LED full spectrum DIY rule of thumb?

[glarior]

I am building a LED light for a 7ftx2ftx2ft tank. I came up with a few desings for my lights but have received contridicting feedback. I was told you should have ~one 3w LED per 15sq" of surface. I read for SPS L x W / 18. I based this design on the one 3w LED per 15sq"

The LED's will be dimmable. Planned for 80 degree optics. Each light has 45 LED's and I was planning to have 3 of them. I estimate the color is similar to a 10k MH. I am going to keep softies, SPS and LPS. I thought I could even design each light a little different and have each type of coral under the optimal light. I may replace two of the NW to CW.

Attached is the current layout....

http://www.horsepowermafia.com/images/web/ledlight2.jpg

[rrasco]

I just did the math on mine, with 72 LEDs over a 48"x24" tank I have one 3W LED per 16" of area. I am keeping SPS fine. In fact, anything over 50% kills them. I am running 60* optics.

I think your layout will look fine. The only one regret I had with mine is I feel like too many of my blues were together, making parts of the tank more blue than others, but it actually blends pretty well and little things bug me. I personally have been contemplating moving to a puck style design for future fixtures, like you see in Radion and AI fixtures.

[Zack]

Are there advantages/ disadvantages of a puck layout?

[rrasco]

I have not used them yet, but I would say: decreased fixture size and better color blending would be two advantages. You might not get as good coverage over the whole tank though. I will let you know when I try. :D

[Zack]

You should try asap so I know which is better before I start ;)

[rrasco]

I just might. Finally got my PCBs in for my controller and drivers. I am just waiting on one last DC barrel jack that will be in tomorrow, then I should be able to play with my fixture. Of course, I still need channel, etc, to mount them on. This tank will probably just get them spaced out since it's a FOWLR though. No need for extra spectrums, which means even less need to blend them.

I am planning to build a clone of the AI sol though. Just because.

[Zack]

Here's a full spectrum aisol I've been wanting to build. Light blue is cyan, purple is UV, blues are royal blues, white is cool white and red is bridgelux red.

17596

[rrasco]

Yep, something like that. Except I am going with the Vega layout. 4 pucks of 5 LEDs each. I might even stray from that, just want to play with various setups to see what works the best.

My frag tank only has 4 neutral white, 4 royal blue, and 2 UV. Corals are all doing very well in there. I was going to 'puck it up' in there too, but the T5 fixture I used didn't have the real estate to accommodate that design.

My reef has NW, CW, WW, RB, and Pink. Corals also doing well, but I ticked a lot of the LPS and softies off awhile back. I do not attribute their decline to lighting, there were other variables at play (it was when I started running GAC/GFO). They're all bouncing back in the frag tank though.

[Zack]

Can you show me how you planned a vega setup? I do like the vega setup more but my brain hurt trying to make it work

[rrasco]

I have not planned anything yet. Just getting ideas right now. I really didn't get the urge to do it until the MG & LED thread popped up. Now I'm going to do it, just not sure when. I should have most of the materials already though.

[BBQHILLBILLY]

This is how I did mine. I got 2 reds in there. The white and blue are 1 after the other. I love my LEDs. I am really really surprised how coral appear to be doing.
As allways placement is everything. I finally seem to have a good spot for my small sps frags. Some coral seem to be a little more sensitive than the others but once a spot is found I wont move them.

Im glad you are building your LEDs keep the pics coming.:bigsmile:

[glarior]

Thanks for the information.... least I know I am on the right track.

I came up with an idea tonight... why not make a modular LED system? Hard to explain the layout/idea in my mind but I think it will be worth a try. It will be nice to add, remove, re-arrange LED's to promote coral growth....