Full spectrum LED layouts

[RollaJase]

Ok I have decided I really want to do one of these and am asking for recommendations. I have completely gone off the previous ideas I posted up and as my tank is an unusual size I would really like some input.

 

My tank is a 30G cube measuring 20"x20"x18" high. It will house mostly softies and LPS but I would also like to grow a few SPS which will be situated about 2/3 above the sand bed. As stated before I'm not a fan of the 50/50 RB and 10000k mix, too 'clinical' for my tastes. I have a PAR38 bulb that is 4x RB, 4x CW, 4x WW and I really love the colour it produces and I would really like to recreate that here. I am still undecided whether to use 3up stars yet or single stars.

 

I have been looking at the 25G cube layout on the first page, would this work for my tank? If so, am I correct in saying that without the 3up stars that these are the LEDs I need?

15x RB

3x Turquoise

6x Neutral White (5000k)

6x True Violet

3x Red

If this is the case would it be ok to substitute 2 of the True Violet with Hyper Violets?

 

Driver wise I am very interested in the LDD drivers as I would rather wire everything up to a project box with fan cooling and have everything hook up to an external power supply.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is something I'd like to get done ASAP and with everything else I have going on I am having trouble trying to wrap my head around this.

[raidendex]

I've put my fixture together finally.

 

NW, RB, and CB have 80 degree optics, HV have 60 degree optics. turquoise and red no optics.

 

Currently it's about 14" above water. Everything looks bright and all, but there is quite a bit of color separation due to water movement at the surface. One a white wall all colors blend very well.

 

So basically disco all over. What can be done to help that? I thing I imagine may help is to remove optics, but that would drop overall brightness of course plus I'm not even sure how much that would help.

 

Any thoughts?

[Horerczy]

Water has a different index of refraction from air. I imagine there's a lot of surface tension at the top of the water making the light refract in all diferent angles creating the disco effect. Removing the optics should help.

[MeepNand]

Remove optics and hang lower.

[raidendex]

Was just shooting video of dusk/dawn of the tank. I guess it's not so much disco, it's more bunch of dancing dark and bright spots all over the tank lol, i.e. shimmer, but it's way too busy I guess so just looks alien to me. Perhaps I will get used to it =.=

 

There is disco or more like 3D movie without glasses on the walls from spill over lol. Going to need to cover sides up a bit better.

[RollaJase]

No input?

[raidendex]

24h program test. Not best white balance, but its something.

 

[Horerczy]

I see pukani in that video.

[raidendex]

Yep, it is pukani.

 

Any suggestions on relative % of each color btw? I have Neutral White, Royal Blue, Deep Red, Turquoise, Cool Blue, and Hyper Violet.

Each channel I can dim from 0 to 255 (off to 100%)

 

So say I take Royal Blue as primary channel and the values of the rest based off of it. Should all channels just have same % at day settings or would you suggest something like say RB 100%, NW 80%, DR 30%, T 30% etc?

 

Thanks

[jedimasterben]

That's all up to your personal preference, honestly. Some people like more cyan, some people like more blue, etc.

[raidendex]

Well for corals would it be best to keep all at same level?

 

Also, which channels would be bright one that would need to be dimmed if I'm acclimating? Imagine NW and RB are bright ones, any other can be too strong?

[jedimasterben]

Corals want different amounts of light, so placement and whatnot come into play. If you feed more, have higher flow, and higher water parameters, you can give just about anything crazy amounts of light and they'll grow like weeds (see the 'pappone' method for on that).

 

I would play around with what looks best to you. Then keep that same ratio and tune it down to about 25-45% power to start acclimating corals, and go up by 5% or so each week, bump it up faster if you notice anything brown out (and back down if you see bleaching).

 

I basically just keep all mine at the same level. I'd like it to be a bit bluer than it is with everything at 100%, but meh, I'll live til I get my new array up.

[DreTheReefer]

I'm planning a led for my topless 6g edge it's dimensions are roughly 17x10x9 would figure 1 work with this tank or would I need to add any extra stars?

[jedimasterben]

Turn them down is all I'm saying. I measured number one, without the violet, over 500 PAR at 700mA current through the top glass of a 6g Edge.

[DreTheReefer]

So the spread without optics would be ok on a ledgroupbuy.com 12" heatsink kit?

[jedimasterben]

So the spread without optics would be ok on a ledgroupbuy.com 12" heatsink kit?

The heatsink they were on fit inside the original hood.

[DreTheReefer]

The heatsink they were on fit inside the original hood.

