Need Help in Selecting Lights

Greetings of the day

how are you ? wish you all have a great long weekend...

soo here is my scene at the moment...

link to my tank

http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/challenge-143974.html

hope u liked it its a loong way to goo


basically i have 2 kessils Tuna blue running up in my tank... its pretty cool and have no problems with it but i feel that just 2 kessils is way too low for my 6 feet tank

soo here comes the problem either to upgrade to kessils like buy 2-3 more of them or go for DIY Cree LED setup

pros of kessils
awesome simmer, great penetration, and sexy looks

cons of kessils
too blue for my taste and are not controlled via controller, no sunrise sun set effect... are the only con that i can see as of now

Pros of DIY CREE
can go for full spectrum lights, more control over the unit....

Cons of DIY CREE
its a DIY and m dumb at DIY

soo please guide me what to buy and how to go about....

if i opt for DIY CREE setup here is what i have planned soo far...
please have a look and reply me experts

total unit 3 nos with 2 kessils tune blue on a 6 feet tank with 27 wide and 24 deep*
each unit will be placed alternately*( DIY - Kessil - DIY - Kessil - DIY )
i am not really a great fan of the blue tone and Kessils have good blue color so have totally eliminated blues from this stuff....

plans for LED*

White: 9 Nos Cree XT-E Cool White (total 27 nos) (should we go for XT-E or XP-G is fine ? )*
UV Violets: 9 Nos from Rapid Led (total 27 nos)
Red: 1 Nos Cree XP-E (total 3 nos)
Green: 1 Nos XP-E (total 3 nos)
Royal Blue: 2 Cree XP-E (if necessary for moonlight) (total 6 nos)
Amber: 1 Cree XP-E (total 3 nos)
Lens: 80 degree lens*

1) is it this light good ? or an over kill for the tank ? are warm white necessary ?*
2) again i am bad at the computer soo if you can guide regarding the placement of the LEDs that ll be great i was thinking red, green, amber, and royal blue( if you suggest) will be in midle and rest will be alternate
3) what should be the size of the unit ? i like more compact look*
4) what should be the ideal distance between each LEDs ??*
5) are combined lens available for crees ? if yes where so can try to replicate ecotech radiations*
6) it will be manually and PWM dimming as experimenting for first time and in case of aurindo failure shouldn't be a problem*
7) friend of mine is making aurindo any special points i need to tell him to take care of ?*
8) what driver you suggest to use ?*
9) i would like to control each color individually is it possible ? and how if yes ? if no what to do ?*
10) any extra points that came to your mind while reading please tell me....*
*

 

I have gone through all your long explanation, but frankly speaking it needs a lot more time to describe everything in detail. I will try to come back again in some tree times and will like to explain this.

 

thank you sir... will eagerly wait for your reply ...

 

OPTION 1) suggested by a friend who is gonna make the unit for me

could use a 7" x 7" square heatsink to mount the 25 leds. See the diagram according to what you have provided me.

A 120mm fan on top for cooling the heatsink.

here is the diagram showing the LED placement that i have thought off...



and here comes
OPTION 2)

this is by another friend who has helped me a lot....

his suggestions are
1) to avoid the blues in the DIY and add more of violets as such i am havinf kessils so blue will be taken care of
2) no need of warm white as this will increase the whiteness
3) he suggested to keep minimum distance of 2 inches between each LED

soo here is the diagram of what he suggested



my questions
1) is the option 1 right ?? i will substitute blues with violets ??
2) what is the minimum distance between each LEDs ??
3) which one to opt for ?
4) should i completely eliminate blue and warm white ??
5) is the option 1 LED placing good enough and i shall order the LEDs ??

thanks helpp will be much appreciated

 

IMO 1 one more Tuna blue would work best.
A good DIY may look different and obviously wouldn't go well with the Kessils overwater.
Also a good for a good DIY led spectrum, look here Full spectrum LED layouts - Lighting Forum - Nano-Reef.com Forums

 

thank you very much for the link... but i am not able to register there....
kessils doesnt have controllably soo wanted to do DIY

 

it seems like the best and cheapest way to go right now would be to add one more Kessil. I think three lights over the tank would be enough for the 6 feet in length. And it'll solve your problem immediately. Then you have time to look into DIY and see if that's something you'd be able to handle. You could always change it later, but I think since you already have 2/3 of the lighting you need, adding one more is the easiest way to go. (And I'm also speaking from personal experience since I have the Kessils - A150W - and love them )

 

Having one controllabile diy with the kessils would be even weirder.

 

thank you very much i agree kessils are beautiful and i also love them.... but they lacks in controllability

it would be like 3 DIY units and 2 Kessils....

 

after lots of thinking availablity of A360 kessils and plans to buy apex controller i am skipping of the DIY plans and getting 2 nos of kessils A360W for the tank...

so how many kessils do you guys suggest for the tank ?? my tank is 6 feet X 27 inch wide X 24 inch height