Jump to content
Cultivated Reef

DIY LEDs for a 24x72 tank


NeveSSL

Recommended Posts

Hi all,

 

I'm helping an LFS with lighting their 180g mixed reef tank. I think its actually a 240, but I'm going to have to double check.

 

As-is, I'm planning on doing 18 XP-G cool whites and 30 XP-G neutral whites run at 1000mAh with 2 TRC-075S105DT's and 10 XP-E blues and around 80 XP-E royal blues, divided into 2 different 2x3 fixtures, all with 60 degree optics. These will be about 8 inches above the water. I'm also going to add some true violets into the mix.

 

I'm going for a 14k look, and I believe this will get us there. Do you guys think this will be enough to keep SPS? Probably not on the sand I don't believe, but for the most of the depth of the tank.

 

Do you guys have any thoughts? Is that enough LEDs?

 

Brandon

Link to comment

If you're going for the 14K look, you may want to increase the number of whites you have to about 25 cool whites and 40 neutrals.

 

But that's really only if you plan on running everything full blast. Otherwise you can always just dim the blues to whatever white/blue balance you want.

 

I think you have enough LEDs though.

 

And skip the true violets, unless you buy a 6-9 of the big 10 watt violets sold at Satistronics. They aren't cheap, and I honestly don't think you'll get a lot of visible use out of them unless they are used as some astronaut-barbie sort of moonlight look.

Link to comment

Many thanks for the reply, bro.

 

I was trying to go by the 2:1 ratio everyone seems to be in love with. :) I will also be running the whites at 1A and the blues at 700mAh. Do you think I would still have an issue with the blues being over powering? They'll all be on dimmable ballasts, but I'd rather get as close as possible to the proper color with LED mix than with dimming as that obviously takes away from PAR.

 

The true violets are at the request of the owner. He actually already has some on another tank and mainly wants these as nightlights, believe it or not. :) So they'll be dimmed waaaay down at night and either off or on full blast during the day, depending on how they affect PAR. I'll probably price them out (maybe 12 of them on a way turned down ELN60-48?). All of these will be controlled with an Apex.

 

Thanks again for the reply!

 

Brandon

Link to comment
  • 2 months later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...