 

It's a topless edge dimensions are about 17x10x8. I was hoping to get away with using a 6 inch heatsink hung about 8 inches up. I'm just not sure if it would be enough spread to cover the tank. That's why I was thinking a 12 in heatsink because the. What I really was thinking is I could make a custom stand and light hanger that would look like the top of a Shepard's staff so I could place some sort of cover like a metal lamp shade. If I used the 6in

[jedimasterben]

Why would you need a 12" heatsink? You don't need that much area to cool down that few LEDs, and even bunched up would provide more than enough coverage.

[DreTheReefer]

Sweet thanks 6in it is.

[raidendex]

So I've recently got Apogee PAR meter.

 

Did some par reading and numbers seem somewhat low.

 

Layout

 

So each side of 120g tank has one of those above it in about center.

Totals per module are 12 Cree NW 80 degree, 24 Cree RB 80 degree, 16 HV 60 degree, 5 CB 80 degree, 5 T, 5 DR

 

Fixture is about 15" above water line.

 

At 100% (which I'd rather not run since then it uses 500 watts ...)

Dead center under a fixture and just above water line I get 1100PAR, right under water line in the same spot it drops to about 750-900. A lot of flow so it fluctuate quite a bit.

 

At sand bed I get about 250-300 in good spots, down to around 150 in spots near glass.

 

My rock work does not go very high, maybe about half way up the tank in most cases. So best I see at there is maybe 500 PAR.

 

I've been slowly ramping lights up, currently running at about 75%. ( 190/255 )

 

What do you guys think, should I change something with the fixture or are those numbers good as they are. What mainly throws me off is people with LEDs and PAR readings close to 1000 on some of their rock work. Or comments like needing 600+ PAR for certain acros. I feel like I can get there in some spots of the tank (well around 450-500 PAR, although that is about middle of the tank since rock is not that tall), but I definitely have to run my set up at 100% and that seem to use a bit too much power for supposedly low power consumption LEDs

 

There's a video of my rock work few posts above

 

Thoughts?

[McJosh13]

At 15" above water line with 80 degree optics a good portion of the light is probably spilling outside of the tank, not enough light is focused into the tank. I would think that 60 degree optics would be more appropriate at that height.

[jedimasterben]

So I've recently got Apogee PAR meter.

 

Did some par reading and numbers seem somewhat low.

 

Layout

 

So each side of 120g tank has one of those above it in about center.

Totals per module are 12 Cree NW 80 degree, 24 Cree RB 80 degree, 16 HV 60 degree, 5 CB 80 degree, 5 T, 5 DR

 

Fixture is about 15" above water line.

 

At 100% (which I'd rather not run since then it uses 500 watts ...)

Dead center under a fixture and just above water line I get 1100PAR, right under water line in the same spot it drops to about 750-900. A lot of flow so it fluctuate quite a bit.

 

At sand bed I get about 250-300 in good spots, down to around 150 in spots near glass.

 

My rock work does not go very high, maybe about half way up the tank in most cases. So best I see at there is maybe 500 PAR.

 

I've been slowly ramping lights up, currently running at about 75%. ( 190/255 )

 

What do you guys think, should I change something with the fixture or are those numbers good as they are. What mainly throws me off is people with LEDs and PAR readings close to 1000 on some of their rock work. Or comments like needing 600+ PAR for certain acros. I feel like I can get there in some spots of the tank (well around 450-500 PAR, although that is about middle of the tank since rock is not that tall), but I definitely have to run my set up at 100% and that seem to use a bit too much power for supposedly low power consumption LEDs

 

There's a video of my rock work few posts above

 

Thoughts?

 

Tread lightly when it comes to lighting that is that powerful. Once you get into the 500-600 PAR range and above, you'll start hitting photoinhibition in most stony corals, only some can handle more (at a reduced growth rate), and would need to be acclimated to it slowly.

[raidendex]

Right, so what would you suggest I set PAR at those rock surfaces about half way up the tank? I'm planing for them to host acros, millies. even the rock on the left side that is quite a bit lower would have SPS.

 

Say 300 on lower rock and 400 on higher one would be good numbers?

[jedimasterben]

How you have it now is fine, I would just be VERY careful taking it higher - all sorts of things need to be right in line once you get to higher PAR levels like that.

[raidendex]

Did some high tech tangent math... Lowered fixture about 3", now at 75% get about what I used to get at 100%

 

Basically tried so the cone hits the walls around the water surface, instead of 3-4 inches outside and spilling out. I suppose it doesn't need to cover whole surface, but making it any lower would get in the way of my hands messing with the tank.