LED Lighting Recommendation

[kar1998]

I am looking to change lighting from T5 lights to LED lights on a 125 gallon tank which is 72" long, 18" wide, and 22" tall. The tank has twelve 3 foot bulbs that need to be replaced. The tank has a mixture of both hard and soft corals. On the Tulsa Craigslist there are 60 watt LED light fixtures which are CREE XR-E series, 10 3-watt 6000-9000K white and 10 3-watt 455nm royal blue. They have 60 degree view angle. The fixture is about 16" long and
5.6" wide.

How many of these fixture would I need to this tank? Is there a less expensive way to go?

Ken Rhodes

 

[ghellin]

Probably all 3 to get even coverage. If you are capable of DIY you can get Cree XP series LEDs for $3-$5 each and build your own fixture and save some money.

 

[papagimp]

Probably all 3 to get even coverage. If you are capable of DIY you can get Cree XP series LEDs for $3-$5 each and build your own fixture and save some money.

I'm still a little bit aways from the funding for my LED's but imma try the DIY method, it starting to look a lot easier than I had originally anticipated.

 

[Doomed]

I recently went to an LED setup. The longest they come in is 48" right now. I love these lights. Here are a few pictures from when I installed them.

Here is the link to their website as well.

http://www.current-usa.com/lighting/truelumen-pro-led-striplights

 

[lauremf2002]

how much do those run?

 

[Doomed]

The strips are $169 each and then you have to have a transformer for them. 1 transformer can run up to 2 strips and they are $75 each. My setup was right at $900 with tax.

 

[kar1998]

LED Lighting

LED Lighting

If I use the Cree lights, any recommendation on how many bulbs it would take or what the configuration needs to be? The source of the LED's that I know about is RapidLED and Heat Sink USA for the heat sink. Any other recommendation on sources?

 

[ghellin]

If you go with Crees I would go with 96-120 depending on what Corals you want. Rapid is a great place or there is cutter (WWW.cutter.com.au) they give price breaks on larger orders. But not much cheaper than rapid. As far as heatsinks I would recommend C channel on a tank that size, if you could get 1.5" that would be best. As far as drivers you could run HLG drivers and run parallel strings, this would save money over using 8-10 ELNs. This could be done for about $7-$8 per LED.

 

[new2SW]

I've got 72 Crees over my 125, and have good growth on my green birdsnest and my war coral seems to be doing pretty good as well. Honestly, I probably wouldn't mind going with another six LEDs per section, but I'm not sure that I really need it. I purchased my LEDs from RapidLEDs and am extremely happy with their service and prices. I definitely also recomend going with the optics on those LEDs.

In regards to the heatsink, I built mine out of 1-1/2" aluminum angle I picked up at Lowes.

 

[mcfa2403]

You might also try reefledlights.com they are a reef central sponsor and have awesome customer service and have drilled and tapped heatsinkusa heatsinks

 

[new2SW]

I will also say that I had the CRee XR-E Q5 previously. The XP-E and XP-G blow those out of the water, hands down.

 

[ghellin]

True the Cree XP series trumps the XR-Es and other brands for light output and efficiency.

 

[Nicholas41]

The wider the lens the better unless it will be suspended high above the tank in a canopy. A 50/50 mix of whites and actinics seems really blue. I'd check it out and make sure it's the color you want. I run 2 whites to one blue, some people prefer 3 whites to one blue and adding stunner strips to their tank.

 

[ghellin]

The wider the lens the better unless it will be suspended high above the tank in a canopy. A 50/50 mix of whites and actinics seems really blue. I'd check it out and make sure it's the color you want. I run 2 whites to one blue, some people prefer 3 whites to one blue and adding stunner strips to their tank.

What brand of LEDs are you referring to? For 3 watt LEDs most think 1:1 is too white, the trend lately has been closer to 2 blues for each white. My aquapod build is 1:1 I wanted more blue in my second build for my 58 so I went with a 2:3 of white to blue.

 

[Nicholas41]

Must be by opinion then. I have 21 Crees, 14 whites and 7 blues, and a blue stunner in the front of the fixture which acts as the moonlight and makes the colors pop in my tank.