Light Ungrade: Lumia5.2 or RLL or BlueFish

[Sherman]

I have 2 diy led light fixture build in 2009.

Thinking of upgarding to full spectrum instead of Blue and white

 

Do u think I should choose lumia5.2 or rll v3.0

 

And for the controller which is a better choice?

RLL or BlueFish mini or Bluefish regular

 

Please share your knowledge and experience

 

Thank You

[disaster999]

The lumia is a more traditional full spectrum array with 2 type of blue 2 type of white 2 type of uv and green. It's powerful at 70w but depending on your build...might not have the spread for a rectangular tank and need than 1 for full coverage.

 

I'm not sure what the rll v3 is. I assume you're talking about the nanobox array. The nanobox have some newer colors mostly the lime. Seems like the trend for diy lights. It's half the power of the lumia so you gotta factor that in.

 

Both would be fine for any build...just gotta see what your needs are.

 

As for the controllers. The bluefish ones are nice. Wireless control and monitoring for the regular. If you have a tank controller the. Just get the mini. It can be integrated into the light making it a sleek looking fixture without any screens or dials. One downside is it lacks fan control. You need to put your fans on a timer or purchase an additional module from CORALUX to turn one of the led channel into a fan controller. I've talked to bluefish and they said they might have a fix/update for this.

 

Again...not sure what rll controller is. But the other diy controller on the market I know of is the CORALUX storm controller. It's an audrino based led controller that's inexpensive and easy to use. Its has 6 channels like bluefish and its capable of controlling fan through 2 of its 6 channels if you want. They have the more advanced model storm x, with 12 channels and a much finer adjustments and control.

[Horerczy]

Rll is reef led lab

 

http://reefll.com

 

They have nice stuff.

[Sherman]

Hi disaster999,

Thank You so much for your feedback.

 

Both Lumia5.2 and the rll v3 (from reefll.com) are full spectrum multi

leds group on the small mpvc.(multi channels)

 

I saw some Lumia5.2 users here but look like no rll v3 users.

 

Hence hard to make any decision.

Let me read through again before I decide what to get

 

Thank You Again for your contribution

Thank You Horerczy for helping out.

[Horerczy]

Here's the nanobox v3 array Sherman.

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/355869-nano-box-v3-array-lime-luxeon-t-uv/

 

If I had to rank the arrays I'd say:

 

1. Nanobox V3

2. ReefLL V3

3. Lumia 5.2

 

As far as controllers go I'd use either one really. I like both interfaces. Though if you use the reefll array go with the reefll controller.

[Sherman]

Horerczy thank you so much

Now I have another option, Nanobox V3

 

I am going to read up more on nanobox V3 before I decide what to get

 

At a glance I think the most high power one is Lumia5.2

 

Am I right?

[HarryPotter]

Horerczy thank you so much

Now I have another option, Nanobox V3

 

I am going to read up more on nanobox V3 before I decide what to get

 

At a glance I think the most high power one is Lumia5.2

 

Am I right?

Yes. V3 has half the power as the Lumina

[DaveFason]

Drop me a line if you have any questions. I think you will be most happy with the V3 array.

-Dave

[evilc66]

Sherman, just go with the V3's. I haven't seen another LED setup with color as good as Dave's. The RLL setup is nice if you want infinite control over the color, but there is something to be said about the simplicity of Dave's design. It just works, even with two channels.

[Hig789]

I have a bluefish mini on one of Daves small retrofits and I love it. The bluefish mini is tiny and is super easy to use from anywhere. Can't really comment on the others listed but I think you would be more than happy with Daves arrays.

[Sherman]

Drop me a line if you have any questions. I think you will be most happy with the V3 array.

-Dave

Hi Dave,

So nice to see you response to my thread.

Let me go throught all the different available multi chip led

before I come back to you with questions

 

Thank You

[Sherman]

Sherman, just go with the V3's. I haven't seen another LED setup with color as good as Dave's. The RLL setup is nice if you want infinite control over the color, but there is something to be said about the simplicity of Dave's design. It just works, even with two channels.

Hi evilc66 ,

Thank You for your proposals.

What you mean by infinite control over the colors?

Does it mean I can have freedom over the final color of the lighting in my tank?

 

I am looking at lighting for a full pledge SPS tank. And I looking at having the light set in modular form

Meaning each set of lighting will only support a small section of the whole setup instead of one big light set.

I believe V3 can be connected up this way and control by bluefish mini controller

[Sherman]

Drop me a line if you have any questions. I think you will be most happy with the V3 array.

