I finally got my act together last night and finished my first run. Mixed results.
Let’s start with what I tested.
Here's a picture of the placement and layout. For scale, the length of the 3 heat sinks combined is 18".
Basically 3 clusters of 14 LED's each
3 x Cool White (700mA)
3 x Royal Blue (700mA)
3 x Blue (700mA)
2 x Violet (350mA)
1 x Cyan (500mA)
1 x Turquoise (500mA)
1 x Neutral White (700mA)
Here is a Picture (as best as I could capture it with my limited Camera Skills, basically comparing what was on the View finder to the actual tank, adjusted only by Shutter speed).
As I try to be a glass 1/2 full type of guy let’s start with the Bad and end on a Positive note:
The Bad:
The light out of this was nowhere near the intensity I am used to. Currently I have 2 x 250W MH (14K AMD bulbs). At first glance (it was in a dark room with no other source of light other than the other halide running) and my thoughts/comment to @
Rob was this would be a nice effect as it dimmed down on a dusk setting in the evening. Nowhere near as intense or good for viewing as I will be happy with.
I also found this colour way to blue for my "viewing", but it did make my "crisp white halide" look yellow which surprised me. After a short while I did like the colour of the LED better than the Halide, but somewhere in the middle would be even better.
Sooo moving one to....
The Good:
- I was happy with the fact we can run 1 line "down the centre of the tank" and got heaps of coverage.
- I did notice a small disco effect, but it was only when I was looking for it up close. As a general viewing (back from the couch) it blended nice.
- Although not as bright as I am used to, maybe I just need to change my way of thinking. Brighter might not always be better.
- To the point above I tested the lights again for a few hours in the afternoon. They actually looked really good. I thought they would be more dull during the day, but this wasn't the case. Maybe the natural ambient light complimented the LED's instead of competing with it.
- I have currently only used 3 out of the 4 heatsinks (and associated LED's) we calculated I would need for a tank this size. This might be why it was a little dull.
- On the point above, I can still (and will) add another 25% of light.
So where to from here....
- Join the 3 heat sinks into 1 (there are slots in the top to allow this). Future sinks will be bought as the 18" model - 1 solid piece.
- Unsolder and remove all LED's. Clean the paste of the LED's and heat sinks and start again. I liked the layout, but intend to put all 4 clusters I have bought across the length of the heat sink. (The beauty of this heat sink - I haven’t got any holes in the wrong spot and don't need to drill and tap any - something that would of almost make me "live with it").
Sorry @Rob, but better to do it right rather than try and just slide the LED's across and make a huge mess. I'll need to get some more wire, although as I am keeping the same clusters I can keep the white bits and re-use them. The black bits (that look really messy) are no longer required and can be replaced by short white ones.
- I'll need to replace 1 x Blue LED as it had a manufacturing fault. The LED wasn't attached to the negative terminal - hopefully LEDGROUPBUY will cover the shipping of the wire I buy with the replacement LED.
- Get some lenses. I was hoping to avoid them and get better blending but I suspect a lot of my "dullness" will be helped with some 60 or 80 degree lenses. Looking at something like this so I can keep the stars nice and close.
http://reefledlights.com/shop/ledlink-xt-e-xp-g-optics/
I also noticed after a few hours the heat sink was very warm - best way to describe it is like holding a cup of coffee in a ceramic mug that has just been made. So I'll need to get the fans mounted and on before I give them a full 8-10 hour run. Hopefully by then @
MagicJ will have his controller ready - dialing the blue's and Royal Blues back a bit might help give me a crisper white before I start backing off to a blue for the evening.
If not, which LED do I need to increase, in either power or #'s - is it the Cool Whites?
Anyway, off for a quick update to my TJ and then a bit more Tank maintenance.
Thanks for reading.