LED's and Wattage

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dfwsoundtech

So I am hesitantly about to step into the led world. Ive been checking out LEDS on ebay and have been eyeing these 120 watt or so setups. Ive always been partial to halides but the wife is fussing about the power bill. I have a 34 Gallon Solana I want to set up for mainly zoas but maybe a little LPS. Being a former stage lighting tech I know that LED wattage is different than standard wattage. For example Ive used stage lights that had a 3 watt led that put out equivalent intensity if a 150watt halogen projector lamp. It gets really confusing. What is the recommendation for my size tank in LED wattage, and is there a rule of thumb on that?
 
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I will be updating it this weekend with some PAR tests for more data, but i would say that one of the 120w fixtures is too much for the tank unless you plan to run it about 16in over the tank. You could get away with a Par38 bulb similiar to this one: http://www.rapidled.com/12-led-par38-bulb-mixed-color-with-uv/
 
Not sure on the rule of thumb but you may want to check out www.buildmyled.com as this is where I just ordered my led fixture. I dont have it yet but it is budget friendly and great quality and they have fixtures from 12" - 48".

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Watts is a fairly inaccurate method of comparing lights since it is a measure of electricity consumed and many options are much more efficient than MH.
More useful may be to use lumens. A number of 250 watt bulbs produce around 20,000 lumens. I've seen some 150 watt LED arrays claiming around 16,000 lumens.
Then to complicate things, Photosynthetic Available Radiation isn't going to be the same for a LED and MH, even if they claim to have the same Kelvin color rating.

Thus, the debate continues to rage between the two. :) Someone should set up one large tank and run MH on one side and LED on the other and split coral colonies between the two with a big thick black divider between the two sides and take good notes for the next 2 years.
 
@shse666 wrote:
Someone should set up one large tank and run MH on one side and LED on the other and split coral colonies between the two with a big thick black divider between the two sides and take good notes for the next 2 years. said:
Good idea!!! Don't you still have that large tank we moved? That would be perfect for a test:) In fact, it should be long enough to add T5's too, lol...
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Well I have a 400 watt MH setup and a 6 bulb X 24" setup. If someone wanted to contribute a Vega or other high end LED and some corals I would give it a shot. :p
 
For a 20" depth I'd go with a 120° optics 3w Cree about 50w-60w set up for softies and LPS. If you get 1w LEDs then you might want 60° optics. If you wanna do SPS, you can also, but I think flow is more important than lighting.
 
@shse666 wrote:
Their last update was 5/19/2012 Love to see an update from them with some photo comparisons. [I]@hoopsdaddy wrote:[/I][quote="[quote=" Someone should set up one large tank and run MH on one side and LED on the other and split coral colonies between the two with a big thick black divider between the two sides and take good notes for the next 2 years. said:
http://www.vividaquariums.com/aquariumLightExperiment.asp"]"]

I agree and was trying to find that link but he beat me to it :)
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