1 Cubic Foot Reef
Printed From: Utah Reefs
Category: Main
Forum Name: Tank Threads
Forum Description: A place to show off your tank build.
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=46344
Printed Date: April 19 2024 at 8:56am
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Topic: 1 Cubic Foot Reef
Posted By: Lurkerz
Subject: 1 Cubic Foot Reef
Date Posted: January 26 2011 at 7:40pm
My new desktop 1 cubic foot rimless lit with a Par38 LED   Rock stack   |
Replies:
Posted By: Lewy
Date Posted: January 26 2011 at 7:50pm
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Nicely done!!! ------------- 40 gal w/ 20 sump |
Posted By: Adam Blundell
Date Posted: January 26 2011 at 8:04pm
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Way cool! Adam ------------- Come to a meeting, they�re fun! |
Posted By: Chris Scott
Date Posted: January 28 2011 at 7:43pm
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yea pretty sweet! how many gallons is that? ------------- 55g Bowfront Corner Reef |
Posted By: nanoman
Date Posted: February 01 2011 at 2:29pm
| im guessing 7 to 8 |
Posted By: Lurkerz
Date Posted: February 01 2011 at 2:33pm
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Thanks It is 7.5 gal 12"x12"x12"
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Posted By: Ryan Thompson
Date Posted: February 10 2011 at 9:05am
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How did you hang the light over the tank? I was told that putting a PAR38 bulb in a housing like that will void any warranty. The bulbs need to be completely open because they produce quite a bit of heat.
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Posted By: vadryn
Date Posted: February 10 2011 at 9:36am
I thought a major point of LED was to eliminate a lot of heat.  Why would an LED light be made to double as a heat source?
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Posted By: Ryan Thompson
Date Posted: February 10 2011 at 9:48am
A watt is a watt and all energy creates heat. 400 watts of LED will create the same heat as 400w of MH. That is physics. The difference will be that the 400w of LED heat is spread out over a large area. The MH will be from a single, smaller area. The PAR38 bulbs range in wattage but they have been designed with a heat sink to help shed heat away from them. Heat kills LED's more than anything else. Enclosing the bulbs does not allow the heat sink to work properly. I know that if you talk to Nano Customs, Rapid LED, Boost LED or any other manufacture of the PAR bulbs, they will all tell you that the bulbs need to be open to the air and well ventilated or warranty will not be honored. The reason you can create less heat is because you can use less wattage to light a tank. For example, if you have been running a 150w MH over a 20 gallon you can probably get away with two PAR bulbs. Thus you would be using around 40w now instead of 150w. You would lose 110w of heat being produced.
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vadryn wrote:Posted By: vadryn
Date Posted: February 10 2011 at 9:54am
| So are we being fed a line with LED lights? Why would anyone pay for LED when the wattage to produce light is the same, the heat is the same... ?? If having LED doesn't require less power (watts/heat) to produce light like we are told, then what's the point? |
Posted By: Ryan Thompson
Date Posted: February 10 2011 at 9:58am
I don't think you are understanding this. If you had 150w of LED you are more than likely running 50 - 3w LED's. That is enough to cover a pretty good sized tank. Try to cover that same tank with a single 150w MH and get the same PAR levels or same spread. NOT POSSIBLE. You would have to use two if not three of the 150w MH. Therefore with LED you half used at least half the power to light the tank. LED's save you a ton of money when it comes to the electric bill.
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Posted By: vadryn
Date Posted: February 10 2011 at 10:03am
| Are we still talking about the 7.5 gallon, 1 cubic foot tank? 400w of LED over that? 500w you mentioned... ?? Where did these numbers come from? What's acutally being run over this tank? Maybe if we get back to apples=apples this wouldn't be so misleading. |
Posted By: Ryan Thompson
Date Posted: February 10 2011 at 10:06am
He is running anywhere between 15 to 21w, would be my guess. It is a PAR38 bulb. I simply made up some numbers to show that a watt is a watt. LED's don't break the laws of physics. It doesn't matter if we are talking about 1 watt, 20 watts or 1,000,000 watts. ALL WATTS ARE CREATED EQUAL. 20 watts from T5 creates X amount of light. 20 watts from Metal Halide creates X amount of light. That amount of light will NOT be the same even though both have used the same wattage.
