If we could do our lighting all over again said:Well, what are you trying to accomplish? Whats the budget? Will you have a canopy on your tank??
I did build a canopy for the tank said:There are many ways to go .. Metal Halide if you can keep the heat down.They are bright and tried and true with great shimmer. T5 setup cooler temps and alot of color pop and able to grow most sps. MAybe even LED lighting for coolest temps and lower cost overall long term possibly? Expensive upfront though! How deep is your tank? HAlide maybe cheaper if you dont have to get a chiller ,which can be acomplished with some fans and keeping your house cool. T5's give nice coloration over all with the different bulb combo's and number of bulbs you might run. I think and this is just my opinion but led's will be the future although costly right now out right, can save money long term becasue they last long time and have great color and pop if you get the right color combo upfront. I cant really decide for you but i like my led's and im most happy with them for temp and not having to replace them every 6-12 months or so like halide and T5's and Vho's. Your welocome to come by and see my lights anytime if you want. Then maybe go and view Acro's (JAson's) which i like how bright his lights are. Let me know. Talk to Jason on here he is a master with SPS corals.
Thanks for the great info saltpro said:No problem, and your welcome to come by anytime
thanks said:If you want you can come by and see my blue leds and the pop they create. I dont have alot of fancy corals but you will get the idea. corals glow like crazy under them.
If you want you can come by and see my blue leds and the pop they create. I dont have alot of fancy corals but you will get the idea. corals glow like crazy under them. said:That is the selling point to LEDs for sure. Seeing how they make the corals look is SICK! I've ordered some LEDs for that reason, i'm ditching my VHOs for LEDs when it comes to actinic lighting. Going to run two 22" thin arrays with 12 or so leds on each one, all royal blue. I'll have more room under the hood, corals will look crazy, and i'll be about 140watts less in power consumption.
I'll post some pics of the before and after.
[quote=" If you want you can come by and see my blue leds and the pop they create. I dont have alot of fancy corals but you will get the idea. corals glow like crazy under them. said:That is the selling point to LEDs for sure. Seeing how they make the corals look is SICK! I've ordered some LEDs for that reason, i'm ditching my VHOs for LEDs when it comes to actinic lighting. Going to run two 22" thin arrays with 12 or so leds on each one, all royal blue. I'll have more room under the hood, corals will look crazy, and i'll be about 140watts less in power consumption.
I'll post some pics of the before and after."]
Yep, your going to like them alot.
If your thinking about LEDs your looking at 48 LEDs per 2 feet if your going SPS dominated. Your up front costs is going to be a lot! That being said you can pick up used $250w MH ballasts cheap. If you can get Luminbright (LG) or Luminmax (elite) pendants said:If I may ask, what is the wattage of each of the 48 LEDs per 2 feet that you are recommending? Thank you!
David
[I]@Acrodisiac wrote:[/I][quote="If your thinking about LEDs your looking at 48 LEDs per 2 feet if your going SPS dominated. Your up front costs is going to be a lot! That being said you can pick up used $250w MH ballasts cheap. If you can get Luminbright (LG) or Luminmax (elite) pendants said:If I may ask, what is the wattage of each of the 48 LEDs per 2 feet that you are recommending? Thank you!
David"]
Not to answer for Acrodisiac, but i think the ones he is looking at are 3 watt per led.
They vary, you can get 3 watt cree leds and some other brands that are relatively the same wattage. There even some leds that are 30 watt. Most of the better ones are 3 watt and alot of them run at slightly half the wattage for prolonged life expectency. I run 72 leds on my 75 gallon for example, they are 3 watt leds but run at around 1.5 watts each. They will blind you and burn your corals if not careful. If you want to just supplement you current lights then go all blue leds. If you want an all led lit tank then go with twice the blue leds as white. Dont go with 50 percent blue and 50 percent white becuase it looks bad and washed out. This is just my opinion of course. For instance on my tank its 48 blue leds and 24 white. To me this looks correct. So far all my corals are loving it and have responded well. My tank is mixed with about all types of corals although not some difficult sps varieties because i havent really been into that. I like the more mixed natural look
"they are 3 watt leds but run at around 1.5 watts each." Do you have optics on the LEDs? You don't want to use them turned all the way up? David said:Mine are 3 watt but run at around half wattage by design so they will last and not over heat and burn out prematurely. Most are like that. Almost none are ran at what they are rated for. I dont have optics and to me there not needed. In my opinion you need to have enough led's for coverage so you dont get a spotlight effect that some optics cause. So what im saying is, if you have enough leds you shouldnt need optics. Just my opinion though.