Redeclipse's Fluval Edge LED Mod (1 Viewer)

[redeclipse6049]

I was actually kind of considering just using the light from my pico as a "spotlight" on just one side, so at least I'd have a bit of variety in my lighting other than a super bright square in the center of the tank and almost nothing at the edges...

I honestly don't know how much light a coral requires though (considering our lights range from a 9 watt PC with one tube of each color temp, up to metal halides and plasma lighting) so it could turn out that the stuff I put on the edges doesn't end up needing anything more than what its getting , I think the most annoying part is just that they don't look very illuminated.
I put a frag of chalice coral that I recently bought in there and it just looks kind of sad because there's not really enough light hitting it to make it really fluoresce ... (but they are a relatively low light coral, correct? )

 

[Mike Bennett]

BoostLED is another company that makes PAR30 spotlights. Check them out on nano-reef if you want.

 

[redeclipse6049]

still pretty expensive, but probably doable I guess...

 

[redeclipse6049]

do the numbers in the name "PAR38, PAR30" mean something?

 

[RyanTurner]

do the numbers in the name "PAR38, PAR30" mean something?

I think it's the size of the socket?

 

[redeclipse6049]

Oh, i just found something... sounds like PAR=Parabolic reflector, and the 30/38 denotes the size of the reflector

 

[Jace]

I know that my Evil's Par 38's are alot stronger then the Boost Par 30's. I think Par has somthing to do with how much light passes through the water.

 

[redeclipse6049]

I know that my Evil's Par 38's are alot stronger then the Boost Par 30's. I think Par has somthing to do with how much light passes through the water.

PAR readings (taken with a meter) are different than the "PAR" listed on these lights. PAR levels depend on water clarity so they would be different in each tank.

it MIGHT however relate to how focused the parabola is, but i think they usually list a spread angle

 

[PengXiong]

Heres the BoostLED par30 setup with three bulbs. 2x20k and one 14k.

and here is 1x20k and 1x14k

 

[redeclipse6049]

Those look really nice (i saw them in your build thread earlier as well) ...
but all I'm seeing is $75 $75 $75 lol
The price might be the biggest issue right now... I'm half considering using 1 or 2 pico light fixtures like this -

painted black and either attached to the back or top of the tank. That way it'd be WAY WAY WAY cheaper and still give me a nice look with the LEDs in the middle, PCs on the outside (or maybe just one side to give the tank all sorts of areas to put things for different lighting...

I'm going to see what I can do with one right now (already painted it with the same paint as the hood so it'll match) and the light looked pretty good too

 

[redeclipse6049]

like so, but I might try to mount it on the tank.. I dunno yet..
(i ended up doing the bulb in a different fixture)

 

[Merkurfan]

Looks good!

Say, off topic. But I am pretty sure your safe to remove the window a/c unit now

 

[redeclipse6049]

just blew 3 fans at once... no idea what happened. I was assuming the 12v power supply that came with the Edge (for the stock lights) would be fine for 3 12v fans wired in parallel... (guess not??) plugged it in and all the smoke got out before I had a chance to stuff it back inside, so, looks like they're shot...

there goes 20 dollars

 

[Merkurfan]

Ouch.. on the up side. your replacement filter is here. Just want to get it next weekend at the swap?

 

[redeclipse6049]

yep, that works, Thanks for handling that Clint!

 

[redeclipse6049]

figured out why the fans fried...

power supply was 12v AC... damn

 

[redeclipse6049]

Wired up the new fans I bought today, (just went with 2 larger ones instead of 3 smaller) , already broke one fan (it snagged on something and threw 2 blades) so I'm running one now , which is doing fine, and I think should provide enough air circulation to adequately cool the fins. The one problem is that its pretty lound and emits this kind of annoying wrrrr noise especially when I've got the hood on and it presses against the screen on the top (seems to be more of an airflow issue and less of a vibration thing)

Picked up an ORA Semi-Picasso (that looks more like a mis bar onyx or something) at SWE yesterday...

 

[redeclipse6049]

Hope everyone's still followin g alone on this thread...

my clownfish seems to be acting a little unwell lately... he still swims around , but his belly seems a little fatter than it should be, and he doesn't seem to be eating much (if at all) lately. He's also been breathing a little heavy and swimming with his mouth open most of the time. Not really sure what to make of this... thinking maybe its a parasite or something my clowns in my biocube were kind of acting the same way for a while right after I got them, but seemed to get better once I moved them into the cube (from their quarantine tank) . Only problem now is that I don't have any "nicer" place to move this guy into and I don't think quarantine would be a good option... (and yes, i'm feeding with garlic)


Problem 2- Light coverage

Still pretty unhappy with the coverage I'm getting from the LEDs and I'm not sure if having a PC light aimed at one side of the tank is the best long-term solution.. I'm considering maybe raising the "stilts" on my LED fixture up a few inches, and maybe putting some sort of custom black acrylic trim around the "mouth" of the tank, and maybe also a cover for it to slow evap, and prevent any accidental carpet surfing.

here's a video I took of my lights. Just putting the cover on the lights causes a LOT of light falloff because it puts "blinders" on my LEDs (like a horse) basically. hopefully you can see it well enough, I must have had 720p turned off when I recorded this...
[youtube]im77dc_yhvc[/youtube]


Third issue- BRYOPSIS
the stupid stuff has taken over my rocks in a ridiculously short amount of time. Why do petco and petsmart always have a nice lineup of reef chemicals that I DON'T need, but whenever i'm looking for something, they don't have it? gotta find some tech-m...

 

[Alunai]

Tagging Along!!!

 

[redeclipse6049]

ok, smallish update. from my last post, issue one has been... "resolved" ,

I've started dosing mag (tech-M) for the bryopsis, but noticed something a bit strange... When I first tested my mag, it was like 1440 or something. I added the tech-m, and retested, and the level was a little higher, but just barely. I then tested it last night , and noticed the level was lower than before. I then added more mag, and it didn't seem to change at all. I hope i don't have a bad test kit, because these things are expensive (salifert) but i don't really have any way to check that without buying another test kit (or I suppose just taking it in to SWE or something? do they test for mag?

could there be something in my tank that consumes magnesium that fast? I was kind of under the impression that magnesium wasn't really consumed much by SPS/LPS corals, or at least not enough to cause my magnesium to go down that fast...

I've been adding around 6 mil of tech-m per day (the rule is 1 mil per gallon of aquarium capacity brings your mag up by 83ppm per day I think)