Questions about purchasing a Robo-Tank DIY Aquarium Controller Kit - Printable Version +- Robo-Tank DIY Aquarium Controller Forum (https://www.robo-tank.ca/forum) +-- Forum: Robo-Tank Arduino Based - NO LONGER AVAILABLE (https://www.robo-tank.ca/forum/forum-16.html) +--- Forum: DIY Hardware Questions (https://www.robo-tank.ca/forum/forum-18.html) +--- Thread: Questions about purchasing a Robo-Tank DIY Aquarium Controller Kit (/thread-211.html) |
RE: Questions about purchasing a Robo-Tank DIY Aquarium Controller Kit - jeremyh - 02-25-2017 I emailed www.americanaquariumproducts.com and received this response: Quote:Jeremy Which is a fine response other than the reference link doesn't seem helpful. From the "Cree XLamp XB-D" link I clicked: "Documentation" > "XB-Family Binning & Labeling" if you Ctrl+F: "XB-D" the only results are 350ma. The "XB-H" on the other hand does say 700ma. Do you think it's safe to assume the "licensed version" of the XB-D simply doesn't list information publicly? I realize I'm probably looking into this more than most people might...but that's just how I am. ^^ RE: Questions about purchasing a Robo-Tank DIY Aquarium Controller Kit - Rob F - 02-26-2017 I've heard of some companies using many sites to do marketing, maybe that's what they are doing, hard to say. But it's pretty easy to do. I could open all kinds of sites that review controllers and guess who's always on the top of the list. The only good LED's I know of are from Cree and Phillips but I'm sure there's many others. When I looked up those Cree XB-D's I also only saw 350ma yet they told me the driver put out 700ma so I also questioned that, don't know if they have an unpublished LED or not. Maybe they run two strings in parallel to make the 700ma although it sounded like 1 string in my emails. I don't envy you right now, I know how difficult it can be to pick a light, I went crazy for weeks when I made mine, in the end I went with a simple design and it seems ok. :) It's easy to get overwhelmed with all the charts and specs, I guess the best way for factory made lights is user reviews. RE: Questions about purchasing a Robo-Tank DIY Aquarium Controller Kit - jeremyh - 02-26-2017 I re-evaluated which lights I wanted to get. I will try to give the short version of how I (eventually) re-decided. Starts here: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/10-lighting/1082714-par-measurements-many-lights.html downloaded: https://1drv.ms/x/s!AuHFJHCYI0pnqDP28y0dIkK9PNXu I then clicked the "Results" tab and pulled every row of information for a 24" depth (close to my aquarium setup) into a new spreadsheet. Next I created a new column "Watts/PAR" which does exactly that. EVO Quad Clip 3W Timer 6500K was the winner at about 0.4. I could not find any spectrum chart so I moved on to the next winner which was the Finnex Ray 2 at 0.8. From here all of my research was in regards to the Finnex and TMC GroBeams. Looking back at the original spreadsheet I find myself wishing I had started from a source with more variation in brands. Starting spreadsheet had these brands: Finnex, Light Your Reptiles, Zoomed, Samsung, EVO, Beamswork, and VivaGrow I pulled data for the GroBeam1000 ND and the GroBeam500 from http://www.aquarayusa.com/growbeamspecsheet.pdf. TMC has updated (better) versions of these GroBeams but I could not find spec sheets on the updated products. I pulled data for the 16" Finnex FugeRay Planted+, 36" Finnex FugeRay Planted+, 18" Ray II DS, and the 36" Ray II DS from http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/145-finnex/189944-finnex-ray-ii-fugeray-par-data.html. To my surprise Finnex had a very nice spectrum graph...it appears to extremely similar to the GroBeams spectrum graph. This is very important as I plan on having a heavily planted tank. I have been told by American Aquarium Products that I should have 4 GroBeam 600s for a 55 gallon aquarium. Based on spec sheet that is 224 PAR (at 16" depth) I went on to figure out how many of each product I would need to get as close to 224 PAR as possible. I then pulled prices from Amazon and American Aquarium Products. At this point I used an old spreadsheet to graph costs of the various systems in terms of initial cost and electricity costs. Graphs show 12 month and a 121 month costs. Graph assumes lights are on 100% for 10 hours a day, that there are 30 days in every month, wattage cost were calculated with this formula: Cost of operation per month = (Watts x .001) x (rate/kWh) x (hours used per month) (https://www9.nationalgridus.com/niagaramohawk/non_html/eff_costappliance.pdf) at a rate of 9.4 cents/kWh (http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/10/27/141766341/the-price-of-electricity-in-your-state, Oregon) [attachment=239] [attachment=240] RE: Questions about purchasing a Robo-Tank DIY Aquarium Controller Kit - Rob F - 02-26-2017 Nice, based on that it looks like the Growbeams win. :) Interesting how the 2 different size rays cost is close but the fuge has a big cost difference. |