5 gallon LED build

[100%hydrophylic]

This project started out a year ago as a 3 gallon build using an old tank my mom had at her work (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1797354). I decided i hate small acrylic tanks, so i decided to upgrade to a 5 gallon glass tank, and here it is

PICTURES
Full system shot


Stand


Front tank shot


Left side


Right side


Top down with flash


The LEDs

[100%hydrophylic]

A couple of close ups (some of the corals are still angry from being moved, and the particulates in the water are there because i accidentally scooped into the sand pretty hard with the mag float)

Bright green and orange zoas


Darker green with orange mouth zoas


Green with purple tips Frogspawn


Red with bluish mouth blastos


Orange ric with green mouth


Slightly inflated hydnopora


Green Candy canes

[100%hydrophylic]

Specs and Equipment:
DIY LED lighting
-6 Cree XRE royal blue
-6 Cree XRE cool white
-1 meanwell 700w driver
-a couple of computer aluminum heatsinks

DIY Stand (i painted the front glass panel using something called liquid leading made by Gallery Gloss)

DIY Auto Top Off
-1 ebay float switch
-1 battery operated air pump
-an apple juice container as a reservoir

DIY canopy and enclosure
I made it similar to the other tanks enclosure (see the link posted about the 3g). the pannels are made of acrylic and painted black witht he same indoor/outdoor paint as the stand

HOB Aquaclear filter with carbon, carbon pads, a heater, and another filter pad.

CURRENT STOCKING LIST
Fish
-1 hifin banded goby
Inverts
-1 candy striped pistol shrimp
Corals
-Green candy canes
-hydnopora
-red blastos
-a couple of kenya trees
-frogspawn
-duncans
-favites (green and brown, red and green, and a gold and tanish one)
-small goniopora frag
-bunch of zoas
-orange ricordia
-couple different types of mushrooms
-daisy poyps
-Green star polyps
Live rock and sand
all came from my established 75g. its about 8-10 pounds of rock and about 5-6 pounds of sand.

[stagger_lee]

Looks awesome. Love the rock scape! Those zoas are super cool too with the tye dye like fingers even.

[100%hydrophylic]

Thanks! yea, i never noticed the skirts detail until i put them under these LEDs.

[stagger_lee]

Im asking everyone about their growth under LEDs. What's your opinion? Obviously the colors are amazing! Lack of heat and power consumption is very attractive. NOt sure if I want LEDs or MH on my next project. I'll be following along though. Looks great!

[100%hydrophylic]

Stagger lee, i cant tell you my opinion of thsi particular light setup yet, but on my 3g i have a 6 bulb fixture made from the same supplies. In terms of growth, i cant speak for sps, but my LPS (no experience yet with any of the frogspawn, hammer, or torch type corals) grow faster that my 4 bulb T5 on my 75g. -> Duncan head has 2 babies on it and the head itself doubled in size since i got it, favites love it, and candy canes dont do well in my 75g (probably not just a lighting problem but idk, same water as my 3g) but did awesome under the LEDs. My zoas exploded under the LEDs, but i cant really say which is faster between T5 and LED. It also depends on which zoas, but those darker green ones trippled in size over like 8 months. As for the other softies (mushrooms, leathers and such) they grow just as fast as other lighting. the ric hasnt grown much though. It has gotten bigger, but no babies.

Id have to say i am highley pleased with the growth rate under the LEDs





Meet Larry Moe and Curly!



they are supposed to be red tipped hermits, and i think more specifically they are something called "cortez mexican red leg" hermits or just "mexican red legs" hermits........ but Larry here is a little bit different....



He is white. Either i got an albino red tipped hermit, or hes something else. could someone tell me if hes reef safe or not?

Here is a pic of him with flash


Larry is acting like the others atm, sifting through the sand, but i dont think that means much....


In other news................
Im working on a way to light up the stained glass door
this is what i have so far, and i think i like it. i just need another light to light up the upper half of the door.

[mpb2]

i half to say awesome tank and love the disturbed avatar

[100%hydrophylic]

lol, thanks

and welcome to reef central! (i see this is one of your first few posts)

[Fishboy9227]

Nice setup! How much did the lighting cost you??

[100%hydrophylic]

how much did the lights cost.... hmmm

http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-...ourself/Detail

well i originally bought the 6 LED DIY kit from rapid led for $65

then i bought 6 more LEDs from Rapid LED when i upgraded
that was like 35$

and the shipping for two different orders was like $10

the Heat sinks i got for free from a local computer store, and id say the cost of the wood and acrylic to make the light fixture was about $10

I bought 3 fans for $5, and a wall adapter with a cool little attachment that let me wire the fans easier for $25. So the cooling was like $40

wiring was like $5

sooo a total of $165 for that light. (estimate) You could probably save money depending on how you do it, but i think it is worth not having to worry about changing light bulbs, too much heat, and energy bills. Not to mention i love how they look

[100%hydrophylic]

so i finished putting in the stand lights.....

Before:


And After


AND IM STILL LOOKIN FOR ANY INFO ON THAT WHITE HERMIT!

