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View Full Version : Please help! LED questions


GrowingTheReef
11/01/2012, 06:21 PM
Ive been asking a lot of questions and just want some simple answers :uhoh3:

First I have a aquarium thats 30"x12"x13"tall (20 gallon long)
I know i don't need optics but im trying to figure out my full spectrum color combo
I have x2... 6"x9" heat sinks that will go over the tank
I want to support LPS, SPS, ZOAS, And SHROOMS
WILL THIS COLOR COMBO WORK? (They are solderless cree leds from rapidled)
12x Royal Blue
4x Cool White
4x Warm White
2x Blue led
2x Red led
4x Ultra violate

For wiring them...
All 12 Royal Blue on one dimming driver
4 Cool White, and 4 Warm White on one dimmable driver
2 red, 2 blue, and 4 UV on one NON-DIMMABLE driver

Please help me guys, im in the blind for this.

Thansk in advance, Nick :fish1:

GrowingTheReef
11/02/2012, 03:35 PM
Come on, someone has to have some input? I don't know who else to ask because i don't trust rapidled, they just wanna sell as much as they can, nothing against them, they are a business.

ghellin
11/03/2012, 01:56 AM
I would trust mike at rapid he cares very much! My LEDs came from rapid, I also read a lot before ordering.

crn005
11/03/2012, 04:52 AM
The general rule of thumb is that you should have one 3 watt LED per 15-20 square inches of surface area (assuming the depth is under about 20 inches or so). You will have an LED for every 12.86 square inches. Even not including the violet LEDs, you'll be exactly at an LED per every 15 square inches. You should be able to keep all of the corals you would like, especially considering how shallow that tank is.

How high are you hanging the lights though?

Dave Thebrewguy
11/03/2012, 09:10 AM
My personal opinion is that you need more violet and that the cool white would be a mistake. I'd probably be inclined to change the CW to NW. You could delete the reds and use 4 WW, 4 NW and 6 violet, WW have some red in them and there is a little bit of red spectrum in the NW.
Blue or Cyan are good and 2 are probably enough, I used a higher percentage and may swap a few out.l
UV is bad for corals, or anything with DNA for that matter, but violet is very important for photosynthesis. Avoid UV! The UV sold by rapid are violet, not UV, and the fact that they don't seem to know the difference tells me that they are not a place to rely on for information about LEDs.
Red is at the far end of the spectrum from violet and blue so I would not put them on the same driver. If you use red, put them on the driver with your whites, the whites are already giving you green, yellow orange and red so it's only logical to add the reds there.