Lighting Your Reef Tank

[Onefallleaf]

Well, its gotten a lot easier now. There's solderless pcb's with push pin connections. Wireless boards for control with apps. 0-10v control too for Apex.

To light an 8x3 footprint I'm going to need 5 to 6 Radion xr30 equivalent plus T5. Doing it for half the cost and getting more usable LEDs seems good to me and I've always liked to tinker.

I'm in the process of rebuilding the ATS lights now.
View attachment 3694

Man that looks cool. Have to give it a shot now. I always hate buying a LED system and only using 1/2 its potential.

 

[Adam]

This is just one that was easy to find. There are many others and the price is usually a little lower, in the $30 range per pcb.

https://m.aliexpress.com/item/32853...pm=a2g0s.13010208.99999999.259.5f383c00zUZocW

Oh, and as I research I'm finding that Luxeon UV's are more efficient than the Semiled. I still have some planning to do but I'm still leaning on either having them custom made, at a higher cost, or reflowing the pcb's myself.

 

[liverock27]

I rented a PAR meter from BRS and had a chance this afternoon to test out my lights. Almost the entire tank sits between 200 and 320 PAR, including most of the sand bed. The rock work ranges from 250-320 with most of it around the 280 mark.
I am using the CoralLab AB+ setting on my Radion at 55% intensity along with 4 24" ATI Blue Plus T5 bulbs. The light is 9" above the top of the tank.

I was hoping to be between 150 and 300 through out the tank and in 250-300 on the rock work to support SPS, so I am very happy with these results. The $50 to rent the meter was well worth it and now I am hoping to add a few test corals to the tank over the next week.