My 2ft x 1ft x 1ft Nano

[kaykay]

Haha, why does COB come out as CO*smilie*?

[reckless]

Hi bros, glad to see you guys here.

Well, nope. Instead, I use Henry's Goodbye P04 on a once every 2 weeks.

Bro Kaykay, don't worry bout soldering. theres always a first time for everything. to be honest, the Aquastyle was my virgin soldering.haha! alot of help from youtube. u can try looking up for DIY LEDs soldering. loads of vids to guide you. And sure you can check it out if you wanna. but i'm doubful I'll be at home most of the time nowadays. BUT, the kind of light the set gives you, you gotta see it in person really.... tried taking pics with my DSLR camera but can't capture the deep blue colour and luminous corals it gives. either i suckat using DSLR or just cannot capture. hehe.

[reckless]

Will try to upload some pics of the unboxing of the Aquastyle kit so u know what u'll get.

[reckless]

Unboxing Pictures of Aquastyle LEDs Kit

You guys can check out the links above for Unboxing pics

[reckless]

[reckless]

Corals under aquastyle. Please note that some pictures were taken with both white and blue LEDs on and some with just Blue. Pictures are raw and not edited. So sorry it takes some time to load due to big file size. the software i usually use for resizing is not available anymore

[kaykay]

Bro are there 2 separate power supplies for the blue and white? ie 2 AC power plugs?

Are you using any actinic bulbs?

[reckless]

Yup bro two different plugs to two independant timers. Light is royal blue bro.

[reckless]

U can actually do it in such a way its to a one power point... i think... but i'm.no rocket scientist at these electrical stuffs... hehz

[slapper]

Lovely! Is it possible to share the setup of the Aquastyle? How is the LED installed? On the heatsink? Can't really tell from pix. Are they dimmable? I'm planning to get for my 2FT too, but i'm lost at the Aquastyle website. LOL

[MadScientist]

the maxspect you are talking about is from de lighting?

[reckless]

bro slapper, the LED itself is pasted on the heatsink using the heatsink plaster (glue) provided. u have to plan out where u want your LEDs to be positioned before you apply the heatsink plaster. then u can start soldering the wires to it. For this part of the "setting up" u can actually find loads of vids on youtube on DIY LEDs for aquarium.

as for the dimmer, yes it is provided. I think you need to double confirm with the Kit you are buying. they are the black knobs on top of the two golden drivers in the pictures above. I think a dimmer is a must coz if not it'll be at full power.... some corals can't take the light coz too strong. At least that is what i encountered. So get a dimmer, you can play around with the shades of lighting color to your likings with it as well.

the one i got is perfect for 2ft tanks. sits nicely on top. but i'm planning to get their new LED Lighting Fixtures so at least it looks more proper. haha!

If u decide to get it, i hope you enjoy ur lights! i know my corals do

[MadScientist]

maxspect sells diy kits too? are their leds good? using dimmer will shorten the lifespan of the led? will it save power?

[reckless]

Maxspect.. not sure bro... maybe u can check it out? Maxspect are ofcoz good . Using dimmer will actually prolong the lifespan of your LEDs coz they are not working at full power. Yes it will save power.

[MadScientist]

i thought too low voltage/amperage also kills?

[reckless]

Maybe? I dun know. Dun know much bout electrical stuff but oh well... better than over power and bleaching all ur corals and blowing ur bills. Maybe if u know more please enlighten us. Wud love to know

[reckless]

Have just ordered the H2Ocean Reef Salt from Madpetz. Gonna try switching from the current Red Sea Salts to this and see how things go. Also, tried ordering the Ecosystem Miracle Mud from Reefdepot but was told that they don't carry the item anymore and they are selling Caribsea Mineral Mud instead.

Seems hard to find the Miracle Mud nowadays in Singapore. Found out that N30 is selling it. Already ordered and hopefully it will arrive soon. gonna see how good it is as compared to DSB. So far tried searching for reviews or bros using it locally but none so far. It does get good reviews from Youtube and some other forums though some prefer to stick to DSB.

