Led Lighting Questions

[NateR]

Found 2 different led options and was wondering if either of them would be suitable for my aquarium and would they be able to support sps. Also which of the two would be better?

http://www.21ledusa.com/aquarium_led_reefbar_pro_48_ultra_actinic_p/rbpua48.htm

http://www.21ledusa.com/aquarium_led_reefbar_pro_48_full_spectrum_p/rbpfs48.htm

 

[NateR]

And would two of these fixtures be enough or would 3 or 4 be needed?

 

[TORX]

For your 90 gallon tank? Try 6 of these or so. Unless you are looking to just add these as supplement to your current lighting, then only 1-2.

 

[KBennett]

6 is way too much. On my 220, I have 90 3W leds and I can grow SPS. (I have Phillips luxeons, so I'm not sure how much better they are than these bridgluxes).
Looking at the numbers, I'd go with 3 or 4 and get a dimmer.
I think 2 is no good because they won't be spaced out enough front to back.

 

[TORX]

Then again, he does have other let's over the tank already as well. Just re read his build thread

 

[NateR]

I was thinking of using these as a replacement for the current lighting. And the nice thing with these lights is you can buy an awesome controller with them for $39

 

[TORX]

It also depends on the LED light, the sps that he wants to grow and several other aspects. These lights state that 2 give off 90-120 at the bottom of a 24" and depending on the sps, that requirement can be much higher. Where are the SPS guys when you need em lol. IIRC his tank is a standard 90 that is 25" high and 18" wide (I thought his tank was wider, my bad). So at least 4 for that tank width, maybe 5 to be safe and add the controller. Running LED's at a higher power can reduce the life span of the LED and will make the LEDs more prone to individual failure.

 

[NateR]

And what one out of the two would be better, the full spectrum or the one with uv?

 

[TORX]

And what one out of the two would be better, the full spectrum or the one with uv?

Both. 3 full and 1 UV.

 

[KBennett]

Definitely both. violets are a must ime. The mixture is really up to you and what you want to grow.
To get 120 PAR at the bottom I am sure it would be high enough to grow anything at the top.

 

[NateR]

Yeah I'm not opposed to keeping the corals with the higher requirements at the top and keep mostly softies at the bottom.

 

[NateR]

So it looks like I can tie these new fixtures into my current controller which is good news. I'm thinking of going with the one full spectrum and one of the uv for now. See how that goes and if it's not quite enough get another

 

[TORX]

I hope that one of the LED guys jump in here. Sounds fishie that these state they do not require a fan. I have been running LEDs and they get hot, real hot. I am interested on how they do not use a fan at all.

 

[curiousphil]

That does sound fishie Torx. Perhaps they are not running at full power? I remember when I had my LEDs wired in parallel rather than series they ran quite cool. I could touch them no problem. Once I corrected the issue, I couldn't touch the heat sink without a fan running on it.

These units are very interesting. With 2 bars putting out 120 PAR at the bottom of the tank, you should in theory have enough PAR to grow aything you want by using just 4 bars. They have 48 leds per strip so that's a diode every inch, horizontally, you really just need to make sure you use enough bars to have even front to back coverage.

I'd really be interested in measuring the PAR of these myself if anyone in London does a setup using these alone.

 

[NateR]

That's a good call with the heat issue, I'm hoping to give the supplier a call Monday and find out a bit more info.. also going to get my current lighting par tested and if I do go ahead with these I'll see what they put out as well

 

[scubasteve]

heres a lil bit for you to compare toi have my led 10" off of surface with a 24" deep tank i have acros, millie and birdsnest in top 1/3rd of tank about 10" under surface monti cap and digi in middle 1/3rd maxima clam and all my zoas within 6" of bottom all are growing great and stay bright and deep colours but i am also runnong 4 ai sol blue units over my 125 gal fairly high % as well as for a fan mine turns on 5 min after dawn dusk start each fixture has a strong fan and large heatsink and it still gets pretty warm

 

[NateR]

So it turns out I'd need 3 controllers for the lights which isn't what I'm want. Any suggestions for supplemental LED's or new ones that would be programmable but still easy on the budget?

 

[scubasteve]

as far as i know any good quality of led are expensive cheaping out will lead to problems especially for sps

 

[NateR]

That's what I was afraid of

 

[scubasteve]

ya it sucks how expensive they are but in the end its worth the investment i save $15 a month on power compared to my t5ho and has been going on a year and a half now dont need to buy new bulbs colour in my tank is really good so you make up for the amount pretty quick its just a big investment to get but think of the long term most high end fixtures are rated for 8-10 yrs of use think of bulb replacement for that time alone