Lighting setup with truelumen LEDs

[gravereaper0]

I've narrowed down my search to the truelumen pro strips. Just got one new 48" 8k white strip on eBay for $165 (cheapest I seen so far was $200) and getting one more for a 90 gallon planted. Also I was thinking of getting a 3 way splitter and get one more strip just for the enhanced light effect and color, the obvious choice being the 12k white but I wonder how a fw planted would look with the marine fusion 12k and 453nm blue.
Also going with their lunar lights again for aesthetic reasons. The tank has a 48"x18" footprint so I'm not sure how many or how to place em on top of the tank. Should I link 2 rows of 2 or 3?
I plan on running the LEDs with the Simple OneTouch LED Controller and their 24volt PSU and have one channel for the strips and the other for lunars. Now can you run the lunars on 24 volts or would I have to take it down to 12 volts first?
And how's the overall idea/setup look?

 

[fort384]

I have used these lights before and while I think they work well on shallow tanks for planted aquarium applications, the diodes are pretty under powered for deeper tanks like a 90.

Certainly if it is a planted tank, you will want to with the 8000K model. Once you get into the 12000K and 453nm blue lights, you are losing valuable peaks in the red spectrum of light which plants need to grow.

While I am sure you will be able to grow/sustain some lower light varieties of plants using these lights at the proper color temp, I think the par at the substrate even with multiple strips will be on the low side to grow any compact ground covers or high light stem plants.

 

[gravereaper0]

I have used these lights before and while I think they work well on shallow tanks for planted aquarium applications, the diodes are pretty under powered for deeper tanks like a 90.

Other then the expensive GroBeam XB-D Ultima tile, what else can get that deep in the LED world?

 

[fort384]

Not much for the planted world, unfortunately. Most of the high powered LED fixtures are geared towards marine applications. Marineland actually started making a new fixture that is better than the double brights and has some higher powered LED diodes, but I haven't seen par numbers on it yet, so wouldn't generally recommend it at this point.

Reefbreeders will do a custom setup for you on their fixture: reefbreeders. You could go with that and eliminate much of the blue to get in the right sprectrum.

 

[gravereaper0]

Well, already bought one strip so I'm committed. Just gonna have to try, see, and learn. I'd like to get some carpeting on driftwood and will be adding ferts and co2 so we'll see.

 

[fort384]

They are good fixtures and like I said I have used them before. It will definitely add to your overall lighting. It just won't provide the best results down towards the substrate.

 

[gravereaper0]

What if I supplement that one bar with a pair of Kessil A150W Amazon lights? The Kessils would have to be on a timer though.

 

[fort384]

That would add a lot of light for sure.

 

[gravereaper0]

Actually if I'm reading the specs right the kessil's power consumption is 32 watts so the controller can handle a pair. But are the kessils meant to be dimmed?

 

[fort384]

I am not sure, I haven't looked to closely at the kessils. May guess would be yes, but I would confirm that.

 

[gravereaper0]

They're not dimmable from what I'm reading. I sent an email to kessil so waiting on their response but I'm pretty sure I already got my answer. I can still run the one strip I already got and lunars on the controller, just have the kessils kick on let's say 30 minutes after the strip is lit up at 100% and go off 30 minutes before they start dimming down?

 

[fort384]

That sounds good. I am surprised they didn't use a dimmable driver.

 

[gravereaper0]

Kessil is coming out with a new light, the a360w by the end of march, think I'm gonna wait a month and see if the price of the a150w will drop.