New user hardware questions

[Lionofish]

Hi everyone,

I am in the process of setting up a new tank and want to get a reef angel to control everything. I'd like to make sure I plan this properly and get the right hardware for what I need. What I need the RA to do is:

Standard stuff (ph, temp w/ 2 heaters, ato with a reservoir and aqualifter pump)
Wifi
Control 2 jebao wp25s
Control my diy leds from aquastyle

For my leds I am planning 2 heatsinks being run by 4 ELN-60-48P drivers. So what I'm wondering is do I need 4 led cables, or can I run 2 drivers per dimming port? Also, is it possible to get a jebao cable to control 2 wp25s off a single port? I think I need the dimming expansion but want to be sure. Do you think the standard model can handle the above applications, or do I need to go with the plus?

Thanks for any help!

[rimai]

You will need the dimming expansion module.
Although you can run the 2 drivers in each dimming port, you would be out of ports for the Jebao pumps.

[rossbryant1956]

buy the plus. It won't take long before you wish you did. There is a lot of neat stuff on here you will want to do.

[egadgetjnr]

I agree with Ross. Get the plus, you won't regret it. :p

I use aqua style LEDS on my dimming module (I have 6 strings. 1 white, 1 blue, 2 blue/moons and 2 supplementals and it works perfectly.

[Lionofish]

Thanks for the advice, I will go with the plus. Egadgetjnr, since you are also using the aquastyle leds, do you know if I need to order a dimming port lead wire for each led driver? Or will the drivers already come with the cables needed to plug into the pwm ports? I have done a retrofit t5 setup before, but this will be my first foray into leds.

I also like the idea of having moonlights, though I'm not sure if they are necessary with dimmable leds. Would dimming leds down to a very minimal level accomplish the same thing, or do the dimmable moonlights really offer a better viewing experience?

[egadgetjnr]

Thanks for the advice, I will go with the plus. Egadgetjnr, since you are also using the aquastyle leds, do you know if I need to order a dimming port lead wire for each led driver? Or will the drivers already come with the cables needed to plug into the pwm ports?

I'm not fully familiar with those drivers, but from what I saw on the specs I think you might need too. What kit are you getting? I use 3 different types of drivers for my LED's (2xMeanwell LPF-60D-48 ,2xMeanwell LPF-16D-24, 2xMeanWell LPF-25D-42) and they all came with the dimming cable inbuilt. I built my LEDs so that I could still use the pots as a redundancy by wiring in a double pole double throw switch for each driver (see pic)

I also like the idea of having moonlights, though I'm not sure if they are necessary with dimmable leds. Would dimming leds down to a very minimal level accomplish the same thing, or do the dimmable moonlights really offer a better viewing experience?

I prefer having the moonlights on my heat sink with my other LEDs as I have a 4 foot tank. I wanted to have them additional to my main lights so that the moon lights could be like a true moon cycle (if moon comes up during the day they will/can come on if that makes sense)
If you look in the pic below, the moon lights are the set of 3 on each long side of the heatsink (by themselves) and are on their own string/driver

Feel free to let me know if you want more piccies

[Lionofish]

Thanks for the pics Egadgetjnr!

My reef angel arrived the other day but I haven't hooked it up yet as I am still building my lights. I do have a question about how to connect the drivers to the dimming expansion, though. Both the Jebao cables and the dimming cables I ordered come with little white two prong connectors on them. These fit the pwm inputs on the main unit, but the dimming expansion has pin style inputs instead. How do these cables connect to the expansion, or are they not designed for that?

As for connecting my drivers, I'm not entirely sure if I have the right idea with this either. I want to run 4 drivers off of two dimming channels. So do I just splice the pairs of dimming +s together and insert into a dimming channel and then connect the dimming - from all 4 drivers to a single GND port? Why are there multiple GND ports?

[lnevo]

There are multiple ground ports because if you tried to have 6 wires all plugged into 1 port it would be quite crowded.

But yes, you could just splice the 2 drivers together...