Adding led

[BarrWarr]

Evening,

Apologies if this is a pointless question and it’s just me, as a newbie, overthinking everything once again.

At present, I have a single 24w led set to 35%, which when using the light calculator on this website, gives a par of 40. My tank is low tech, with Tropica ‘easy’ plants, so I’m happy with keeping it at 40.

I have the light placed more towards the rear of the tank meaning the front plants are slightly ‘in the shadows’ (I could move the light but the opposite will happen whilst placing it in the middle doesn’t seem to illuminate the whole tank nicely). I’m considering adding a spare 13.5w led to the front so that’s these plants are more illuminated. If I set this to 60%, this will give a par of 40.

If I add this second led, as both will be set to approx 40 par does that mean the whole tank is 40 par or is the par more due to having more leds?

Hope that makes sense and someone can advise!

Many thanks.

 

[oreo57]

Par wil increase where the 2 lights overlap
Since you are only using 35% of your current light the easiest thing to do is just raise it a bit.
What are your tank dimensions?

 

[BarrWarr]

60l x 33h x 30d.

Lightning is 4cm from surface, substrate it c7cm deep.

 

[oreo57]

60l x 33h x 30d.

Lightning is 4cm from surface, substrate it c7cm deep.

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60l x 33h x 30d.

Lightning is 4cm from surface, substrate it c7cm deep.

About 3" off the water surface and you should cover most of the tank front to back.
Of course as it grows in it can get issues.
Certainly there is no harm in adding another light.
Of course with the 1st one now turned down.
Plants will tell you if they are happy with the levels.

 

[BarrWarr]

What issues do you mean?

Not entirely sure what you propose - are you saying to raise one light to 3 inches and that will do (do I then need to increase the intensity a touch?).

Thanks.

 

[oreo57]

What issues do you mean?

Not entirely sure what you propose - are you saying to raise one light to 3 inches and that will do (do I then need to increase the intensity a touch?).

Thanks.

Yes though I'm making some broad assumptions.
USING only the light you have currently:
Your light is lensed at 120 degrees.
So raise it so its about 3" off the water line to the face of the light.
It is narrow i.e one to a few rows
Increase output to make up for the increase in height.

Using 2 lights then the one you have should be dimmed.
Probably in proportion to the new ones output.
New one at 15" (same wattage) decrease old one by 15%
ROUGH guide really.

 

[BarrWarr]

Ah, ok, thanks. I have two lights; one currently in use is the interpet aqua smart 24w, the other one I have (not in use) is the smaller version of 13.5w.

I’ll have a play tomorrow and see how it looks with the different combos. I’ll have to figure out a way to raise the lights too.

Thanks.