-Dave

How to drop Dave a mail?

 

Thanks

[DaveFason]

How to drop Dave a mail?

 

Thanks

david@nanoboxreef.com

[evilc66]

Hi evilc66 ,

Thank You for your proposals.

What you mean by infinite control over the colors?

Does it mean I can have freedom over the final color of the lighting in my tank?

 

I am looking at lighting for a full pledge SPS tank. And I looking at having the light set in modular form

Meaning each set of lighting will only support a small section of the whole setup instead of one big light set.

I believe V3 can be connected up this way and control by bluefish mini controller

On the RLL boards, each color is individually controllable, for better or worse. It gives you the most control, but also the most complexity. Dave's board is only 4 channel, meaning that some channels will have multiple colors on them. This is in no way a negative, as the colors that are linked together are complementary to each other, and really doesn't detract from the overall performance of the board.

[Sherman]

david@nanoboxreef.com

Dave ,

I will be writing to you soon

Thank You evilc66 for the detail explanation.

Every led controllable.

This is complex. Is it really necessary?

 

Dave V3 look great to me. I will need to understand more

 

from him

[evilc66]

Some people feel the need/want to be able to control everything. If that's what you want, then great. It does add some confusion, as it just adds to the complexity of the setup. Is it necessary? No. Like I said before, the NBR V3 boards are only 4 channel, but the colors are paired together in way that it really doesn't matter that you don't have individual control over the colors. I have an RLL board at home that I haven't fired up yet (it's a nicely built board), but I have yet to see a color combo to equal the NBR v3 array. It's virtually perfect. The light is bright, and the colors represented in the corals are about as good as you can get.

[Sherman]

Thanks evilc66 for the clear explanation.

I have contact Dave and we will be working out something

soon

[Sherman]

Actually is there any thread where reefer use Dave V3 array and SPS color up nicely

[DNK]

Hi colleagues!

 

As I can see, this topics about one of our solutions, so I would like to give some explanations. I'm sorry, but this is extremely important question, so please apologise for big post and weak English.

 

On the RLL boards, each color is individually controllable, for better or worse. It gives you the most control, but also the most complexity.

First of all I would like to explain our vision about controllability of the spectra. If you mix in one channel the LEDs with relative the same visibility of the radiation, this is acceptable. If you will try to mix different for naked eyes colors of light (or different visibility), it is serious mistake - you will lose controllability over the spectra. It is extremely important for understanding, because we building the full-spectrum LED fixture first of all to receive a full control of spectra of light. Loosing of this ability means loosing of reason to build of the full-spectrum LED light, in our opinion.

 

After reading the data above you can ask me - which color of LEDs is safe to mix in one channel? Answer for this question will be very simple if we will recall graph of visibility of radiation depending on wavelength:

Let's check one example. As you can see, blue light with wavelength 475nm has a 10% of visibility, however cyan light with wavelength 500nm has a 40% visibility - 4 times more! Mixing in one channel blue and cyan light will cause visibility only of cyan light, we can't see blue light in anyway! Therefore, we can't control blue part of the spectra, reason of installing of the blue LED will be completely lost.

 

Of course, some people may say - "loosing of the controllability of the blue light is not a big problem", ok, let it be, although we have another opinion - if we building a full-spectrum solution, we should controlling ALL part of spectra, that good visible by human eye. Of course, issue of controllability of the blue light is unlikely may cause serious problem with your home reef. You will lost controlling of the spectra, it is a pity, but not fatal. But if you will mix in one channel warm white, neutral white and lime LED - it is dangerous mix! Because warm white LED is contain a lot of very long wavelength radiation near to 650-660nm, let's check spectral distribution of the white Luxeon T LEDs:

As you can see, warm white LED has very small amount of 450 nm radiation, but significant amount of 650-660nm radiation. BTW, neutral white has a similar spectral distribution with also big amount of such radiation. The fact - this radiation is very useful for algae, but poorly utilised for most of corals. Moreover, several of coral species will be depressed by this light! We should be extremely careful with this part of the spectra and never mixing this LEDs with the base white light.

 

For controlling of "warm" visibility of the light, Philips has developed a special LED, named PC Amber. Please check it spectra:

As you can see, this LED has a big amount of radiation in 590-620nm range and a tiny amount of 650-660nm radiation. By using this LED we can receive a more or little warmer white light without affecting of dangerous 650-660nm light.

