So sorry but I need some input on LEDs

[SurfCastinRI]

Ordering my LEDs tonight if I could just get a few opinions. I am getting 24 LED kit plus 2 red LEDs to add towards the middle of the heatsink. (Still not really sure about the reds)

My tank is an 18x18x18 cube and the heatsink is 6x9. I was told by RapidLED that they suggest I do 80 degree optics if I plan on hanging the light 12" off the water. Well, now I am thinking I may want to only go 9" above the water instead. Even at 9" the 80 degree optics seem kind of wide no? I am still trying to figure out what color ratios I want to run with blue, royal blue, cool white, neutral white and warm white. I am going insane!

Does anyone have any input on my color ratios and layout and also my optics? I want spill as little light as possible and may want to put a clam in my sandbed in the future but I am not positive. Thank you so much to anyone that can help me out. Hoping to get this thing ordered tonight!

Alex

 

[heathlindner25]

do you have an option for UV chips? if so I would get some of those also

 

[SurfCastinRI]

Uv is something else I thought about but wasn't sure about. If I do 2 reds I would be able to put the 2uv on my driver with my blue lights. Not sure how that will look when I have just the blues on though. Thanks.

 

[SurfCastinRI]

With only having such a small number of LEDs to work with I think I have just been trying too hard to make the lights look proportional on the heatsink. With 80 degree optics I am guessing everything should blend ok, I guess I am just kind of OCD about having an odd number or not having the lights in an even pattern. Anyways, how does this look? I decided against UV do to reading that they will burn out over time but I MAY add some cyans at a later time if I feel the need.

 

[SurfCastinRI]

Maybe just switch the 2 warm whites with neutral whites and the neutral for 1 warm white?

 

[unkel j]

I have a 36" tank with a 23" heatsink (24 leds) with 80 degree optics hanging about 8" or 9" of the top. That's 6.5" on each side and the ends of the tank are kind of dim. I keep my mushrooms on the far edges of the tank and it works out perfect. If I was you I would get the dimmable set up because those lights are powerful. Start them out low and slowly work up. They apear to the human eye to be less bright than they actually are. The UV leds are cool looking. They make green corals pop like crazy but you can't really see them over the other leds, so the are better for moon lights. I bought a few extra leds so I could change the color ratio around plus, it doesn't hurt to have extras. I have not tried red yet but I'm thinking about it. HTH

 

[SurfCastinRI]

Thanks J! I placed the order and since I included red I go a couple UV as well since I have to dial down the driver the reds are on anyways. I did get the dimmable drivers and they will be controlled with an arduino based controller. Really looking forward to getting the lights in! I do plan on ordering some more colors at a later date to try out different setups.

 

[teamdulski]

I would say ditch the reds, warm whites have a red spectrum in them and it will be all the red you need for your corals. Red light does not penetrate water much at all, so corals naturally found over ~10ft will not be getting much, if any, red spectrum in the wild. I would say switch out the reds for 2 more ww, and space them apart evenly so its distributed throughout your tank properly. Just my opinion.