diy led lights

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jessie

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I have been looking around and im planning on using crees with the dimmable drivers. What I need help with is what degree lense gives what effect. They will be mounted about 10 inches above the surface of a 6 foot long 18 inch wide 30 inch tall tank. I kinda like the ripple effect on the mvava lights so what spacing should I use with what degree lense.
 

Ace25

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That is a lot of LEDs. Which model Cree's are you going with? XP/R-E, XP-G, or XM-L? I would recommend 80 degree for that distance, but the only optics you can get for XP-G and XM-L are 65 and 60s. That is still a little too tight for that distance so to compensate for the spotlight effect that would create you will need to add more LEDs. Not that you need the added light for corals but it would be needed to blend and get an even look in the tank. If you could raise the light higher you can get away with less LEDs. If you can hang the light at least 24" you could use 40degree lenses, get a good blend, and still good penetration in the water. All that is assuming your talking about a reef tank. If your talking about FOWLR that is different and the answer is much easier, no optics.
 

jessie

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the tank will have some soft coral in it. i dont want to cut a hole in the canopy to hang lights above it. im looking at a ddc-01-pwm controller with eln-60-48p drivers. im not technical enough yet to know the difference in the leds. what i need help with is how far apart could i space the leds with, lets just use a 65 optic on an xm-l, keep in mind i like the light shadow ripple effect. right now im just getting together a price check. if i cant get it done for 3/4 the price of the mvavas, then i will just go buy them.
 

jessie

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is that spacing center to center or edge to edge. i have been looking at starting out with 4 rows of cree xr-e with 80 degree lenses with four drivers and the diming controller. they would be spaced out about 4 1/2 inches apart and rows would be two inches apart. and thats center to center. i would stagger the rows so if you measured diagnal all the leds would be about 3 inches apart center to center. with the drivers and dimmer its half the price of what i was looking at as a complete light without dimming effect. is this to far off. and i guess if i didnt like it i could always add in another set and a driver.i have material for the box and splash guard on hand. this should all work good together but am i wasting my time. i dont have anyone close by with cree lights so i cant just check their setup.
 

Ace25

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Here is my light, 48 LEDs, 60/65degree optics, 14" above. Tank is only 30"x24" though. Spacing is 1.75" apart, center to center, and 2" apart row to row. I had to take off 50% of the optics because it made really bad beams of light in the tank that looked horrible.



On a tank your size, 6' long, that is going to require way more LEDs if you plan on using optics.

This is my "softy" tank LED light, 24 LEDs on a 29G with no optics, 2 rows of 12, 2" apart and 2" between rows, resting on glass right above the water and it actually works better than my LED light above.
 

jessie

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so i would have to double just about everything then, and that would cost me another $425. i guess i need to shop around for a better buy on the parts.
 

Ace25

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If it is just soft corals your wanting to grow, and possibly low light LPS corals like Acans and Chalices, then if you could lower your light from 10" down to say 4" above the water and not use any optics at all you could get by without going with so many LEDs. The problems come when you add optics, it really adds a lot more light to the tank, too much at times, and causes color banding in the water, which is why you need to raise the light up a lot higher than normal or add more LEDs to not have the color banding. Unfortunately, 10" up without optics, it isn't going to give you much light at the bottom of a 30" tank, but 10" up with any optics tighter than 80degrees is going to give you color bars and more than likely give you way to much light in certain spots in the tank.
 

jessie

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so i might be ok to build this one like this. then i would just have to play with the optics and fixture height. im really only looking to grow some mushrooms, starpolyps, athelia and maybe some some xenia. and i guess if all else fails i can always add a couple more drivers and leds to fill in any void. i appreciate the help. these were some of the questions i couldnt really find the answers to. plus doing the research on the leds was the first time i had seen computer dimmer controls. thanks again.
 
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