 

Next question. As you can see on the first picture, visibility of the violet part of the spectrum is very low, near to invisible. Because of this, we can safe mixing any parts of violet LEDs in one channel. By the way, big amount of violet part of spectrum is not only useful for growth and coloration of most of corals, we can see also very pleasant effect. With big amount of violet lights, even with relative strong white light, we can see good fluorescence of corals without of unwanted (for some reefkeepers) strong bluish tint of the light

 

BTW, our flagship assemblies V3.0 is assembled on the SinkPAD II MCPCB, which provide the best possible, direct thermal path from the LEDs to the heat sink. Because of this, LED crystal on our LED assembly significantly cooler (usually 20-30C) than on any other comparable solutions. It is very important for the LED lifetime and amount of LED radiation.

Yes, multi-LEDs SinkPAD custom MCPCB is very costly, but the result is worth it!

Last but not least. About complexity of controllability. With the great pleasure I would like to inform you about this problem was been fully solved with the using of our newest controller TrueSpectrum. It is WEB-based device, you may control your light with the relative any device, that has a WiFi and Internet browser. For joke some people has been control them light fixtures by Smart TV also

Because one picture is better than a thousand words, I ask you to look our learning video about TrueSpectrum controller. BTW, this video also described about a lot of extremely necessary issues, that should know each marine hobbyists.

[Sherman]

Hi DNK,

You talking about the RLL V3 led array right?

I am impress by the led array design .

But still a bit confuse by the controllability.

Will be good if you can guide me to any build using

RLL V3 LED build.

I like to follow and see if it good for my full Pledge

SPS tank

 

Also who can I contact to know more about your product

I did left some question in your store about 2 weeks ago

but still waiting for a reply.

 

Regards n Thanks

Sherman

[DNK]

Hi Sherman!

Yes, I keep in mind our flagship assemblies V3.

Controllability, (also including the more complicated assemblies) is simple as a piece of cake with using of TrueSpectrum controller

I would like to provide to you a few of common advices to creating a custom spectra:

1. If your corals in general is soft and LPS corals, at first time do not exceed ~30% in violet part of spectrum. If your corals in general is SPS and you had not used a lot of actinic light before, at first time do not exceed ~50% in violet part of spectrum. Increase violet part of spectra by 5-10% in a week up to ~50-60% for soft corals and 60-70% for SPS corals.

2. You may add long-wavelength part of spectrum by using a PC Amber LED as you wish. Regarding a red LED please be more careful. Intensity of this channel during the day should be no more 30%, excluding sunrise and sunset, in that time you may use red LED up to 100%.

3. All other LEDs you can use as you wish. Only please note - the most LEDs on assembly will produce very dim light for the human eye, but strong for corals.

I'm sorry, but we had not collected the build, that uses V3 assemblies. May be will be interesting for you our own design? Please follow this link: http://reefll.com/index.php?route=information/news&news_id=26

I just checked our emails, but not found your request, sorry. Please write to support@reefll.com

With best regards, Dmitry.

[Sherman]

Hi DNK,

Thank You for your very prompt reply.

I will be checking your link these 2 days.

 

Thank You for the email address. I will contact you soon

 

Regards n Thanks

Sherman

[Sherman]

Have contact both Dave and DNK.

Now waiting for their feedback.

I will be getting their led arrays , driver and controller

I will be using back all my heat sinks, casings and power supplies

[Matteo]

You have to request to get 4ch dimmable for the v3 when you buy the fixture but the v3's run very white. If you like the kessil look or radion look (blue/purple) v3 will not achieve this along with lack of power. I have decided to create a dual lumia 5.2 on a 20inch heat sink which can cover quite a large tank. The par ratings on the 5.2 are very nice. Also being 5ch is awesome. There are no limes on the lumia however not needed, you can always splice them into the white channel of your LED using cree's etc. Also for the price of the lumia depending on all the bells and whistles you get a lot of light for a good price.

 

For controller, the bluefish mini is all you need but I personally don't think bluefish is the most user friendly. Setup with times and control is a little annoying. Also only 6ch if you ever want to add different channels and no fan control. The storm controllers are nice granted not wifi (which honestly isn't needed but fancy) are cheaper and have more channel and fan control.

 

For example, for around $500 I am going to create to DIY that will use black anodized 20inch premium heatsink with 2 lumia 5.2's, with all drivers, controllers, etc. in a small metal/wood box like a metal halide ballast. Considering it will be on a 20 inch heat sink with two at 140watts full spectrum and with par ratings showing great results, if I ever want to upgrade from my 29g mix reef, I will have no problem needing another light.

 

Also there is a sense in pride with DIY:)