Ok tell me everything I need to go LED please!

revhtree

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Ok here is what I want to do.

Light my 6ft by 3ft wide by 2ft tall mixed reef.

I want the led's to be dimmable. I want the area over my sps to be brighter and the front sand bead to be dimmer. I want a nice blue/white mix. I want to be able to make all the colors pop and also if I want to look almost full daylight.

Can this be done and please tell me what I need!
 
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revhtree

revhtree

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LOL why?
 

jaytizzle

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Wow rev... you got some serious demands there, huh?

Let me try to help you out. Why do you feel that you need them dimmable?
What kind of controller are you running?
Why have different brigtness over the sandbed and over the SPS?
Do you have a top-down shot of your tank?
Are you handy on the DIY stuff or would you rather buy manufactured fixtures?

Get back to me on those and I can try to help you out.
 

Troylee

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reef led lights ftw..... your gonna have to build it but bill has the kit with dimmable ballast minus a controller..... the best controller out there is the audrino "spelling" any who with that you can program cloudy days, thunderstorms, full moons etc.... the possibilities are endless man!!!!!
 
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revhtree

revhtree

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Let me try to help you out. Why do you feel that you need them dimmable? To be able to adjust the brightness for different corals.
What kind of controller are you running? ReefKeeper Elite
Why have different brigtness over the sandbed and over the SPS? Well I love my zoas and lps but I have to hide some of them off to the side because they don't like the light. My acans are not even in the tank because of this. I want to be able to have higher par over the sps and lower over the sand bed.
Do you have a top-down shot of your tank? No I do not at the moment. Basically I have a couple islands mid to back of the tank and then about at least 12-15 inches of sand bed in the front.
Are you handy on the DIY stuff or would you rather buy manufactured fixtures? I am not very handy at all. I got some friends s that would help me local though if need be
 

johnanddawn

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toooo much info - i've read 100's of pages and still wish i know more before i spent my money
i decided to start with a kit from bill and then after playing with that a while adapting it to my needs
right now i'm thinking i'm going to do a basic coverage array and then supping that with some high PAR arrays to spotlight corals - do some weird spotlighting things - kinda japanese style with some 20K's or 10K's
with a tank you size you may need to think about the same thing. don't think about lighting the whole thing evenly but rather lighting islands and regions with high light and other areas dimmer

start with this - this is soundwave's youtube video - the thread on rc has split about 3/4 times on - he is like the "start" of it all if there is such a thing. the video is quite inspirational

YouTube - DIY Reef LED setup almost 1 year later.

a couple other links for you
two really nice threads with two very different approaches can be found here:
this is an awesome diy build
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1761942&highlight=sps+and+led+s
this is very unique
Beeker's 200g DD PAR38 lit Reef - Reef Central Online Community

one last thing - this is a you tube i found theat the tampa bay reef club put out - pretty good stuff
Tampa Bay Reef Club Newsletter
 

macawmagic

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I would almost say go with the fixtures that reeffiltration has/had for sale on here. maybe the 3 gen 2 over the back half and 3 gen 1 over the front half. the gen 1's put off less light. The gen 2's are equivalent to a 400w while the gen 1's are equivalent to a 250w. Still might be too much light for acans at 24" but I'm not completely sure on that. Maybe Luke could chime in? Only problem is those aren't dimmable, but you would basically (pending rockwork) be putting ur sps toward the upper back and zoas/lps on the lower front. hope that idea helps!
 

bmac16

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if your going diy, to light your sps and keep your lps shaded just use a few less leds and optics to concentrate the light where you want it
 

customcolor

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optics are a good way to go...leds are strong! i would say start with 80 degrees and 60 degrees..then if you want stronger then do 40 degrees...but the draw back is that your leds need to be closer together so you dont get beams in your tank when you put on lesser degree leds....

remember optics are only little over a buck a piece so it can be a cheep way of changing the intensity
 
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I'm starting to realize LEDs suck for SPS color... j/k
 
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bmac16

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hey kray, do you have high end sps under led's?...how did they hold their color compared to mh/t5?
 

Triggerman77

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LOL BTW REV Send Dfason a PM He is Building a company now i think it called Nano Box He is building the LED fixtures That Do it all T storms, Clouds, Dim Think it even does Time Display lol They Are Sick Hit him up He has ton of Knowledge on LED's
 

reefpeeper

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I'm starting to realize LEDs suck for SPS color... j/k

dude i did leds on my bio cube and the colors popped. my superman monti was almost faded white. after only a couple of weeks that thing was better than ever. my sunset looks great also. acros awsome too.
 

Troylee

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The only problem I see lighting your tank with LEDs rev is the intial cost... It's gonna take a ton of lights to do it... I have been conteplating the idea of a Japanese lit style tank... I find the hot spots cool looking when you highlight certain corals with it... Right now I have 2 mh lighting a 7ft tank and they are at the ends with a big dark spot in the middle only lit by vhos and think it looks really cool and even gives the tank more depth... Something to think about anyways...
 
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dude i did leds on my bio cube and the colors popped. my superman monti was almost faded white. after only a couple of weeks that thing was better than ever. my sunset looks great also. acros awsome too.

Popping color and natural color are two different things. I can pop a yellow t shirt with a black light.
 

Troylee

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Please tell more kraylen... Very interested in this... I know they can pop color but what would it look like if a coral was taken from a led tank and thrown under a mh would it look tottaly different... Would it have any color???
 
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Sure it would have color, look at it this way.. have you ever taken a brown coral you know is bright green from PC lighting and put it under a power brite? You would swear you would make turtles drink it and have a awesome team of ninja cartoons.
 

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