Here’s a Update 2.5. Originally we had planned to just make this 3 parts, but given some recent we have opted for a 4 part installment. I am saddened to say that Luke recently lost a close family member. Our thoughts are with him and his family right now during these difficult times. It goes [...]
Here’s a Update 2.5. Originally we had planned to just make this 3 parts, but given some recent we have opted for a 4 part installment. I am saddened to say that Luke recently lost a close family member. Our thoughts are with him and his family right now during these difficult times. It goes without saying, this project is not Luke’s main priority–we will give a final Part 3 update in the future. If you missed the early articles, here you can find: Part 1 and Part 2.
For now I will share spectral charts of a few bulbs that Luke tested. These are all after approximately 200 hundred hours of burn in. In addition to the spectra analysis, PAR numbers will be up in the coming update.
First up is a 12K Xenon lamp, for all images click to enlarge.
This 25K lamp is visually very blue, but shares a similar spectrum to the 12K lamp.
Also labeled as 25K, the appearance of this bulb is very violet and easily distinguished among the other lights. Understandable with the strong 590 and 675 nm peaks.
Before going out and trying a xenon lamp, here is a result that Luke found typical among many common “high kelvin” Xenons. These would not be ideal for reef applications. (More on lamp selection in the future.)
Part 2.5 Q&A with Luke (LFP)
GBD: If an aquarist where to attempt a project like this, what are some tips you can provide?
LFP: LEDs produce a ton more heat than people often think. My LED array alone gets that entire large piece of aluminum to reach 130F. For applications that will use them for extended periods like reef lighting, you must have a substantial heat removal method. I think using computer CPU cooler assembles thermal epoxied to the back of a sheet of aluminum would be a great method for people who don’t have access to large aluminum pieces. Some people don’t mind equipment noises and toilet flushing noises, but I personally won’t tolerate any noticeable noise from my tanks. To avoid making a noisy finished product, you must listen to each part running before you decide to add it into your project.
Don’t ever let anyone tell you what you can or can’t create. Every product you see for sale was once someone’s DIY prototype, and it likely had plenty of its own problems to work through before it became the product you see for sale.
Use only the most efficient LEDs available. Sometimes paying $10+ for a 3w LED seems high when other 3w LEDs cost only $3-4 apiece. When each premium LED produces 3-6 times the light of other models, you can use a lot less of them to reach the same lighting needs. When you factor in the costs of an optic for each LED and the power supplies to drive them, you quickly find that using premium bins of LED saves a lot of money, not to mention the power savings.
Watts per gallon is absolutely an irrelevant number. Don’t even let yourself think about it when designing a lighting project.
GBD: Now that you have spotlights, both HID and LED, do you think you’ll ever go back to traditional reflectors?
LFP: At this point I don’t think I could ever be happy again with non-projection lighting. If I had to setup a temporary holding tank or something similar, I would use traditional reflectors. I would never again use them for a rimless display.
GBD: Not too get too off topic, can you give us some additional specs on your 310 DIY rimless?
LFP: My tank is the result of me wanting something that would last a lifetime. I had a 30” deep acrylic tank for a while, and it became the embodiment of everything I hated in a tank. Soaked armpits every time I wanted to mount frags or do any work in the tank, and dropping things required fishing around with tongs to get them back. It also quickly became scratched up from scraping coralline off the display panel. Aquascaping was mostly a game of making a big unnatural pile of rocks to get the corals up near the lights. It ended up cracking its euro-brace, which was more than adequate encouragement to cause me to build my own tank. I found that having bottom area was what I liked most in a tank, and I wanted to not need to make big piles of rocks to have places to mount coral. This is why I decided to make the tank roughly 6x4ft and only 20in deep. I originally wanted to do a 6ft x 6ft bottom area, but I limited myself to a width that would allow me to reach everywhere in the tank easily and without putting my shoulder in the water.
I used thick birch plywood for the bottom of the tank. This enabled me to not need to have any holes in the glass. The 3 viewable sides of the tank use ½” starphire glass with a rounded polished top edge. The glass sits in a frame I welded together made of 304 stainless steel. The plywood attaches with screws to this frame. The silicone is not needed for structure, but only for sealing the vertical seems of the tank. To seal the plywood and the glass to the plywood, I used a custom poly-urea coating. A chemical engineer friend was developing coatings to be used for armoring military vehicles against IED blasts. He whipped up a special batch of a compound with roughly the same strength and elongation capabilities, but with a special compound to improve the bonding to glass, and no VOCs. He told me a 40mil coating would perfect, but I insisted on a 200-250mil coating. I don’t think I could break through the bottom of my aquarium with a sledge hammer, and that’s a comforting feeling.
For water movement, my tank uses a sequence barracuda pump head that I custom fitted to a 3-phase motor. Three phase motors can be speed controlled by variable frequency drives, or VFDs. My closed loop ramps up and down in RPM every seven seconds to simulate waves flowing over corals. There are 16 outlets total between the closed loop and return, and each is fitted with an eductor nozzle. This also lowers the average power usage for the closed loop system to under 100w.
The tank uses the overflow or pressure feeds from the return pump to create all the feeds for the various equipment. This enables me to only need two pumps to run the entire system. Pumps use power and can fail; gravity is cheap and spotlessly reliable.
There are some other unique systems in the tank, and I’ve started experimenting with electricity to stimulate coral growth, but I don’t want to get too far off subject.
GBD: You’ve got the HIDs… Are angel eye moonlights in the works as well?
LFP: Laughter- Nope. No need for separate moon lights when you have full current control LED drivers.
Thank you for creating a website with high quality content standards. It’s an honor to be featured and Part 3 will be coming soon.
Part 3 to come
