LEDs for 10 gallon nano reef!

[slm32123]

Hey guys, I decided to take the jump and get some LEDs for my nano reef. I wanted to do this to cut down on the electric bill a little, as well as get some experience so I can upgrade the 75 in the future. I went to rapidled.com and ordered the 12 LED Ultra Premium Dimmable Kit. As well as a drilled and tapped heat sink. Their daylight controller which has 3 preset programs for sunrise daytime and sunset. And a fan to mount onto the heat sink.

Sadly they haven't been so great with the shipping yet (I posted in the evaluations forum). And well, now I sit here and wait, hopefully I will have them either Tuesday or Wednesday so that I can get started on the build, and also clean up the tank!

 

[Patzig]

I'm running the 12 LED Ultra Premium non dimmable kit right now. Absolutely love it. Feel free to ask questions, this DIY project is a fragile one.

 

[slm32123]

I got the P driver with it, as well as their daylight controller. Did you go that route or the D driver?

 

[Patzig]

I got the non dimmable kit which has a 700mA constant drive.

1 Mean Well LPC-35-700W driver

 

[slm32123]

I hear that as far as wiring the LEDs up to the driver its pretty much the same for the dimmable kit as the constant drive. Do you think that is probably true?

 

[Patzig]

No, i think it will be different, especially with the dimming kit. I think rapidled has instruction and diagrams on their website though, I would definitely follow those. But the wiring between leds will be the same. (In series, Everything + - + - + -)

 

[slm32123]

That's what I meant to say. The wiring between the LEDs. Were all of your LEDs Crees? Because I have heard from a lot of people that they have sent no namers instead of all Crees.

 

[Patzig]

Hmm, I just checked and no they don't have a name printed anywhere on the LED. I'm not sure that means they aren't cree's though. I don't think rapidled would be selling cheap knock offs. All I know is I'm only running 12 right now, and in comparison to the 50/50 power compacts I was using, I am getting a million times better color out of corals, everything seems "happier" (especially clam, frogspawn, and hammer head), and I am getting faster growth from LPS corals.

 

[slm32123]

Cool cool. What do you have the 12 over?

 

[slm32123]

Do not order from rapidled. I received my order yesterday. Followed all of their instructions, testing each LED, wiring everything up like they say to. Then turned on the lights, They blinked on then off, then powered up for about 3 seconds, I hear a pop and then presto, 10 LEDs burn out!. Only 2 that are left are in the middle of the series as well. No shorts on anything. correct wire size used, etc.

 

[slm32123]

Had a friend who is an electrician bring his multimeter over so we could test with it as well as mine. And the driver by itself is out putting about 24 volts, with the voltage dial turned all the way down. When I power up the Controller, the voltage jumps to about 47. NO WONDER MY LEDS BURNT OUT, THEY SENT ME JUNK PARTS!

 

[Patzig]

I believe those voltages are right. My constant driver puts out 700mA at a max of 48 volts. If you plugged in all 12 in series, 47 volts wouldn't of blown them. Too much current could of blown them though.

 

[Patzig]

Also, did you make sure to wire the driver/controller to the LED's, then plugging the driver into the wall outlet? If you plugged in the driver to the wall first, then that blows the LED's too.

 

[slm32123]

Nope, I read that multiple places so I made sure everything was unplugged before wiring it up. Now rapid led is trying to tell me they will replace the driver since the SVR2 won't adjust anything, and I believe they are trying to tell me that they wont replace the LEDs even though they were blown due to a defective driver... Great service IMO... NOT!

Information to be passed on to the BBB, I believe so in the near future.