need some lighting suggestions

C

Carabelli

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I am considering combining the 2 display tanks into a longer shallow tank .. the new tank dimensions would be 56" long, 20" wide and 14" tall ... it will be a shallow sand bed at best, and will house a mixture of sps, lps, zoas etc ... essentially what is in the tanks now ...

I really want to go with some form of LED, and, I am strongly considering going with a LED setup from stevesleds.com ... i want to go with leds to cut down on the heat in the room, so i can play with the colors and cut back on electricity. I would love to do a diy led setup using a retrofit from steve or reefleds ... but, i want to model it after the new mame light ... essentially the leds with heatsink sandwiched between 2 pieces of glass ... the top piece forming the backbone of the light and the bottom shielding the bulbs ... plus, i think i would like to run a full length single t5 bulb with a kz fiji purple to supplement ... questions are ...

> will the glass support that kind of weight ... the light will be suspended with light hangers
> what led setup would you guys recommend
> what else would you suggest?

thanks
 
Prob with glass sandwiching the heatsinks I see a problem there not letting the heat out. Depending how big a fixture you are going a good heatsink is pretty heavy say you go 48". Plus you need fans to blow the heat away from the heat sink. Not sure what drivers steve uses but I would go meanwell dimmable and use an apex or profilix to adjust the blue and white of the LEDs.

Might take a look of uchins led setup he runs LEDs with T5's

My only question is will it be too much par for that shallow of a tank. LEDs shoot down a beam of light and can fry a coral
 
good point pampee ... I suppose I was planning on going with 80 degree lens and fewer leds to accomodate the shallower depth ... that coupled with dimming should allow me to adjust the light ... does uchin have a build log?
 
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