18" long Pico tank Lighting

[skibum513]

I am currently building a 18"x8" acrylic Pico tank. as for lighting I was looking at doing a diy set up with 3watt led's (4rb, 2nw, 1ocw, 2 hyper violet). with the tank being very long I think there will be a disco effect issuer or dark ends. Option B is create a hood full of those cheap 5mm led's. that would solve the dark areas and color mixing issue but i'm not sure how useful those would be to the corals or power consumption. I am going for a full spectrum set up hence the diy instead of buying a rb/w strip light.

 

If anyone has any ideas on what they think would be best the (3w led's, 5mm chepo, or suck it up and just stick with a rb/w strip) let me know still pretty new to this and looking for any advice.

 

Stocking is going to be mostly soft corals but I would like to be able to add some lps, and sps corals if I wanted to.

 

Thanks in advanced for any advice.

[DaveFason]

Check my V3 Array out.

• 2 - Lime
• 2 - Warm White
• 1 - Neutral White
• 2 - Violet
• 4 - Royal Blue
• 1 - Cyan
• 1 - Blue

Up to four channels. $54.95

 

-Dave

[skibum513]

Hey Thanks this is very helpful! do you have the dimensions for it by any chance.

[gus6464]

They are 1.5" squares so very tiny. You can't go wrong with Dave's pucks. He doesn't use cheap emitters and the color will be something far better than any cheap LEDs can do.

[skibum513]

Just ordered a v3 array ill post an update when I get everything built!

[Horerczy]

It's a little bigger than a 1.5" square to accommodate the new solder pads but not significantly so.