# Lighting for hard corals



## woody019 (Oct 4, 2012)

I just set up a Biocube 14 and know corals are way down the road but want to get the lighting set up soon and be able to get whatever coral I want (take that comment with a grain of salt, its based on the fact that I will have the proper flow and compatible stock and water parameters). Im a computer engineer and will be manufacturing my own LED system and will be getting rid of the stock PC lighting but keeping the reflector, but have a couple questions if someone could please help me with. First is how many LED's do you suggest, should I cram as many as I can into the space the stock bulbs are in or specific number? There will be a controller on the system to control the brightness of each color. Also what is the best arrangement of each color/wavelength i.e. horizontal, vertical strips to the face of the tank or arranged in "blocks"? That leads me to the next question, What wavelengths should I focus on? Or should I just do it pretty evenly distributed over the entire spectrum? Last question is do I just do visible light spectrum or get a little into the UV spectrum?

Please feel free to put your input on my idea! Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

Note:I've pretty much made my mind up on doing LED's do to the fact they have a very low power consumption and being such a low water volume the fact that LED's have very low heat output. I don't want to have to worry about/deal with temp swings when the lights are on and off.


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## tike (Nov 10, 2008)

Not sure how many..but some company's make a pretty cool retro fit LED for that tank.
Biocube 14 Dimmable Retrofit Kit - Rapid LED


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## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

. .


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## woody019 (Oct 4, 2012)

I ended up buying the retro fit last night. Figured I would save myself the time and figuring out how I would mount a DIY LED fixture.

Thank you for the help!


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## michael126 (Mar 30, 2012)

woody019 said:


> I just set up a Biocube 14 and know corals are way down the road but want to get the lighting set up soon and be able to get whatever coral I want (take that comment with a grain of salt, its based on the fact that I will have the proper flow and compatible stock and water parameters). Im a computer engineer and will be manufacturing my own LED system and will be getting rid of the stock PC lighting but keeping the reflector, but have a couple questions if someone could please help me with. First is how many LED's do you suggest, should I cram as many as I can into the space the stock bulbs are in or specific number? There will be a controller on the system to control the brightness of each color. Also what is the best arrangement of each color/wavelength i.e. horizontal, vertical strips to the face of the tank or arranged in "blocks"? That leads me to the next question, What wavelengths should I focus on? Or should I just do it pretty evenly distributed over the entire spectrum? Last question is do I just do visible light spectrum or get a little into the UV spectrum?
> 
> Please feel free to put your input on my idea! Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Note:I've pretty much made my mind up on doing LED's do to the fact they have a very low power consumption and being such a low water volume the fact that LED's have very low heat output. I don't want to have to worry about/deal with temp swings when the lights are on and off.


Yeah, What LED light are you using right now .


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## michael126 (Mar 30, 2012)

woody019 said:


> I ended up buying the retro fit last night. Figured I would save myself the time and figuring out how I would mount a DIY LED fixture.
> 
> Thank you for the help!


I find one LED light which make LED Aquarium bar . You can check it . 
http://www.ecosunlite.com/e_productshow/?31-70W-LED-Aquarium-light-bar-31.html


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