Black box lighting Fix

[Fishfinder]

I recently set up a 7ft, 210gal tank. I got 4 black box LEDs with the setup. They are ordinary black box lights (12"x8" I think) I set the lights 6 inches apart and 10 inches off the water. This is a pic of my display with the lights. I am getting very bad spotlighting effect.

Blues

Blues and whites

I was very unhappy with the coverage of the lights at 6 inches apart. Then a friend of mine @litenyaup noticed that each LED had a lense on it and said we should try removing them. To see if we could get more coverage out of the lights. It's a lot of lenses.

So after we took down my lights and removed all the lenses this is the new coverage my tank is getting.

Blues

Blues and whites

The spotlight effect is completely gone and the tanks looks much better. I don't know what it did to the par but my corals are all still extremely happy. Just a consideration for anyone running cheap black box lights. My lighting is much better now.

 

[Maritimer]

Nice work!

Yer givin' me ideas . . . <looks over at his MarsAquas>

~Bruce

 

[litenyaup]

Hey bud looks great, when the par meter comes in we can where your at!

 

[Flippers4pups]

Yep, did that to the outermost units to the left and right over my tank. I had shadowing on each side of my tank. Took off the edge rows of lenses and the shadowing disappeared.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Those BBs in general are WAY more that anyone needs at full power in general.

So hung low like that with no lenses that is perfect.

It's about a 30% or so loss I belive maybe a bit more.
But at 12in the mars is usually about 1500 par max.

Nice work!

Yer givin' me ideas . . . <looks over at his MarsAquas>

~Bruce

I pulled about half my lenses selectively to keep a bit of shimmer and and minimize loss of power.

Jason- who is a libra and seems to need to find the middle ground to maintain a balance.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Those BBs in general are WAY more that anyone needs at full power in general.

So hung low like that with no lenses that is perfect.

It's about a 30% or so loss I belive maybe a bit more.
But at 12in the mars is usually about 1500 par max.


I pulled about half my lenses selectively to keep a bit of shimmer and and minimize loss of power.

Jason- who is a libra and seems to need to find the middle ground to maintain a balance.

Since we are "black box" talking, done some research on modding the layout to mimic the sb boards. May pull the trigger in a couple weeks to get the diodes.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Since we are "black box" talking, done some research on modding the layout to mimic the sb boards. May pull the trigger in a couple weeks to get the diodes.

Yum!
I have so little patience for the diy. And some skill too.

There's a modified black box thread here on R2R you might check out.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Yep, read it. Thanks.