Need some quick LED advice.

[magdelan]

I have an opportunity to buy a 12" Aqua Ilumination LED blue fixture. I want to use it over my 60g 24" cube. I'm not too familiar with the degree optics that I hear people speaking of but the seller of this unit replaced the center 4 (of 8) led pucks from 40 degree optic led's to 70 degree optic led's. The seller is including the 40 degree led's in the sale. Will this be too much of a light spread over a 24" tank or should I replace the center pucks with the origional 40 degree led's? The outer pucks come stock with 70 degree optics.

Thanks.

 

[SkiFletch]

Tough call, without a PAR meter you won't really know unfortunately... LED lamp power can be pretty decieving, sot this will be tricky to sort out. With a 24" deep tank though, I'd lean towards the tighter optics to punch through the depth.

 

[magdelan]

With a 24" deep tank though, I'd lean towards the tighter optics to punch through the depth.

This is what I was thinking and a main concern.

Would a 12" be enough or would the 24" be better? I don't want to unnecessarily spend money.

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, what are you trying to do with it? Are you trying to grow sps as fast as possible, or just keep a variety of corals healthy? LED's really only need to be sized to the rock/coral scape where you actually want to grow things... Also if you pick the lights up decently off the water level you won't loose too much PAR and can get a good spread on them. Heck, a lot of folks have to dial them down a bit so they don't burn their stuff.

 

[Eastamherstbias]

I agree with Skifletch. I was always told you need one AI for every 12 inches of your tank. I am sure you can ramp it up to get the coverage but I don't know about burning the top corals.

 

[Johnny C]

Based on my personal experience with this fixture, the mfg.'s recommendation of one Sol for every 12'' of aquarium is extreme overkill, even for the most light demanding applications.

Unlike most of the other LED units on the market that use cheap chinese components, this uses top of the line 3w Cree XPE/XPG leds and can easily hit 1200-1500 PAR (at 18''). If you check out this very informative thread in the lighting forum, you'll notice a developing trend of users swapping the 40° optics for the 70°s because of the PAR "hot spots" that will cause undesirable bleaching due to an excessive beam of light.

Both of these two threads helped me make the decision to purchase an AI, and lucky for you they are using the same tank dimensions. Check it out! HTH!

PS- If the price is right and you are buying from a trusted seller, I wouldn't hesitate to buy the unit. The Sol Blues are on backorder at almost every retailer and from what I've heard there is a waiting list a mile long from suppliers!

 

[magdelan]

The reason for titling the thread "quick led advice" was because someone was selling a 12" blue sol AI unit with all 70° optic lenses. If I had your advice yesterday, I would have bought it. What is the cost to upgrade to 70° optics?

 

[Eastamherstbias]

Sorry

 

[Johnny C]

A day late and a dollar short... I guess late is better than never!

PS- The optics kit is $25 per unit.

 

[magdelan]

A day late and a dollar short... I guess late is better than never!

PS- The optics kit is $25 per unit.

So this person was selling it for $550 shipped with 4x$25 upgrade kits and I passed this up? What the heck is the matter with me???!!!

 

[Johnny C]

No- by one unit I mean $25 per fixture.