Lighting your reef... Best bang for your buck.

[Spechty37]

Here are 90s with just the blues

 

[dmolavi]

That's a lot of light spilling into the room...I would have stuck w/ 120.

 

[Jmkb02]

If they are dimmable you should lower them, or build a canopy to help. That's a lot of light

 

[Jmkb02]

Granted my third unit is above my Fuge currently until the Fuge lights come in, my lights are normally around 1-1 1/4 inch closer and I still have little light glowing thought out the room. Lights are Tao b/w dimmables, No optics.

 

[dragonfisher33]

If I remember correctly earlier in this thread, there was a member who had to modify his light from 120 to 90 because it made his living room glare so much

 

[dmolavi]

If I remember correctly earlier in this thread, there was a member who had to modify his light from 120 to 90 because it made his living room glare so much

Yeah..sorry..my brain was toast yesterday and forgot basic geometry

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[huma-huma]

i dont think optics play into spill over as much as one may think. you are still putting a ton of light into a tank with leds, if the intensity is too much for the tank to absorb, itll just spil out into the room, so while a canopy will help to curb escess spill over from the fixtures themselves, it wont do much in terms of excess light coming from within the tank itself

 

[dragonfisher33]

can someone enlighten me the difference between these two fixtures? (other than the fact that one is 120w and the other is 165w). how does the wattage of a fixture come in play when it comes to coral growth?
Evergrow Dimmable Full Spectrum D120 120W LED Light for Reef Saltwater Aquarium | eBay

Dimmable 165W LED Aquarium Grow Light Full Spectrum Fishtank Reef Coral LPS SPS | eBay

 

[mr_X]

If you have a really deep tank, then I might suggest the 165 watt unit, but for anything under 30", the 120 watters are just fine.

 

[dragonfisher33]

If you have a really deep tank, then I might suggest the 165 watt unit, but for anything under 30", the 120 watters are just fine.

so it's just a potency difference? i'm going to upgrade my 29gal to a >65gal tank and use the 29gal as a sump. i just want to plan ahead for the upgrade (probably next year or so) especially with the light so that i don't buy the same thing but different wattage twice. do you have the 120 or the 165w Doug? i understand your tank is pretty big and do you turn your LED all the way to 100% for your tank? how deep is your tank?

 

[mr_X]

I use the 120's, and the tank you are thinking of was 25" top to bottom. I sold it off and am in the process of starting a 105 rimless. When I buy new fixtures, I'm getting the 120 watters again, but not the multicolored units. I prefer the straight blue and white ones.
Yes, they were all the way at 100%, and yes, definitely a potency difference with the different wattages.

 

[dragonfisher33]

so when people use these Taotronics and its knock-offs, do they turn it up to 100% eventually? i understand there's an acclimation period for the corals and i also remember Doug you said that you can grow sps on the sand bed with these LEDs, but is that with 100% on both the white LEDs and the blue LEDs? has any one turn up 100% on their Taotronics LED?

 

[dezso]

I have 5 of this module from eBay store. Friend of my got 3 from a different store.
I have open them up to add PWM dimming, here is some of the major difference.
My drivers run 100% at 108v 750mA = 81W per channel 162W total his runs at 105v 530mA = 56W 112W.
My drivers have PWM input but not utilized by factory his have no PWM input in the drivers. My led have 3rd driver for the fans, his leaching power from the led drivers. In my LEDs all 3 fan runs regardless which led string running "white or blue" his fans 2 fan for blue 1 for white.
My LEDs have heat-sink on top of them, his LEDs just a 1.5mm aluminum plate. My LEDs powder coated his LEDs spry painted. My ebay seller let me chose the optics his come with who knows what. My LEDs grow sps his grow algae

Btw I'm running around 40-50% peak 75% on 125G tank 5 led module. Pay few $$ more to get better LEDs

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[mr_X]

Interesting. Can you link to those he purchased? All the ones I bought (6 total from different vendors) have been like yours. Fans come on no matter what color you turn on etc..
Ishould note that 3 of mine were 1st generation, non-dimmable models. All of the units I bought grew corals just fine, though I noticed a surplus of algae in one of my tanks with a single "full spectrum" unit over it (reef breeders). This was the only multicolored unit I tried, and I personally like the straight blue and white over the colored.

 

[dezso]

http://bit.ly/15FMiRY

Looks like the store closed for the Chinese New Year . They claim that they are the manufacturers of this light so you got it straight from the factory, no middle man.
I purchased 4 extra drivers from them in separate order to finish my diy led fixture what I started over a year ago from RapidLED. $20/driver including shipping.


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[mr_X]

I really don't understand why they would add those yellowish (I'm assuming 6500k or below) ones to the mix. The same goes with the reds. 1 red is plenty IMO.
All that aside, is it possible your friends tank is growing algae because of his nutrient levels?

 

[Rich42082]

Dezso, it looks like you hang your lights sideways compared to how I hang mine with the power cords to the back. Do you get better coverage that way?

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[dezso]

Definitely nutrient problem since it was a problem even with T5. Also I have changed in 3 module the 4700k LEDs with 14000k and the greens with 430nm uv what I got for my diy kit.


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[dezso]

5 would not fit otherwise


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[mr_X]

Just a FYI, 430nm is not ultraviolet. I don't think true ultraviolet LED's are even available to the consumer.