trying to figure out led's still...ebay or taotronics??

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awesome! just what I was hoping. to the OP, sorry if I jumped in and got a bit off topic. thanks for the response Carey
 
That's ok. .. it's a question I've been concerned about as well...

Now I know I need to start off very low so I don't cook mu corals, but can anyone tell me how low, and since my tank is so tall, how far above to mount? Lots of things I read say about 10" but that seems awfully far away from the aand bed in such a small tank?
 
Mine are mounted 8 in above the water. Try to match the old lights brightness maybe 30% to start then bump them up 5-10% every 4-5 days until you get them were you'd like them

Mine are at 80% white 100% blue This gives me a nice color balance that makes the coral pop. Keep in mind your doubling the old light
 
Fabulous. .. thanks for spelling it out for me... everything I have read starts jumbling up and getting so confusing! !

I can defenitally attest to not putting them up to high when you first get leds. My lfs upgraded to leds and didn't dial them back ( small town lfs) and burned up thousands of dollars worth of corals!! Its a huge fear for me after seeing that!!

Honestly I don't have too much now anyway... my tank cracked two weeks ago and I lost almost everything. .. so i'm kind of starting over anyway :( I'm hoping having new lights makes me feel better about the whole thing lol. I got pretty discouraged when it happened
 
Glad we could be of some help. It's easy to get discouraged in this hobby between algae out breaks live stock loss and leaks, floods or what ever lol
 
Got them up... whoooo hooo :)

Ended up going with the ebay ones. Got two lights for less then $250 with free shipping. The turn around time was amazing. . Ordered on a sat had them on tues!! Its funny, cause I was a bit concerned about not getting the actual taotronics and getting an off brand off ebay. .. but I opened the box and low and behold each light said taotronics. . Lol

So hubby has been really busy at work this week so we didn't get them hung till today, but they are finally up and hung.. let me tell you that wasn't too easy. We have a vaulted ceiling which made figuring out the hanging a little difficult, but thanks to hubbys brilliance ;) and this amazing guy at the hardware store they're up...

I was playig with the dimmer switches trying out the white to blue ratios and what it looks like and omg.. this light is so cool!! The amount of different looks you can get by switching up the amount of bue vs white is so cool

Right now I've got it set at 10% white for 8 hrs a day with blues on most the time except to turn all off for 5 hrs at night... does this sound good guys? Should the blues even turn off at all? I read somewhere to turn up the whites a tiny bit every four or so days
.. anyone know if this is correct? ?

Just for the record, love these new lights :) thanks everyone dor your advice and help :)
 
Sweet!! Yes you'll want to slowly raise the whites or it will burn your coral My whites are on for 8 hrs the blues are on 10 hrs they come on 1 hr before the whites and shut off 1 hr after
 
Yes the tank needs about 8-10 hours of dark so the coral and fish can reset them selfs much like us they need there sleep too lol
 
Ok cool... so I need more dark time, got it :)

so far I am loving the new lights... they still seem a little dark since they are still dialed in so low, but I'm being patient. . Really want to acclimate slow and not burn anything up. . But can't wait till I can have them where I want...

Do people ever run these things at 100%? Or do most just stop at a lower number?
 
You should try to match the brightness of the old lights to start out then adjust from there to little light is not good either
 
So far so good... turned them up a little today ( its day 4) and all seems ok. One thing I do notice is it sure lights up my living room!! Lol... I wondered about this. When sitting on my couch it shines right in my eyes!!! Oh well, I guess its worth it lol :)
 
shellygirl55 said:
So far so good... turned them up a little today ( its day 4) and all seems ok. One thing I do notice is it sure lights up my living room!! Lol... I wondered about this. When sitting on my couch it shines right in my eyes!!! Oh well, I guess its worth it lol :)
Click to expand...

Maybe a little curtain hanging across the front of them would block the light overspill.
 
I made a valance for mine much like a hood but open at the top and back it sits on the rim of the tank and blocks the lights
 
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