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Biocube LED conversion
- Thread starter aries426
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I just bought this one and plan to install it over the holiday vacation http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-228/Plug-dsh-and-dsh-Play-Biocube-14-Dimmable/Detail
That is the plug and play kit ie no soldering. They have a review of a plug and play kit here http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-228/Plug-dsh-and-dsh-Play-Biocube-14-Dimmable/Detail
I believe someone else on the board with a 14g cube also purchased one.
That is the plug and play kit ie no soldering. They have a review of a plug and play kit here http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-228/Plug-dsh-and-dsh-Play-Biocube-14-Dimmable/Detail
I believe someone else on the board with a 14g cube also purchased one.
i went with non dimmable kit, i had to solder everything but actually had alot of fun doing it, i added a couple moonlights also. i am verry happy with the light out put and how it all went together. i love this kit!
http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-201/Biocube-14-Retrofit-Kit/Detail
http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-201/Biocube-14-Retrofit-Kit/Detail
dcforester1
Finally enjoying my tank
I have a 14gal Nano with 12? LEDs. It grows SPS like crazy. I always want to get rid of it, but its a great little tank.
I finally finished my install of the rapidled kit. (well almost finished lol). I'll take some pics after I neaten things up tonight. It went together really well.
These things are so bright compared to the stock lights in the cube. I can't wait to see how much less heat they throw off but it is nice not to have to deal with those huge ballasts taking up space. Their doc is quiet good but I ran into a few issues and have a few tips (for the 12 LED kit for the 14g biocube) that I will add when I post pics
The Good - I was able to fit the driver inside the plastic shield so it is all contained (I used velcro to keep it in there).
The Bad- I am using a pot for now to control dimming until I decide between an apex jr and a reefkeeper. There were no directions for how to wire it but I was able to figure it out. Also I have the biocube stand that has two holes in the back for wires. However, you wire in a power supply connected to the hood and of course it doesn't fit thru the hole. So to make it look clean I am going to have to put the power supply in the cabinet and run the wire out the hole and then reconnect it to the hood which means the hood is never going very far from the tank. They use twist wire connectors so its not a big deal to disconnect if you really need to.
Another thing they mention in their doc is that their kit doesn't always work with the old biocube fans. Mine worked however as we all know the biocube fan's die pretty often and it will be a pain to have to rewire every time you replace a fan. I grabbed some fans off of amazon that have a three prong connector adaptor that I will wire in permanently so replacing fans will mean just plugging them in to a connector (since the pcb board with fan connectors is removed and not used by the kit)
These things are so bright compared to the stock lights in the cube. I can't wait to see how much less heat they throw off but it is nice not to have to deal with those huge ballasts taking up space. Their doc is quiet good but I ran into a few issues and have a few tips (for the 12 LED kit for the 14g biocube) that I will add when I post pics
The Good - I was able to fit the driver inside the plastic shield so it is all contained (I used velcro to keep it in there).
The Bad- I am using a pot for now to control dimming until I decide between an apex jr and a reefkeeper. There were no directions for how to wire it but I was able to figure it out. Also I have the biocube stand that has two holes in the back for wires. However, you wire in a power supply connected to the hood and of course it doesn't fit thru the hole. So to make it look clean I am going to have to put the power supply in the cabinet and run the wire out the hole and then reconnect it to the hood which means the hood is never going very far from the tank. They use twist wire connectors so its not a big deal to disconnect if you really need to.
Another thing they mention in their doc is that their kit doesn't always work with the old biocube fans. Mine worked however as we all know the biocube fan's die pretty often and it will be a pain to have to rewire every time you replace a fan. I grabbed some fans off of amazon that have a three prong connector adaptor that I will wire in permanently so replacing fans will mean just plugging them in to a connector (since the pcb board with fan connectors is removed and not used by the kit)
Last edited:
OP
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aries426
Non-member
Garetjax,
Thanks for the feedback, I am going to go with that one for sure. I did read it. The doc about the fans not working on some.
I keep checking rapidled.com and it is always out of stock
Post up some pics and let me know.
Thanks Chad
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
Thanks for the feedback, I am going to go with that one for sure. I did read it. The doc about the fans not working on some.
I keep checking rapidled.com and it is always out of stock
Post up some pics and let me know.
Thanks Chad
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
Hey finally got some pics.
First off my fans were bad so I needed to replace them. At the same time I bought fans that had 3pin to 4 pin adapters. I wired these in so now when I need to replace fans it is plug and play.
I bought these fans off of amazon - much better fans than the original biocube fans (2 ball bearings vs 1) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006B8CM/ref=oh_o04_s00_i00_details $5.36 a peice
You can see in this pic the wiring for this
Here is a tip I learned the hard way. I had the two circuit boards facing the same way. However this is wrong, the jumper between the boards you see I have taped down in this pic has to go to two different connectors and with the boards facing the same way means the same type of connectors were at the top or bottom. I had already stuck the boards to the heatsink and their adhesive is really strong so I didn't want to bother scraping it off.
You can see that I was able to fit the driver inside the plastic cover which is great. I bought velcro from radio shack and used that to velco the driver and the fan they give you which blows across the heatsink. I really like that this is nice and neat. In order to get the driver to fit I had to remove the switch assembly for the biocube - it is just a few screws. I then used super glue to clue in the rubber covers for the buttons just to seal the case and make it look clean.
My next step is to buy an apex jr if I can find one in stock someplace and their vdm module to program my lighting. For now I have a pot wired in that hangs behind the aquarium. These things are really bright.
First off my fans were bad so I needed to replace them. At the same time I bought fans that had 3pin to 4 pin adapters. I wired these in so now when I need to replace fans it is plug and play.
I bought these fans off of amazon - much better fans than the original biocube fans (2 ball bearings vs 1) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006B8CM/ref=oh_o04_s00_i00_details $5.36 a peice
You can see in this pic the wiring for this
Here is a tip I learned the hard way. I had the two circuit boards facing the same way. However this is wrong, the jumper between the boards you see I have taped down in this pic has to go to two different connectors and with the boards facing the same way means the same type of connectors were at the top or bottom. I had already stuck the boards to the heatsink and their adhesive is really strong so I didn't want to bother scraping it off.
You can see that I was able to fit the driver inside the plastic cover which is great. I bought velcro from radio shack and used that to velco the driver and the fan they give you which blows across the heatsink. I really like that this is nice and neat. In order to get the driver to fit I had to remove the switch assembly for the biocube - it is just a few screws. I then used super glue to clue in the rubber covers for the buttons just to seal the case and make it look clean.
My next step is to buy an apex jr if I can find one in stock someplace and their vdm module to program my lighting. For now I have a pot wired in that hangs behind the aquarium. These things are really bright.
dcforester1
Finally enjoying my tank
That's going to build up some heat in there with that driver. I did the same thing but used 3 buck pucks for drivers instead. Looks good and good luck with it. Keep an eye on the temp though
