LED lit nano size reef tank

[TheBeak]

Been a long time lurker, and a member before the software switched arround...

anyway, thought you guys might like to see how some of "your" LED knowledge is being put to use.

I have built a 5 gallon reef tank, designed from the start to be LED lit. As most corals are photosynthetic, lighting is extremal important.

Thats 4 X 1W luxons. It's a commercially made piece, but I took it apart to check the LED's. I'm going to swap them out for some "bigger" ones, once I see how coral growth is under 4w.

Here it is running, right after i added salt, i like the shot since it really shows the beam patterns:

...and here it is after about 2 months, with 3 corals, and some other small livestock thriving under the impossibly low 4w:

 

[TheBeak]

coral close ups:

Green star polyps:

Xenia:

pallys:

 

[TheBeak]

so, THANK YOU for being an invaluable source of information, whether you intended to or not

 

[matrixshaman]

Cool setup and :welcome:
I don't know much about coral but are you saying the coral grew from the first pic to the second in just a couple months? That's neat if it does. Would it outgrow the tank before long?

 

[TheBeak]

no, there different species...

heres a better before/after:

first day:

after a month:

not exactly the same zoom setting, but I think you can tell how much happier the colony is in the second pic.

if it begins to grow more than i want ill cut some off and sell or trade it with another reef keeper.

thanks for the welcome. I was here a couple years ago, but it seems there was some sort of software reset.

 

[Gryloc]

The Beak,

Very nice coral reef tank. I always though that those are the most beautiful displays of life possible, and I always wanted one. I was always worried about the costs and the maintenance being more than I can handle.

Anyway, I like your setup. I heard about others that come here asking how to make an LED coral reef fixture, and they try a complex setup of large quantities of white and colored LEDs, and end up getting caught up in the complex mess. I never knew that 4 old 1W Luxeons (~120 lumens) provided enough light power to maintain life in water, especially coral!

Well, we can help you and walk you through anything to "upgrade" your fixture. Actually, the easiest possible fix is replacing those four old Luxeon I emitters with 4 of the latest Seoul P4, Cree XR-Es, or the latest luxeon TFFC K2s (once production ramps up again). These emitters are very efficient, and each one will deliver 90-110 lumens at 1W -meaning a good upgrade in light output. The Seoul P4 and TFFC K2 should work with the existing optics, and the Cree XR-E may need a replacement optic to match it's slightly different beam pattern (easy optics to find and buy).

These will be basic emitter/optics swaps, and will be rather simple. Upgrading to something "more powerful" will not be as easy, because you will have to change the LED driver circuits to something that can deliver the extra power. More power means more heat coming from the back of each emitter, meaning you may have to upgrade the heatsink, or just add a noisy cooling fan. We will help you along the way, so do not get discouraged. It is good that you already know a few things about power LEDs. It will make things easier for both of us! Well, I may not reply right away. I will be back tomorrow. Later...

-Tony

 

[Ctechlite]

Wow! That is very visually appealing to me. What are the setup costs invovled for such a project for a "beginner"? Any web based information repositories you can recomend for me to read?

 

[Mash]

NOOB question:
Do you need any special colour temp or actuall color of the emitter for acquariums, or will any white LED do?

 

[Spracklcat]

Hello everyone,

I'm not a flashlight person, but I am a reef keeper, and I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night... so let me see if I can answer some of these questions from a biologist point of view. Forgive me if my lighting physics is incorrect at times.

Yes, you can grow corals successfully with LED's. There are several companies now marketing LED fixtures (I believe they all use 3W luxeons), but they have not taken off yet because they are still significantly more expensive than the traditional metal halide or fluorescent bulbs (on a 5g tank typically one would use 1 or 2 9w PC lamps). The great things about the new LED fixtures are that they throw much less heat, allowing better tank temperature control in the summer, and that the LED's are more flexible: you can dim them better, program them to create "cloudy" and "sunny" days, dawn and dusk, etc which will be good for people trying to get their corals to spawn.

Color temperature is very important: for a beautiful display tank full of those fluorescent animals we like, we usually use 10,000K bulbs (people use higher, but there is debate as to whether much higher is better). For growth of corals (ie for coral farmers), you can go as low as 6500K. For this setup I'd recommend adding a few blue LED's--it will tip your color temp more to where you want it (yes?) but more importantly it will really bring out the colors of the corals by exciting those fluorescent proteins. Also, you can add a dawn/dusk cycle using just the blues, which is a beautiful way to look at your tank.

