Blue's BC 14
- Thread starter blue2fyre
- Start date
What exactly did you go with?
Well there is a little bit of a story behind that. I ended up picking up someone else's DIY project and tuning it to my needs. The one I bought came with 12 LEDs, 6 CREE neutral whites and 6 CREE royal blues. I ended up using only 10 since I wanted more blues than whites. It also came with a Mean Well ELN-60-48P dimmable driver. Most everything was wired up already. I just needed to get a new heatsink and re solder the LEDs how I wanted.
I also gutted the hood of the biocube. I left the fans on but I will eventually replace them. Otherwise everything is gone.
I can't really get a good picture of the light, but it's a 4.25" x 9" heatsink and it fits perfectly!
The LEDs are arranged:
...rb w rb
w rb rb w
...rb w rb
Everything I try to take a picture without the lights on it looks odd. I guess because of the splash shield.
I also gutted the hood of the biocube. I left the fans on but I will eventually replace them. Otherwise everything is gone.
I can't really get a good picture of the light, but it's a 4.25" x 9" heatsink and it fits perfectly!
The LEDs are arranged:
...rb w rb
w rb rb w
...rb w rb
Everything I try to take a picture without the lights on it looks odd. I guess because of the splash shield.
Sounds good and looks like a good layout. I am guessing since it is the PWM driver you don't have anyway to dim it other than a variable power supply? Are you going to change the driver to the D model so you can have a knob or maybe just buy the $60 PWM controller from rapidled so you can have gradual dusk/dawn modes on the tank automatically. Are the LEDs all XP series? No optics, right? In a hood I would think optics would be bad. If you ever wanted more power out of your light you could replace the neutral whites with cool whites, they have 2x as much output.
Yeah for now I'm just working with what I have. The whole thing including the extras I had to buy ran me $80.
The LEDs I believe are all XP, no optics. I can dim these but they are all on the same driver. I would have to go a different wiring mount if I wanted blues and whites dimmed separately and I just wasn't comfortable enough with the electrical work. For now I'm very happy with it and haven't messed with the dimming. Though I wish it was a little more blue. I might end up getting a stunner strip for a bit of extra color.
The LEDs I believe are all XP, no optics. I can dim these but they are all on the same driver. I would have to go a different wiring mount if I wanted blues and whites dimmed separately and I just wasn't comfortable enough with the electrical work. For now I'm very happy with it and haven't messed with the dimming. Though I wish it was a little more blue. I might end up getting a stunner strip for a bit of extra color.
Spend a few $ later and replace 2 of the whites, one with a blue, not royal blue, and one with a cool white. $10 + shipping. That's cool you have dimming already. I would go the way you went as well for that small of a light, 1 driver. I bet now that you got 1 light built you feel a whole lot more comfortable about doing more LED work. 
Oh ya, and royal blue LEDs mess up cameras big time, there is not way to get a good picture with them. It's not your splash shield.
Oh ya, and royal blue LEDs mess up cameras big time, there is not way to get a good picture with them. It's not your splash shield.
I lost my Peppermint shrimp after about 3 months of apatisa less time for no reason... my bet is that yours is hiding while it's shell re-hardens, unless you saw the body, then my bet is off 
CUC's are indeed awesome, and you can't help but love them.
CUC's are indeed awesome, and you can't help but love them.
Ah. Well then, my bet is off. I never found the body or the shrimp (fail) so I wasn't sure it was dead until the glass nems came back.
Seriously good looking light! I know LEDs are hard to photograph but the color looks great in your pics! Love how you fit it all into the hood of the cube as well.
