120 FOWLR

[bmac300]

Hi

Just getting into saltwater after many years of freshwater tanks. I just recently purchased a 120 gallon tank (60x18x24) and would like to start with fish only with live rock. Eventually I may get into coral but that will be a few years down the road I think.

 

I would really like to create my own LED lighting system using an Arduino and the meanwell LDD drivers. I know it isn't necessary but I am computer programmer by day and have done some tinkering with the Adruino and would like to create a nice project with it. I've done a bit of reading but most of the DIY LED builds I see are for reef tanks.

 

I was thinking of using 2 heatsinks one on each side of the center brace. Would you recommend 6 or 12 inch heatsinks and what colour ratio and how many LEDs would work for a FOWLR tank? I am leaning towards Bridgelux LEDs to lower the costs but if i get more bang for my buck with Cree I would go with that. Thanks in advance for any advice.

[jedimasterben]

If you don't need the extra intensity, then going with the 'Bridgelux' chips aren't such a bad deal if you're only worried about startup costs. They emit around 50-60% of the light that the XT-E do, but they also use almost half a watt more power each. The main issue is color consistency in the white LEDs, they're almost as bad as the XM-L lol.

 

Personally, I would use a few Luxeon M royal blue paired with the Nichie high-CRI whites, with a few regular blue LEDs to help remove the purple. You don't need very many, as with fish only they don't exactly need light to survive lol. I'd say use 4-6x Luxeon M royals, and one Nichia white and one XP-E2 blue for every luxeon M.

 

If you ever want to venture outside of fish only, this would still have some pretty decent intensity for growing soft corals and some LPS.

 

I would use 12-18" heatsinks so that you can spread the light out more.

[bmac300]

Thanks, that sounds like a good build that gives me the flexibility to at least get into corals in the future.

 

Just to confirm my build.

 

For the Luxeon M royal blues according to the description I can power 4 on a single meanwell ldd1000h led driver. If i went with 6 i would have to use a 2nd 1000h led driver. However, for the power supply correct me if I'm wrong but the 4 royal blues with a forward voltage of 11 volts each would bring me to 44 volts and I think that would be to close to the max if i went with a 48 volt power supply so i would I have to use 2 royal blues per ldd 1000h using a 48 volt power supply?

 

The XP-E2 would also require a ldd 1000h and I could a max of 14 so i'm safe with just one driver.

 

The Nichia has a max of 1500mA current so again I would use a ldd 1000h for this channel.

[jedimasterben]

Correct - you'd need a power supply to give at least 52v so you'd get around 48v output. At 1A, the Luxeon M needs ~11.5v each. Or you could use a 48v power supply and just run three of the M per LDD

 

None of the LEDs require a certain amperage, they just have their maximum amperage. For a fish-only tank, you will only need to run them maybe 500mA to keep it nice and bright to the eye. You could also use a few Luxeon Rebel ES 'lime' and it would brighten the light up significantly, but LEDgroupbuy does not stock this chip, much to my dismay lol.

[bmac300]

Thanks you must have read my mind I was going to ask about using a lime LED to increase the brightness. Othere than lime would red or UV LEDs add anything to a FOWLR tank or is it a waste of money? Thanks again for the quick replies.

[jedimasterben]

Others would be a waste over a FOWLR IMHO.