Recommended LED light for 24" height?

Hello everyone, I was wondering which LED light fixture you would recommend to grow Corals in a 24" height tank? Is there any source out there as far as PAR comparison for LED?

Thank You

 

I think there are way too many type/brand LED out there, there won't be a full chart of PAR comparison.
It would really come down to few things for yourself.

1) You can use any type of LED chips from 0.5w to 3w each as 24 inch is not a tall tank. those 0.5w or 1w led chip are cheaper but has limitation on how deep can the light go thru where a 3w high output chip can pretty much go thru 3ft tall tank.

2) type of coral, if just soft coral it wouldn't be matter as pretty much any type of LED fixture can support them, its just amtter of which one gives you the best coloration that you like. If you are going for any stony coral, higher out put light would prefer.

3) Make srue you understand higher PAR from your LED doesn't mean it is always good for your coral at the begining. The reason I said that is because you have to also consider what kind of lighting you currently have. If you are only running like T5, you might have to turn your light down to like 20% or even 10% and then scale back up and you might found that for some coral you will never use 100% output which means you not using the 100% PAR output also.

4) Most high PAR light are also higher cost, you can go with CREE chip LED which cost you 40% more than any other brand of chip and give you that extra 10-20% more PAR output for the same Watts or you can choose to go with a cheaper brand but need higher Watts in order to match the CREE's total PAR level.

I think bottom line is that how much are you willing to spend. You can spend as little as $50-$90 to get one of those 0.5 - 1w chip LED pannel which can support only softies, or you can pay for the premium and go for brand name type like AI which cost about 3 to 4 times more ( could be more if you want to add controller, hanging kit etc) so you canget the best quality. You also can go for those chinese brand LED which is a bit cheaper than AI and coems with lots functions, however you will sacrafice some "PAR" for the price.

 

Thank you for the reply oyf709. This will be a new set up. I would like to invest on pretty good quality lighting on my set up.

 

Go for ai if u want the best quality And has the budget

 

Good info so far, but what sized tank, whats your budget, ad what are your stocking plans? as far as corals go

 

Thank you for your suggestion. I was looking into it, the PAR is pretty good base on 24". But I wasn't sure what's the size for each module.

Tank would be either 72x24x24 or 60x30x24. As far as corals, I might go with SPS or LPS. My budget would be "medium" ;D Not too high, and not too low.

I was looking into Vertex Illumina, and it has nice software feature that I love.

 

OK, you're getting into programming geek mode that is beyond my scope
I'm sure one of the programming guru's will chime in soon to help you out soon. I'm guessing you're gonna hear that, radions, apex etc. If you don't mind a DIY, I'd reccomend rapidled with an APEX controller. You can design the system to be exactly what you want and prgram the controller to have them do exactly what you want and control your tank via your phone from anywhere. Pretty sweet.

 

Well, it's 21st century as you know it;D. It's all about computerized things. Yup, I did research on Radion and Apex too. I hope more people give me their opinions and suggestions. That would help. I was looking at rapidled, and they seem pretty good and offordable prices as well. But unless I am convinced from others experiences, I am not sure if I go DIY.

 

You can't go wrong with rapid IMO, look at biocubes build thread for a smaller version of what you can do!

http://www.3reef.com/forums/led-aqu...install-biocube-rapid-violet-here-128277.html

Alot of info, but I like this way because you can build it EXACTLY as you want and control the look of your tank as you please

 

Thanks for the link Cosmo. That seems to be pretty good on his biocubes. I wonder if there is any thread for bigger and higher tank with RapidLED.