Ive been interested in upgrading my shrimp rack lights to some of there LED but there so many different ones lol.

Which fixture exactly is this one? I get so confused looking through all there different models.

What plants to you grow in this tank???

 

LED 30" 0.5W 6500K Freshwater Plant Bright LED by Beamworks 4th Generation
110 x 0.5w LEDs.

4 horizontal 23w CfLs

Beamswork 110x0.5w LED

This shows my previous hood. It has 2 x 5000k and 2 x 6500k cfls.

Adjusted camera so you could see the lights

Night lights

 

Are you saying you want to stick some flex strip directly on that fixture? I have been thinking about doing this, but with finnex planted+ along with flex strip current-usa LED+ freshwater.
I was considering the beamworks too tho but opted for more colors with finnex... I haven't bought any fixture yet as I am concerned the strips might peel off because of heat or whatever...
hmm

 

Yes, I am going to try that. I'll post the results if/when my package makes across the ocean.


On a side note. I am a little worried that the adhesive on the light strips might pull off the black protective coating on the board if I decide to take them off. I'm trying to think of a way to minimize this.

 

I am a huge fan of Beamswork LED's. A few months ago I upgraded my 40 breeder to 2 of the .5w 6500k units and couldn't be happier. About a month or so ago I replaced 3 13watt CFL brooder lamps on my 20 long with a 30" .5w 6500k Beamswork also very happy with the results so far.

You must have a different model than I have though, pretty sure all three of my BW fixtures have just 3 long rows of LEDs. They work great, and very cost effective. I don't use the "night lighting" for all night but I switch mine to low light mode at night so when they come on in the morning (before sunrise) the fish don't get blasted with light.

 

Where is this .5 watt led fixture you speak of? I can't find the 30" version of it on the website!!!

 

It's listed under their "pent 0.2w" section.. But it has 0.5 w leds.

 

Ahhhh ok good. Thanks man. Ordering now! Love me some beamswork. Cheap and quite effective.

 

While we're on the beamswork topic...anyone use their RGB pink light fixture? I'm quite interested in it but I want to see a pic of it in use first.

 

It works. Better than my 4 cfls. Even when the cfls were new I did not see the kind of pearling I see now.

The dwarf sag. in this picture is rooted 18" below the water line, which is 1" below the light. And the dwarf sag. is 3-4" tall. There is a barrage of pearls coming out once they get going.

I have ordered a variety of plants and hope that shed some light on the PAR of this unit.

 

Could you post a pic of the fixture showing where you placed the led strip. I'm very interested in this. Also, what kind of led strip did you use?

 

The light in the posts above is only the Beamswork. I have not added the additional strips yet. They are in transit from China. The RGBs I plan to use are the 5050 strips. I also ordered a strip of 5630 cool whites.

Things I don't know:
If it will get "too" hot with the additional leds.
If the 5050 RGBs have enough power to make a difference.
And a bunch of other stuff...

 

Ahhhh ok. I thought you already added on the strips. Are these the strips on evilbay I keep seeing? I'm so torn between the 50/50, 5630, and 3528. I'm curious to see how you make out with the leds you ordered.

 

Does Beamswork have a website? where can I find what they make? I've only seen them on evilbay and amazon. I have two of the 300 lumen 18 inch lights and I really like them.

 

They kind of have a site. If you look in the description of one of their evilbay listings you will be able to look through their "site" if you scroll down far enough.

EDIT!!!

Don't listen to me!!! This is how to get to the e sellers "site"...

Beamswork has there own site. It's a few posts away..

 

I just got one of my LED+ freshwater flex strip from ebay and I think I may understand why they call it evilbay.. the strip is making a horrid high freq noise on certain settings... is that normal?
you know, it's one of those high pitch noise only certain people and dogs apparently can hear? Well I can hear it and it's unbearable.

I tryed other normal dx.com LED strips and none make noise like that!

 

I have a 36 inch beamworks 3rd gen at 7800 lumen, the driver went bad within 3 weeks, the seller replaced it with a green element driver which works much better, but yeah I found out quickly without co2 this is not the light to use and not have BBA, well I could only run it for 8 hours and only 2 hours on the high setting. so yeah I have a nice 3 inch light thats is bright as hell and no home for it........unless I decide to go hi-tech co2 tank

 

TopDogSellers agreed to my offer on E---bay and I finally have two of these 30" 110x0.5w fixtures on the way. Trying to cut down on my T5HO wattage. 112w replacing 192w.

 

If you don't mind me asking...what was your offer?

