Led's on a 120 gal help

A

Alf

I've decided to try led's on my 120 gal 4x2x2. I am considering 3 runs of 28 bulbs ea. for a total of 84 Bulbs all 3watt. I would think that should be sufficent for just about any thing I wanted to keep, any thoughts? These are all dimmer controled. I plan to purchase the kit from steves leds, any thoughts on this?
Now where do I start? With this kind of bulb count what would be a good bulb configuration meaning color temps? It starts out with the 50/50 white to blue, but my understanding for better color pop some of the others colors mixed in should be considered. I have to be honest even with all i've readed i'm just more educated and confused.
Another question I plan to build a custom canopy to place these in, what should the discatnce be from ea. tube going front to back 24" wide tank should these be placed at 6" , 12", and 18" ? or should they be closer together? I heard that placement is huge? I haven't a clue about lenses if anybody has suggestions on this as well I would appreciate it.
Thank in advance
 
Thats disapointing I would of thought there would have been many who could have helped. Thanks again Ill try RC I guess.
 
@Alf wrote:
I've decided to try led's on my 120 gal 4x2x2. I am considering 3 runs of 28 bulbs ea. for a total of 84 Bulbs all 3watt. I would think that should be sufficent for just about any thing I wanted to keep said:
I'm no expert for sure, I have a 120 same dimensions as yours so I can tell you what I run and the success I have hopefully had. I'm using a 46 light DIY from Rapidleds. 23 white, 23 blue on dimmerable drives and 5 royal blues and 3 reds on a non-dimmerable driver. I don't use a canopy and mine are mounted about 6-8 inches off the water. I took the lens off and the clarity of light is much improved. I'm running all these on a 4' by 10" heatsink. I have a SPS dominated tank and running the blues for 12 hours and the blues and whites for 7. My sps growth could be better but the color and polyp extension is good. So to answer your question, 84 lights should be more than enough. As far as placement, I'd consider a configuration where your lights are not covering the front of your tank, maybe leave the first 6-8 inches of your canopy blank so you can put some lps or coral that doesn't like a lot of light on your sand bed, maybe tighten your configuration up a litte, 8, 12, 16? My first lights are about 7 - 8 inches in from the front of the tank and I have a chalice, and some other lps and softies and they seem to get plenty of light, leaving a higher concentration for the middle and back of the tank where my rock work/corals are mounted.
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I would invest in a par meter and to really research the place where your LED's are made. If they shift wavelength too much then your coral will not like their artificial sun your creating. Remember we are trying to simulate the sun....not make the coral look pretty....pretty does not always make it grow.
Try to get a happy medium of what place on the planet the items are from and it will help you with the lighting you will need. You also might consider getting a par meter and getting some readings before you get the fixture complete.
 
Thanks again this had been helpful. Im purchasing from http://www.StevesLEDs.com alot of people here seem to have used them. I like the clean design for a canopy. Steve recommended 3.5" apart for best color blend and shimmer for best coral growth. He recommends 2:1 blue to white with no other color bulbs. this is the part I would hate to mess up on, I want to hopefully not have to worry about lighting for a while. This is the first change I have made in lighting on this tank in 12 years. I hate the heat my MH give off they heat the whole room, nice in the winter but sux in the summer lol. Not to mention in the long run I hope to save on electric and bulbs.
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Need to take some new pics. The lighting ballast are 12 years old so its time for and update badly.
 
I wouldn't run a blue and white only setup you are missing 1/2 the spectrum that way. Look at the colors of T5s and the colors put out my MH

Sent from my Toasted Marshmallow using Tapatalk 2
 
@niteowl03 wrote:
I wouldn't run a blue and white only setup you are missing 1/2 the spectrum that way. Look at the colors of T5s and the colors put out my MH Sent from my Toasted Marshmallow using Tapatalk 2 said:
I agree if you look at the sun with protective glasses....one of the main colors we see are white, yellow, blue and red....your critters are seeing a whole lot more.
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I know I am late to the party here but here is my 120 LED setup.
I need to take some more pictures. I have re-aquacaped. I have no complaints about my setup other than when I was building it, people really were just experimenting with different color LEDs.
It was a gamble I wasn't really ready to take. The good thing is that i can add different colors when/if life slows down a bit.

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You may want to look at adding a few UV LED's. not for the UV feature but for the Red spectrum. I have a 180 with 144 3w LED's. went 2:1 on blue/white and then added 12 UV and 12 Moon.

UV holds the red and lower Blue spectrum which gets you closer to the Actinic spectrum. Growth is amazing across the board on LPS and SPS.

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