led lighting?

[roblarss]

Originally Posted by Milad

did you end up putting a clear acrylic splash shield on the leds? what height are they above your water?

I have 2 modules with an acrylic splash shield spaced about 0.5 inch from the leds. I have both modules hanging 3.5 inches above the water line. The modules and drivers sit in a frame made out of 1" x 1.5" aluminum angle hanging from the ceiling.

I am looking at later changing out the drivers to ones able to have a pulse width signal to dim them for sunrise/sunset but that is in the future when I finish building my new controller.

[sphelps]

I believe the rule of thumb is about 1 LED per 12 square inches. So if the tank is 60" long and 18" wide you'd need at least 90 LEDs. With SPS you always want to go over the recommended base line so personally I would be aiming for between 120 to 144 LEDs. I wouldn't use 40 degree optics as they don't actually spread the light evenly over a 40 degree spread, they will concentrate most of the light at around 20 degrees which can create hot spots which although not noticeable to our eyes I don't think it's ideal for coral. 60 degree optics would be better IMO but I'm no expert.

The all in one kits are really easy to build, anyone who has used a soldering iron before can easily do it.