led suggestion for deep tank?

[rgsa8892]

I have a 360 gal fowlr set up that is 6ft long and 4ft deep and want to run leds over it to grow cover on the rocks like star polyps, mushrooms, or other low light softies. Any suggestions? This setup is inline with a 120 Gal reef with 250w mh and 100 Gal sump so I want to cut down on the heat and electric

 

[ReefLEDLights]

Once you go quality LEDs you wont go back. I cut my lighting electric bill by 1/3 when I switched from MH to LEDs

I would go with a little more light than needed for the coraline algae growth. Also I've grown softies, mushrooms and zoas well under 400 watt MHs.

Are you looking for Plug and Play or DIY

If you DIY three Fixtures with 25-45 Cree XT-E LEDs would work great.

Optics would depend on if you have a canopy or the flexibility to hang the fixture at any height.

Bill

 

[Ron Reefman]

Are you OK with just dimmers or do you want built-in controllers?
With just dimmer fixtures you'll probably end up needing at least 2 and maybe 3. With a controller you can get by with 1 32" or 2 24" fixtures.

Will they be in a canopy or hanging in the open (so good looks will matter)?

 

[rgsa8892]

Not worried about looks didn't know which bulbs or colors or how many watts would be necessary for that depth

 

[Ron Reefman]

Given it's a FOWLR and you are just looking for soft corals, you can use most any ratio of blue to white. I'd recommend a 2:1 just because it will be easier to sell down stream to a reef keeper if it has better than 1:1 blue to white ratio. And at 2:1 or even 3:1, you will still have the ability to make a very 10K white looking tank for your fish and have enough blue mixed in to make the corals happy. You really won't need reds and greens, but they wouldn't be a problem either. I'd get a mix of blues and a few violet led along with a mix of warm and cool white leds. All that said, any of the stock led layouts from the fixtures listed below would work just fine over your tank, IMHO.

I wish I could help with the fact that your tank is 4' deep (yikes). I have a friend with a tank very much like yours, but his is a reef and he uses MH. He literally snorkels in his tank to get things done at the bottom. With leds you are probably going to want 60 degree optics, but you very well might be able to get away with 90's given it's just soft corals. The 90's are standard and I'd go with that. If you find you need more penetration you can always buy the 60's and swap them out. It's fairly easy (more time consuming than difficult) and cheap (lenses are less than $0.25 each).

My tank is 6' long and 2' thick, but only half as tall as yours. I have 2 EverGrow IT2080's with built-in controllers and I think they would do a very good job over your tank. If you just want dimmers, 3 OceanRevive Arctic S026's or 3 EverGrow D120's would work just about as good and at half the cost. You'd have a little less light, but with 3 fixtures, a bit better ability to move them and get better coverage. And it would still be more than enough for a FOWLR with soft corals. You can see all 3 fixtures at:

Aquarium LED_OCEANREVIVE LED