahaha Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 Seeing your tank previously with T5s and now with BML's led fixture I'm really impressed by the improved colors and growth. Nice tank! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.