Anyone DIY LEDs in their Biocube?
 

I'm interested to see if anybody DIY'd an LED setup in their Biocubes. Also would like to hear opinions on LEDs in that tank

www.nanocustoms.com sells a kit with everything you need to put LEDs in your BC29. from all the reviews i have read everybody who has done it loves it

Did it with mine! Love it!

Just bought a BC 14 that a member did a DIY led mod in too.

Here's my 29 with 29 Cree xr-e royal blues running @ 45% and 10 Cree xp-g cool whites running @ 50%

~Frank

I've found some kits from I think it was rapidLED that were cheaper than nanotuners and seem to be the same quality. How many LEDs is enough for a BC14?

Fstar, you did the mod yourself? Where'd you buy supplies and was it overally complicated? That looks great, do you have pics of hood in the BC14 you just bought?

The Nano Tuners heat sinks are by far superior, they're custom milled and have the holes necessary to mount into the hood alreadly drilled 90% of the way through.

Far nicer though, if you do a bit of custom work with their heatsink but use a 12 LED array and use buckpucks for dimming.

Oh yeah that's true, I didn't take into account the mounting. rapidLED's stuffs not as good?

Here'e the FS thread for the 14 I just bought

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1871505

and here is the build thread for my 29G

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1840046

I have a 12 led diy on my 12 gallon nano cube and my sps has great growth and color the led's have been on the tank since may

for the most part the stuff at rapidLED is the same. they are the same LEDs, same drivers(although nanotuners has the option for dimmable drivers), same optics(although not needed for a BC29), although you dont get a heat sink from rapidLED you would have to source that elsewhere. nanotuners also has the option to upgrade the fans in your hood for even better cooling of their specially designed heat sinks that already work good with stock fans. nanotuners also bundles it up in a nice neat package that looks factory they even hide the drivers in project boxes so it all looks professional

can't get to the for sale thread but I'll check out your build thanks!

Good to know, thanks!

Are rapidled's heatsinks anygood, they're reasonably priced. I could just buy fans from rapidled too. That neat package is why they can charge a hundred bucks more haha. I build guitar effects pedals so a bit of wiring to get them dimmable and putting them in project boxes doesn't intimidate me too much hah

i dont see anything wrong with their heatsinks except that they arent very good sizes for using under the hood of the biocube. the one from nanocustoms was specially designed to fit in the biocube hood and is machined by them inhouse. they perfected the fin size, shape, and design for the best cooling possible for the biocube and it includes holes for mounting to the biocube hood and if im not mistaken it still fits under the stock plastic shield.

at the least id go with the heatsink from nanotuners if for no other reason than how easily it will go into the hood of you biocube

http://www.nanotuners.com/product_in...roducts_id=632

That's a good point, I just wish it wasn't twice as much haha

yea the price is a little high but there was tons of time in designing it so it would work perfectly in the biocube hood. it also comes predrilled(each hole is about 90% drilled which makes it a ton easier) so you will just have to drill the last 10% out in order to get the mounting holes done and the holes for the stars in too.

I did mine also and it turned out great. Here is the build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1708453