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04/18/2019, 12:54 PM | #1 |
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Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 1,708
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How much power do your lights draw?
I'm curious just how much power you guys are using on your lights. I know the best method for adjusting lighting is a PAR meter, but also good to have an idea of actual power usage for the purpose of estimating how strong lighting needs to be before you buy.
I currently have 380W of LED power available if turned up to 100% over my 150 gallon, or 2.5W/gallon. Currently, I'm in process of adjusting my lights. I'm aclimating some new corals, and also have the ultimate goal to run much less white than I used to. At the moment, I'm at 225 Watts of actual power draw, or 1.5 W/gallon. I think I'm planning on ending up somwhere around 280W when I'm done adjusting, depending on how the coral respond of course. |
04/18/2019, 03:13 PM | #2 |
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Join Date: May 2012
Location: Thousand Oaks, CA
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Watts per gallon isn't really a good method to utilize when it comes to LEDs. It's all about coverage and having (typically) 3 watt LEDs in the fixture. Even if you have 380 watts of power, there can be tons of shadowing or not enough coverage on the tank.
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Tank: Reefer XL 525 Reef Tank Equipment: 2x Radion XR15 Pro, Radion XR30 Pro, Vectra M1 Return, 2x MP40 Powerhead |
04/19/2019, 09:08 AM | #3 |
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Shadowing doesn't seem to be an issue in my tank. I made some DIY diffusers which do a really good job of both difusing the light to reduce shadowing, and blending the color spectrum. Can't say it looks good, but I have a canopy, so not really concerned with how it looks.
Still, I am curious how others wattage draw compares. I am aware that PAR across the whole tank is the only true way to know how a specific lighting set up is working for any tank, but still nice to have an idea of what a typical level is, or just to see how much it can vary depending on each person's set up. Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk |
04/19/2019, 01:29 PM | #4 |
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Join Date: May 2012
Location: Thousand Oaks, CA
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The problem is you can't really do that with LEDs. There's too many different types of setups.
Example - a radion uses a total of 150 watts with everything on full. But the PAR of the light it puts out would be much higher than say a chinese black box LED using the same wattage. In addition, your light at 150 watts would have much more coverage than a radion at 150 watts simply due to the fact that it's longer. LEDs are a whole different ball game than simply using watts per gallon.
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Tank: Reefer XL 525 Reef Tank Equipment: 2x Radion XR15 Pro, Radion XR30 Pro, Vectra M1 Return, 2x MP40 Powerhead |
04/19/2019, 01:32 PM | #5 | |
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Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Dewitt MI
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Quote:
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Gary 180 gallon, 40 gallon sump, 3 250 W MH + 4 80W ATI T5's, MTC MVX 36 Skimmer, Apex controller Aquamaxx T-3 CaRx Current Tank Info: A 2 Barred Rabbitfish, Red Head Salon, Yellow/Purple, McMaster Fairy, Possum, 2 Leopard Wrasses, Kole, & Atlantic Blue Tangs, 2 Percula Clown, 3 PJ and 1 Banggai Cardinalfish , Swallowtail, Bellus and Coral Beauty Angels |
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