Finally going LED

I replaced 8 neutral/warm whites with XP-G cool whites today. Had one bad XP-G in my newest order which took some time to narrow it down. Before my PAR was topping out at 615 or so with the LEDs. With the LEDs replaced I went from 615 to 820 PAR, not quite 900 which was my goal, but pretty close. I just tested my current tank today with a year old MH and it is 400 at the surface... shockingly low to me. Where my corals are placed is only 100-200 PAR. No wonder I have been getting such slow growth. PAR levels on my corals with the LEDs are 300-500 depending on the spot, much better than my MH setup.
 
Here it is installed on my 75G canopy with the T5s

5275327988_2680d09050_b.jpg
 
It is working good.. duncans were a little PO'd yesterday from all the extra light but they will adjust. I am going to change the install a little. I cheated and thought I could hang the light instead of cutting the top of the canopy to fit (which was my original intention) and I think it sits a little to low now and doesn't quite give me the coverage I want. So over the holidays I will remove the hanging part and cut the hole that you see above the light now, which was where my MH reflector was, into a rectangle to be able to fit the LED light flush with the top of the canopy and have the fins/fans on the outside of the canopy.
 
Update: Wow I messed up on my fixture.. I build my 24LED light for my 29G tank and discovered something about using POTS to dim the lights. The more POTS you put on a string the more the draw is off the master pot. I set the master POTS to around 9.5v before I added the drivers when I initially setup the light. While building the 24LED light I noticed the drop in voltage when adding multiple POTS. So I adjusted accordingly and I was like "OMG that is sooo bright, way brighter than the other light!". So I took my meter and tested the voltage at the dimming POTS on my big light, it was only at 2.5v! So I carefully adjusted the master POT and tested the load. I can set the POT to output 8.8v with all 4 drivers and when I dim 3 out of 4 to OFF position the 1 driver still on gets 9.96v. So I am safe and can't go over voltage with only 1 driver and still get enough voltage at 8.8v with all 4 drivers running at full to make me need sunglasses to look at my tank now. I am now getting 3x the light and PAR off the same light just by adjusting the master POT to the correct voltage. Woohoo.. now it blows a 375w XM 10k bulb out of the water so to speak.. talking 1300+ PAR now with LEDs vs 900 PAR with the XM 10K MH bulb @ 4" below water, so my LED light is better than a 400w MH and only consumes a max of 144w. :D
 
Nope.. with it running full blast now there is no way I could get by without the fans. I turned my 24 LED light up all the way on my 29G to see how hot it got and within 20 minutes it was too hot to touch so I put a house fan blowing across the heatsink and it cooled it to just a warm temp, which is what my 48 LED fixture feels like.
 
AquariaCentral.com