led's... how would you light this tank

[rioshilo]

I just picked up a 92 corner. Here it is, it's been setup for a few days now...

It will be home to softies, macros, and leathers.

I want to do led's and I have around $500 to spend. I was thinking instead of a canopy putting a rounded shelf above the tank, at whatever height needed to make the lights work. So, maybe 1.5'-3' above the tank. I have several options that I have been thinking of.

1)a pendant like AI hanging from the shelf (like the AI features but hate the fixtures look)

2)hanging 4-6 diy pendants from the shelf (like par38 style) Maybe 5-8 led's per fixture. This would be cool because I could vary the optics front to back and maintain relative par to the graduated depth of the rock.

3)Having a trim piece underneath the front edge of the shelf (look under your kitchen table) that hides leds mounted directly below the shelf. (again with varying optics to account for the depth changes of where the softies will be, except the lights wont be as visible when standing there looking at it) How would this work with the heat sinks and being mounted to a block of wood?

I want to be able to dim and also control automatically dimming and timing of led's. I'm thinking I could do tighter optics around the front edge where all the coral will be down low and at the back I could do wider optics and less led's since the coral will be mounted much closer to the surface.

Any ideas for the number of leds I will need if I do the 3w. Maybe the rapidled 24 or 36 kit. What's the difference between their premium and ultra premium kit? What is a good controller for this?

I'm sure there are many more questions that will come up but this is a start. If you have any other ideas for lighting this tank feel free to list them as well.

 

[rioshilo]

Is there another pendant like ai with a better looking fixture for around the same price or less?

 

[rioshilo]

BTT... Anybody want to take a stab at suggestions for lighting this tank? Please?

 

[Helfish]

Hi there,

I'm not much of an expert, but just wanted to give you some ideas I think in your situation the tank shape is affecting the decision making too and you have quite tight budget for going to leds. I have been thinking these same questions for my future reef I'm planning later this summer.

You could get par38 bulbs (they are about 88 dollars per piece, with 60 or 80 optics). That way you could have about 6 pieces in rows of 3,2,1 from front to back. I think they sell dimmable and non dimmable lamps (not sure about that though) I think they could be dimmed with the profilux 2 lightcontroller...?

Maxspect led are one option too, but their are quite pricey, almost the same price as AI Sol's. The g2-110w semiled is about 470 dollars, g2-160w is about 600 dollars. You could buy 1 of those now and later on get the g2-60w to the back of the aquarium or second 110w or 160w. You cannot dimm the lights though, but they are controllable ...

Or you could just order the leds from rapidled and make your own light. First you could get 36 pieces and add more leds if needed down the road. Those could be dimmed (with dimmable drivers) with the profilux 2 lightcontroller 2 I guess...? Im not so good at DIY stuff myself and I'm dead scared for trying to do anything related with electricity lol I made an armchair from my sofa though, it was pretty cool

I hope this helps a bit

Ps. sorry for the all spelling mistakes

 

[Guy340]

Don't know about others, but here's mine, 150 watts of LED covering a tank that's 72x24x20.

It's just three fixtures.