Required LED lights

I have a 150gal tank, it's 60x24x24. Id like to build my own LED system but dont know how many LEDs to put on it. Id like to use the CREE XR-E lights. I will be growing SPS when everything is done. Does anyone know how many of what combo I should use?

Also, I would like to hang the lights about 8 inches or so off the water if possible. What sort of optics would be best?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

I would email Mike over at rapid led with your post here at staff@rapidled.com. He will give you a good recommendation and usually responds within a few minutes.

I personally would do a combo of 1.5 to 1 ratio of blues to whites for around a 15k or so look. Of those blues, I would do a 2 to 1 ratio of royal blue to blue and a 1 to 1 ratio of cool white to neutral white. At 8 inches, you are probably looking at 80 degree optics. I'm not sure on the quantity of LED's though. I would also recommend some UV leds (420nm) and maybe some greens, cyan, and reds in the mix. Again, Mike over at rapid deals with this all day... every day... so he can help you out better... imo.

And one more thing, most people are using XP-E's and XT-E's now a days instead of the XR-E's which are a little out dated.

 

Thanks, i sent them an email, they seem to have really fair prices also.

 

check ledgroupbuy too.... I have been fretting over which way to go with lights too. DIY LED or modular? I am leaning towards a modular system like the Radion or AI Vega/Sol for the benefit of the software and controller capability over DIY. The DIM4 and Typhon/Arduino based DIY type controllers don't have the feature set of the radion...and hopefully the new AI vega. Also, I haven't seen a wireless DIY solution. The only other choice that I know of (I don't know much) for DIY LED fixtures is to go with one of the hyper expensive aquarium controllers like the neptune apex.

Tough choices!