School me on LED's

[Brock]

I am in the process of buying a new tank, moving from my 92 gallon glasscages tank to a 95 gallon wave tank. The 92 had a canopy with power compacts already installed in it (I bought it used from a guy that made it all), so they won't work with the new tank. I want to move to LED's, and make my own set up, but I don't know how many to use of which colors, and where to find the LED's themselves. I've heard that you are supposed to use 10000k LED's, but I haven't seen any when searching for them.

Can someone shed me some light on how many LED's I would need, and how to get the ball rolling on finding them?

Thanks for all of the help in advance.

 

[mr_X]

Here is a good source for LEDs-
LED Group Buy | CREE LEDs for DIY Aquarium Lighting

What amount of each color would be up to you. I would pay attention to the coverage guidelines on that link I posted.

 

[Brock]

Thank you for the link. I have been reading up on the LED's, and I want the 10000K-12000K spectrum, so 1:1 of Cool whites to Royal Blues. My next question, how many LED's should I use? The owner of the site said roughly 36 LED's for a 24"x24" area. Would I be ok with 2-36 LED modules, or is that too much?

 

[mr_X]

I would say you are right on with those numbers. A friend of mine simply used aluminum U channel from home depot and drilled his holes about 4" apart. Will you want to mix in some reds and greens or not?

 

[Brock]

I didn't read anything on there about reds and greens. What are the benefits of them?

 

[mr_X]

here is some info on color temps-
Aquarium Lighting; Reef, Planted Light Information. PAR, Bulb, Watt, Kelvin, Nanometers, MH, LED.

 

[Remsset]

Mr x what colors do u run on ur tank

 

[Gregcoyote]

I run about a dozen reefs with LEDs and import and build our own fixtures. We use a 1:1 ratio (sometimes 2:1) of 12K white and 450nm blue LEDs from 2 watts to as much as 6 watts. I am experimenting with the new 100 watts emitters, but they don't come in the higher color temperatures yet.

As Mr_X stated, the lensing will dictate the coverage area the emitter will give you. But in general, in a tank with a depth of 24", I use a rule of 2 watts per gallon LED for soft corals, and 3-4 for everything else. LED is about 30-40% more power efficient than equivalent MH lamps. Deeper tanks need more of course. LEDs tend to "beam" more than other lamps do...and they emit little UV, so some like to add a T5 actinic to cause the corals to glow more. They make UV LEDs, but I do not recommend them as they can be dangerous to use.

Mixing a few colors in is something that you need to read up on. I don't think it is necessary, but if your building your own fixture, it may not be a bad idea. I have been growing coral under LEDs now for about three years. IMO it is the best way to go.

 

[melosu58]

Moved to General Hardware and equipment discussion.

 

[Gti_Leo]

rapidled sells DIY cree kits and recommend 15-18 square inches of surface area per LED with SPS and clams anf for LPS and softies they say 20-24 per LED. i have seen videos on youtube of a 120g being lite with 48 cree LEDs and getting like 400 PAR at the low end of the tank

also

he has 48 over his 90 gallon and runs them at 50% power in his SPS dominated reef

 

[Gregcoyote]

I don't use the Cree emitters on my tank, but my son just did a DIY with the Crees and he likes them so far.

 

[Gti_Leo]

yeah you can't go wrong with them, and at the price rapid LED or led group buy sells them for in my opinion they are the way to go

 

[Brock]

Which of the Cree LED's did you use? I see that ledgroupbuy is selling the XM-L, which they are saying is the best at the moment. The XP-G's put out quite a bit as well, at a few dollars cheaper per bulb.

 

[Gregcoyote]

I am not sure of that yet...we will see. I am still a maverick that refuses to pay the extraordinary high prices some of these guys think their fixtures are worth. I am still happy with my 2 watt per LED Chinese panels. I really don't care if I have to use more emitters to get the same PAR. Proof is in the corals it has grown...the rest is speculation. I would buy the emitters carefully as CRee build many, many different ones. Some that would be useless in a reef setting. I will check with my son as he is very careful about such things and he just used CRee.

 

[Brock]

Thank you very much... I'm not a super tight-wad, but I don't want to spend money on LED's that won't help my system. Thanks to everyone for the help.

 

[Remsset]

Do u have videos or photo of ur led setup

 

[Gti_Leo]

well the XM-L has a higher intensity then the XP-G R5 and also use up slightly less voltage so you can put more on one driver.

as far as i'm concerned at this poiunt with the depths of our tanks it is still not needed, but if you do decide to get them you could always run them at lower power which will help save the life of the LED, its really your call which you would want and what you think is worth while to do.

greg there is also the fact that those LEDs are pumping out more wattage then the more powerful LEDs, no one doubts that they grow and work well, but is the longevity of the LED the same and the power consumption. to light a 180 you need 3 of your 240watt fixtures totalling 720watts where you can go with 108 cree LEDs and put out 324 watts and still put out the same if not more PAR

 

[Gregcoyote]

well the XM-L has a higher intensity then the XP-G R5 and also use up slightly less voltage so you can put more on one driver.

as far as i'm concerned at this poiunt with the depths of our tanks it is still not needed, but if you do decide to get them you could always run them at lower power which will help save the life of the LED, its really your call which you would want and what you think is worth while to do.

greg there is also the fact that those LEDs are pumping out more wattage then the more powerful LEDs, no one doubts that they grow and work well, but is the longevity of the LED the same and the power consumption. to light a 180 you need 3 of your 240watt fixtures totalling 720watts where you can go with 108 cree LEDs and put out 324 watts and still put out the same if not more PAR

And pay 4 times as much. I agree in the most part...but I am waiting on the next gen multisegment emitters and getting my money's worth out of the Chinese panels. The CRee's might save me a few watts, no better life span and both have zero heat output, the difference is $$$. I have my own supply of spare parts, so I can warranty them.

 

[Gti_Leo]

how much do each of your fixtures go for?

 

[Gregcoyote]

I'm not allowed to talk about it on the forum. You can IM me.