[naughty]

oh how pretty! i like that stand a lot makes me wanna light mine up, i dunno if the glass is light enough though :P

[Clavius]

Love the LED fixture. Thinking about doing the same with a RapidLED kit for my 10g project.

[100%hydrophylic]

Clavius
im very pleased with RapidLED and i would suggest it to anyone looking for a DIY kit

naughty
I like how the stand turned out, but the shelf kinda blocks some of the light. i can deal with that tho, i need the shelf for the ATO reservoir. Im not quite sure what you mean by the glass being light enough?


Thanks guys/gals!

[Clavius]

Originally Posted by 100%hydrophylic

Clavius
im very pleased with RapidLED and i would suggest it to anyone looking for a DIY kit

Do you think that the 12 LED kit would be enough light for SPS in a standard 10g tank?

[100%hydrophylic]

from what i have read, my LEDs should be kinda over powered for what im doing, but i have not witnessed any melting. I am more experienced in LPS and softies, so i might not be the best person to ask about SPS, but i would say (based on others experience with SPS and LEDs) 12 would be enough. The hydnophora in my tank (which is a kind of different sps- not really like an acro) seems to love the 12 LEDs. If i were asked my opinion i would say yes you could keep a healthy SPS reef with 12 LEDs from rapidLED, but never base any of your decisions on one persons opinions




(RANDOM EDIT: )
WHY HAVE I NEVER HEARD OF THIS WEBSIGHT BEFORE?
http://www.thesea.org/
on the left side scroll down and theres a list of different coral species and different articles under each one. very cool. maybe im just missing something, but this is the first time ive stumbled across it

[Clavius]

Originally Posted by 100%hydrophylic

from what i have read, my LEDs should be kinda over powered for what im doing, but i have not witnessed any melting. I am more experienced in LPS and softies, so i might not be the best person to ask about SPS, but i would say (based on others experience with SPS and LEDs) 12 would be enough. The hydnophora in my tank (which is a kind of different sps- not really like an acro) seems to love the 12 LEDs. If i were asked my opinion i would say yes you could keep a healthy SPS reef with 12 LEDs from rapidLED, but never base any of your decisions on one persons opinions

Ok, thanks for your help!

[pandarider007]

hey im just wondering how hard the DIY LED's were to put together?

[100%hydrophylic]

I literally have never soldered anything in my life before these LEDs. It wasnt "easy" but it was definitely not hard.

Here, i will put some basic instructions and ill post my diagrams for wiring. PLEASE NOTE: these are things i learned from working with the materials during my project. im not an expert at all.

Soldering basic tips
-When you are stripping your wires (removing the plastic insulation), do not remove too much of the insulation, it will just make a messy build
-Do not overdo the solder, this will also lead to a messy build
-When you are tinning the wires and LED stars (putting tin solder on the wires and pads) Heat the wire itself, and the pad itself so that the solder will melt onto it. this took me a while to figure out lol.
-PLAN EVERYTHING BEFORE YOU DO IT.

here is the wiring diagrams i made on paint lol. Even color coded to match the meanwell drivers


materials that werent reef related and i had to go figure out what to use:

22 guage wire, pretinned, preferably stranded (sorry sideways pic, idk why)


Simple wire strippers


Tin soldering. I used something called "no clean," but i dont think thats necessary


Soldering gun



Its really not that bad, and those things i posted above were some little things that i wasn't quite sure about when i got started.

[pandarider007]

thanks alot. im pretty sure im getting them and putting them over a 5 like you did. if i have any questions ill deffinitely be sending you a pm. thanks again!

[100%hydrophylic]

Its no problem, and ill try to help with any questions

[nemesis7]

hey can you post a diagram of your ato like brands you used. I like your tanks rockscaping its really cool .

[100%hydrophylic]

Thanks!

The auto top off i use runs on a battery operated pump. whenever the water gets too low the float switch completes the circuit and pumps air into an air tight reservoir. the pressure in the reservoir causes water to shoot up through the hose and into the tank.

Auto top off pictures:

First off, heres a picture of inside the stand

The reservoir is to the left, and all my power cables to the right. the pump is behind the reservoir. The extra bottle on the bottom is an extra reservoir that i switch out when one is empty

A picture of the azoo pump

i wrapped the extra cord around the pump to keep it out of the way and i taped it so it would stay out of the way :P

This is the picture of inside the pump after i installed the float switch.

All i did was cut that white wire that leads from one of the batteries to the pump and then i put one of the switch wires on each end

A close up of the reservoir

pick something not so flimsy so that it can hold atleast some pressure. mine is just plastic.

a picture of the lid

the air line that supplies the air to the container is shorter, while the one that sends water to the tank extends all the way to the bottom of the bottle

a picture of the switch and water supply line

they are mounted on bent acrylic sheets. You can bend them using your stove if its gas, or with a candle. just heat the plastic till its flimsy. I taped the two holders just so that they wouldn't be able to slide around.

Here is a couple of diagrams i made on paint

[100%hydrophylic]

ohh i forgot to post something i really like about this system... its a terribly blury awful picture, but do you notice?...

NO DANGLING CORDS! !
I hate dangling cords lol, it just bothers me.


(for some reason it wouldn't let me put this on my other response)