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[Raiders]

lfs bailed on me with the tank

[jedimasterben]

hey guys im building a 33 gallon long aquarium that is 48x12x13

im going to be going with led's for lighting.

 

im going to buy the 2x aquastyle 24 led kit along with 7 more blue leds since driver can run upto 20 each.

 

i will be using the 15.8x4.8 inches heatsinks...since my tank will be 48 inches long and have a brace in the middle...il have two fixtures...one centered in between each space where the brace divides the tank.

 

this will be my first led build and i was just needing help on seeing if this would be okay and if i would get good spread for growing sps and being able to support clams on the sand bed.

 

this is what i have so far as my design using 31 leds

the blue ones are royal blue leds which there will be 19 of and the white ones are "white leds"

im stuck on the ones i should get for white.do i get the 10k color leds for white?

 

please help me out

update,i an adding 3 420 nm leds to each heatsink(purple color on picture) which will be ran with a seperate driver,would they help my color at all though?arethey worth the extra $40?

I would run a 1:1 ratio of royal blue to violet. Our eyes can't really see the light it puts out, however the corals' zooanthellae that does photosynthesis does the majority of such in the 420nm part of the spectrum, so it will help with growth and coloration will be better.

 

For a tank that long, I would just grab the 36 LED kit and run 9x white, 9x royal blue, 9x violet, 3x red, 3x cyan, 3x pink. I would also not purchase the heatsinks from AS, they get pretty expensive. If you have the option, I would purchase some aluminum U-channel from Home Depot/Lowes to mount them to, it will be adequate cooling and you can customize the spread.

 

I would also run all four sets on separate drivers for complete control over color customization.

 

 

EDIT: Also, on your heatsink pictured you have 35 LEDs, while you'll only have 55 total if you did it your way.

[blasterman]

Honestly I don't agree that UV does anything other than cause some specific actinic color response, and unless you have a lot of them it's not much.

 

As for growth with 420nm, ask anybody growing Acropora with just 420nm T5's how things are going. Oh wait, nobody can get SPS to do well with just 420nm T5 tubes. They just use them for some color enhancement. So, I'm not agains't 420nm, but just don't feel it's that big a deal.

 

IMHO, I'd avoid the 10k LEDs and go with a 1:1 ratio of their royals and their 6500k whites.

 

I would get sinks from HeatSink USA. U-channel is too thin, requires cutting and finishing, and will need more fans because it can't store heat. However, I do like the trick where the U-channel is closed with a fan at one end keeping the entire run cool. 24 LEDs will otherwise not be happy on 1/10 thick aluminum U-channel unless you have a lot of fans.

[like-fish]

i have the aquastyle 36 kit on its way now. I intend to use the U-chanel as the heatsink and add a fan to the top of my hood in addition the the 2 stock fans. I ahve read a few threads that have had good results with this technique. I chose the DIY heatsink and the aquastyle heatsink added $60 to the pack (after shipping).

 

Let us know how you do! I will be posting my DIY attempt once under way.