LED Help

[igadget56]

I have two questions. My tank is 125 gallons 72 inches long 20 inches deep.
I have one evolution LED 200 W 3G.LED Aquarium Lighting | Evolution LED Lights
2:1 blue/warm white. I will be getting another one when funds allow. I
have it hanging about 14 inches above the water in the center for now.
I am wondering if I need the blue or just the white lights on for coraline algae
and LPS corals? Would save on juice when I'm not home. When I have the blue and white lights on at the same time it looks kind of washed out. The tank is built into the wall. Is there some kind of a blue LED strip light I could mount on the wall just above the tank? Would that make the coralline and coral look more colorfull? Any suggestions on other lights that might work better. How high should I have it hanging above the water? Sorry for the long post, just that there is a lot to absorb, and I am pretty green. Thanks for reading.

[Reefing Madness]

Blue lights are for color rendering only, they are not needed in the tank. You only need the white lights for your critters to thrive. Actinics Lighting is purple, and that gives a much better color rendering than blue. VHO Actinics are the best. And don't run your lights while your not home, dont' have the come on unitl you come home. I have my lights at 8" off the water. You have them alittle high, but I wouldn't consider it way to high.

[Original Fin]

The LEDs you have now are the most efficient (read cheapest electric bill) way to light a reef tank, but I have noticed that most Blue LED's don't give the same pop as actinic fluorescents...with the exception of 3w Cree royal blues, you would like those. Only problem I see with those is that they tend to spotlight, regardless of the optics, so to get a comparable coverage to fl, you need a lot of them, and that defeats the energy efficiency advantage of LEDs. Not to mention it's a lot more expensive up front than fl.

Just keep in mind that by adding actinic VHO, or any other size fluorescent, you'll be introducing a much less efficient kind of lighting, and your power bill will reflect that...not by a lot though.
I think two 60" actinic T5's would give the right amount of blue/purple for that tank to make all of your colors pop. Those bulbs run 80 watts each, and that's as long as the T5 diameter comes. I'm less familiar with VHO sizes and wattage, but I assume they are less efficient than T5's.

I have noticed that VHO still seems to be the actinic bulb of choice for those that run Metal Halide lighting...
Madness, do you know why that is? Just habit, or is there some advantage over T5 in this application?




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[Reefing Madness]

VHO with the internal refelctors are actually brighter than a T-5 equivelant. The colors are more vibrant also. I've used both, and have observed both in other tanks, and hands down the VHO whoops T-5 in that department.

[Original Fin]

VHO with the internal refelctors are actually brighter than a T-5 equivelant. The colors are more vibrant also. I've used both, and have observed both in other tanks, and hands down the VHO whoops T-5 in that department.

Awesome. Good to know Madness. Thanks!


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[igadget56]

Thanks guys. I did a little experimenting. The lights I had on before were 2 36"corallife. They each had one 39w T5 HO actinic
and one 39W T5 HO 10'0000K. I was told that was not enough light for corals. I lowered the LEDs to about 8 "and moved it
out to the back edge of the tank. Then I put the coralifes back on and pushed them against the wall which is about 5" thick.
Looks much much better. I wonder if I can find any 36"fixtures that only hold one T5 HO or VHO? I'm sorry, it might be easier to
understand if I told you the tank was built into the wall, has a nice size room behind it. Now I can't wait to get a second set
of LEDs. I have the coralifes on a remote control, I can turn them on and off from the couch, nice when you want to watch TV.
My tank is not covered, the coralifes are on stands about 4" above the water, will this hurt them or should I put some glass
under them? Why should you have your lights off if you're not home, do you mean the LEDs or both? Thanks again guys, tank
looks awesome.

[Reefing Madness]

I don't run my lights when i'm not home. My lights come on at 3pm and off at 11pm.

[trustinno1]

ok as im reading this thread i have t 5s 4 bulb for my 20 gallon tank with 2 10000kelans an 2 aticnic so should i remove one of the aticnic bulbs an add another white bulb or is my setup ok for corals

[Original Fin]

ok as im reading this thread i have t 5s 4 bulb for my 20 gallon tank with 2 10000kelans an 2 aticnic so should i remove one of the aticnic bulbs an add another white bulb or is my setup ok for corals

50/50 is the usual way of doing it with the common bulbs...and I think that's plenty of lighting for anything in that tank, however; if you wanted to go SPS dominant, more PAR wouldn't hurt. In that case, I'd recommend visiting the Grim Reefer (He has his own site apart from his Epic RC thread now) for a custom color bulb combination. He's a big fan of ATI bulbs, and so am I. Quite a few of the T5ers around here use them. Their bulbs go beyond your standard 10K and actinics, and even their colored bulbs significantly contribute to PAR unlike most pure actinic bulbs.