My 125 Gallon LED Reef Peninsula tank build

[mccorry]

Well, I ran out of space in my existing tank and decided to go bigger.  The wife and I have decided to install a 125 gallon tank in our front living room.  Her stipulations is that it must be a clean installation and quiet.

I've decided to build my own LED fixture for this tank and received the parts this week.....  which consist of:

1 - 72" Makers LED heat sink
5 - 75 /700 mA Invetronics dimmable drivers
1 - DIM 4 Sunrise / Sunset controller
27 - 3UP LED stars (containing 1x CREE XT-E Warm (4500K) 3W LED and 2x CREE XT-E 3W Royal Blue (455 nm) LED's each)
3 - Royal Blue (455 nm) CREE XT-E 3W LED's (Moonlights)
12 - Ocean Coral White LED's (containing 1x 3W Deep red LED, 1x 3W Teal LED, and 1x 3W Green LED)
12 - True Violet (405 nm) 3W LED's
12 - Pure Violet (430 nm) 3W LED's
1 - 4-pot dimmer for individual color control

Other equipment I've picked up include CPR 1000 GPM overflow, Danner Mag-12 Return Pump, and Digital Aquatics ReefKeeper Elite with extra PC4 modules.

I'm going to try and document the build of the fixture and tank in this thread in hopes that you all get some enjoyment out of it and so that I might learn a few pointers from you all, along the way...

So... here we go....

[chromiumlux]

Nice! Look forward to seeing this light in operation

[mccorry]

Some photos of the new MakersLED Heat Sink....

[mccorry]

Some pictures of the LED's I'll be using.....




3UP CREE's (1 white + 2 royal blue)


Ocean Coral White (1 deep red, 1 turquoise, and 1 green)


Royal Blue CREE's (moonlights)


True and Pure Violets



Getting everything sorted and tinned for soldering.....

[itsalifestyle]

Looks like a good start

[mccorry]

Made some progress this weekend....

Laying out the LED's


Heat Sink T-Channels for mounting LED's


LED's Mounted


Drivers and Controllers - starting wiring prior to board mounting....


Testing Moonlights via DIM4 controller

[chromiumlux]

That is gonna be one helluva light!

[mccorry]

Finished up the driver board and wiring tonight.....

Driver Board cut and painted....


Drivers and Controller mounted....


D-Sub connections to LED's, Dimmer POT's, and Fans.... note my "helpers in the background.   

[joncat24]

Awesome work so far, looking forward to seeing the rest of this one!!

[mccorry]

Well... finally got to wiring the rest of the fixture over the past two days.  Still need to install my 4-pot dimmer box, the fans, and the D-Sub connection ports.
Some updated pictures...

Neutral Whites



Royal Blues



Ocean Coral Whites



Violets



All LED's wired up....

[Twizted1]

Holly smokes man. That looks great. All that for a 125?

[lazylivin]

That looks great. Very professional looking. Nice job!

[mccorry]

Thanks.

Waiting for some D-Sub HD15 straight through cables to show up to hook up the power board to the fixture. Still need to mount and wire up the two fans and 4 POT dimmers.

[Myreef55]

How much $ do you have in a fixture like that?

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2

[mccorry]

About $1,400 including heat sink, drivers, LED's, controller, dimmer box and POT's.  Sounds like a lot until you compare it to a commercial fixture which would be 2-3 times as much.

[mccorry]

Just some updated photos....

Working on wiring the Dimmer box.... ended up screwing up the POT's... so I'm waiting for more to show up....


Fans and dimmer box mock up before mounting


Finished fixture connections - two HD15's using straight through cables


Cabinet nearing completion...


Testing the Sunrise / Sunset controller for each channel to debug the wiring


New tank is here!

[Myreef55]

Very nice! This a very good looking build.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk 2

[3G Scott GT]

Looks awesome. Can't wait to see the readings you get when you're done with it.

[itsalifestyle]

Looks great

[mccorry]

Thank you.   

Moved the stand into position yesterday and mounted the driver board and some of the new ReefKeeper Elite modules.
Also picked up two new Ehiem Jager 250W heaters and a AquaEuroUSA 135 skimmer.

I'll try to get some updated pictures soon.

[mccorry]

Just some updated pictures....
 
Tanks everywhere!  I really need to start consolidating some of my projects... :lol:


Dimmer box finished up


All LED's are lit!  I've got a little problem with my Sunrise / Sunset controller I need to figure out.  Channel 3 which controls my Ocean Whites and Violets/UV's keeps Overloading at any voltage setting over 5.7 Volts.  Not sure why as of yet....


Mounting Components in stand


Stand in place


Mocking up sump for baffle placement

[mccorry]

Got around to installing the bubble trap baffles in the sump....

Baffles are in....


Sump is ready....

[lazylivin]

Looks really good, quality build. On your sump is your first baffle to tall and the last one in your return pump section to low?

[mccorry]

The first one is set for 16" to keep my heaters submerged....
I plant to have live rock/refugium between the skimmer and return pump... that is the reason for the short barrier.... to keep the stuff from getting pulled into my pump.

[lazylivin]

On the first baffle the water will travel to the top of weir and come crashing down to the water level in the next weir. It may be noisy, cause salt creep and could cause what they are for eliminating, bubbles which will be forced due to velocity into the sump area. Due to the low height on the last baffle the pump will be able to pull all the water that is above it from the sump section into the tank. There is risk that if you have a clog in your hose from the tank to the sump it will overflow the tank. If the baffle was the same height as the water level in the sump it could only pull the water that is in it's chamber. Just some things to think about.