LED light calculation - my case and overall

RGBxLT

RGBxLT

New Member
Hi All,

so I am planning new tank: 150x40x50 cm, which makes it 300 l tank. My 150 and 40 cm are "locked" options, and height could be increased/decreased, but for me 50 cm seems to be right one.

As all parts can more or less be selected and bought easily, lighting is difficult one. I don't want to spend huge amounts on best known products, and other cheaper LED solutions are not available in my location due big length.

So only option I have - is DIY. I have friends with knowledge on tech side, so it should be fine. But first - I need to specify what I want.

So question is - how many lumens in total I need for high-light requiring plants ("high-tech" tank) for my tank? I red many forums, and I am not quite got this answer.
In one place I found that 40 lumens/l is requirement to consider it high-light. Then in this case, I would need about 12000 lumens of light for my 300 l tank. Which in my calculations usually falls on 120-130 W of LED.

I know that lumens are not only measure :) the light i look for will be:
~6500K temp. - but i will mix it - most cold white, some neutral white, some blue.
- color spectrum focused on blue and red waves.
- PAR - that is difficult part, usually this information not provided. So the goal will be to place light as near to water as possible and to have dimmer to reduce/increase if needed.

Sorry for long text :) many thoughts in one place :)

Thanks.
 
RGBxLT

This is certainly one for the DIY and lighting experts.

I am positive Zeus would certainly be able to assist you.

Keith:cat::cat:
 
Dr Kevin Novak may have answers to this on his You Tube channel in his lighting LED series ,for a general lighting guide Dennis Wong YT is a great watch
 
There are quite a few others in his lighting series also on UKAPS in the DIY threads a member shows how to completely make a LED light fitting from scratch, I think it’s fairly recent
 
Hi and welcome.

PAR is the only light measurement that's practical, if you can get the PAR data for the light that would be ideal
Going off watts for LEDs is a waste of time, as there are so many different chips almost coming out weekly.
I think 6500k is nice.
Plants don't care about colour, they care about PAR.
Do you plan a carpet? Getting one 50cm deep is doable OFC, but you need more light, which leads to more potential algea problems.
What filters/pumps do you plan you will need good flow with 50cm deep tank. What returns lily pipes/spray bars?
What ferts you planning? EI?
What plants/hardscape AS?
Have you got a local water report?

Lumens is a rough guide and helpful but dated IMO

Some T5 tubes may be a good starting place cost wise. You can get dimammable ballasts which are great but not cheap.

Getting the flow right, stable [CO2] for the first four hours of photoperiod is key to success, having [CO2] optimal for when lights come on.

What CO2 setup you planing?

Hope that's of some help.

Zeus
 
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