Gonna give it a shot of changing from DSB to Miracle Mud. $80 for a bag which will last me 1-2 years before 1/2 change sounds manageable enough for me. hopefully its a good investment. Will update more on this in weeks to come.

[MadScientist]

Shall watch out for the results

[reckless]

Shall watch out for the results

will definitely update since there's not much detailed reviews by users in the net... Btw any updates on the light dimmers bro? just increased the power of my Royal blue light today.

[MadScientist]

Most “white” LEDs are actually blue LEDs with a phosphor coating that generates warm or cool white light. Their light does not shift to red when dimmed; some may actually appear bluer with dimming. White light can also be made by mixing red, green, and blue (RGB) LEDs, allowing a full range of color mixing and color temperature adjustment. Overall LED luminaire efficacy decreases with dimming due to reduced driver efficiency at low dimming levels

From US DOE: http://cool.conservation-us.org/byorg/us-doe/dimming_leds.pdf

Most power LEDs experience a slight brightening over the first few hundreds to thousands of hours of use. Afterwords, they very slowly begin to dim.

LED lifespan (i.e. the 50,000 hour lifespan rating) is not about how long before the LED does not light up, it's about how long before the LED dims to some percentage of initial output. Most players rate their LED lifespan to 70% of initial output. So that means that at 50,000 hours, the LED should still output around 70% of initial output. The LED slowly dims over that 50,000 hours from 100% down to 70%.

This lifespan rating is usually given certian conditions that the LED maker specifies, in terms of current and junction temperature. Operating beyond the conditions given will cause the lifespan to decrease.

So for instance, a (hypothetical) manufacturer specifies 50,000 hours to 70% brightness, at 350mA, with Tj <= 120C. If your heatsinking allows Tj to exceed 120C, then the lifespan will decrease, and output will dim faster. Likewise, if you run at greater than 350mA, lifespan will also decrease. This means that you either reach 70% sooner, or at 50,000 hours output has degraded to less than 70%

From Candlepowerforums ( forum full of led gurus): http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?189019-Do-LEDS-(SSC-Rebel-Cree)-get-brighter-or-dimmer-after-some-time-of-use

Drivers with dimming capability can dim the LED light output over the full range from 100% to 0%. Dimming drivers can dim LEDs by reduction in the forward current, pulse width modulation (PWM) via digital control, or more sophisticated methods. Most dimming drivers operate using the PWM method. With this method, the frequency could range from a hundred modulations per second to as high as hundreds of thousands of modulations per second, so that the LED appears to be continuously lighted without flicker.

A benefit of the PWM method is that it enables dimming with minimal color shift in the LED output. According to the Lighting Research Center, dimming causes LEDs to experience a similar shift in spectral power distribution as an incandescent lamp. However, if colored LEDs in an array are used to produce white light, the amount of shift, particularly with red and yellow LEDs, may produce an undesirable effect on the white light that is produced by the system.

Dimming does not result in a loss of efficiency. During dimming, the LEDs are still operated at the same voltage and current as during full light output. In addition, lamp life is not affected by dimming, as is sometimes the case with frequently dimmed fluorescent lighting. Rather, dimming LEDs may lengthen the useful life of LEDs, because dimming can reduce operating temperatures inside the light source.

From LED Magazine: http://ledsmagazine.com/features/1/12/6

[MadScientist]

From what I can see, dimming led reduces brightness per watt, not very energy conservative, haha

[reckless]

ahh i see i see

anyways, sad news, even N30 has run out of stock of miracle mud. Seems that the agent handling MM shipments in SG is not bringing in the product anymore...

2nd choice is Caribsea Mineral Mud. But reviews about it is not too good...

[MadScientist]

can always go east coast get mud, haha

[Terryz_]

I would only recommend MM if you are setting up a new tank.. Learnt it the hard way, becos they cloud the tank for almost 1 week before clearing up and stressed up all the fishes and corals..

[fishy_dude]

hey bro reckless, for ur DIY aquastyle LED does the package come with the machine to help u solder of else where can you get from? thanks a lot! =)