DIY Cree LED questions

[Megalodon]

I am upgrading the lighting in my hood (23" wide, 15" long, 18" deep to the sand) to 3w Cree LEDs and I'm wondering about the 80-degree optics I have. It's a Red Sea Max (RSM) so I'm keeping it looking stock and working with what I have. The heat sink will be 20 X 4.5, so it's much smaller than the surface area, but right in the middle. As well, the plexi splash shield will only be an inch off the water, which I think might necessitate a wide angle.

First question, should I bother with the optics? It might be difficult to fit them in there, although I could make it work. I saw a DIY thread on another forum where a guy did the exact same thing in an RSM hood and he didn't use optics.

Here's what I have ...

12X CREE XR-E Royal Blues
12X CREE XR-E Q5 Cool Whites
24X 80-degree optics
2X Mean well ELN-60-48P dimmable drivers
RapidLED two-color dimming kit

Second question, assuming I run them at 100%, would there be enough PAR to support softies/LPS, with some SPS on the rock near the top under the lights? Some of my live rock is quite high and under the lights.

Third question, these drivers are supposed to run up to 14 LEDs each, but I'm only running 12 each. If I added two additional LEDs each for a total of 14 each would I increase my light output or just subtract from the power to the other LEDS, thus dimming them to the point of offsetting the effort and making it pointless?

Thanks for help! :)

[MosMike]

Definitely you need to space the LEDs. With your current plan you'll have a very high intensity area and a darker area.

[Megalodon]

Definitely you need to space the LEDs. With your current plan you'll have a very high intensity area and a darker area.So it might be best then to not use the optics at all?

[nanojg]

I would ditch the optics for sure.

[zenpytho]

+1 get rid of optics and do you have the room to run 2 heatsinks to get more even spread so u dont just have leds covering 4.5" of surface and if u added another 12 leds lol u could keep anything coral wise for sure but u prolly could keep the more demanding corals higher up with what u have and be all right as long as they are more centered under lights

[Megalodon]

I might just cut a larger hole out of the hood (larger than the existing light hole) and have larger heat sinks with plexi cut to size for the splash guard. I'm lucky to have my electrical and metal-working wizard brother with his own shop to help me with this. We can custom-make an aluminum heat sink of any size. I'm excited!