Ace's ATS v2.0 - LEDs

[Ace25]

Are the panels going to be right next to each other so you can make 1 long LED strip per side or do you need to have separate LED lights for each section of screen?

Just going off what I am guessing, a total of 28" long and 5" tall, I would think a single strip would work per side, 14 LEDs per side (2 LPC-35-700 drivers) or if your going to go with China LEDs you can use one Meanwell ELN-48-60 driver and put each side on a string and then wire them in series. You have to crank the meanwell driver to max (should put out at least 1300mA) so you can run each side at 650mA, which is perfect for "China" LEDs, anything that is 700mA. Cree LEDs today can be run up to 1500mA.

I have not seen any reason to not go with china LEDs to save some $. The only thing with China LEDs is their failure rate is MUCH higher than Cree/OSRAM LEDs. Out of 100 "china" LEDs, you will be very lucky if at least 10 don't burn out the first week, so order extra LEDs if you go that route.

For home/DIY style stuff, China LEDs are fine, if I were to make LED lights for other people, I wouldn't even consider using them because the headaches I would have to deal with every time an LED burns out. If I did this for someone that isn't local, I would imagine the first time it needs to be shipped back/returned for repair would completely offset the cost of the higher quality LEDs, but if you can DIY yourself and have no issues replacing LEDs, then you're fine.

So, just comes down to budget. If it were me, and the budget was there, I would go with OSRAM LEDs because they have been perfect for me. Even in very wet/humid conditions they have worked flawless since day one and going on close to a year running 12 hours per day.

Only issue I can think of is if you wanted to "experiment" with different types of LEDs. When making a "strip" type light, it doesn't really allow for much customizing of LEDs vs putting LEDs in a square pattern, but that really shouldn't be an issue because 660nm LEDs all by themselves seem to do the job just fine without getting uber fancy and adding different types of blues and reds to the mix.

Getting looong now.. but I just re-read your question again. If you really want to know what *I* would do, I would not make a long strip ATS, I would go with something more square like vs rectangle like. Then I would be fancy and add the blues (420nm and 455nm) and reds (630nm-660nm), but even I think I am crazy and over thinking it. So, there you go, 2 answers, one "what would I do in your situation" and one "what would I do in my situation".

[wgood33]

I agree that more square would be better. My cabinet is not so tall inside, maybe I can go with 12''x6" light panels for my double sided screen. I don't like maintenance or repairs, CREE for me. Should I buy 2ea of the meanwell drivers you listed? How many reds/blues for each panel and how far should I space them apart?

[mess7777]

Ace, i saw some pictures of your tank, looks great!

What skimmer are you running? Would you ever consider going without skimmer since your ATS is kickin but big time?

[Ace25]

I have a bubble magus NAC7 skimmer, but it is rarely used. I have used it maybe 3-4 days in the past year. Under normal circumstances the skimmer is not needed at all, only when I dump in 30G of phyto water or do a really good cleaning on the rocks/sandbed do I run the skimmer for a day. My other tank I have never used a skimmer on it, only an ATS with purigen and occasionally a little GFO.

[Ace25]

Just tossing out ideas.. thought of this one and sketched it up.

My idea of a HOB "Super" UAS filter. Left side is the intake for it, pump is under the box externally. There would be a surface skimmer box around the intake tube. I never thought the concept wouldn't work, just thought it was more work than the older method for people that have sumps.

Water gets pulled through the surface skimmer and the pump injects air to create the bubbles are is attached via a bulkhead, then the bubbles come out a slot in bottom that has a piece of acrylic drilled like a bubble plate inside. The slot is big enough for the screen to fit very loosely in the slot. There lid that has 2 angled pieces glued to the lid to provide a path for the bubbles to go into a collection cup but when you pull the lid off it makes it easy to reach in and pull out the screen, when the lid is on the screen is held firmly in place. There will be an exit path for the water on the right with another baffle to block bubbles. Then it will drain through a media chamber where you can put in carbon, purigen, GFO, etc, and down the bottom and back up to the return line. There will be acrylic windows and I will use 7 LEDs per side. Box dimensions are 9" wide, 8" tall, 3" deep, screen size is 6" tall x 4" wide.

I think I am going to build one in the coming weeks just for the heck of it.. should only cost me a few dollars in plastic, I have everything else to do it.









On top I would put a CPR Backpack skimmer cup with an O ring to hold it in place.

[kerry]

Thats a slick idea!!! I am fighting micro bubbles on my HOB I rigged up a couple weeks ago.

[jbowser]

nice design!

I thought that ats (or uas for that matter) and skimmers didn't work well combined on the same system? or isn't that what you are going for?
I'm also thinking about using HOB uas on my upcoming 15g, but I haven't figured out how exactly...

Jb

[kerry]

You can use a skimmer if you have fish only, with corals you should not so you dont remove the food from the water column that they would normally feed on.

[Ace25]

True, in a reef tank, a skimmer is really not needed at all. It would be much more beneficial in a Fish only system like Kerry stated. Skimmers do not compete with algae scrubbers though, bio-pellets compete with algae scrubbers. For a freshwater version you would just make the lid solid and not have a collection cup on it (since skimmers don't work for FW). If you have a fish only tank though, more than likely you are not going to want a sump, and you are not going to want multiple pieces of equipment and powerheads in the tank (1 for skimmer, 1 for media reactor, 1 for UAS), so I thought the best idea would be to combine them all and use a OTP-1000 needle wheel pump like is used on the Reef Octopus BH-1000 skimmers. Still, the protein skimmer part is just a way to get the most use of the the bubbles as possible. I am certainly not expecting that part of it to work like a $200 stand alone skimmer by any means, but even in a reef tank set to skim very low amounts, I still think skimming a little isn't going to hurt anything (when I say a little I am talking 2+ weeks to fill that little cup).

Of course all this works perfect in my head while thinking about it... how it will work in reality may be the same or could be a complete failure, I have no idea until I try it.

[SantaMonica]

I like it.