Alter Hood

[Tommy_G]

HI all,

Can't say I know much about this topic, so thought I would post here. I read the LED thread, but it quickly got way past my pay grade

I have a Fluval 9g Flex tank (14"x14") All in One ( )that was sold as a fresh water tank that I converted to my reef tank. It is only a few weeks old, seeded with live rock and live sand.

The tank has a thin plastic top, fits well on the tank and a 7500 light (according to the box).

It has the cheapish remote that lets you select colors etc...

So, since this is at my work, it must have a lid, and I am thinking through options to upgrade light to support some good coral growth eventually. I am looking for some options...

Some of my needs are:
Must have a hood, nice looking and stop most of the salt creep.
Needs to be timer-able.
Needs to be able to support some corals in the future.

I think that is all I am shooting for.

I have read about reef-pi, that sounds kinda cool, could maybe use that to control what I need if I end up doing some kind of improvement to the current light. I don't have a pic right now of the lid, but it basically has a 6" flat led in the hood with I suppose different color LED's.

Some of the options I am thinking....

Current light might be enough if I find easier corals? Then its just a timer problem.

Add more LED to the current light fixture and add reef pi type controls for lighting. Current lighting has no timer controls, I could put on mechanical timer, but that is just On/Off, no Blue/White control.

Find a commercial light such as Fluval Sea Nano 25000k () and modify the hood to accommodate it, this light has timer functionality built in

Find a light band that fits on tank and cut current lid to accommodate it, something like this in the right spectrum ()

The current lid is 1" or so from water, if I let the water down a bit, could be 2-3".

Ok... I think that lays the land a bit, the lid is basically 14"x14" and the tank is about 13" tall

Any ideas???

 

[Tommy_G]

After messing with the reef-pi setup, I am now wondering if I can turn both lights on with the remote, then unplug the light, and take apart the wiring so each color has its own plug?

So I would set the color part to blue full, and the whites on full. Take apart the electrical, I should be able to target the color lights and the white lights and put on different plugs right???

No idea how to do that, i am somewhat knowledgeable about electricity, but not sure if this is doable..

Then, I may be able to just add a few more whites to the whites and a few more blues to the blues?

 

[Michael Lane]

Less expensive led lights that don't expose dimming are usually going to have a non dimming driver.

I think it's an interesting challenge. Do you have any pictures of the circuitry in the hood?

 

[Tommy_G]

So, since I am at work I took some pics of it. Looks fairly basic, there are approx 17x2 white LED on the strip and 3 colored.

The White LED are down both sides, and the colors are in the middle.

The power cord goes up through the remote IR sensor in the hood. The remote lets me...

Power On RGB, Power OFF RGB, Pick a color, and Dim/Brighten RBG
Power On White, Power OFF White, Dim/Brighten White
Storm, Cloud Cover
Randomly rotate through colors

So.....

Here are some pics of it, not sure what info can be gathered, but here goes...

The whole strip is maybe 9" long, 1"-1.5" wide or so...


This is at the end of the fixture, the "yellow" squares are the white LED lights.

This is in the middle of the fixture... the LED in the middle is a "color" LED. It changes color to whatever is clicked on the remote.

Obviously

 

[Tommy_G]

From manufacturer

 

[Tommy_G]

Just more info/ideas...

for $25 i can order another LED

https://www.fluvalaquatics.com/us/product/led-lamp-assembly-for-flex-9g-34-l-aquarium/

for $20 can buy the power plug for the LED

https://www.fluvalaquatics.com/us/product/power-supply-for-led-lamp-on-flex-9g-34-l-aquarium/

 

[Michael Lane]

Those look like a pretty low power LED strips. I doubt the can put out enough light for most corals.

 

[Tommy_G]

I am revisiting creating my own LED strip. But there is SO much on the web and in these forums that its impossible to determine what I would need.

The tank is 14"x14"x12" (tall), 9 gal.

I would like the light to support whatever I end up with in the tank.

Light is going to be about 1.5"-2" from water

Plan is to control them via Reef-Pi, so any special consideration for dimming needs to be accounted for

Looking to have Whites on a circuit, and blues on a circuit.

What Cree 3w LED would I need? and how many of what colors?

Thanks for any help anyone can give me.

 

[Michael Lane]

reef-pi control should be pretty easy since most LED drivers can use PWM dimming control. I've made some supplemental lights using Meanwell LDD-1000HW drivers, a 4 channel LED puck, and a 24v power supply.

The color works for me, but I'm also using Mars Aqua lights with them. Lots of other folks probably have stronger opinions and experiences on exactly which LEDs to use.

 

[Tommy_G]

This looks great...

So asking if these are the right lights is probably totally preference, but this seems like it would run a 9g reef easily. right?

Was really shooting for 2 channels, how would you wire this to two channels?

Also, very ignorant on the dimmer controls, I guess there are different ones depending how many lamps are on the circuit??

Thanks for all this info Michael, you know alot of stuff lol

 

[Michael Lane]

I'm not sure what kind of spread you would get at only 2 inches above the water. I usually mount lights 12 - 24 inches high.

If you go with a 4 channel puck, you could potentially just wire 2 channels in series if your voltage is high enough.