Installation
Moreover, as we shall see, during our trial we added a third slide module, which has been mounted on the existing light by a simple pair of stainless steel junctions.
The tank is wider than the light, its dimensions are 150x60x60 for a total of 540 litres, and the Slide&Led had initially been mounted at around 40 cm from the surface. At the end of the test the light has been installed at 15 cm from the water level to obtain the maximum cover and power. None of the animals has shown any sign of stress, they all adapted and we didn’t have any loss. From this point of view the test results were excellent.
The results were even more surprising as this tank came from a lighting system made up of 2×250 watt HQi lamps. In spite of this, the animals health was totally kept from harm.
Functioning
CEAB Slide&Led light is sold with a series of power supplies and mechanical timers.
Our customed SLX120MB had 4 power supplies and 4 timers. This way we are able to manage the switching of every led type independently from the others.
We configured our light this way: firstly one of the timers switched on two white leds in the white led module and another one the three blue leds (two blue one actinic) on the same module. A third timer took care of the second module three white leds, and a fourth the two blue leds on the second module.
The control system is relatively easy but it allows us to switch the light on and off and to create a sort of dusk and dawn effect by switching different leds at different times. We are facing a more complex system than, for example, the Sicce GNC 466* which we tried a while ago.
In addition to the basic control, the Slide&Led can be managed by the Tower&Led controller which, unfortunatly, has to be bought separately, like we’ve seen during Interzoo.
Even being fairly small the Tower&Led (pictures from Interzoo above) contains a microprocessor which can control up to 12 low voltage channels, each channel can manage from 0,5 to 50 watt. It is therefore an useful object to manage the Aqua&Led. The 12 channels can be controlled separately and adjusted for intensity over time to create the preferred daily light spectrum.
Tank Coverage
CEAB recommends the use of Slide&Led SLX120MB for tanks with an area between 120×40 and 120×80 cm. Our light is 140 cm length it should therefore cover an 140×80 cm tank.
We started our Slide&Led on a 150x60x60 tank which was lighted by an Elos Epower 2×250 HQi and an Elite Led. In the following picture you can see both lightings, the difference in intensity and chromatic range is clearly visible as the pictures were taken with exactly the same settings on the camera.
Later we added an additional module Slide&Led to improve coverage and power, for reasons we shall discuss in details later on. We also had a problem with this tank, so we had to change it to another one of 150x80x50(h) cm for a volume of around 600 litres.
Here you can see the picture on the new tank with two Slide&Led modules:
And here with three modules:
There is a big difference between the two pictures above.
In the first tank we had a good coverage of the whole area. Mounting the same leds on a 140 cm lenght instead of the original 120 cm we expected the intensity to be slightly lower than what we would have had on a shorter tank with the same leds.
In the following pictures you will see the difference with the three module switched on together, going from 200 watt to 300 watt, with a +50% power to be added to coverage and intensity. The coverage was just enough with the two initial slides, but the power needed a bit of a top up.
I think a single Slide&Led is enough to cover the tank length, for a width of 60 cm maximum, while three slides are needed if you want to use it on wider tanks; but as always everything depends on what corals you wish to keep and their necessity. In any tank you will find your own best configuration, distance from the surface based on aquarium volume and dimensions, rock-work shape and personal taste.
