PC to LED conversion

I have a 125 reef tank that has been set up for 13 years. It has become part of the family(we had it before the kids came). The 30 gal sump, UV, etc is in the basement so things are pretty quiet in the living room. The tank has a clam(1 inch when we got it- 5 inches now), frogspawn, rasta, all flavors of 'shrooms, recordia, orange encrusting polyps, clowns, tangs,crabs, shrimp, and the usual stuff that "appears" then goes away. The lighting is 8-96 watt PC's, 4-10,000K and 4- 440nm actinics, mounted 3 inches above the water surface under a full reflectorized hood. I have 3- 650cfm muffin fans that keep the temp stable. The tank is as hassle free as can be and I hesitate to mess with it but the cost of replacing the bulbs is getting out of hand at almost $1000 per year. I am simply looking to replicate the existing light levels with LEDs, but I am overwhelmed by the choices and not knowing what the lumens are for the PCs. I feel like I'm trying to convert apples to oranges being fed bananas. Any guidance and/or direction would be greatly appreciated.

 

I'm looking into LEDs as well but really don't know much about them. I do think it is a very smart move on your part though.

 

Budget? 6ft x 18in x 20 or 22in something like that right?
2 Maxspect Razors 27 inches would definitely work, Reefbreeders has some nice ones. The best would be to DIY a fixture, Rapid, stevesleds, and Ledgroupbuy are all great.

 

I have allmost exact same setup w/ same livestock. Currently have ecoray which work fine but do not like constant fan noise.
Have ordered 3 of the short razors that will run perpandicular and 1 27 inch which will run parallel in the center. The manufacturer reccommended 3 of the smaller ones but I want more light at the ends

 

Yes, the tank measures 72in x 18in x 22in deep. As far as budget goes, I feel that a 2 to 3 year payback would be acceptable, so $2000 to $3000 would save me a bunch in the long run. The hood is hinged approximately 1/3rd from the front so ideally the lights would be 70 in x 4in. four of these would fit nicely, and still allow the hood to be easily used for feeding etc. Would this be too much or too little light?

 

When doing LEDs espically on a established tank you want to make sure they are controllable so that when you hook them up you can set the intensity. You will want to ramp it up slowing over a couple weeks so that everything in the tank can adapt to the change. Ill shoot ya guys a pm on something. I do not want to hijack a thread but make sure you get controllable ones.

I like the maxspect however only thing is when you have a canopy the control module is on the end of the fixture so seeing the display on them might be difficult.

 

Welcome to the LED age It can drive you batty. I did a ton of research with my change to LED. I finally decided on the Vertex illumina sr200 - fantastic light fully programmable and can be updated.
A few things to keep in mind - they are very bright - start them about a foot and a half above the water - then slowly lower them to 6 inches over a month or so.
some of my corals did react negatively - if you have softies or sps high in the tank lower them.
I have been very happy and so are my corals - my wife is happy with the $ saved too. the electric bill went down

Don't get over whelmed - you can not compare t5's or compacts to leds (par) the most amazing thing I found was the spread of the light - everything in the tank is lit.

good luck

 

If you decide to go with a DIY led method, don't hesitate to contact RapidLED. They're great at providing all levels of support, and super quick with replies!

 

3 20 inch Razors if you want them to last, two 27 inch ones would work fine, although with three 20's you would get an insane amount of light and awesome spread.

 

PC to LED --What I finally did

Hi Folks, Thanks for the great advice and recommendations. I evaluated as much as I could, gathered what was considered important and made a decision based on all that AND the concept that I might make a mistake, so let's make an inexpensive one(the old "if you know that you're going to crash-aim for something cheap" principle). I ended up buying 3 TaoTronics, 120 watt units from Amazon. They have dimmers for each color(28, 450-470nm blue and 27 12,000k -14,000k white). They were $189 each with free shipping. They arrived 46 1/2 hours after ordering! my hood is short so I could only get less that 2 inches above the water if I mounted them inside. I cut holes and placed them on top of the hood centered both fore and aft and side to side(between the structural dividers). This gives me 7 1/2 inches above the water and unrestricted cooling. There are 3 fans on each unit and they are very quiet--my wife's laptop makes more noise when she uses it in the same room. I started the units at approx 50% power for the blue and 40% for the white. I left the timers at the usual 11 and 10 hours, respectively. Compared to the PC's the colors are stark and stunning. A few areas are a little dimmer than with the PC's but the corals are happier than they have ever been. I have noticeable growth in just over a week. My measuring stick for tank conditions is my clam. She(naturally it is a "she") is quite fussy about everything and if things are not as she desires, she will let me know by "clamming" up. She is very happy now and is spreading her mantle wide!
So, for $567 I jumped into the LED era. Are the ones I bought perfect? Of course not(I wish the cords were at right angles) but they were a comfortable choice, and the most important thing is that I made a the decision and pulled the trigger. With so many options, it is easy to get paralysis by analysis. I'm happy and I thank you all for your help. Let's see how long they last!