LED’s for large tank - what would be your choice?

[hart24601]

I personally would cover the tank with orphek light bars or nicer BB – and I mean cover the entire tank! The reason being is that I would want to cover as much of the tank's surface area as possible. I am a fan of orphek v4 but the cost to cover that tank I would probably elect for the bars – however after owning AI, ecotechs, kessils, orpheks and various BB I think nearly the entire surface area should directly have light over it. I would get the 36” bars (to run front to back - the width of the tank) and put them about every 1ft give or take with the ability to add more and put them closer together if needed. 11 bars x $120 each for 1,320 to start with. Then can check PAR and add more and scoot them closer easily if using something like 80/20 mounts. I might end up wanting to have them every 6 inches. You can even have custom layouts done if you want it. Seems like a good way to get nice coverage. Can also pick different optics if you wanted to hang them higher or needed more penetration. 45w for this size of bar each.

 

[hart24601]

Double post

 

[Peter K]

Perhaps you are thinking about it wrong? My current tank is nominally a 400, 96"x36"x30". It has long been my view that folks light their tanks incorrectly, to wit, spend all this money shining light on the front panel to grow algae that then has to be removed. Pointless! Unless you plan to stuff corals to the very front of the 36" dimension, think outside the box (pun intended), do what I did. I light my tank as if it were only 24" from front to back (thus positioning the lights at the 12" mark from the back). I am able to grow SPS to about 10" from the front panel, LPS to about 6". The front is then just sand. Guess what, very little algae growth on the front and plenty of swimming space; and very little light spill into the room (which I hate). I will never light my tanks in the 'traditional' way again.

Your post made me realize something I have forgot to mention and something I did not think that carefully about, is that this will be a peninsula tank so more than likely the rock structure will only be 20-24” wide max down the center of the tank and if lps are placed on the sand bed then the spill over light should be plenty.

 

[Peter K]

I personally would cover the tank with orphek light bars or nicer BB – and I mean cover the entire tank! The reason being is that I would want to cover as much of the tank's surface area as possible. I am a fan of orphek v4 but the cost to cover that tank I would probably elect for the bars – however after owning AI, ecotechs, kessils, orpheks and various BB I think nearly the entire surface area should directly have light over it. I would get the 36” bars (to run front to back - the width of the tank) and put them about every 1ft give or take with the ability to add more and put them closer together if needed. 11 bars x $120 each for 1,320 to start with. Then can check PAR and add more and scoot them closer easily if using something like 80/20 mounts. I might end up wanting to have them every 6 inches. You can even have custom layouts done if you want it. Seems like a good way to get nice coverage. Can also pick different optics if you wanted to hang them higher or needed more penetration. 45w for this size of bar each.

Ya the orphek bars are great I love the one I have, the plan is already to do an 80/20 rack that can be raised and lowered so it would make mounting the bars a breeze. I honestly might be better off going with more of these bars and spotlighting with my existing lights to save some money on equipment and spend some more on coral

 

[Peter K]

Very jealous of your upcoming tank! That's the dimensions I wish I could have for a future tank! I have no experience lighting a tank that wide, but I have always thought how I would do it for a tank that size.

If using all LEDs and given your experience with Kessils, you could consider going with 5 Kessil AP700 turned vertically. Your mounting height would need to be around 7" to 9" I think to get the desired 36" spread for the tank width (so one fixture will cover a 24"L x 36"W area). The reason for using the AP700 over the 360s is that the AP700 is about 2.5 times more powerful than the one A360 (older models anyway). Plus, having 5 fixtures, power cords, and power bricks is more manageable vs having 10+ of each if you go with individual 360s. The AP700 is 20 inches long, so you'd have room on each side to add some T5s in as well (or LED bars). You could also throw in 4 of your existing A360s in between the AP700s if you wanted some additional par. You might not even need the T5s then, but I personally favor T5s with kessils, as the shimmer from kessils alone is too much for me.

If it were MY tank that was going to be SPS dominant, I'd go with two 60" 8 bulb ATI fixtures with 6 inch gap on each end and mount them around 8 to 12 inches high. You will definitely get adequate par for the 120" length at 24" depth but the 36" width would likely be an issue. I'd add in LED bars on each side of the fixture to help with that. Your upfront cost would be less, but bulb costs over time will eventually overtake the all LED route (but probably a 4 or 5 year break even period).

Good luck with the build!

I might pick up an ap700 to experiment with over my frag tank, I am a fan of the form factor and power supplies are already a pain and I only have 7 of them for my current lights. I didn’t realize they have the power edge over 2 360’s.

 

[ca1ore]

Your post made me realize something I have forgot to mention and something I did not think that carefully about, is that this will be a peninsula tank so more than likely the rock structure will only be 20-24” wide max down the center of the tank and if lps are placed on the sand bed then the spill over light should be plenty.

Oh, then I would absolutely just run a line of lights down the center as if it were a 24" wide tank. No brainer.

