240 leds

I have a 240 that im running 5 ai super blues and I wanted to add some red, green and uv leds. Any recomendations on how many off each I should put. I also wanted to put them on a controller so they dim with my ai's. How many drivers, power supplys, resistors, potentiometers, etc would I need?

 

I'd go with at least 4-6 UV's per AI unit (the UV's appear dimmer than other colors so if you use too few they'll get washed out by the other colors), 1-2 reds and about 2 greens per AI. As for drivers, do you want to control them via a potentiometer (manual dim) or will you be using an Apex/Reef Keeper type of controller? Let me know what you're planning and I can let you know what else you'd need.

 

I planned on using a controller. Also I was reading that its better to use violet lights instead of uv's, is this true?

 

Most of the reef LED sites sell what's commonly called a "True Violet/Violet UV" LED, which is closer to 400-420nm than a real UV. So when people in the reef world say "UV" they usually just mean a 400-420nm LED, which is fine for aquarium use.

For the controller, which one were you looking at?

 

I was looking at either the apex or reefkeeper. I'm still researching which one would do what I want with a reasonable price.

 

Those will work with the same type of driver (0-10V dimmable), so that's good. You can use any of these drivers with those controllers:

0-10V Nano Dimmable driver (good for 3-10 LEDs)
ELN-60-27D (good for 5-8 LEDs, will need to tune the SVR2 so it doesn't blow your LEDs)
ELN-60-48D (good for 9-14 LEDs, will need to tune the SVR2 so it doesn't blow your LEDs)

 

should I run 1 or 3 watt leds, also does the ELN-60-48D run 9-14 1w or 3w.

 

The wattage really depends on the current, for example a XP-G is a 5W LED when run at full current (1.5A) but if you ran it at say 350mA it's a "1W LED". Don't get too caught up on the wattages, as even a 3W CREE LED versus a 3W non-name brand LED will have large differences. The 9-14 LEDs is if you're running our LEDs around roughly 700-1300mA.

 

I was checking out your site and was wondering which shade of red would be the most beneficial.

 

By beneficial I'm assuming you mean for corals/plants, in which case I'd say the CREE Red or 660nm Philips red (don't use too much red, you could see an increase in algae as well). Also, warm white and neutral white do cover some of the red spectrum as well so that's always an option.