ben1987
Fish Aficionado
in effect you use a heatsink on your PC CPU
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I don't want any dimming, want them to be as easy as possible.
It is recommended to Dim so you can get the right colour if you go with no dimming you could end up with a colour you dont like the cost to add dimming is marginal about £4 on my build and the only extra work is drilling a few holes to put the pots through very easy.
The complexity comes when you start adding in computers for simulated sunrise sunsets which I will refrain from at this stage with simple dimming you can go from 10k to 20k at the touch of a button (not recommended when stocked ofc )
You saying you don't trust my programming
Not at all, I don't trust computers full stop, my PC is bad enough ATM.
Fair enough, so you're just going to be using Blues as Actinics, for strait on and off, over a 6ft by 2ft tank. How much room is there between when the LED's are going to be mounted and the waters surface?
Not quite, I want a balance of white and blue, BUT I want the LED's to supplement the PC's, I like the PC bulbs colours from Interpet. Gives a nice glow. I would like some shimmer from the LED's though. I want to be able to just have PC Actinincs on as the last lighting before my moonlight LED's as the Mandarins love this light, I would like to get them to spawn so this is needing to kept.
Depending on the distance between the water and LED's you'll want either two strips of 9 3W blues or three strips of 12 3W Blues, with lenses in the latter case, to get the spread you need You'll then need seriously good PC lighting to "overpower" the Blues to get a reasonable colour balance if you aren't dimming them. If you use Black Cat drivers like mine, or Buckpuck drivers like Morri, you can use a single variable resistor across either common ground and the control pin as with my dirvers, or the reference and control pin on Morri's drivers. You adjust the light level by turning the dial soldered onto the driver. Think dimmable room lights type of thing, turn one wheel type thing and it adjusts the light output, no computers to go wrong
All the best
Rabbut
OK, I'd probably go with the higher powered option if cash isn't too much of a bind, and set them about 6-8" above the tank's surface with the 25 degree lenses I mention in my DIY LED post If cash is tighter, the lower powered option will need mounting about 3" off the surface. The actuall distance to the hood will depend on the heat sinks and mounting method though, so you'll have to think about how you want to go about that a little...