Update 2
(Update 2- how to light an 8 foot tank with a hanging LED fixture)
Lighting has been a consideration on this from before the purchase. I had been real impressed with the Modaquatics setup at FJW’s anniversary and had been looking for a tank with a canopy to be able to install that as a retrofit. When I decided on this tank, it did not come with a canopy and the owner was selling a 6’ Mh and PC fixture with it for a reasonable price. I called Robert and we discussed the ability to take his setup and integrate it into a fixture that would look professional and enhance not detract from the tank. After a good conversation I passed on the MH and decided to suck it up and go for it with the ModAquatics custom fixture.
That came in today
(my kid the angel-with halo)
This is an 8’ long (yes-96”) black acrylic fixture at 3” tall with two hoods on hinges, six connection points and two aluminum rails (and rods for support) also internal acrylic bracing to avoid bowing long term. There are 4 fans, two on each end with two pushing and two pulling air down the length of the fixture for cooling. After several hours at 100% the air is only 96 degrees-very efficient. At one end is an Arduino led with a permanent clock and adjustable brightness display. There is a push button that switches from program to manual where the blues can be infinitely adjusted (another knob) and the whites the same.
There are a total of 6 boards, all fully populated for a total of 144 leds equally split white to blue. We talked about it and I am going to swap out a couple of reds in there this week as well. I have carclo optics on everything ranging from 80 degree to some 9 degree spots for clams (a few 27’s as well).
We spread them throughout to account for my planned coral placement. The nice part is I can take the boards out and swap out the lights to custom fit for which coral they are over, i.e. my 9’s on the clams and the 27’s over the sps. The 80’s can give overall coverage and areas I want to have brains on the sandbed.
We already updated the timing a little, planning on a nice slow ramp up and down of the blues for an hour and then ramping up the whites in 30 minutes, same at end of the day for sunset. After sunset the blues come on at 3% for 3 hours as a moonlight. One quick mod was to cut the fans off during this time as it is not hot and the noise is more obvious at that speed (bit of a whine). The fans adjust according to the led brightness.
Can’t wait to see it with corals. The royal blues are going to look awesome with my blastos and acans.
Already taking a day off on Friday to get everything in this weekend.