Please evaluate our Biocube 32, AI Hydra 26 upgrade

[Swav8tor]

looks good! how does it look when you put the light directly on top of the egg crate?

Too narrow of a light pattern. I’m also going to try to make a clear screen as the egg crate does block out some of the light.

 

[Katrina71]

Any updates?

 

[nickreefer]

How did you mount the hydra in the hood??

 

[J Ned Pruitt]

How did you cut the hole in the Biocube lid? What type of tool did you use?

 

[TL Reefs]

I used a hole saw.

 

[Killen]

I'm going to try this with a Hydra 32. Can you share your light settings and how it's worked over the last year.

 

[TL Reefs]

It is still working great. Light settings are nothing special. I just used the easy setup at a color temp that looked good. It's in a client's house and I don't have access to it right now to show exact settings.

 

[Killen]

Ok, last question. Do you have the power settings set super low to keep your coral from bleaching?

 

[TL Reefs]

Ok, last question. Do you have the power settings set super low to keep your coral from bleaching?

It peaks at around 60% power. But coral bleaching is a combination of many things, light being just one of them. Coral species, alkalinity, and nutrient levels have a huge impact too.

 

[Midwinterx]

I should have went with 52 hd for better spread.
I did this one with the 26 hd with lens it didn't cover the whole tanks on the 32g. So far no heati g issue at 50%. Left the lens on in case of evaporation.

 

[TL Reefs]

That's why I removed the lenses. Too narrow with them on.

 

[Midwinterx]

Yeah the spread is so much better without the lens. All the nems are happy. The hydra fan doesn't kick in till after 40%.

 

[hllb]

Just got a hydra 26 today to try this on my biocube. I bought a spare hood too which is still in transit. Can’t wait to try this. Has anyone done par measurements with this setup?

 

[hllb]

Has anyone had issues with the heat of the LEDs close to the splash guard? I'm a little worried about the heat scorching the splash guard.

 

[cmross13]

Has anyone had issues with the heat of the LEDs close to the splash guard? I'm a little worried about the heat scorching the splash guard.

Didn’t want to bring this back from the dead, but found my splashguard smoking today, the LEDs melted a hole in it running at 50% or so on the blues and green, 0 on red, 20% white.

Should be noted, I did exactly what the OP did except I didn’t remove the lenses for fear of moisture. I did, however, make my own diffuser by running an orbital sander over a piece of lexan with 80 and 220 grit to create a “frosted glass” appearance, and glued it to the outside of the splash guard. Don’t know if or how this would have made an impact, but there was definitely a couple holes in the lexan as well as the splash guard.

luckily I just bought a couple more Red Sea ReefLED90s Monday, so my Prime 16HD Quarantine light was able to bolt to the back of the now topless Biocube until I can get a Hydra 26HD mount shipped to me.

 

[hllb]

Didn’t want to bring this back from the dead, but found my splashguard smoking today, the LEDs melted a hole in it running at 50% or so on the blues and green, 0 on red, 20% white.

Should be noted, I did exactly what the OP did except I didn’t remove the lenses for fear of moisture. I did, however, make my own diffuser by running an orbital sander over a piece of lexan with 80 and 220 grit to create a “frosted glass” appearance, and glued it to the outside of the splash guard. Don’t know if or how this would have made an impact, but there was definitely a couple holes in the lexan as well as the splash guard.

luckily I just bought a couple more Red Sea ReefLED90s Monday, so my Prime 16HD Quarantine light was able to bolt to the back of the now topless Biocube until I can get a Hydra 26HD mount shipped to me.

Honestly, I think it's because you left the lenses on. They focus the light in a much narrower band so that's likely why you had burns. I've had mine running almost a year and no issues with the splash guard at all.

 

[cmross13]

It wasn’t from heat apparently, otherwise the stock lenses would have had some sort of discoloration or warp to them. I think it was from the UV versus Lexan

 

[GregHurst]

We have been working on a solution for the Biocube lighting issue. The 32 gallon tanks with LED lighting will keep softies and LPS alive, and some SPS, but they don't thrive. Removing the lid and adding a Kessil or Hydra works, but leaves it looking "modified." We wanted something that would allow us to grow any kind of coral, and also keep the closed lid. Recently, a customer asked us to install a Biocube for them, but they wanted to be able to keep any kind of coral. This was just the motivation I needed to come up with a solution

There are a couple DIY retro kits that can be installed and I'm sure they work great, but we wanted a solution that uses commercially available lights, such as Hydras. And here is what we came up with:

It is an AI Hydra 26, mounted into the hood. It utilizes the cooling fan on the Hydra to suck air in through the top of the hood, and blow it out the vents in the back. Then we removed the lenses, as they create a hot spot and could possibly melt the splash guard. Removing the lenses also gave a much better spread.

They run cool, with no overheating issues. We did see a 1-2 degree water temp increase with the lights running at 50%, which is manageable IMO.

Now on to the pics!

Sorry for asking on old post, looking to do similar with my new to me Red Sea Max 130d. Interested on how difficult it was to remove diffusers?
Got Hydra 26hd coming and thinking about fitted both to get better light spread. Want to keep good on but they are coming with arms if it fails! Got spare hood to play with