LED Help 120gal FOWLR

Can you explain in more detail the various lenses and if they will help or hurt? Maybe with lenses I may need less LEDs etc. Do the LEDs mount directly to the heatsinks then I just need to mount the heatsinks to my canopy? What are the new CREE XP-E Blue LEDs compared to the royal blues?

 

Lenses will direct the light into a smaller area (angle), which does help to increase PAR. As a general rule (very general) if your tank is 30"+, go with around a 40 degree lens, if you're in the low to high 20's go with a ~60 degree angle, and anything under 20" go with an 80 degree lens.

However, if your LEDs will be very close to the water then you may see some "spotlighting" towards the top of the tank, which are basically beams of light.

The LEDs actually mount onto the LEDs themselves (the star pcb portion mostly), but you'll need some epoxy to hold them in place.

As for the XP-E, they produce about 20% more luminous flux than the XR-E Royal Blue. The only downfall is that we only have one lens for it currently (50 degrees). We're hoping to get more lens angles for these LEDs ASAP.

 

Thanks for the wealth of information. You stated since its 3" from the water I would not need lenses but since I am looking into your kit do you think I should go with the 60's? Also should I wait for 60's in the XP-E blues over the Royal blues? Thanks

 

If you're going to use lenses I'd go as wide as I could (80 degree for XR-E's), which should help eliminate some of the spotlighting (you'll still get it regardless since it is only 3" from the water). If you can hold off we should (and I say that loosely b/c they keep pushing back the delivery date) have a 70-80 degree lens for the XP-E/XP-G sometime this month.

 

Thanks sorry for all of the questions I am just trying to make sure I am putting together a great unit at an inexpensive price and whatever is not neccessary eliminate.

 

Not a problem at all, make sure you're comfortable with everything before you pull the trigger.