Another diy LED build for a 90 gallon

[jdwells]

I just started planning this but here's what I got so far. Let me know what ya think.
-(2) 8.5x18" heat sinks from reeefledlights.com
-(48) Cree royal blue XT-E (24 each)
-(38) Cree cool white XT-E (19 each)
-(8) Cree "high noon" XT-E (4 each)
-(4) ELN 60-48D Drivers
2 would be for the royal blues at 24 each tuned to 1300mA?
2 would be for the 23 total whites also tuned to 1300mA?
-(2) moonlight kits from RapidLED with 4 LEDs each.
Here's how I plan to mount the LEDs on the heat sinks. Sorry about the crappy picture. We just moved in so no internet yet. I'm improvising. lol

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So my questions are:
-Optics necessary for a 24" depth?
-Is this enough/too many LEDs for an SPS tank?
-would these drivers work for this bulb combination?
Thanks for any input you guys can give me! I built a small one of these before for a 20 long so the wiring doesn't scare me but the combination of various electronics does. lol


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[jdwells]

I also have plans for fans, a "control box" to hide the drivers in, and setting it up with an Apex or Reefkeeper whenever I get one so any tips there would be great too!


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[jdwells]

Crap and I forget to put a key up for the pic.
Blue circles are royal blue.
White is cool white.
Yellow is high noon.
Purple are moon lights.


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[morganatlanta]

Full spectrum using UV, Violet, Blue, Green and Red is all the rage. Is there a reason you are going with just white and royal?

 

[jdwells]

I started the planning using those but I did some research and I think you hit the nail on the head. "All the rage" I couldn't find anything significant saying that it's at all helpful. If you have any info to the contrary let me know. I'm always open to good information.


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[reeferman]

that layout looks good.maybe put the high noons on their own channel and personally,i would like a LOT more blues and less whites.at least 2 to 1 and i like 3 to 1.
no need for red and greens,your layout will grow and color corals just fine.

 

[jdwells]

I thought about doing 2 blue to 1 white but the one I built last time was 50/50 and I think it looks pretty good. Why do you like more blue?


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[reeferman]

i like the 20k look and more blues give you that.when my high noons kick on,my spectrum is probably around 12-14k.my blues,whites and high noons are all on their own channels.my spectrum changes all day from deep blue in the morning and evening to bright white at high noon.with the dimming,it never stays one spectrum for very long like natural sun.
you can always dim the blues if you want more white but it would be hard for that few of blues to overpower the whites.
it really comes down to personal preference though

 

[jdwells]

Yeah I'm with ya. After looking at it some more I'm basically building the same thing as you except with the moon lights. Do you have moon lights at all? Through dimming or not at all?


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[morganatlanta]

I will say that I added some regular blue (~470nm) as opposed to just royal blue (~455nm) because I found straight royal hard on my eyes, even though I like the blue look as I dim the whites all the way down about an hour before I turn off the blues. I run the royal and regular blues at 10% for "moonlights" for roughly an hour in the evening and in the morning.

 

[chris s]

Go with neutral whites over cool whites. It's adds back some of the red spectrum and helps avoid the windex look. I've tried several different diy led builds. Starting with the royal blue cool whites only. Currently I run warm whites and royal blue with some cool blue and cyan to balance it out. Supplemented by true and hyper violets to bump up the par and make some of the colors pop.

There are lot's of options right now. Google "evil cluster". I'm running my take on one and I love it. On the sandbed my lowest par is mid 100's. I average 500-750 mid level with 1000+ at the surface. This is from 4 bxra 950 warm white, 32 luxeon es RB (reused from a previous build, otherwise I would have gone with RB luexon M's) 8 rebel es cyan and cool blues. Plus 24 violets 12 each hyper and true violets. All running from a 320w 48v power supply. The violets at 500ma, the whites at 700ma and everything else at 1000ma.

As far as the full spectrum being all the rage. A lot of it is for our viewing pleasure. The extra colors make the colors pop more. But the violets hit peaks around 420nm that the chlorophyll in the corals really needs. If you really like the look of cool whites and royal blues go for it, just consider adding some violets. They won't change the color much and the corals will be happier.

 

[reeferman]

with the "high noon" leds,you will be getting the neutral colors,they are a warm white emitter.
i have moonlight pods with my RKE.even dimmed all the way down,the leds were way too bright to use as moonlights

 

[jdwells]

That's what I was thinking reeferman. That's why I'm getting the moonlight kit from rapid. Quick and easy and I'll just leave them on all the time.
And as far as the full spectrum thing goes, I did a bunch of reading and if you look at reefledlights.com they have a lot of good info. They say that blue is all you "need" to grow healthy corals and the rest is for viewing. (That's my synopsis anyway. lol) And I like the cool look. My planted tank is plenty warm looking and I prefer the actinic of my salt tank better so with this new one I'm gonna beef up the blue even more.
They also say that too much red may cause nuisance algae growth. Makes sense since the red spectrum is the most recommended for planted tanks and grow lights in general.


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[reeferman]

i bought my kits from Bill as well and im coming up on 3 years.royal blues,cool whites and warm whites and corals are flourishing

 

[nickh06]

do you know how much this setup will cost? I need a light for my upcoming frag tank build, was looking at the cheap full spectrum led's on ebay for $142. They got great reviews for the price but if this is a good route I would be interested.

 

[jdwells]

Right now it's at about $600 without optics or wiring. I wouldn't think you would need something near this big for a frag tank though. This is for growing SPS in a 90 gallon.


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