Grizz's 300 gal 8'er / LED Heat sink build / Opinions on LED lay out needed

[Nano]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

Im down for that, always like to build things for other peoples set-ups

Nice much obliged man! Not sure when but most like a year, So I will be in touch! I'm doing an all led build too, probably either 125-150 gallons 6 feet long not too sure what else haha, I've been watching the progress on this thread and I just get so excited, I can wait to upgrade and learn how not to be such a reef noob!

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by martinmcnally

This confirms my theory that you are actually building a new batman call sign haha

OK Martin, this is where I need some of your help. Here is how I have the LED's laid out thus far, what do you think?

Any other opinions are welcome as well.

[martinmcnally]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

OK Martin, this is where I need some of your help. Here is how I have the LED's laid out thus far, what do you think?

Any other opinions are welcome as well.

This layout works pretty good if you are planning on having those XPGs in the center on all the time. Otherwise you would end up with a huge blue region and whites only on the outside. I think you might be better alternating the outside rows blue and white to get some whites further in the middle.

Althought I was thinking those XPGs could be on all day rather than just for high noons, you could start out at like 50% mid morning going to 80% around mid day and then down to 50% or so again for evening. So that way they are on all day and you have your white in the center.

Having said all that I am liking how this looks a lot haha! Thinking about my new tank now

[martinmcnally]

Highly recommend you wear some sunglasses when you switch that thing on for testing haha.

[Nano]

Originally Posted by martinmcnally

Highly recommend you wear some sunglasses when you switch that thing on for testing haha.

yeah careful Greg, or you'll need a braille computer!
Any lunar on there or are you using the blues?

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by martinmcnally

This layout works pretty good if you are planning on having those XPGs in the center on all the time. Otherwise you would end up with a huge blue region and whites only on the outside. I think you might be better alternating the outside rows blue and white to get some whites further in the middle.

Althought I was thinking those XPGs could be on all day rather than just for high noons, you could start out at like 50% mid morning going to 80% around mid day and then down to 50% or so again for evening. So that way they are on all day and you have your white in the center.

Having said all that I am liking how this looks a lot haha! Thinking about my new tank now

I was thinking of running them with the system. I was also thinking that maybe we should change out the CW for the CW & NW HEW's.

Originally Posted by martinmcnally

Highly recommend you wear some sunglasses when you switch that thing on for testing haha.

I will have to be wearing my auto shield welding helmet.

Originally Posted by nanomano

yeah careful Greg, or you'll need a braille computer!
Any lunar on there or are you using the blues?

I am going to put in some moon light but not sure how many yet.

[Nano]

moon lights are the bee's knees thats probably my favorite part on my tank! lol something so simple

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by nanomano

Nice much obliged man! Not sure when but most like a year, So I will be in touch! I'm doing an all led build too, probably either 125-150 gallons 6 feet long not too sure what else haha, I've been watching the progress on this thread and I just get so excited, I can wait to upgrade and learn how not to be such a reef noob!

We where all noobs at some point, except for Dez, Kien and Levi I think they were all born with SW in there vains. I am still a SW noob on some things and will never ever say I know everything there is to know about this hobby

[sphelps]

From my experience with some experimenting over thinking the layout of various LED colors doesn't pay off. I did the exact same thing with my fixture and spend a bunch of time and effort to layout each color so they were all distributed evenly and mixed in as much as possible with my hopes of avoiding color spots and lack of blending.

The fact is it's not that important. You're better off doing rows off each color just like a T5 fixture. It keeps things much simpler and wiring will be easier, plus might even be better for heat distribution. Believe it or not you won't notice a difference in color distribution on a tank your size if you do things like this or stagger them all over the place.

One thing I also would have changed on mine is using 1W for colors like green and red, they don't really offer much except some additional spectrum adjustment which is purely just for effect. The problem with the 3W is they are still a tad bright even when fully dimmed since you can only dim down to about 5% or so and. I have 7 3W reds and I never put them past 10%. I've also actually had to completely turn my reds off for a while due to crazy algae blooms which immediately stopped with the red cut off.

Also get yourself an infrared temp gun and watch the temp on those LEDs, I found they run a little warmer than the typical star mounted ones. Doubt you'll have a problem with that heat sink though but maybe just encase, especially those ones that are really close to each other.

[Zoaelite]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

We where all noobs at some point, except for Dez, Kien and Levi I think they were all born with SW in there vains. I am still a SW noob on some things and will never ever say I know everything there is to know about this hobby

Don't discredit yourself that fast buddy you got some pretty wicked salty skillz yourself! I would argue we really never leave the "noob" state, always stuff to be learned in this hobby!