Need a LED lighting recommendation. 110 x-tall

[Skuzzlebutt]

Hello-

Going to be doing a custom heatsink/LED setup for my buddy. His tank is a 110 extra tall so its basically the dimesions of a 75 gallon but 30" tall 48x18x30. He has a few soft corals currently and may get some sps's in the future. If he did he had planned on placing them as high as he can in the tank. Since ive been out of the aquarium thing for a while and from what i've read it seems like the ole' watts per gallon thing is pretty much obsolete these days, i need some advice.

I had planned on getting a 40 or so inch heatsink and placing 24 cool white and 24 royal blues on it with 2 dimmers. (not really important but i plan on adding 4 moon light leds) I had planned on using 55 degree optics on the leds. some places i read it seems like this should be a great amount. others it seems like its too much and we'll end up having to have it dimmed most of time anyhow so why waste the money on the extra leds? another idea i had was to use 14 cool whites and 14 royal blues and use 40 degree optics with a slightly wider heatsink. any input would be great. thanks!
Ken

 

[rtparty]

I can't recommend how many LEDs to use but definitely do NOT run just cool white and royal blue. It looks like crap and colors suffer. You will want to mix in some neutral white, violet, and blue LEDs as well.

I would personally go with 2 - 24" Ecoxotic Panorama PRO fixtures. Unless this is going in a canopy, then I would use 2 of the Panorama 2D retrofits and then add some stunner strips to fill in the spectrum.

 

[Donkeykong]

Ok, all my comments are based on research. The 50/50 split of white and blue you are talking about might not be the best for coloration and full spectrum coverage. I would at least throw in some royal blues with the standard blue to get a wider spectrum of light. There are alot of threads discussing the use of red, green and uv led's to even further cover all ranges of the light spectrum. But those last three are still up for debate on what actually is needed and what is there for pure aesthetic purposes. I would spend sometime reading before I open that can of worms. I am going with the AI Sol fixtures and they use an even split of white/blue/royal blue, but even with that you still get some guys adding T5's to get a little more red/purple into the coloration. The 55 optics sound like a good middle ground from the common 40/70 alot of people are using. With LED's still being relatively new just know it is going to take some adjusting to get the exact color and coverage you want. Good luck to you and your buddy.

 

[rtparty]

There are a lot of threads discussing the use of red, green and uv led's to even further cover all ranges of the light spectrum. But those last three are still up for debate on what actually is needed and what is there for pure aesthetic purposes.

Actually, there is no debate really. It is well documented what spectrum is needed for certain photosynthetic properties to be met.

Green isn't needed in the least for photosynthesis. It is a purely aesthetic color for us.

Red is definitely used by corals but too much is a bad thing. This is a color you need to use to balance things out IMO. This is where Warm White and Neutral White LEDs come into play. They add in the reds without having to use an actual red LED.

Violet, not UV, is very important for corals and has been LONG overlooked by many LED companies and this includes AI (BIG TIME).

 

[Donkeykong]

I apologies, the spectrum needs of coral is well documented and I didn't not mean that reds and voilets may not be needed. What I was trying to say was how much of each, and how to address this is still very much up for debate. Like you said in your post red is needed, but how much red? Should you put a red led or just go with warm whites, how are you going to address the violet? That is where I was suggesting the OP to do as much research as possible so he could ask specific questions not just the standard "what color leds should I use?". Yes AI does lack in the violet, I am not a AI fanboy who swears up and down that they are the end all be all of lights. Like everything else there are ups and downs to each product and that is why I mentioned that some are even adding supplement T5's to there AI setups.

 

[rtparty]

I apologies, the spectrum needs of coral is well documented and I didn't not mean that reds and voilets may not be needed. What I was trying to say was how much of each, and how to address this is still very much up for debate. Like you said in your post red is needed, but how much red? Should you put a red led or just go with warm whites, how are you going to address the violet? That is where I was suggesting the OP to do as much research as possible so he could ask specific questions not just the standard "what color leds should I use?". Yes AI does lack in the violet, I am not a AI fanboy who swears up and down that they are the end all be all of lights. Like everything else there are ups and downs to each product and that is why I mentioned that some are even adding supplement T5's to there AI setups.

I agree completely.

I think the amount of blue and violet is almost limitless IME. Red is the hard one to figure out. I use Ecoxotic stuff over my tank and have 4 magenta LEDs total over my tank but they are in the back now with my new arrangement.