Custom nano diy light??

[FajardoPR]

im bulding a 24x16x12 acuarium, what is the best choice of light ??? is going to be reef, do you think that t5ho and mh , or only leds, or t5ho with leds?? i want all types of corals but not to hard to stay alive.:frog:

[truebeliever71]

LEDs all the way! Aside from bleaching out some of my lower light corals (solved by dialing back the intensity) I have been experiencing excellent color and growth on my 120G tank.

[mcmyeye]

IMO, even though you get great colors, MH gives too much heat. with LED you get alot less evaporation, no need for noisy cooling fans. LEd's come in several colors now which can make the tank look great. they can be made dimmable. i have all LED's and was told i will have no trouble.

[FajardoPR]

how many leds i needs?? is going to be 24 long, 16 wide and 12 tall, how many leds??? 24 you think? and how wide and long need to be the heat sink???

[FajardoPR]

what do you think guys on the par38 on rapidled?? they come whit 7 leds.

[SoFloReefer]

I would do 28 LEDs. 4 rows of 7. No optics. Use two Meanwell dimmable drivers. Rapidled has a 5.9 x 16 heat sink that would work well. You can use the Berquist thermal pads to attach the leds to the sink. There is a build were someone uses 1.5" aluminum L bracket with rivets to build the fixture. Its clean, cheap, inexpensive, easy, and sleek. Figure out what kind of controller you want to use, or simply use two potentiometers as dimmers.
I would use 14 Royal Blue Cree XP leds, and a mix of Cree neutral white XP, Cree XP Royal Blue, and Cree XP Blue on the other driver.