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Posted By: Lurkerz
Date Posted: February 10 2011 at 10:08am
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The light fixture is hanging from a swag hook. and that particular housing has a 1 inch clearance all around the bulb and ventholes at the top. I was told this would be sufficient for the bulb. I can touch the heatsink on the bulb. It is very warm but not hot. Time will tell I guess if it works or not. |
Posted By: Ryan Thompson
Date Posted: February 10 2011 at 10:11am
Thank you! You can't tell in the pics so I thought I would ask. I just remember reading on Nano Reef where a company wouldn't honor warranty because the guy enclosed his bulb. The heat killed the bulb pretty quick and he tried blaming the company for a faulty product. When they showed him his OWN pictures he had no one to blame but himself. I am really just interested in how you hung the light. I am getting a little tank like yours and am trying to figure out how to mount the dang bulb!
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Posted By: Lurkerz
Date Posted: February 10 2011 at 11:07am
| It is a clamp on fixture from HD that I put small S hooks into the vent holes then attached them to some black decorative chain the chain is hung by a swag hook and the cord running up the chain. I figured this way I could raise and lower the light with ease. |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: February 10 2011 at 11:55am
Wattage is the amount of electricity power being used by the item( volts x amps). It has absolutely nothing to do with light output, except it is useful when comparing identical light bulbs. That's why saying you have X number of watts per gallon is a useless measure. LED's produce more light and less heat than other light sources using the same amount of power/watts. PC lights are next best and MH are the worst as far as giving off a ton of heat for the amount of light produced. ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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Posted By: bfessler
Date Posted: February 10 2011 at 12:17pm
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The new High Power LED's actually produce quite a bit of heat although not as much as MH. Even running at 50% power the heat-sink on Fu's tank is almost too hot to touch. The difference is that the heat is radiated up into the base as opposed to down and into the tank. That's why it's important to have an adequate heat sink and cooling fans when running High Power LED's otherwise they will fail prematurely.
The nice thing about LED's is that as long as the heat isn't trapped in the hood very little is radiated into the tank as it is absorbed by the heat-sink and dissipated by the cooling fans. ------------- Burt An equal opportunity reefer, I support all hobbyists and organizations involved in Marine Aquarium Keeping. [email protected] |
Posted By: Ryan Thompson
Date Posted: February 10 2011 at 3:46pm
Actually mark you are incorrect. All energy creates heat. A watt is a watt. The reason people think that PC and T5 don't produce as much heat as MH is because you can't "feel" it. When running a 150w halide you have 150w crammed in a tiny space. Get a T5 tube and make it 3-4 inches then cram 150w through it. Trust me it will get hot. All energy creates heat. It just depends on how that heat is taken care of. I am not a scientist nor can I prove with formulas what I'm talking about but I've read more than enough threads and papers about the subject. There was a time when I believed like you that all watts weren't equal. A 50w heater will add just as much heat as a 50w internal pump. Enough hijacking though of lurkerz thread. We can continue this elsewhere if you like. Great tank Lurkerz! I hope to have mine set up within 60 days. Your light hanging idea has given me some ideas. |
Posted By: Ryan Thompson
Date Posted: February 10 2011 at 3:47pm
Actually mark you are incorrect. All energy creates heat. A watt is a watt. The reason people think that PC and T5 don't produce as much heat as MH is because you can't "feel" it. When running a 150w halide you have 150w crammed in a tiny space. Get a T5 tube and make it 3-4 inches then cram 150w through it. Trust me it will get hot. All energy creates heat. It just depends on how that heat is taken care of. I am not a scientist nor can I prove with formulas what I'm talking about but I've read more than enough threads and papers about the subject. There was a time when I believed like you that all watts weren't equal. A 50w heater will add just as much heat as a 50w internal pump. Enough hijacking though of lurkerz thread. We can continue this elsewhere if you like. Great tank Lurkerz! I hope to have mine set up within 60 days. Your light hanging idea has given me some ideas. |
