Cree LED Recommendations for 7.1 in Shallow Pico Canopy?

[xredlinexx1]

Hi,

I will be starting a pico SPS reef tank (aquamaxx 2.6g) and i'm building a custom wood canopy for it. The canopy will have 1.75 inches of free space between the tank rim and its top and likely another .5-.75 inches to the waterline from the rim. I'm looking to build a custom led light for this very small space without frying the coral (or starting a fire on the canopy). I'm thinking of 2 royal blues and 2 cool white cree leds, fastened on a custom cut t-slotted aluminum plate. I will use a dimmer to control the light output. Also i will certainly have to fasten an acrylic shield as well. It looks like I can get the power down to about 1 watt per LED, but I'm still puzzled on whether or not this may even fry coral.

Anyone have some experience with high power leds close to the waterline on a very shallow tank? I'm also looking for a sanity check here haha.

Thanks!

[Reefkid88]

I'm building ( well at least trying too) a light for my Deep Blue 12"x6"x6" tank. In the past I have used about 40-60w of leds over my pico's for sps. Yes,complete overkill but if you run dimmable drivers,dial it down and if you need more light,just spin the knob lol. 

 

 I am currently looking at and will more than likely go with:

 

 MakersLed 6" T-Slot sink-$16 LedGroupBuy

 2 Invertronics Dimmable Drivers-$64 LedGroupBuy

 2 20k Pots for dimming-$5 LedGroupBuy

 6x Cree XP-G3 Royals-$18 RapidLed

 2x Semi 420-430 Hyper Violet-$8RapidLed

 1x Semi 390-400 Violets-$5 RapidLed

 1x Semi 410-420 Violets-$4 RapidLed

 2x Cree XM-L2 Neutral Whites-$10 RapidLed

 1x Cree XP-E2 Regular Blue's-$3.25 RapidLed

 1x Luxeon C Mint- $2.25 StevesLeds

 

 The MakersLed Sink will come a acrylic cover,end caps,mounting screws for the leds so that will work good for you. I used mind to attach baking paper to cut down the shimmer because while I love the controls of leds,I HATE the shimmer more than anything.