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Biocube 29g LED (1 Viewer)

So I just wrote for about 15 minutes about how I had used this kit... and then I got booted out of TCMAS for some stupid reason... quite annoyed at the moment...

I changed out 3 whites for UV's and 3 blues for UV's and put them on the corresponding drivers. The problem I have with this kit is related to the size of the unit. It isn't big enough to have a lot of diversity in colors and maintain controllability of each color.

The other issue I have with this kit is that I have it turned down virtually as low as it will go without shutting off and I am still on the verge of bleaching corals. I have heard that a lot of corals will take over a year to fully acclimate to LED lighting. It is in no fashion my intention to talk you out of doing this. I fully support this kit/build... with modification.

One other note that I have is that some LEDs take more kindly to being soldiered after being attached than others. I ended up taking some of my LEDs off and putting paper underneath them and re-soldiering them (mine was the drilled and tapped kit).

OH! just as I was typing that mine was the drilled and tapped kit I remembered that the soldier connections were too close to the soldier connections for my soldiering and some of the soldier made contact with the screws and made the circuit grounded to the heatsink... no good... I went into a local hardware store with one of the screws and had them order my nylon screws to match the screws RapidLED shipped me. Cost me another $10 or so but was 100% worth it!

FTS FWIW: (crappy cell phone pic)
IMAG1828.jpg
 
I just did their BC29 kit with the solderless leds. Love it but it is bright so I have it turned down pretty low at this point. I added a couple of reds and uvs to the mix. The solderless makes it really easy to swap out leds, just plug and play. If you are not planning to use a controller you will need a 10vdc power source and a couple of pots with knobs to dim the lights.

PS: I thought about just using something like an AI Nano but I like the idea of the hood to help limit evaporation and noise. The Rapid kit runs very cool. Much cooler than the stock PC's.
 
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Yep - i did this retro and kept it in the original hood. First I did not have dimable drivers - what a mistake as I needed to buy new drivers as full power is way to much light. Currently running them turned all the way down and the corals seem to like that.
 
Another option is a kit from Steves leds. I have the one from rapid. The lights need to be at least 8" above the water. I am working on a spacer.
 
While not a "retrofit" kit, did you notice or look at the 3 led puck kit from Rapad which would mimic the AI Sol?
 
Hawkii said:
Another option is a kit from Steves leds. I have the one from rapid. The lights need to be at least 8" above the water. I am working on a spacer.
Click to expand...

Yea i've looked at steves, i like the way rapid spaces out their led's vs the row on steves. there is no way it'll be 8 inches above the water with the retrofit where did oyu see that?

mpageler said:
While not a "retrofit" kit, did you notice or look at the 3 led puck kit from Rapad which would mimic the AI Sol?
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I did look at that but the retrofit kit seems like it would fit better.
 
If you dont want to DIY a Maxspect Razor 20.5" could be hung over the tank. This is what Im doing and if you can get it for 10% off it isnt much more than DIY and it will look very clean. If you can make it to Kato, Garret at fragtastic carries them and he has one set up right now.
 
There kits are stuck in the 80`s as far as using cool whites. Get rid of those and use neutral white. I would do a 2-1 ration of royal to neutral. If you do this go with 12 royal and 6 neutral, although you might need 7 because of the driver restrictions. I would a did about 4 true violet or UV is what rapid calls them. Go to ledgroupbuy and pick up two of there ocean coral white stars for your additional color spectrum, as well as an additional driver for them. Place the OCW stars in the middle of each cluster of leds Run the exotics at 500ma and keep the royal and white at 700ma which will help from overpowering the LEDs. Do not do the drilled and tapped sink use thermal adhesive, so you can do two groups or clusters of LEDs. By doing this you'll end up with better blending and less disco effect. The kit makes it easy for plug and play, although with a little leg work you can find all the pieces and the exact colors you want for a little cheaper. IMO
 
Nanofreak79 said:
There kits are stuck in the 80`s as far as using cool whites. Get rid of those and use neutral white. I would do a 2-1 ration of royal to neutral. If you do this go with 12 royal and 6 neutral, although you might need 7 because of the driver restrictions. I would a did about 4 true violet or UV is what rapid calls them. Go to ledgroupbuy and pick up two of there ocean coral white stars for your additional color spectrum, as well as an additional driver for them. Place the OCW stars in the middle of each cluster of leds Run the exotics at 500ma and keep the royal and white at 700ma which will help from overpowering the LEDs. Do not do the drilled and tapped sink use thermal adhesive, so you can do two groups or clusters of LEDs. By doing this you'll end up with better blending and less disco effect. The kit makes it easy for plug and play, although with a little leg work you can find all the pieces and the exact colors you want for a little cheaper. IMO
Click to expand...

