Help!! Thinking of DIY led build
- Thread starter jcoll
- Start date
Mark Bianco
New member
I have a 120 g 6ft tank
Nice size I assume it is a standard height?
How many LEDs? Should I use?
What type of corals do you intend to keep?
What good websites can I find the equipment in?
Were can I find some more info?
Are you willing to do a DIY, or are you looking for a prebuilt fixture?
Thanks for any help I can get
Answer the questions above and I am sure you will have many replys
Mark
Nice size I assume it is a standard height?
How many LEDs? Should I use?
What type of corals do you intend to keep?
What good websites can I find the equipment in?
Were can I find some more info?
Are you willing to do a DIY, or are you looking for a prebuilt fixture?
Thanks for any help I can get
Answer the questions above and I am sure you will have many replys
Mark
I am planning on keeping most types so far i have a galaxi coral some anemones an oregon blue tort a blastro a hammer coral a acan echinata and some ricordias i plan on adding a lot more.
2. i am willing to do a diy if its cheaper then just buying a fixture yes
thanks for any info you can help me with
also thank you dead coral i will look into that one
2. i am willing to do a diy if its cheaper then just buying a fixture yes
thanks for any info you can help me with
also thank you dead coral i will look into that one
rjackson82
New member
reefledlights.com is another one but rapidled seems to be cheaper and more choices. i am also looking into a LED build thinking of doing the snap together kit.
Mark Bianco
New member
3 x 48 led fixtures would have great coverage
Others may have a different opinion on this, but for the blue lights in my tank I went with the 10 watt royal blue lights from satistronics.com. I think the wattage rating is off but they are extremely bright, and so far with only test runs of the fixture, the few corals I have in my tank have responded amazingly well to them.
http://www.satistronics.com/10w-hig...-the-rapidly-growing-reef-lighting_p2773.html
Oh, the tank is a 72 bowfront. The light fixture itself is 36" long, I used 6 of those lights spaced evenly along that length. I'm also using about 70 3 watt pure white LEDs, but I'm not considering those in this discussion, just making a recommendation on the blues.
http://www.satistronics.com/10w-hig...-the-rapidly-growing-reef-lighting_p2773.html
Oh, the tank is a 72 bowfront. The light fixture itself is 36" long, I used 6 of those lights spaced evenly along that length. I'm also using about 70 3 watt pure white LEDs, but I'm not considering those in this discussion, just making a recommendation on the blues.
Thanks for the input!
Would 3 of the 36 LEDs not work? Mark bianco How do you know how many LEDs you will need?
On my 125 would I be able to do 3 seperate shorter heat sinks or would I have to do 1 long heat sink?
Which way would be better?
Also what are these optics with percentage that I see? What do these do and are they important?
Also how do you know how many whites and blues to put on there?
Sry for the rain of questions I am just a little lost:headwally:
Would 3 of the 36 LEDs not work? Mark bianco How do you know how many LEDs you will need?
On my 125 would I be able to do 3 seperate shorter heat sinks or would I have to do 1 long heat sink?
Which way would be better?
Also what are these optics with percentage that I see? What do these do and are they important?
Also how do you know how many whites and blues to put on there?
Sry for the rain of questions I am just a little lost:headwally:
Number of LED's will depend on the wattage/lumens, and what you're trying to accomplish. A FOWLR will need far less light than a full blown reef setup. For the former the color could be determined largely by taste as whiter light is mainly for human enjoyment, the fish don't really care. In a reef tank I'll leave determining color up to someone else as that's not my main focus. Heat sink configuration is pretty much what you like. If you want to do pendents, you could use a number of shorter heat sinks running front to back, or any other configuration you like. In my hood build I used one long heat sink as I just figured it would be simpler, but any configuration would work, it's just a matter of taste.
Optics are rated in degrees of focus. So a 10 degree optic throws out light in a 10 degree radius. You have to keep in mind though that a ten degree radius is much narrower at a distance from the source of 12" than it is a 36".
Optics are rated in degrees of focus. So a 10 degree optic throws out light in a 10 degree radius. You have to keep in mind though that a ten degree radius is much narrower at a distance from the source of 12" than it is a 36".