Costs and maintenance: less than you think. Most of the serious saltwater enthusiasts have caught on to the benefits of joining forums and local clubs--a great way to pick up used equipment, and we never pay retail for animals Like TheBeak pointed out, corals can be cut much like plants ("fragged"), so we mostly get new corals from friends. If you do it right eventually the tank will pay for itself.

So, my advice for this tank: feed it! Are you using any kind of food at all? If not, start, and if so, feed it more. You can add a fish, but you have to be very careful in a tank this size--not many fish will be happy here. However, it would be perfect for some small shrimps (I'd go with "sexy shrimp") which will be very entertaining. Also for your next coral choose something that will show off your LED's-- do a google image search for "Euphyllia" --a good beginner coral that is bright fluorescent green.

For more info...

Here's a site rating the Solaris LED fixture, much better physics discussion (also reefkeepers rarely talk in lux--we use PAR, or photosynthetically active radiation): http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/8/review2#h4
or for general reefkeeping info go to http://www.marinedepot.com/forums

If you give me a location, I can refer you to your local club.

Keep up the good work!

 

[TheBeak]

Thanks for popping in and answering a few questions!!!

Since it has already been mentioned, yes I'll be looking to just do an emitter swap.

What are my options? these are not mounted on stars, but the pads on the emitters are large enough for me to feel comfortable with.

The current LED's in this setup are advertised to be 10,000k color temperature, and I'd like to stay as close to that as possible. with only 4 emitters in the array, if i swap one or two for blue to get the overall color up, it will end up looking sort of striped.

Does anyone have a source for emitters that will help me find the bin codes that will provide the color I need? K2's would need to be YA or Y0 coded, for a 10k max, 8k nominal output.

Cost and maintenance of this tank? about 200-250 bucks counting all livestock to get it running and just a few mins per day for maintenance. once per week I do a 2 quart water change, but given that I make the new water a few gallons at a lime is a fairly simple and quick process.

... and meeting other reefers is a great way to get livestock. Just drove 120 miles round trip last night to pick up a couple new corals for this tank. long drive, but well worth it considering price paid for the size and type of corals I received.

For non corals, this tank has a small peppermint shrimp and a green banded goby in it. There is a kenya tree and a yuma in there now, and I already have my eye out for a decent hammer or frogspon frag to show color as you suggested. (the yuma has some really nice florecent green to it, and looks great under the 10k light)

I feed cyclopeeze daily in small amounts and fish, shrimp some of the corals eagerly grab it out of the current.

HERE is my build thread for this tank over at the reef tank forum.

 

[ErickThakrar]

No worthwhile input, other than to say that I love your tank! I haven't had a fish tank since I was a kid, and that was only freshwater. Cool stuff. Maybe one day...

 

[TheBeak]

Thank you, real input isnt needed (not everytime at least )

 

[rodjer_ramjet]

Hey just reading your post thought I would pass on some info on the fixture I just finished for my reef tank.

It uses 18 white cree Q4s
10 royal blue cree xr-e's (cant remember bin)
4 cyan xl cree's
4 no name UV leds
all running at 700 mA max

so in total 36 with optics
uses a pwm dual channel control (analog for the moment)
one channel for colour one for white, umm yeh guess i better get some photos. If anyone has any questions fire away.

rodjer_ramjet

 

[datiLED]

Wow... very cool. :thumbsup: I am impressed with your tank.

I am not dedicated enough to do a saltwater tank, but may try something like this with a fresh water tank when my son is old enough.

 

[joeyprice]

Hey just reading your post thought I would pass on some info on the fixture I just finished for my reef tank.

It uses 18 white cree Q4s
10 royal blue cree xr-e's (cant remember bin)
4 cyan xl cree's
4 no name UV leds
all running at 700 mA max

so in total 36 with optics
uses a pwm dual channel control (analog for the moment)
one channel for colour one for white, umm yeh guess i better get some photos. If anyone has any questions fire away.

rodjer_ramjet

Hi - I followed the OP over here from a reef form
Do you have any pics of your setup?
What size tank are you lighting with it?
Thanks
Joe

 

[jufam44]

How's the tank going? Are the coral still happy in that setup?

 

[rodjer_ramjet]

Hey got some pix of my setup its over a 3 foot by 18 by 20

 

[TheBeak]

thats an outstanding setup, and exactly what I have in mind for my next, larger, led lit project.

heres an updated picture, shot today: