How many black box LED’s for a 300 DD

[dazoc]

Looking into dumping my rapid led diy kit in favor of black boxes. Am tired of pulling the system down every 8 months, switching out burned out lights any to turn around and do it again.
Looking for some opinions on quanity needs to keep and maintain lps, nems, and maybe a few sps’s. I would rather overbuy and run them on a lower setting. I was thinking 6? 2 for each 2’ section am I out of line? Can I do most of it with 1 per section?

Thanks

 

[Aardvark1134]

Probably 8 of them in a 4x2 format (2 rows of 4) for full sps. With your goal might get away with 3x2

 

[Shawn.B]

im wondering if 3 of these would be suitable if your okay with a "lower" light tank https://amzn.to/38KmM6u

 

[mseepman]

I would look at 3 x X200 Mirage from LEDZeal.com They let you customize and they are fully App controllable. I just received mine today and will be lighting a 300g 7' tank (also coming from a DIY fixture). I don't have mine up yet obviously but all I read were good reviews. I got to customize my spectrum and 3 of these should be cheaper than 6 black boxes that you have to manually control.
Just my 2 cents though.

 

[loganlax07]

I would look at 3 x X200 Mirage from LEDZeal.com They let you customize and they are fully App controllable. I just received mine today and will be lighting a 300g 7' tank (also coming from a DIY fixture). I don't have mine up yet obviously but all I read were good reviews. I got to customize my spectrum and 3 of these should be cheaper than 6 black boxes that you have to manually control.
Just my 2 cents though.

Have any updates on how well these are doing? How many different channels do they operate on? What LED mix did you go with?

 

[rgulrich]

As my 300DD reef is a 360' walk around island with the reef spanning diagonally the length of the aquarium, this configuration may or may not be suitable for you and your reef build.

I've been running 6 ViparSpectra over my 300DD for newly two years now. Great spectrum of LEDs stock out of the box. Left to right a 165W, four 300W, then a 165W perpendicular to the back of the aquarium. This covers nearly the entire surface. I mounted them on pocket door rails inside the canopy with robust 120mm fan support to move the air out for temperature maintenance. These lights are approximately 8" from the surface of the water.

I've removed the lenses off of the LEDs and installed acrylic diffuser panels on the outside of each panel (ACRYLITE® Satinice optimum light diffusion at 91% transmissivity) with stainless magnets to blend the LEDs and eliminate any rainbow/disco effect. This arrangement puts out a pretty much solid band of light and thoroughly blends all the colors.
At 30% white and 40% blues across the board, with an Apogee meter I'm getting about 250 PAR at the bottom and about 350 PAR at 12" below the water surface, supporting robust acropora growth all the way to the bottom of the reef. Careful placement will minimize hot spots.

Be very careful with your installation if you go with a similar configuration. Leaving the lenses on will increase the depth penetration and intensity of the lights allowing for a much higher installation and less light spillage into the surrounding area, but also significantly narrowing the light spread. Not too much of an issue with a 32" light mounted perpendicular over a 36"D (front to back) aquarium, but may undesirably limit side-to-side spread as well. Also, *always use a PAR meter* to set up lights. You will bleach coral if you try to set these up in this type of an arrangement with just your eyes.
With this arrangement you won't have "glitter lines" as folks with Kessils or some other LEDs would, you'll have a very diffuse light much like a set of T5s spanning the top of the aquarium. I've supplemented mine with a collection of Kessils to reproduce the high color rendering index (CRI) and shallow-water "feel" of snorkeling on bright sunny days - the glitter lines - with minimal blue interference.

I'm not a big fan of "blue windex look" or the florescence of blacklight posters from the '70's in a reef - although these lights are certainly capable of all that with a vengeance. And yes, you can bleach coral with blue light only as well, so careful light level adjustment and a slow ramp-up to desired levels might be called for.

Hope this helps.

Oh, and the lights mentioned above look pretty good as well.

Cheers,
Ray

 

[Shooter6]

Have any updates on how well these are doing? How many different channels do they operate on? What LED mix did you go with?

