Finally going LED

[DoctaQ]

how tall is it ?

 

[Ace25]

24" deep tank but with a 6" sandbed and rocks are suspended on the PVC frame so the lowest point of a rock is about 16" below the surface of the water.

 

[DoctaQ]

you have enough leds for coverage and the height should not require optics unless you are going to mount the fixture very high

 

[DoctaQ]

if you use the xp series from cree you arent going to be able to find any optics tighter than 60 deg, the xr series will have a bigger variety, including 80 deg which i guess would be my suggestion since the increase in light is basicly free since it doesnt cut the spread much

 

[DoctaQ]

i actually just remembered that cree actually makes the mc-e in rgb+white, i cant much imagine using it on a reef though

 

[Ace25]

So much reading... so many plan changes..

So now the plan is...

12 - XP-G cool whites
6 - XR-E Neutral whites
6 - XR-E Warm whites
12 - XR-E Royal Blue
8 - XR-E Cool Blue
4 - Luxeon Cyan

I have read too many places that the Red LEDs are not really useful. The neutral and warm white LEDs will provide 50x more in the reds than what my current lighting has now so I think they will be plenty of control in the red area.

 

[Jstdv8]

I think the reason you see reds in some builds is for the color pop on things that are yellow orange and red in your tank. beyond that probbaly not alot of help.
t-5 fixtures are going with some redish bulbs for that reason.

 

[DoctaQ]

i think all those cool blues and the cyan are gonna kill you, i would replace at least some of them with more royal blues. also at a 1-1 mix of blues and warm/neutral whites the tank is going to be very yellow, probably not much more than 10k at max.

reds also create red shimmer which is terrible

 

[Ace25]

Your forgetting... dimmable is the key here. Sure at full power on all LEDs I would probably get a ugly color (windex+yellow look) which would look terrible, but running the Royal Blues at closer to 100%, the Blue+Cyan at 60%, and all whites at 40-50% may give me a color I like. Also I am getting 6 extra Royal blues to switch out with regular blues/cyan if I feel the need after I try it out.

The latest threads on RC about LED coloring are now saying a 1:1:1 ratio of RB/CB/NW is the perfect combo.

 

[DoctaQ]

dimming certianly is key so are you doing meanwells for driving?