My 400 watt halide basically blew up on me the other day. I am currently borrowing a 250 watt halide from a LFS, but need to replace my light. I have decided to do a DIY LED build for the Solana. I have donw a couple of smaller builds before and have had GREAT success.
I just want to know what others have done with LED's over solanas. What LED's did you use, how many, what colors, suggestions are welcome.
Here is what I was thinking: (keep in mind that I am the King of overkill)
12 - 19000 - 21000k Cold White 3W LED's
12 - 9000 - 12000k Cool White 3W LED's
24 - Royal Blue 3W LED's
6 - Blue 3W LED's
3 - Red 3W LED's
3 - UV Purple 3W LED's
total = 60 3W LED's
Also 4 - Royal Blue moonlight LED's
I was planning on 60 degree optics on everything except the Red, UV, and moonlights. I would have liked to do 80 degree, but 60 is the widest angle available for these LED's. All LED's will be run using 700mA dimmable drivers. I plan to have a total of 11 strings of 6 LED's consisting of 4 white strings, 4 RB strings, 1 blue string, 1 Red and UV string, and 1 moonlight string.
I know that this is a lot of LED's for a 34 gallon tank, but I like to be able to completely customize the color, by turning different strings down, and I am thinking about upgrading to a 90g corner tank and want to build the light so that it will work for that too. Let me know what you think.