Thinking of going LED

[Fenker]

I'm liking the look of LEDs, and my Mh isn't cutting it for color. It's a 24g+/- and I have a 150w MH now with a 14k Phoenix. I saw the aquastyle DIY kits and got very interested.
first, how many should I get? I was looking at the 36x3w kit. Will that be enough? It's going to be a sps/clam dominated tank.
also optics? What should I get and what's the difference?
color wise, should I get the red and greens and uv?
Lastly, the dimmable option. It seems cheaper and I'm guessing there is a reason for that. Do I go dimmable or non?
thanks guys!

[jvene1]

dimensions of the tank?

[Zack]

Dimmable is more expensive and IMO a must for any tank. It allows you to both acclimate and prevent bleaching of your corals.

[rrasco]

I agree with Zack. LEDs are powerful, you need to be able to turn them down. Having said that, you can dim a non-dimmable ballast, but only statically with a pot.

Depending on the the depth of the tank, you may not need optics. I would probably use 80 degree though. 60 degree will blast your corals, esp at that depth. If I were choosing a kit from AS, I would try the dimmable 24 LED and I would get the meanwell 48p drivers with it. You could add a few red, green, and uv as well. You could also assemble your own parts instead of getting a kit, but they are a tad cheaper bundled.

[Fenker]

I figured dimmable would be better but it was cheaper than the non dimmabe.
U think 24 will be enough? The tank.is 15" deep but 19" wide with the slanted front and 24" long. So I wanted to be able to get every corner of the tank.
Also I screwed myself on my 14k mh bulb so I want blue! What bulb combo do I go with?
24 bulb or 36?

[Zack]

Well most use 36 for a 40 breeder which is much bigger than that tank. The light on mine was 24 leds running at 45% blue and 35% white

[rrasco]

For comparison, I am running 10 LEDs on my 20 gallon frag tank. Zoas, acans, favia, and candy canes. It has 10000K whites, RB, and UV.

Dimmable lets you put whites on different drivers than the blue, so you can fine tune the color you want to make it more/less blue.

[Fenker]

So 24 bulb it is! Should i get 12 and 12 or 18 and 6 or something?

[rrasco]

I normally try for 2:1 RB:W. You can go 12 and 12 and replace 6 of the whites with 2 uv, 2 green, and 2 red. That way you have 12 rb, 6 white, 2 red, 2 green, and 2 uv. That's what I would try for. You can email them and customize your colors as well, you're not stuck to what's on the drop down.

[FireWater]

Rrasco is all over this explanation and I can't anything else he hasn't said. Listen to his advice and I think you'll be fine.

[Zack]

On mine I did 8 rb 4 uv 2 purple 2 cyan 2 red and 6 white

[Fenker]

What about a controller? To I need one of these for the aquastyle kit?

[rrasco]

Yes. You need something to send a reference signal for the PWM or the driver won't know to output anything.

This is a good document from Rapid LED:
http://www.vinnymarini.com/pictures/rapid_docs/Using%20Your%20Dimmable%20Driver.pdf