LED Suggestions?

[H2OEng]

I've decided to jump back into the hobby after about 3 years absence. In the next 6 month's I'm setting up a custom 120 but in the mean time I'm setting up a grow out system. Got 2 ea 40 gal breeders I'm drilling for grow out tanks with a 3 rd 40 gal breeder as a sump / fuge. I plan on setting up 1 of the 40's as a SPS grow out tank with the second being geared towards SPS acclimation (to LED's) / LPS / chalice tank. Both will be under LED's. My 120 will ultimately be under LED's as well.

With all the options now on LED's what's everyone's opinions on fixtures. Suggestions on unit's to go with? Pro's, Con's?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Do you want economical (dimmers), a bit fancier (built-in controller) or high end (runs off a reef controller)? How long is your 120g? Do you want leds for both the 40 breeders and the 120g, or ones for the 40g breeders that can then be moved to the 120g DT when it is set up? Do you plan to keep the 40g tanks set up after the 120g is running? There are a ton of options out there and new ones coming out fairly regularly. For well built and good quality lights at economical prices I'd look at OceanRevive, EverGrow and Reef Breeders, for high end stuff I'd look at Eco Tech and Pacific Sun.

You probably want to go with 3W leds and at least a 2:1 ratio of blue to white (IMHO a 3:1 or even 4:1 is better, but good luck finding it with out doing a custom layout). If you end up with a 1:1 (please don't) or a 2:1 blue to white ratio, red and green leds aren't really important, they are trying to show they are 'full spectrum'. But with that many white leds, they already are full spectrum... too much white (which is full spectrum enough) and not enough blue. Newer fixtures and layouts have been more blue and less white. Pacific Sun even does a fixture with no white leds (the 8 colors they use blend to look white to our eyes). Ask lots of questions. I almost bought 4 EcoTech Radions for my 180g DT when I found the EverGrow IT series fixtures. I ended up with 2 of the EverGrow IT2080's and saved over $2000. After 9 months with them, I couldn't be happier! And the 2 grand I saved has bought a lot of other cool stuff!

Here you can see the tank with the lights exposed in the canopy:

 

[Zero Nitrates]

Take a look at Vertex Illumina LED's. I love mine.
Have fun reefing!