LED's on an open-top.

Haha, you're hurtin' your head thinking so hard! Do you have or know what color LED pendants you are going with? That'll determine what color you will supplement with. If it's only moonlighting, then use all royal blue. If you go with the small DIY kit, you can run it all day to bring out a little more blue, then turn it down at night.

(BTW, I didn't say EXPENSIVE ATO). I was just referring to the fact that an open top tank will evaporate A LOT of water, especially in winter. I replace nearly 3 gallons of water per day in my 125 reef. The FOWLR system has closed tops and about 500 gallons of water total, and needs less than 1/2 gallon per day.

 

Thanks.

 

Yes, my head is hurting! lol I think my problem is I am trying to get the lighting that is best for corals, & still look like, what I think, the water/light would look like at night(more of a white-ish).

My daylights will be 3 Boost LED 3w(= to 10w ea.) pendants. I was thinking of having 2 bulbs be 3royal blue/2cool white & the center bulb will be 4royal blue & 1 cool white diodes.(These bulbs appear to wash out the overall look of the tank, so I'm trying to balance that by adding a bit more blue in the daylight bulbs).

I know you didn't say expensive ATO. I was just generalizing that most ATOs are expensive, but they don't have to be.

 

sry for any confusion seano i was driving back from snowboarding and trying to type on my phone at the same time lol what i meant to say was I love Night-rida's Diy and think you should do it I would however definitely ask him how much u would be able to dial down those cree's just to make sure u can get them low enough for a moon light ;D am i makin a lil more sense or do i needa get sum sleep

 

Your makin' sense now. As far as I am aware of, a dimmer can dim all the way down to turning lights off. Wouldn't that be the same way with this dimmer?

Night-rida didn't use a dimmer on his.

 

Your tank rocks man. You have done a great job with it.

 

You know the actual tank picture isn't his, right?

No, but you can piece together your own kit, as I see you have:

You're missing a walwort for your dimming power source. I believe Rapid is selling a 9V along with the 10k pot in the same section you found the 10k pot. Also, as someone else stated, this isn't a build for the faint of heart. You have to solder. A lot. If you've never soldered anything before, this probably isn't the thing to learn on. Also, your picture is incorrect. That's running multiple strings off one driver. You don't want to do that, unless you really know what you're doing and have the proper protection circuitry in place.

This is also correct for the ELN-60-48D. You'll need two more LEDs.

But, I feel like this has run a bit amuck. If you're truly just after moonlighting and not color supplimation as well during "daytime", keep it simple an use the good old R2's: R2 Solutions Lighting Supplies for Saltwater & Reef Aquariums

 

haha. My tank is the white, one...just the simple Google Sketchup rendering. The reef in the above picture belongs to Yellow Belly. He added the other pictures too, to give me a better idea of his lighting set-up.

That's the thing...it won't be just for moonlights. I want to supplement my daylights, as the bulbs tend to make the colors in the tank looked washed out. I also want to simulate real sun & moon lighting, while getting the best coral growth. I think the dimmer would help it seem more natural, as the lights would fade.

 

If I may, see page 6 of my thread for a better diagram (attached on post #53): http://www.3reef.com/forums/i-made/diy-dimmable-rapidled-kit-converting-mhs-96138-6.html#post1003599

You simply cannot overdrive a single string if the internal current pot inside the driver is adjusted properly and if you are using an inline fuse.

However, if you use multiple stings and something happens to one LED, all strings are fried.

 

Blackraven, Rapid doesn't sell a 9v adapter, but only a 12v.

Evolve, I checked out your build. Let me see if I can find on Rapid's website, where I saw the layout I am talking about & why I thought what I did(or do?)