LED Lighting- How much is needed for corals?

27mtaylor

27mtaylor

Member
I've been out of the hobby for a couple of years now and starting it back up. Recently I was at a LFS having my tank drilled and the owner showed me his "latest and greatest" lighting. He had 5 par 38 bulbs over his reef tank. The effect looked great and he said it was sufficient for his inhabitants. He mentioned that he had his bulbs custom made, but he didn't really say how many LED's or lumens it would take to properly light a tank.
Since being amazed at the LED lighting and its benefits, I've been doing a lot of research on line and I can't seem to find a clear answer on how much LED lighting is needed to grow moderate to heavy light intensive corals. The old watts/gallon rule seems to be out so how would I know how many lumens, or whatever, that I would need to raise corals with LEDs? Thanks!
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
well, ive read alot about them and actually own one of the Par 38's from Evil66 at nano tuners (Probably where your buddy got his "custom made")
there are only a few brands that are making teh high end fixtures were the bulbs produce at least 3w per light.
There are tons of knock offs that have loads of 1w lights for cheap.
From what I understand the higehr wattage output lights are needed for penetration.
Aqua illuminations makes a nice fixture, be ready to pay.
the nano tuners par 38's are nice but you may need several to cover a good sized reef tnak.
The coverage isn't that great which IMO is the downfall of the LED's
I have one on my 10g frag tank and it lights up the center pretty good but its darker at the corners with 60 degree optics.
So on my 120g I figure i would need at least 8 of those lights to sufficiently light my tank (At least)
at 120.00 a piece thats about 900.00 for lights minimum.
the aqua illuminations for a multiple bar setup will likley cost about 1200.00 for the same size but you have alot more controlability and many more bulbs.
Look for fixtuires that use rebel or cree bulbs, they are the two best right now for most purposes from what I read.
 
wangotango

wangotango

Active Member
How many LEDs? Depends on what type, optics used, size of tank. The Aquailluminations fixtures don't use many LEDs compared to other fixtures, but they are driven at a high current and use a very narrow optic so they have amazing PAR at deeper depths. Fixtures like Ecoxotic use lower-powered LEDs and no optics, so they will probably have more LEDs than one with higher powered fixtures.
If you were going the DIY route, then the average seems to be one LED per 10-20 square inches of tank surface. What's nice about LEDs too is you don't have to light the entire tank. You can use them to "spot light" rock structures.
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
Wango,
are you running nay LED"s?
I've never had any MH's or nothing so I just love the shimmer on my little frag tank.
 
27mtaylor

27mtaylor

Member
When you say 1 LED per 10-20 square inches of surface area, what is the wattage on the LED that you are basing that on?
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
I just bought 10 CREE 1 watt LEDs to play with...these are the white lights only, but I'm curious to see how they look. I was thinking of getting 10 more blue and putting a small array over a 5.5g corner biowheel tank I have in the garage. I've heard mention on a few message boards that the 1 watt bulbs have some value over the three watt LEDs right now - I don't remember if it was economical reasons or PAR values that generated those comments, though.
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
if its a deep tank the only downfal to the 1W bulbs is they don't penetrate.
Its just like using a 150w metal halide when you need a 400w to penetrate.
 
d-man

d-man

Member
I'm no expert on the subject but this is how I understand it. The penetration is in relation to the coverage, meaning if you have a led with a 180 light spread your going to have some good coverage and not as good penetration. The other thing I understand is that most people are running 3w leds at 2w to cut down on heat problems. I will start building one soon. I'm going to use some cheaper leds that are ether 5w or 10w.
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
I have a PAR 38 LEd fixture and it runs 6 % watt cree bulbs but they run at 4.2 watts each
 
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