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Coral Vue Hydros

Something a little different DIY LED


MGP

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Ok well this wont be particularly normal, but it should be simple enough. I have a 20 gallon high

 

freshwater aquarium that I recently placed a 20 watt multichip LED over (Light is about 15 inches off

 

the surface of the water). This chip came with a kelvin rating of 5000-7000K, and I'm thinking it is more

 

towards the 5000k spectrum. My problem is that the color is a tad yellow.. It is almost where I want it,

 

but I would prefer closer to white. I was thinking of supplementing it with Cree 3 watts from rapid, and

 

figured if I put 3 royal blues it would balance the spectrum out to where I desire it to be. Also FWIW, I

 

will be putting fish who are primarily blue in color in this aquarium, they are my primary target for my

 

color rendering goals. There are bushy java ferns, but for the most part I am not worried about

 

spectrum for them since they are pretty easy growers

 

 

Now for some questions: Will the (x3) royal blue crees be a good choice? I can go from 1-4 LEDs on

 

the driver so that is what I have to play with. Would you use a different color combination to supplement

 

the bigger 20 watt warm white LED? Also, would you use a violet LED? I have some on my reef tank but

 

I don't really know if they are important for color rendering, my knowledge is lacking on them. Thank

 

you for reading all that, I look forward to some suggestions

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I think 3-4 blues would do the trick in raising the CCT 1,000K or so. I think I would do a mix of blue (470nm) and royal blue (455nm) though. The blues will help make the light a little brighter (getting closer to the green spectrum, where the eye is more sensitive), as well as reduce an purple tint brought on by the royal blues mixed with the 5,000K white.

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Thank you for the input. Specifically would you do 2 blue, 1 RB? or maybe round it out and do 2blue, 2RB?



Also I haven't used 3 watt LEDs before, would they have a noticeable effect from 15" above the water? I don't think I will use a lens because i would want them to blend a little better, is this going to be alright?

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2 blue, 2 royal blue should be fine. It's not going to make a massive difference overall, but it should be enough to raise the CCT some, and make your blue fish more pronounced. At 15" from the water, you shouldn't have any issues with the blues blending with the white, provided that you mount them next to the white LED as close as possible.

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Thank you evil, I knew I could count on your expertise to guide me. I'll rig it together and post back my results if anyone cares to see them

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Alright well I finally got around to installing the lights. I ordered them Friday and they got here Monday, so I must say it was a fast service from RapidLED. Everything was accounted for and installation was pretty straight forward. I'm using the moonlight driver so my LEDs are running at 350mA, so about half power. This works for me because I didnt want them to overpower the main light and I wanted them to run cooler.

 

For the light itself I am pleased. The light is much whiter with a slight hint of blue, perfect for my purposes. Shimmer effect is also very nice with the 20 watt multichip

 

post-84284-0-99132300-1397612296_thumb.jpg

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The 20 Watt multichip in the middle has a fan under the heatsink, which is blowing air down and out of the light fixture. The blue LEDs aren't getting hotter than 90 degree F, so there isn't any need for anything blowing directly on them

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