PAR Meter Results with Cree 3 watt LED's

[Biggar]

Thanks to one of our generous member, I snagged some par readings and frags.

Specs:
All Cree 3 watts. White sets are on stronger Ma driver(1000ma)s. all blues on 700ma's.
Lights are 7 inches off the water
Cool white- 24 (80 degree optics)
Neutral white-12 (60 degree optics)
Royal Blue- 56 (80 degree optics)
Blue- 14 (60 degree optics)

Tank: 30 inches tall

Hope the writing is legible, Used MS paint. Basically, the par was 500 at surface and 100-150 on sand

Here is long lecture on LEDs too. Its several parts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNJ-Bpl5eZU&feature=channel

Am I green? 300 gallon total volume system growing SPS.
Everything is on and running.

 

[DRThompson]

hard to read....looks like 400-500 at top...150ish at the bottom?

 

[marke]

good numbers! Cant wait to see the frags you picked up from me in a month or so. Congrats!

 

[Crawfish00]

125 at the bottom that's good Mike

 

[Biggar]

hard to read....looks like 400-500 at top...150ish at the bottom?

Yea,125-450ish. 500 at surface. Eddies neon birdsnest is a par hog! lol. Hold down CRTL and scroll your mouse up to enlarge the page.

good numbers! Cant wait to see the frags you picked up from me in a month or so. Congrats!

Me too! thanks. Still want couple more in future. Might as well fill her up ( :

125 at the bottom that's good Mike

I was surprised myself, given the optics and depth of water.

 

[ek9vboi]

Looks good! You also might want to find a way to secure the splash shield before they flex more..

 

[jonnyu]

what size thank is that? What are the Dimensions? I really want to try LED's. Did you just install them?

 

[verz36]

hey biggar, i would love to see if you can do par readings on my tank.. i got a 125 gallon tank, acrylic corner tank thats 36 inch deep.. im running crees too but without the optics. for some reason when i assembled the lights i tried them out first without optics and i saw that they are brighter like that.. so far its been almost 2 months and all sps and corals are good. but i would love to see what my par readings are if you ever get a chance..im in hollywood by the way..

 

[Biggar]

what size thank is that? What are the Dimensions? I really want to try LED's. Did you just install them?

265 gallon. 84x24x30. Hard for me to work on things on the bottom, but its worth the extra viewing area imo. LED are about 8months. been slowly adding more and more

hey biggar, i would love to see if you can do par readings on my tank.. i got a 125 gallon tank, acrylic corner tank thats 36 inch deep.. im running crees too but without the optics. for some reason when i assembled the lights i tried them out first without optics and i saw that they are brighter like that.. so far its been almost 2 months and all sps and corals are good. but i would love to see what my par readings are if you ever get a chance..im in hollywood by the way..

I do not own one. its a fellow members. optics make huge difference

 

[verz36]

what difference will the optics make? will it be better with them or not? also can you find out if the fellow member would be interested in helping me out with my readings?

 

[Biggar]

LED optics

LED optics

what difference will the optics make? will it be better with them or not? also can you find out if the fellow member would be interested in helping me out with my readings?

Think of a flashlight, what happens when you turn the top piece to focus the light? You actually can see the object now that is at a distance

If you put 40 degree optics, for example. You would have more spotlighting, buy maybe double to triple the par where the lights are focused. Most people use 60 or 80 optics.

A LED with no optics spreads 120 degrees I believe

Same thing with a t-5 with no reflector. 75% of the light is going the wrong way.
That is one reason why an ATI T-5 fixture can get up to 300% more par to a crappy model.


Please click the youtube link above, then you will have more info then you wanted to know

 

[jonnyu]

Biggar thanks for the info. I have a 110 which is also 30" Tall. (48x18x30) I was thinking of going with 48 LED's. What kind of heat sink is that? Do you have place you recommend getting one? Do you have a fan running on them?

 

[Biggar]

Biggar thanks for the info. I have a 110 which is also 30" Tall. (48x18x30) I was thinking of going with 48 LED's. What kind of heat sink is that? Do you have place you recommend getting one? Do you have a fan running on them?

I would put at least 60 if you want sps.

I bought the 1" x 1" aluminum bar from home depot

If you dont mind spending the cash, two of these would be awesome
http://www.rapidled.com/drilled-tapped-6-x-20-black-anodized-aluminum-heat-sink/

You could put up to 72 lights by utilizing two of them