Cree LED design? (On the fence between halide lighting)

What kind/how many power supplies and drivers do I need if I go with Group Buy LED?

 

If it were me doing it all over again, GET DIMMABLE BALLASTS. I say this because you can dim without a controller. Just but some pots for them and set it up that way. You can color tune it with them, start off dim so you don't shock your corals and if u get a controller down the road,you will be happy you got dimmables.

 

I agree X10.

 

Pots?

I wont be buying anything for a little while, so I have time to decide on dimmable vs. Non.

Are the # of LEDs I have chosen suitable?

 

Anyone familiar with the driver and power supply on Group buy led?

 

Pots = potentiometer 10K Ohm Linear Potentiometer - Rapid LED

You can use those to manually dim until you get a controller.

As far as #, I think you should be fine. With their retrofit kits, they provide 48 for a 75 and 34 for a 40. A 55 is pretty much in the middle of those foot print wise, so 42 should be just fine.

 

Cool. Thanks.

My biggest concern with LED is the color of my SPS. My halides are bringing out phenomenal colors right now and I know a lot of people have switched back from LED or are struggling with them. I also know several are having success, even some locally.

I think the biggest issue is the type of LEDs and the # of LEDs used. I know Cree diodes and Meanwell drivers are considered good quality, is that true?

I just want to make sure I make the right decision in passing up two Hamilton ballasts, reflectors and bulbs for $175 that I know will give me the results I want.

 

Kevin, Go check out my Build thread linked to you below. this should take you to the post where I removed my Metal halides and put in LED's. I bought a used custom built fixture that was poorly wired and laid out. a friend and I hodge podged it and added more led's. I had enough drivers with it anyways. it has 4 NON dimmable circuits of 12 and 6 dimmable circuits of 12. The dimmables come on first then the nons run for 6 hours then back to the dimmables.

as stated by Marshall, the pots are very simpley knobs that let you dim them.


Lights Build

I get Great SPS colors with my LED. but if you have to break your corals in. I started off with just doing the dimmables on their lowest setting for 2 weeks. then I added 10% weekly to them until I got to 90%. from there I added a hour a week to the non dimmables until I got to 6 hours. Unfortunately I dont have PAR #'s for you on them.

By getting the pots now, you can ramp them up so you dont burn your sps and brown them out. you can also color tune the lights to your liking. I WISH mine were setup that way. Control blues with 1 pot, whites with another and the other colors with a third or even 4th.


I like the Inventronics drivers. They work best with my reefkeeper controller. I ahve the Meamwell non dimmables and a single meanwell dimmer EVENTUALLY, when I feel like fixing something thats not broke, ill swap the non dimmables to inventronics dimmable ones.

 

You have a lot more LEDs than what I was going to buy; 3 times as many in fact. That's a concern of mine.

 

My tank is also well over 3x the size of yours bud....

your LED selection looks good to me. but go with the dimming ones

personally, I like Warm whites, Cool whites, blues and actinics. I have no experience with the reds, violets and cyans. if it were me, I would go with 12 each of the 4 I mentioned. each with a dimmable driver and then add the others if you want with a 5th driver. this way you have COMPLETE controlability with it and can color tune it as you like. I personally prefer a 12-14k lit tank closer to natural light. alot of other folks like theirs closer to 20k.