Number Of Leds?

[coldcazzie]

Ok, so I'm prodding the manwife to get my lighting sorted for my tank.

Given him lots of reading to do and told him what I want, but one thing I keep coming up against is working out how many LEDs we are going to need. They will be (I think) around 2 foot above the tank, which means around 2.5-3 foot above the water level.

If I have 5 3w 6500K LEDs, spaced a foot apart would that be enough or would I need 2 at each lighting point? Or less than 5? I don't know?!

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Its kind of trial and error with LED's Caz, what you should do is come up with your design then buy the lighting to suit, you could bunch all the LED's together and use the widest angle lens' or spread them out and use thin angle, my 5 LED set up over my 35L lights up the whole room if its 2ft above the tank using 30 degree lens'. How big is the foot print on the tank?

 

[coldcazzie]

well it needs to be pretty flexible as currently it's got to go over my Rio 240 which is 48*16 footprint, but next year once we've recarpeted I'll be upgrading to a 6*2*2.

At this stage I can't decide if I should put this on the back burner and just buy a light starter for my one remaining tube and bodge a reflector from some guttering... or if I should work on something that I can transfer over to the bigger tank when I upgrade.

A starter would be easier wouldn't it...

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Not necessarily, if you weren't so far away I could build it for you, I have so much time on my hands lol, what are you planning on building it out of? Are you wanting something similar to what I have above my tanks? Kind of pine or oak with the gubbins inside and suspended or on legs? You could build something for your Rio and just change the lens' when it goes over your 6ft, I'm currently building one for my 72x24x20 for next year and its very simple, just make sure you get the right bits n bobs, your 6x2x2 is going to be your swamp scape right? If so it may be easier to buy a starter for now as your growing a lot of emersed plants for the swamp right? So the lighting may be a lot different.