Modifying Red Sea Max 250 lighting

[Andy265]

Hi All

I am in the process of modifying as i go along a Red sea max 250 marine tank that i got cheap, it is fully planted, dosing easy carbo, and currently has x4 21w T5 tubes and x2 T5 blue tubes, the hood itself houses fans that suck air in over the tubes and blows it out and incorporates a built in timer that switches off the main lights and turns on the moon blue leds, i have already modified the poor blue moon leds, but would like to replace the T5 tubes with LED and possibly remove the fans from the hood.
I made an attempt to replace with LED strip but it was way to dark to reach the bottom of the tank, I want to keep the hood so any fitting or mod would need to be done in the current lighting aperture, the hood wiring is quite involved and has x3 ballasts and switching relays so has a 12 vdc control voltage and 240 ac supplies that can be used for wiring in any other fitting.

Have been toying with either getting a couple of cheap 30w flood lights or getting the COB chips with built in drivers,

Am after any advice or ideas really, have attached a couple of photos of when i had the hood apart to give some idea of what i have to play with.

 

[soggybongo]

you could mod the lid and fit with 2x chihiros aquasky 36cm. Can't fault these lights for the price. You could go for 45cm if you want more coverage. you can also add a remote dimmer but they do come with an inline dimmer as standard.

https://www.co2supermarket.co.uk/ch...MI6vvrl_3P3AIVDbTtCh3I2w0ZEAAYASAAEgLHQPD_BwE

 

[Andy265]

I have been looking at those lights after having a nose on this forum, would they be bright enough to cover the tank top to bottom ? as they could be wired into the existing supply voltage so i can still use the original timer and moon lights in the hood.

 

[soggybongo]

i have mine on about 40% at the moment, i say this as there are 7 levels to ramp up the light intensity and mine is on the 3rd so give and take 40% ish. They really do pump out what looks like alot of light and all my plants are really happy inc my hc carpet.
you can see the mod i did on my hood and the light in question along with happy plants. your tank being deeper might require a couple of notches up to get a decent par at bottom of tank.
https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/four-stone-modified-fluval-flex-57.53716/

 

[alto]

From Red Sea

960 x 552 x 665 mm

Sounds a nice size tank & quality

I doubt you’ll be happy with cheap LED lighting - which is generally composed of a multitude of low watt/intensity LEDs
eg, 0.1 watt - 0.3watt and no internal reflectors/lens etc
Unless you’re planning on low light plants

Instead look for Kessil style lighting with dense matrix cluster LED of high wattage and intensity AND optimized internal reflectors & lens technology


I suspect Twinstar type lights would work if you’re not wanting to grow HC & Elatine hydropiper carpets


What do you not like about the T5s?

 

[Andy265]

The T5s give off a good light but also give off a large amount of heat so fans are always on for the hood and the water cooling fan, the tank temp can jump around a bit too haven't seen the heater come on since I bought it, LED would give off the nice shimmer effect and run cooler and quieter without the need for fans, but due to the depth of the tank need a bright light don't want to run without the hood and hang lights as have already lost 10 amano shrimp after they climbed out of the tank and into the sump in the back guess they couldn't resist free food and no fish to worry them !

 

[alto]

All good reasons to ditch the T5s but realize that LED also get very hot and require fan cooling or heat sinks ... you don’t seem many (any?) high light LED situated inside proprietary hoods

What are your plant/aquascape goals?

 

[Andy265]

The tank is pretty much planted now as per my photos in the new members section, didn't know a lot about the plants I put in as new to it all but I believe they are all low light / easy plants, the plants seem to be doing well with the light at present and I am dosing easy carbo the algea is a bit up and down but think that has more to do with the amount of light, may go down the route of co2 injection in the future

 

[Edvet]

Why not just use 2 T5''s? Should be good enough, maybe even one is enough.

 

[zozo]

How tall is the tank? What are the plans? Low energy or CO²..

About 3 years ago i builded me a light with 4 of these ridgid led strips for a small High energy tank that is 30 cm tall. But it was an open top with a hanging light 40 cm above it. So it had about 50 cm to hit the substrate and it grew a high energy carpet with easy and still had to dim it.

Anyway

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/5pc...-2-chips-18W-M-8520-LED-Hard/32373288003.html

These are pretty strong with 65 lumen per chip and stay relatively cool. also are pretty affordable and pretty durable. Come in 50 cm lenght with 36 chips per lenght, complete with alu profile, end caps and cover. So would be off the shelff easy to mount into a hood.. WIth a price of less than $ 40 for a lot of 10 strips yo can't loose much. And are cheaply replaced again when needed. There are not many around with this performance for that price.

They can be dimmed with a PWM controller and driven with a regular DC 12 volt constant voltage PSU. Pretty straight foreward. Can be connected in serie. Are 9 watt each, thus driving 10 pieces would need a 100 watt PSU. I have driven them for years with a simple old 250 Watt PSU from a discarded desktop computer ready to be scrapped.

Or get a IP67 to mount into the hood.
https://www.banggood.com/search/ip67-led-driver-power-supply.html?sbc=1

Just an idea, as said i have no experience with this on very tall tanks.. Ran it on a small tank but with the light hanging pretty high above the tank.
I'm confident it's definitively enough for a descently large low energy setup. Regarding quality i can only say, the first strips still burn today, only not above my tank. I gave it away to a friend..

 

[Andy265]

Thanks for all the suggestions has given me plenty to look into, like the idea of the rigid LED strips and the chihiros lights as they will give me the option to slightly modify the hood for my purposes but still with the option to go back to the T5s if ever go back to marine. Would prefer to keep the cost down "short arms and deep pockets" ! but knowing what i am like, will end up going CO2 injection and more advanced plants then have to change the lighting again lol. Am working nights for the next couple of weeks so think i have myself an evening project

 

[Andy265]

Hi all
Just a quick update, after financial constraints came in decided to go with X2 50w led floods wired in to work with the 12v control circuit so I can still use the inbuilt timer and whilst I had it apart put in some moon light led so I can lower the lighting cycle but still enjoy the fish.Anyone wanting to use floodlights please make note that when mounted quite low they don't spread the light and give a more spotlight throw of light as can be seen in the photo, still have the fans on in the hood but blows cold air out now and have seen the water temp drop a couple of degrees too so now the heaters can do their job and maintain the temp better, just need to sort the algea issues the high lighting T5s have left me with in the tank.