 

[Daniel Waters]

I didn’t realize they have the power edge over 2 360’s.

I've never personally used the AP700s. My comments regarding the par power difference of approximately 2.5x is based off several things. I have compared BRS videos detailing par values for the AP700 and A360s. Also, I believe the A360 has 45 led chips (3 of which are true UV), while the AP700 has 60 chips in each puck, for a total of 120 chips (some of which are true UV also). I would assume kessil is using the same chips in the AP700 as they do in the A360W. This would imply each AP700 is equivalent to 2.67 A360s. Of course, this over simplifies things as many factors can impact led performance (such as how hard they are driven, heat, and other technical issues). Also, I'm not certain if the AP700 use the same lens optics as the A360W, so this can make par measurements between the two units hard to do on an apples to apples basis. I'm pretty sure the lens angle on the AP700 is less severe than the A360W, so that might make it more prone to creating hot spots depending on how you want to do your mounting.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Couple a these

SBreeflight Photon torpedo.

 

[Peter K]

Couple a these

SBreeflight Photon torpedo.

500 and 1000w geesh, I could light a small town and my tank with a couple of those!!

 

[CC13]

I have large and deep display tank that is 36" tall. Right now I have (3) 400W halides and (3) AI Hydra 52 HD's.

TBH I am going to swap my LED units for T5's again for a halide/T5 combo. I like the look, it grows SPS and just works. The Hydra's are toys, and they work perfectly, but halides and T5's from my last tank got the look, colour and growth that can't be matched right now by LED's.

 

[YumaMan]

If you go with 24" width for your tank I would choose ReefBreeder Photon V2 series LED lights as the primary lighting, in combination with T5 lights using a variety of Giessmann tubes. I ramp up the LEDs and then kick on the T5s at mid-day all at once, no ramp up for the T5s, no problem. This lighting scheme should not bankrupt you. The Photon series is an extraordinarily good light for the price. And I buy used HO T5 reflectors with their ballasts at my LFS, sometimes for as little as $15 plus the cost of the new tubes (the LFS is switching to all LED lights, as many stores are). I am getting very good growth in all of my corals, SPS, LPS, whatever -- better than with LED alone. Some corals simply do not look their best under LEDs alone, IMO, and then some colors are not apparent except by programming your LEDs. This solution is the best of both worlds. Energy costs/tradeoffs? Not a problem. I do not use a chiller, and the cooling fan did not even kick on once this summer over my 120 reef -- and I live in Houston, Texas!

 

[mandarin417]

My 120ish tank (36" wide by 30" front to back by 27" deep) tank is lit with a single 20K 250W metal halide with a BML super actinic LED strip. Corals do great the LED strip add nice color both when the halide is on and when it is off at the beginning and end of the day. MH spread is awesome and I think an affordable tried and true option. BML is not making the lights for the reef folks now so the Orphek bars would work well. Unlike T5's, you don't have to change them annually. Go halide to start and you can switch down the road. Still lots of development in the future coming for LEDs.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Either the Aurora series lighting or Kessil AP700's

 

[zach_discus]

Hybrid approach, t5/led for my 580. Tank is 114x36x32. 5 CT lite 270watt G3s and 8 48” T5s to supplement and keep shadows down.

 

[Jay Norris]

What do you think about the Mitra's, the 7206 series. These are by far the best LED's I have ever used, they have built in reflectors like the parabolic MH fixtures, no disco ball effect and will cover an area of 36" x 24". If you want a cheaper option, I would go with the Reef Breeders Photon V2+, which is also a very good light. Good luck with whatever you choose.

 

[Peter K]

What do you think about the Mitra's, the 7206 series. These are by far the best LED's I have ever used, they have built in reflectors like the parabolic MH fixtures, no disco ball effect and will cover an area of 36" x 24". If you want a cheaper option, I would go with the Reef Breeders Photon V2+, which is also a very good light. Good luck with whatever you choose.

To be honest, I don’t have much experience with them I played around with them a little at macna this year but haven’t done much more research than that I will have to look into them. I’ll be using ghl’s controller on the tank so might make sense to look at their lights as well. Have you had any experience with customer service with them?

 

[Peter K]

Hybrid approach, t5/led for my 580. Tank is 114x36x32. 5 CT lite 270watt G3s and 8 48” T5s to supplement and keep shadows down.

Do you use retrofit t5’s or actual fixtures?

 

[pwilliaml]

I use the ReefBreeder Photon V2 as well as it's an amazing LED light for not a ton of money. Wireless remote, meanwell power supply (probably the best in the industry) and it's easy to add some T5's to the side or some of the Orphek light bars for more light. Their website shows you how to make any color temperature setting with the remote. They keep the light nice and spread out to cover every part of your tank and I have mine at about 15" above the water with no disco effect. I actually replaced some Gen 3 Radion's with these as I got tired of the shadows that 2 lights were creating in my tank. No more shadows with the Photon V2.