LED Intensity

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by burgerchow

I was on the fence about the AI's and Radions as well. What's the point of ordering 3 or 4 of them for a tank when it seems like everybody is only running them at less than 50 %. !

Pretty much my point exactly...

[Sunee]

I run my AIs at 32% both white and blue (two on a 30x27x18" cubish). I cannot suspend them so if I ran at a higher % would blast everything as the tank is shallow. If you can suspend them up higher your idea of getting fewer should work and you should be able to maintain the colour of your corals. I don't have many SPS but the colour is pretty good on the frags that I have.

[Nano]

I know a lot of people were doubtful about leds when they first came into the hobby, so I hear, but after buying sps that had been under metal halides and putting them in my tank, they have 100% more color to them, and the rest of the corals seem to flourish under them as well.

What size tank are you thinking of for this Brad? for a 4' I cant see why you couldnt get away with 2 AI's as they cover a 24x24x24ish area with stock optics, with the wider ones I would imagine if hung at a respective height you could probably get close to 30x30x30 spread with a higher intensity. same thing for radions (aside from the optics part, I dont believe they have any)

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Nano

What size tank are you thinking of for this Brad?

It's a 180, 72x24x24. Corals mostly cover a 60x18 area, so I'm going to try 3 SOLs, and blast them at near 100% and see what happens. (Not out of the box, but build up to it )

[Nano]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

It's a 180, 72x24x24. Corals mostly cover a 60x18 area, so I'm going to try 3 SOLs, and blast them at near 100% and see what happens. (Not out of the box, but build up to it )

I think you'll be fine, Martin would be able to confirm for sure, but if each light is capable of 24x24x24 area, there should be no problems. Personally, if I ordered one again I would get wider optics. I have a bit of dark on the top inch around the edge (no biggie) but its there, I can also eliminate that bu raising my light an inch or 2

[Cal_stir]

I have a DIY LED , it's a 72 led unit, 36 XPG white, 36 XPE blue and royal blue, spread out on a 4' x 1' heatsink 3 inches above the water on my 90 gal 48x18x24, no optics, my white drivers are set at 1.3 amp and my blue drivers are set at 1 amp, I run my whites at 85% and my blues at 100% it looks about 50% brighter than my 4 bulb t5 ho, I am LPS Zoa dominate and all growing well.
I think part of the problem with the AI and Radion units is the concentration of the LEDs