Can you speak non-led language....lol

I wanted to use their kit withe to solder less connection, easy to add and remove colors if needed. Not sure what you mean by running at 500ma and 700ma... i'm ok with paying a little more as i don't really know what I'm doing and i want to make sure it fits inside the existing space inside the hood. Thanks for the input though. Would thy cyan be the same as the ocean white??
 
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irish02bk said:
Can you speak non-led language....lol

I wanted to use their kit withe to solder less connection, easy to add and remove colors if needed. Not sure what you mean by running at 500ma and 700ma... i'm ok with paying a little more as i don't really know what I'm doing and i want to make sure it fits inside the existing space inside the hood. Thanks for the input though. Would thy cyan be the same as the ocean white??
Click to expand...

Soldering is very easy. If you use the OCW stars from ledgroupbuy they would need to be soldered. The OCW stars have red,cyan and cool blue on one star. This grouping brings out additional colors in the corals that you would lack with your typical blue and white setup. The ma that I speak of is adjustable through the drivers themselves, with the exception of some of the inventronics drivers. Knowing what ma to run certain led strings and stars at is critical, because some can only take a certain amount. The exotic colors, minus the true violets are usually ran at a lower ma, which would make a difference in setting up the driver or choosing the correct driver. To simplify things.... Use there kit, add true violet and use the ocean white stars, or add cool blue,red and cyan in tight groupings to get the best outcome. Making grouping or clusters with solder less LEDs is difficult IMO. Look at manufactured fixtures, any of the good ones are using clusters not lines of LEDs.
 
Everything that Ive heard is that you definately want some True Violet /UVs as well as Cyans, reds, and Deep reds.
 
OK i do get what your saying here, Just wondering if i can accomplish it, do you think the additional driver for the OCW would be able to fit in the biocube hood thought?

Nanofreak79 said:
Soldering is very easy. If you use the OCW stars from ledgroupbuy they would need to be soldered. The OCW stars have red,cyan and cool blue on one star. This grouping brings out additional colors in the corals that you would lack with your typical blue and white setup. The ma that I speak of is adjustable through the drivers themselves, with the exception of some of the inventronics drivers. Knowing what ma to run certain led strings and stars at is critical, because some can only take a certain amount. The exotic colors, minus the true violets are usually ran at a lower ma, which would make a difference in setting up the driver or choosing the correct driver. To simplify things.... Use there kit, add true violet and use the ocean white stars, or add cool blue,red and cyan in tight groupings to get the best outcome. Making grouping or clusters with solder less LEDs is difficult IMO. Look at manufactured fixtures, any of the good ones are using clusters not lines of LEDs.
Click to expand...
 
I have an Oceanic BC29 and the drivers do not fit in the hood, not sure about the newer BC's. I used an old MH ballast box and put everything in it and placed it inside the stand. You can just mount the Meanwell drivers in the stand if you want as they dont need to be enclosed.
 
mrbill said:
I have an Oceanic BC29 and the drivers do not fit in the hood, not sure about the newer BC's. I used an old MH ballast box and put everything in it and placed it inside the stand. You can just mount the Meanwell drivers in the stand if you want as they dont need to be enclosed.
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True, I've usually used project boxes from radio shack to house all the drivers, pot gets. This way you can also use miles connectors etc to make everything look pretty.
 
Nanofreak79 said:
True, I've usually used project boxes from radio shack to house all the drivers, pot gets. This way you can also use miles connectors etc to make everything look pretty.
Click to expand...

How about i just drop my hood off at your place and you take care of this for me... lol looks like i have some research to look into.
 
How does this look for a layout, i'm gonna start with the rapid kit and if i feel comfortable i'll update with the ocean whites.
LEDs_zps91a98e70.jpg


RB=Royal Blue
NW= Neutral White
B=Blue
Red
UV=UV
Cyan
 
irish02bk said:
How does this look for a layout, i'm gonna start with the rapid kit and if i feel comfortable i'll update with the ocean whites.
LEDs_zps91a98e70.jpg


RB=Royal Blue
NW= Neutral White
B=Blue
Red
UV=UV
Cyan
Click to expand...

You still have it laid out in rows. Do two sets or round groups of LEDs. Keep the cyan,red and cool blue tightly together in the middle of your royal and neutral clusters. If this is not possible because of the solder less LEDs then try and do two sets of those exotics on each side of the sink, to try and keep color blending equal throughout.
 
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