LED Questions

[foxhuntr]

Ok....i think i might take the jump into LED lighting but i have a few questions first...so if any of you LED wizards out there can help me i would really appriciate it.... first off my tank is 72"x18"x18" (length, height, width ) with 2 euro-braces.... light will be about 12" above the water..... i was thinking about 3 panels with 48 Q-5 XR-E....24 ROYAL BLUE AND 24 SOFT WHITES......with 40 degree lenses per panel.....the panels will be inside of a canopy with fans blowing on the heat sinks on each end and 2 fans on top sucking the heat out...... but i am not sure that i need that many LED's on each panel or how far to space each LED from each other..... can someone help me out ????
Thanks

 

[macawmagic]

for a tank like that...if you're interested...i'd recommend just buying 3 of the fixtures from reefkoi. they'll be perfect. if you're looking to do custom stuff...then someone else will probably chime in!

 

[cmcneil]

one of the biggest factors for figuring out what you need bulb wise will be what type of corals you want to keep in the tank.you can get away with alot less bulbs for a softy tank than you can for a SPS tank.for my LPS acan dominated 17" cube i have 24 3w cree's.the manufacturers specs claim the setup i have is about the same as a 175w halide.so for your tank,depending on what type of corals you want to house,i would estimate 75-140 3w LED's bulbs.just my opinion

 

[foxhuntr]

my tank is pretty much LPS dominated such as chalices and acans but i run 3 250 watt MH and 8 39 watt T5's.......i would like to start getting into some SPS's so i need the LED's to compairable to say 400 watt MH's......

 

[chadfarmer]

good thread ---its confusing trying to figure this out

 

[wld1783]

Foxhuntr

Depending on the type of MH you would need around 150-180 LEDs driven at 700mA to get the PAR you want to replace 3 400 watt MH. I would keep the three Heatsink idea but I would go with 3 18"x8.46" Heatsinks with 12 XR-E Cool White evenly spaced and 24 Royal Blue Bin D316. I would use 70 degree optics to get the spread you want. Also down the middle I would run 12 XP-G Cool White they are a bit warmer than the XR-E Cool White. This would give you around 12-15K 20K with the XP-G off and around 300PAR at 24" and would be fine for SPS. If you like a warmer look Then go with an extra 12 XR-E Cool White but keep the XP-G for a High Noon effect.

Bill