Posted By: Adam Blundell
Date Posted: February 10 2011 at 4:34pm
I agree we shouldn't hijack the thread here but come on we got to get this right... Mark is absolutely correct. A 50 watt pump won't heat the water anywhere near as much as a 50 watt heater. That's crazy talk Ryan. The item uses 50 watts.... but it can dissipate that energy in many different forms. It can be transfered into heat, light, sound, etc. Some lights are very efficient and convert a lot of energy into light, with little given off as heat of sound. Such as led. Some give off less light but produce more heat. Such as pc. Some give off even less light and even more heat, such as incandescent. And then there are some lights that are absolutely inefficient. They give off nearly no light, but a lot of heat. We call them heaters and we stick them in the sumps. When you spin a top on a table you give the top energy. It eventually stops spinning because it has released it's energy. Either into motion (transfered to the surrounding air), into heat, into sound, or into something. Add up all that energy and it equals the energy you used to spin it.... regardless of how much energy was dissipated into each part. Adam ------------- Come to a meeting, they�re fun! |
Posted By: Ryan Thompson
Date Posted: February 10 2011 at 5:17pm
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Adam that was my thought and argument as well. One guy showed how even sound turns into heat though because of friction. But this is one of those debates that will never end. Just search google and see how many things pop up. |
Posted By: Adam Blundell
Date Posted: February 10 2011 at 6:08pm
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Trust me on this. Lots of subjects where I am lost. Physics isn't one of them. Adam ------------- Come to a meeting, they�re fun! |
Posted By: SGH360
Date Posted: February 10 2011 at 6:11pm
| I dont know why this turn into a debate. This guy is just trying to show off its 1 cubic feet aquarium which is pretty cool. |
Posted By: jacobse1
Date Posted: February 26 2011 at 11:07pm
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Please keep updating the post. I'm starting a 1.5' x1.5' tank, as my first LED powered nano. Any pearls that you have are appreciated. PS: Adam is absolutely correct. ------------- 125 g reef |
Posted By: Jeremyw
Date Posted: March 15 2011 at 12:43pm
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Just wondering how this is going? Any updates? New pictures? ------------- Next meeting: |
Posted By: BobC63
Date Posted: March 15 2011 at 12:50pm
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Lurkerz -
How about any update?
We want to see more of this sweet setup  ------------- - My Current Tank: 65g Starfire (sitting empty for 2+ years) - * Marine & Reef tanks since 1977 * |
Posted By: Lurkerz
Date Posted: December 06 2011 at 8:04pm
Almost one year in I thought I'd post an update.          And this cool little hitch hiker that grew from nothing  |
Posted By: Thorn
Date Posted: December 06 2011 at 8:35pm
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Looks great! Without raising the prior debate on watts/power, I'd like to know your experience with the PAR38 bulb. Are you using the same one? How did the coral react to it? Would you use the same bulb again? ------------- 40 Gal. Breeder - 20 L refug/sump |
Posted By: Lurkerz
Date Posted: December 06 2011 at 8:56pm
| I am using the same bulb. The coral seems to really like it. I love the colors. and would buy it again for sure. |
Posted By: meterman
Date Posted: December 10 2011 at 1:55pm
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Just curious, what is your maintenance routine on this setup? I don't see a skimmer or refugium in the pics, but I do see some macro. Water type, changes? Are you still just using the HOB and the power head for movement? Do you run carbon or other media? ------------- Alex |
Posted By: Lurkerz
Date Posted: December 10 2011 at 7:24pm
Posted By: Lurkerz
Date Posted: December 11 2011 at 8:44am
| I do about a 2.5 gal water change every other week. Add a bit of buffer on the off week. the only filtration is the HOB it has carbon and phosban in it changed once a month. I top off about a pint daily. one thing the only fish in it is a small clown goby. It seems to be a pretty stable system so far. all corals have good growth. nothing real speedy but steady. The only thing that has suffered is Zoas they don't seem to like it much in there. |