Lime LED, Wow!

[Marc.The.Shark]

Just a few comments on Lime LED's. I added one to my DIY setup last night & holy crap what a big difference in brightness! Just made the display more bright & crisp. I have the OCW, NW, RB, HV mix, just a small array of 11 LED's and I added 1 lime to the total. All the hype is true. While I liked the look of what I had, the Lime made it better! I added a before and after pic below for reference. I just have a crappy iPhone 4 camera, but it is a pretty good representation other than the Reds look more washed out in the pic, more vibrant & deeper color in person.

 

I have one of Dave's V3 boards in hand & a full Bluefish that I will be upgrading to at some point (a lot of soldering for new connectors, etc), but had ordered a couple limes a month or so ago & figured I'd just pop one on the existing setup. Not disappointed!!! For anyone with one of these DIY's with the OCW's, just order some limes & add them to the white channel, you won't b disappointed, cheap upgrade for a big difference!

[hypostatic]

Yep, makes sense. Your eyes are actually most sensitive to green wavelengths, so they should make it look quite a bit brighter (compared to the blues and purples, which can have really high PAR readings, but look dim). Green wavelengths are also good excitors of many red FPs.

[blasterman]

There's a reason Radion's have green in their LED array, and that's to cancel out some of the excessive purple / magenta caused by other LED combos and also add visual brightness. Lets face in that we have plenty of PAR being delivered by these rigs, so adding green/lime is only going to make the tank look that much better. I would never have thought so a few years ago...but it makes sense.

 

Beginning to wonder if the only LED's we need in our rigs is Royal, Warm White and Lime or Green. Have to test this.

[Marc.The.Shark]

Yeah, I heard all the hype about the Lime LED's and figured it would help some, but it really did make a big impact on brightness without taking away from the overall coral coloration. Definately wouldn't have another array without it.

[hypostatic]

Yeah, with LEDs you usually have a MUCH more narrow emission from the diodes than you will with T5s for example. You need to add that odd color in with the blues/purples in order to get a more complete spectral picture.

[blasterman]

Yeah, with LEDs you usually have a MUCH more narrow emission from the diodes than you will with T5s for example. You need to add that odd color in with the blues/purples in order to get a more complete spectral picture.

 

I'm going to assume that comment is based on lack of knowledge than the typical LED bashing I hear from T5 pundits.

 

Please pull up a spectral graph of *any* fluorescent reef lite ever made (doesn't matter what kelvin temp it is) and lets compare it to the same color temp LED. White LEDs have dramatically broader wavelengths than tubes - period. Your average 10-15k fluorescent tube under a spectrometer looks like a box of razor blades in terms of spikes. The LED, other than initial blue (450nm) base has very long spectral transitions. Even that base blue in the LED has a broader peak blue wavelength than the fluorescent .

[hypostatic]

WOAH THERE NELLY. Take it easy. I was not bashing on LEDs, or trying to say that T5s are superior.

 

All I'm saying is that I see it quite frequently that LED arrays are super heavy on the purples and blues, leaving the rest of the spectrum lacking if you don't add some other colors in there.

 

And you know what? If you're using T5s and you just have blues/purples you're gonna have the same problem.

 

Use whatever lighting you want. Have fun lol.

[Nano sapiens]

WOAH THERE NELLY. Take it easy. I was not bashing on LEDs, or trying to say that T5s are superior.

 

Have fun lol.

 

Ya, let's not get into the 'lighting wars' or we might end up with a humongous 168 page mess or mythinformation and hostility like this gem on RC:

 

'Anyone Thinking of Dumping LEDS and going back to Halides'

[crankshaft]

So are you driving these lime led's in the same string as the rest of them or are you controlling it separately? Ive added a single red to my latest fixture and it has really helped bring out some colors, but does give the tank a more overall purple look. Just wondering if adding one or two limes would help and if I would need to control them separately or just add them to a string.

[evilc66]

Lime helps remove the purple tint big time, as well as making the light brighter to the eye. Lime isn't as overpowering as some other colors, so you have the option to run them with other color channels (or the only color channel if that's your setup) without worrying about it making things look weird. Unlike green LEDs, it won't wash out the color of the light with a green tint.

[crankshaft]

Great. I'll probably just add them to the white string then as I dont really want to add a third driver.

[Marc.The.Shark]

yeah, I just stuck one on the white channel. I ordered 2, but just tried one 1st & it was all I needed. I read Evils review on them a while back & just got around to adding it. Wish I would've done it a few months ago. At 3 or 4 bucks a LED, it's more than worth it!!