I have a 55 gallon tank (48"x13"x20") and I was hoping to run an LED setup vs a metal halide setup for the obvious reasons. I have been doing a lot of research regarding the topic and I am hoping to keep SPS and LPS corals. I was going to run 2 strips of 12 LEDs per strip with a total of 12 Cree XRE R2 Cool White, 6 Cree XRE Blue, and 6 Cree XRE Royal Blue. Each strip is going to be run by a Meanwell ELN-60-48D driver. Would this be sufficient ligting for corals or would I need to increase the LED count? Can clams be kept successfully under LEDs? hanks for the advice in advance peeps!

You'll need at least 2x that amount of LEDs, if not 3x.

Not quite that much more, but definitely more. At a minimum, you will want an 18x2 array down the center of the tank with no optics. This is fine if you aren't getting into heavy sps. That would need an extra row (18x3) and 60 degree optics.

Ok sounds good. Evil could you possibly make two recommendations. What driver would you recommend in place of the one I chose? Where can I buy Cree LEDs where I can choose the bin number in the U.S.? I cannot find one where I can buy at least an R2 bin. Thank.

Meanwells are fine. As for bins, Q5s work perfectly fine for all applications. R2s don't get you much of an advantage.

Evil,
Wow...I just saw on Nano Tuners that you have your own section....hahaha SWEET!

So I was going to run a total of 54 LEDs. 3 sections of 18 LEDs per section in a parallel fashion. Each strip would contain 2 rows of 9 LEDs and run the length of the tank. i.e...

|* * * * * * * * *|=====|* * * * * * * * *|=====|* * * * * * * * *|
|* * * * * * * * *|=====|* * * * * * * * *|=====|* * * * * * * * *|

Would this setup work out alright? I was going t put 60 degree optics on them as you suggest. Would all the LEDs need optics or just alternate? What combination of White and Royal Blue would work best? I want the tank to get the necessary light but I want a look that is more "natural". Thanks a ton again everyone for all the help. I am placing the order for everything this weekend and very excited to get started!

PS-What driver would work best for running this setup? The meanwell I originally was looking at would only run 12-13 LEDs, not the 18 that this model calls for...

you could do buckpucks which will be crazy expensive since they run 20 dollars to drive 6 or use a combo of meanwells and pucks like 3 meanwells and 3 pucks

I would prefer to keep no more than 3 drivers total, one for ach group of 18.

You could go that way, but if you are going to use that number of LEDs, use 3 rows of 6 per group. You don't need to pack them that tight, and three rows will get you better front to back coverage. Or you could run 36 LEDs like I suggested in 6x2 groups.

For optics, use them on all LEDs.

For drivers, Meanwells have the highest capacity. If you stick with 18 LEDs per group, you will need 2 drivers per group. This is good though, as you can run the blues and whites on seperate drivers and adjust your color temperature. If you drop to 12 LEDs per group, you can use just one per, but you lose the color temp adjustment. You could use ELN-30-27D drivers for that. 6 LED limit and a little cheaper than the ELN-60-48D.

Sweet, thanks Evil! I will go with the 36 LED route and seperate the drivers to change the color accordingly. Last question...I was debating on going spotlighing select portions of the aquarium versus lighting the entire thing, it looks more natural. Would your spotlights on nanotuners be better and I was thinking 4 total. Would that be to much light for a 20" depth?

It's an option, but I think you would need more than 4 for a 48" long tank. I'm running 4 on a 36" tank. You would need more like 6.