I just got my first 4 x200 lights in. I did a custom layout based of the g5blue. They are super bright. I am ordering the seneye and am on the list for brs appogee sensor to get full par readings
I did a quick test on the manual adjustments just to see how bright they are. Hurt my eyes lol. If the vids wont play here i can do one on youtube Nd post a link.
Fyi they are coming out with a 3ft version soon, the x250.
Im lighting 3 8ft sps displays/grow tanks.

 

[Shooter6]

Also another option, is acrylic or aluminum case. I went with acrylic.

 

[ivanotas]

any update on the performance? how high did u mount it? what the light schedule.

 

[Shooter6]

Mind if i give you a suggestion for a better light option, is your tank 8x30x2? I have both a 320g and 400g build both 8ft. I know what light im using and its wifi app controlled. Ive been testing them for 3 weeks, had the manufacturers previous model on my 180g, took it down and put these in place. Ive seen a huge increase in growth. A close to copy layout as the g5blue !!

 

[ivanotas]

Mind if i give you a suggestion for a better light option, is your tank 8x30x2? I have both a 320g and 400g build both 8ft. I know what light im using and its wifi app controlled. Ive been testing them for 3 weeks, had the manufacturers previous model on my 180g, took it down and put these in place. Ive seen a huge increase in growth. A close to copy layout as the g5blue !!

Hi shooter6, I am on a 3ftx2ftx2ft tank. i will love to test out the led zeal. was wonder how much headroom is required to mount it so i can have light running efficiently. any special customized spec that you think i should replicate.
thanks in advance.

 

[Shooter6]

I would look at 3 x X200 Mirage from LEDZeal.com They let you customize and they are fully App controllable. I just received mine today and will be lighting a 300g 7' tank (also coming from a DIY fixture). I don't have mine up yet obviously but all I read were good reviews. I got to customize my spectrum and 3 of these should be cheaper than 6 black boxes that you have to manually control.
Just my 2 cents though.

THIS!! BUT GET THE BLUE LAYOUT. ALSO THERES AN X300 3FT LIGHT NOW. Here is the blue layout.
I currently have 3 over my 180g sps tank. Max i run each channel is 45-50% fans never come on at this output! 4 x200 for your mixed reef

 

[Shooter6]

Hi shooter6, I am on a 3ftx2ftx2ft tank. i will love to test out the led zeal. was wonder how much headroom is required to mount it so i can have light running efficiently. any special customized spec that you think i should replicate.
thanks in advance.

i got the x200. I copied the radion g5blue layot except the red and lime. I put violet blues. Which add red. Ive seen a huge increase in growth!

 

[Shooter6]

Hi shooter6, I am on a 3ftx2ftx2ft tank. i will love to test out the led zeal. was wonder how much headroom is required to mount it so i can have light running efficiently. any special customized spec that you think i should replicate.
thanks in advance.

1 x200 about 10 inches should do fine, 1 x300 will give full coverage for sure

 

[Shooter6]

Oops attached a pic of a bounce by accident

 

[Shooter6]

if you order the mirage x200 or x300 just ask kevin for the blue layout.
Im putting 6 of the x200 over the 3w0g and 6 x300 over the 400g. Both are sps grow out displays getting highend corals. Im going to run them front to back so will get complete coverage.
To simplify ordering, website sux balls, here is the sales reps email.
[email protected]

 

[ivanotas]

Hi shooter6,
thanks for the information. how high did you mount it over your tank water level.
when you run it at 40 to 45% did the power brick become real hot? just want to know more.
not to annoy. thanks in advance.

 

[Shooter6]

Hi shooter6,
thanks for the information. how high did you mount it over your tank water level.
when you run it at 40 to 45% did the power brick become real hot? just want to know more.
not to annoy. thanks in advance.

I have them at 14inches from the water, same height as the previous light. I dont know how hot they get but will check tomorrow as i mounted them to the wall

 

[Shooter6]

they have been of for about 20min and are cold right now

 

[Shooter6]