Well I ended up getting my own Aquavase for my room. After helping my sisters fiance set his up last night, I just had to get my own.

all pictures located here

Well, this is what we started with:

http://www.ditchmond.com/gallery/alb...l_DSCF1344.JPG

I ended up giving Paul my light, as I wanted to do some LED testing.

I decided to use the same LED's as in my moonlighting thread.

So I made my own bracket to hold the fixtures:

http://www.ditchmond.com/gallery/alb...l_DSCF1350.JPG

I made it on the CNC. I milled a slot down the center to hide the wiring. I ended up using 3 of the fixtures, 2 white 8LED and 1 blue 8LED. Once I finish the wiring, I may wire it so I can turn off just the white, and leave the blue on at night.

http://www.ditchmond.com/gallery/alb...l_DSCF1355.JPG

The bracket isin't finished yet, as I didn't know what height I wanted it above the surface. I may just end up making it adjustable.

I threw in some rock just to give you a idea of the lighting (so don't flame my aquascaping :D )

Here's the first test. I just sat the fixture on the top, its about 1" from the surface of the water. You'll notice that its quite blue in the middle from the blue LED.

http://www.ditchmond.com/gallery/alb...l_DSCF1361.JPG

And here is the LED fixture kept about 2" above the surface. You'll notice the blue is a little more washed out along with the white LED's, which looks a little better IMO.

http://www.ditchmond.com/gallery/alb...l_DSCF1362.JPG

Here's one more picture with the fixture above 2":

http://www.ditchmond.com/gallery/alb...l_DSCF1359.JPG

So far, i'm "somewhat" happy with the LED's. It doesn't seem as bright as the 7w as I thought it would be. Still its pretty good. I "may" make another fixture with 2 more WHITE led fixtures on it. We'll see what happens. I think with some sand in there, it may brighten things up a little more.

Stay tuned... comments, ideas are welcome ...

I think its looking great! Do you know what the output on the LED's is? Are they each a group of 8x .08watt LED's?

I think the sand will brighten it up alot!

Thanks! I think the sand will help out. I'm also planning on putting a small piece of black vinyl as a background, so the filter will be unnoticed.

All I know is the 8 led's total use 80ma and produce 90,000 mcd. I've just fired off a email regarding the actual wattage of each LED. I'll post up the details when I get a answer.

Im getting another batch of 5 watt LED's for our mini reef each one produces 120 lumens, runs at 700mA steady or up to 1000mA pulsed, and puts out over 1,000,000mcd
Ill be running 3x White 5watt LED's and 3x Blue 5watt LED's
should be bright! Right now Im designing a CNC'd housing for them...
are you running you parts on a CNC table or mill?

Wowzer, those are nuts. Where are you getting those from? What are you using to power them?

I didn't quite follow your last question (table or mill?), but we've got 2 vertical mills. One has a 84x32" bed, and the other is 30x16".

Our big one looks similar to this, except our tool holder is mounted hortizonally, not vertically.

http://haascnc.com/prod/pi/25823.jpg

i guess I should have asked if you were using a cnc mill, or a cnc table router....

I am still designing a lighting system with the LED's that Im using... I use specality LED drivers to power them and they need to be heatsinked and fan cooled

heating
 

it hink the lights might keep the water warm for ur critters :biggrin:

the ikea lights with 7W in a littl tank like tat can be warm

Ahhh, no router. However with the size of our bed on our VF-7, you can consider it a router, with a 20hp head ;)

We don't have a vacuum table on it yet, but we're hopefully gonna get a pump within the next month or two, then just make our own vacuum table that we can just mount on.

I've seen those drivers (mini ballasts I call them). Its insane that they put off so much heat as well. I thought about using the luxeon on this pico, but i figure it may be a little too bright. We'll see how these ones work.

yeah they are very bright, the LED's runs very hot and must be cooled but if you put your hand an inch away from the light it is cool so no heat in your tank really... just trying to figure out how to best mount the LED's so they look nice, function well, and are protected from moisture

THem catalina (is that how u spell it) i heard they do good in a tropical reef tank? is this true