 

I received my two 30" Beamswork 110x0.5 LED fixtures today. It is an excellent fixture with brightness on par with that of an Odyssea 30" Quad T5HO fixture. The side screw holes easily accommodated fish hooks:

I love that the power usage is nearly half of what the Quad T5HO fixture is, but the versatility of adding a red bulb is hard to ignore. Colors stand out more with the addition of red; greens are more green etc. I think plants will grow just fine, it's more of the aesthetics for me.

Quad T5HO Fixture with 3x6500k and 1x5000k

110x0.5 LED Fixture (Glosso looks yellow and washed out compared to the previous photo)

This fixture comes with two modes. 16 LED mode or 110 LED mode.
I wish they would have added 16 red LEDS instead of white for the first mode. The first mode would have been far more useful that way as red is pretty nice for a dusk and dawn effect.

Either way, I will use both fixtures on my upcoming tanks that I plan on doing this summer.

 

Maybe you could get creative w/ those 16...

 

Yea, that's my sticker. Under that it says Ch1. Ch2. etc. I started a new thread on the timer/dimmer unit in the DIY section.

If someone really wanted to they could substitute a few white 5630s for red 5630s. Or just buy a short strip of reds.

If I ever get my water clear again i will post some pics.

Btw. The additional white led strips were added for color and not to increase intensity.

peace,

 

I decided to go with an RGB strip of 5050's to add a little bit of color. This fixture is growing glosso quickly, and far faster than my T5HO. Hopefully the 5050 strip will give me enough color.

 

The 5050s worked well. 4 strips is more than enough to turn the tank blood red.

 

Nice. Video demo!

How much heat is generated when all strips and fixture are running simultaneously compared to the fixture alone?


Here is what I will be doing: two strips for back lighting behind tank against foam board and 3 inside fixture. I'm a little worried about heat.

 

With everything running full power it gets hot. Not so hot that you can't keep your hand on it for a little while but I would not call it warm. However it is way too bright. With all the lights dimmed just a bit like 90% duty cycle it is Luke warms and brighter than normal.

However,

I am no longer using the 15v 6A power supply that came with the Beamswork. I am using a 12V 10A supply and I still don't run them all full power except 2 hours a day. Most of the time the light is cool to the touch with sufficient lighting.

I may move back to the 15v but I have not calculated the full load of all the lights and the dimmer. Because I am running everything off one power supply.

 

However,

I am no longer using the 15v 6A power supply that came with the Beamswork. I am using a 12V 10A supply and I still don't run them all full power except 2 hours a day. Most of the time the light is cool to the touch with sufficient lighting.

I may move back to the 15v but I have not calculated the full load of all the lights and the dimmer. Because I am running everything off one power supply.

so are you saying you changed the Beamswork PS and now run it off the same ps as for the controller..?

and you can now dim the beamswork??

what about the white strips.. you got a lot going on and some things aren't quite clear..

 

I wired my lights to the fixture. 4 strips of 5050 RGB's ended up being perfect for me.

pictures of fixture:

I also finished my back lighting. I still need to apply foam board and frosted tint

pictures of back lighting:

 

I love that back light.. Please post pics when you finish.

What is behind your tank now?

 

Only a wall behind the tank now. the frosted film should be here tomorrow. will post pics when finished.

Thanks again for starting this thread. I wouldn't own this fixture, and I wouldn't have tried strip lighting if not for this thread.

 

Received my foam board and frosted film.


Pictures:

Frosted film applied on glass and foam board angled to diffuse light, hide wires, hide the HOB and to stop light from escaping and flooding the ceiling. I only want the light shown in my tank and not all over the walls.

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYAG3jDlLk0&feature=youtu.be

 

That's Awesome. I like it.


I may do that one day.

 

Just some pics of the unit in action

 

This light is very bright and intense for $45. MUCH brighter than anything you'll find at Petsmart, and much more intense over the Finnex and Current. Looks great.

I can't wait to get the RGB in, and the controller. That controller is very cheap for what it can do.

Could you provide a somewhat easy step by step into removing the original power cord, which 8 strand wire you used, which power supply, which connectors on the strips, where the Beamswork original led channel strand is, etc. I don't wan't to blindly wreck the light or worse.

I have created my own DIY LED light for my reef before, so I can grasp most of the wiring once provided.

 

His unit has the .5W SMD LED's not the 1W (3W) that yours has. The boards and design are different..

AS to adding strips.. it would be a separate circuit (at this point) and only those would be dimmable..

Verdict is open about "modding" your style but there is nothing wrong w/ "adding" LED strips...