LED & Metal Halide High Noon

[dankolle]

I have 2x 175 watt metal halides over my 55 gallon tank. I want to increase lighting without increasing heat and having to trash my current MH setup. So my plan is to create a "high noon" lighting system out of CREE XP-G LEDs. These would turn on for 4-6 hours during the day to increase the photo period strength and give my bleached anemone some more help.

Here is my plan:

Pair 4 CREE XP-G LEDs with 4 CREE XP-E Royal Blue 450nm LEDS. These would be staggered by my high light requirement animals and I would run them off a separate timer than my MH setup. For additional cooling, I will mount each LED star on a CPU heatsink and cooling fan from old computer parts.

Thoughts?

 

[Sir Alex]

Do you run a fan on your tank? That can solve the MH heat problem

 

[dankolle]

No fans currently, the lights how they are now heat my tank perfectly, and at night it only drops 1-2 degrees until the heater catches up. So I don't want to mess with the equilibrium

 

[JimFun71]

What is the wattage of the led's? Would they reside next to the MH fixtures? Can you post a pix and a schetch of the proposed upgrade?

 

[dankolle]

I am looking at the Cree 3w LEDs, but I am not really familiar with LEDs and it is a larger investment into retrofitting my hood. So after some careful research last night, I think I might go with VHO fluorescent instead. My hood is currently wired for standard fluorescent and all I would need is the new ballast and bulbs. I would wire up 2x 110 watt 48" bulbs to span the aquarium...and 2x 40 watt actinic bringing my total wattage up to 570 watts...thoughts?

 

[dankolle]

The upgrade was amazing! I mounted the lights about 4" from the top of the water (it was 7" before) I made the hood about 25 pounds lighter by eliminating the wood frame and converted to a single sheet of aluminum that doubles as my reflector. It's not quite mirror finish, but it is pretty close considering it only cost $20 and it works for my MH and fluorescent lights. Without a PAR meter, I can't say for sure, but my tank is now 20 - 30% brighter.

This change is before I install the VHO lights...it's really going to be on-fire after the next upgrade.