T5 LED mix over frag tanks...

Looking for thoughts and suggestions here. I'm setting up coral frag tanks and I'll be using a combination of T5s and LEDs.

Each tank will be a 33g long. 48" 12" 12". The tank will have 2 48" t5s and then the LEDs.

How many 3w LEDs should I run down the middle of the tank using 80 degree optics?

I used panoramas which would come out to 1 every inch. Maybe 24?

If all it needed was 24 that would be fine. I'm planning on at least 36, and possibly bumping it up to 48. :-)

I'm looking to grow SPS, so acros needing 700ish par will be growing in these babies too.

Also, which should I do... go with KZ Fiji purple T5's and do a 2:1 white:blue ratio with LEDs, or the opposite. Do white T5s and a 2:1 blue:white with the LEDs?

I think I've put together a decent plan. I'm going to go for 14 cool white LEDs and 28 royal blue LEDs (total of 42 LEDs) with 80 degree optics ran by Meanwell dimmable drivers. That's 14 LEDs per driver with a 2:1 blue:cool white ratio. I can use the T5's to mix the color and fill in the spectrum. I'm thinking 1 aquablue special and 1 KZ Fiji purple. That'll give me a spectrum similar to a phoenix 14k MH with a higher peak at 450 because of the 2:1 LED ratio. I should get very high par numbers with this setup as well. If the price is right, I could go with these lights over all three of my frag tanks. If not, I'll start off with two tanks setup this way and 1 tank with three T5s over it (likely for undata, monti caps and birdsnests... maybe digitatas).

Sounds solid to me, remember the pics when you start putting it together!

I wasn't a fan of the Fiji Purple bulb. It gave the tank too much of a pink look. It has good par but I like the 1:1 mix of Aquablue Specials and Blue Plus bulbs. That was just a straight t5 setup though, your set up may look better mixed in with leds. I'd be interested to see what it looks like all together.

The good news about the T5s is if I don't like them.... I'll switch them out. :-)

I think the LEDs will seriously overpower the T5s though, so I'm thinking some of that pink spectrum will show through but won't effect the entire tank. That's what I'm hoping for anyways! In trying to replicate the phoenix 14k spectrum I noticed that none of the LEDs and only a few of the T5 bulbs spiked at that same spot.

We'll find out soon enough! lol.

Screw all of this research and data. I did the math and buying all LEDs instead of running the T5s will pay itself off in just over 1 year. So I'm buying all LEDs instead of mixing with T5s. lol.

How are you putting it all together any pics

There will be tons of pics when I start ordering things in. Shouldn't be too long. A few weeks and I'll be placing my orders. :-)

Today I purchased a 48 Cree XP-E (24 royal blue, 24 cool white) retrofit kit from rapidled. It comes with 4 constant current drivers and 4 dimmable drivers (more drivers than needed... I'll use the other drivers on the second and third tank maybe). I bought it "new - opened box" from the for sale thread on nano-reef. Got what I consider to be a great deal on all of that. I'll order the rest of my LEDs within the next couple of weeks.

It looks like I'm going to go with 36 LEDs over each tank. 24 Royal Blue, 12 Cool White with 80 degree optics. I'm going with 18" heat sinks so I'll have a few inches in the middle and an inch or two on each edge where I'll grow monti caps and birdsnests... the rest will all be high light. If I want more light on the two tanks, I'll order 24 of the XP-R G5's in Cool White and run them at full 1500mA and grow anything I want. I'll already have the extra drivers. If it is enough light, I'll run 48 LEDs at 700mA over the third tank later on down the road and have an even higher light tank. :-)

What with both you and Jason having these tanks, I swear I'll talk about driving over to Fragview.
As for the lights, sounds like a great set up......just way beyond my LED comprehension, and I thought I had done some reading on LED's (3-4 hours I guess), I'll wait for the pics, then read again :-)

I've read for hours and hours on LEDs and didn't really "get it" until I saw a writing diagram a few days ago. All of a sudden all of the reading and research came together and I finally got it!

Three days later I spent tons of money on leds...so...just stop reading now! Hahaha!

Got my first LEDs I ordered in today. Packaging was great. Here's some pics.

Everything packed well. No damage to anything inside. All of the power cords on top.


These heat sinks are huge! I could fit double the LEDs on this thing. :-)


All 8 of the drivers. I'll only need 6 for all three of the tanks on this build. I'll either sell the other two, or use them to build a DIY LED setups over my 29g and 10g.


All of the LEDs. Can't wait to get this thing going!

Hope those bags are marked . LOL

In my other order I was going to get a double a battery led tester to make sure they were all running properly before attaching them. Now that you're brought that up I'll make sure I get one! So I'll just split them up then. Haha

Matt
Its easy to tell the white from blue, the white looks slightly yellow and the blue are rally clear looking but you definately need to test each one before attaching. If you want to forego the tester, do like I did, I cut the ends off a 3.6 volt charger for an old cell phone and just touch these to the leds.

I might have to try that Donnie. You might have saved me $7 just now. ;-)

matt_longview wrote:I might have to try that Donnie. You might have saved me $7 just now. ;-)

Just be sure the charger is 3.6v or even a little less, too much will blow the led.