led lighting?

[Ryan Joel Smith]

Im finally moving into a town house where i can set up a reef. Tomorrow im buying a 120gal tank that is five feet long. What im trying to figure out is how many led lights would i need to properly light the tank. I would like to be able to grow sps. Please give me some advice as it seems watts aren't a key issue when it comes to led's.

any thoughts?

[Milad]

dimensions of tank? and what color you look for? 14kish?

[monocus]

depends on the coral-some of the frags i have have bleached and some are growing-par is between 200-300 with the vortex illumina

[Ryan Joel Smith]

I'm sorry, the lady im buying from did not know the dimensions as she is selling the tank for her sister. I do know it is 5ft long. My problem is this: whenever i read about led's i feel like i need a "led dictionary" as i have no idea what the terms being used mean. I found a few setups on ebay ie. http://cgi.ebay.com/300w-LED-Aquariu...ht_4063wt_1141 would this be enough??? or should i buy more. Sorry for being so un-educated on the issue.

Thanks for any help

[Milad]

well that wouldnt be enough for a 5foot tank
plus i wouldnt buy those types of fixtures if I were you.

you can build your own which is what im doing and im doing a group buy right now
Group buy: http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=70376
Build Thread with parts: http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=70413


4 a 5 foot 125g which probably is around 22 tall 22 wide

if you look at the some of the 3w cree leds in that group buy and you are looking for a 14kish colors

you would need about 72 royal blue and 48 cool white with 40degree optics at about 11inches from water
and you can tune from there adjusting the amps to get the right color and brightness as long as you have them on dimmable drivers for each color

if you want an LED fixture I would go with either the vertex like monocus has or http://www.aquaillumination.com/

or hire me to build it!

[Milad]

btw im partial to the CREE leds thats why im saying i dont like the ebay link and no one has tried them out or tested. big difference between one LED to the next.

[Ryan Joel Smith]

How much>? lol name the price and i will have to evaluate.

[eli@fijireefrock.com]

these are not good for reef systems as i have cheeked on them in the past.
1W led not high enough output. you need 3w led.
they have no optics,at 90 degree angle nothing much is reaching your corals in the tank.

[roblarss]

I have a 120g its 60lx18wx24h and have a diy led on it. 64 royal blue, 64 white. I use luxeon rebel 3W running at about 75%. They seemed the best at the time. This seems to be enough for my few SPS. They are starting to grow from frags decently. My zoos dont seem to like it though as they dont really grow, some just melted away. That might be an unrelated issue though. Frogspawn loves it, torch not so much. I have no optics and about 4 inches from the water.

With LEDS it not so much the watts -as you stated- but the par values. Im still tweeking mine to see what works.

If you have very basic electronics abilities and time you can easily make your own DIY setup. It just takes patience and creative ability. Its very fulfilling and impressive to say you made it.