Basic 12 LED Array

[Reefgeek]

I'm going to retrofit my Fluval Nano fixture with 12 or fewer bridgelux 3W LEDs from Aquastyle. I already have 12 each Royal Blue and Neutral White, and if nothing else I'll just go with the standard 2:1. I will be driving it with an aquastyle dimmable 700ma driver, also because I already have it. The whole thing is going over my Petco Arc 6.25.

 

The question: what would I want to do to mix in some full spectrum to my existing array? Limes? Other? Please don't tell me nanobox. I want this to stay simple.

[Benny314]

You'll need some violet (410-430nm), maybe cyan (490nm) and some 470nm blue to cover most of the spectrum needed by coral, your neutral white should provide enough red. Lime brightens the look of the tank and helps counter the purple hue you can sometimes get with using warm white and red from what I understand but it isn't a required spectrum.

 

The arrays I built for my new system were based on the old thinking of ocean coral white (460nm blue, 660nm red and 490nm cyan all grouped on one PCB) and 450nm royal blue and neutral white as base colours with violet supplementing.

I'm using 6 clusters of 1 OCW with 6 royal blue, 3 neutral white and 3 420nm true violet on 3 arrays and I'm really happy with the colour look I have created, but all 4 of my colour channels are individually controlled.

[Reefgeek]

That's where mine gets a little sticky since I want all my LEDs on one channel they have to look great without being able to change up the colors. Do you find you tend to have some channels up higher than others?

[Benny314]

Less violet. I have 6 on each array, way too much. I'm running them at 27% in peak hours.

I like a whiter tank, not this very blue look some people have, but my peak lighting whites are 55% OCW is 59% and blue is 52%.

So 1 OCW 6 royal blue and 3 neutral white gives what I feel is a pleasing colour when run at the same brightness, maybe one violet only in that set up.

[Horerczy]

Let's see for an arc.

 

6 royal blue

2 cool blue

1 cyan

1 warm white

2 neutral white

1 violet

1 lime (optional)

 

Of course making sure this all will work on a single driver is important. I don't know what you're using to tell you if enough voltage will be offered.

[Matteo]

I would do 2 lime and 1 neutral white and 1 warm white IMO cyan is optional and I would do 2 violet/uv

[Benny314]

Most 3W diodes need 2.6-3.2V depending on colour (blues tend to be around 3.2V greens often only need 2.6Vish), so to run 13-14 diodes you'll want 39-42V output on your driver.

 

Let's see for an arc.

6 royal blue
2 cool blue
1 cyan
1 warm white
2 neutral white
1 violet
1 lime (optional)

Of course making sure this all will work on a single driver is important. I don't know what you're using to tell you if enough voltage will be offered.

 

Depending how blue you like the look of your tank, 6 royal and 2 cool maybe to much as they will all be on the one channel.

Also from my understanding lime should be on a channel of it's own ideally as adjusting the brightness of it affects the look of the overall colour so you may not have much benefit from it on your setup unless you get several lime diodes and experiment adding and removing them to get the colour look your happy with.

My arrays are driven by LDDs so I can run up to 14 diodes from one driver and the driver adjusts to the load automatically. Not sure if your driver can do this so it might make it hard to experiment adding and removing diodes to get the colour cast you want.

[Horerczy]

Depending how blue you like the look of your tank, 6 royal and 2 cool maybe to much as they will all be on the one channel.

I only suggest the extra CB to balance the NW. But it's more of a preference thing.

 

I can see the lime bring a bit much at 700mA. Steve's will output 344 lumens at that current.

[Benny314]

I only suggest the extra CB to balance the NW. But it's more of a preference thing.

 

I can see the lime bring a bit much at 700mA. Steve's will output 344 lumens at that current.

 

Yeah that's what's so difficult with lighting. It's all personal preference. I've been debating getting my hands on some cool blue and pulling a few royals and replacing them with the cool to see if I get more pop and florescence's from my corals.

Colours have improved a bit since getting on top of a phosphate issue I had mind, Phos80 to the rescue, my SPS that was slowly loosing colour and bleaching out and now has coloured right back up and growth has taken off. My LPS colours have improved too.

But I am not a fan of blue tanks, the peak output on my setup at the minute has, to my eyes, a very natural look. Reminds me of the snorkelling I did the other year in Egypt. The corals all seem very happy with it anyway.

[Reefgeek]

Here's my driver: http://www.aquastyleonline.com/products/Maxwellen-LED-Dimmable-Driver-%287%252d12%29x3w.html

 

It says 7-12 LEDs so I always assumed 12 was the max. I would also consider adding a second dimmable driver so I at least have some control.

 

Maxwellen LED Dimmable Driver (7-12)x3watt LEDs

• Input voltage: AC 100-240V 50-60Hz
• Output voltage: 24-51V
• Output current(constant): 680mA +/-5%
• Power range: Minimum 7 LEDs, Maximum 12 LEDs (in series)
• Dimmable control: Potentiometer
• Water proof: IP66
• Dimension: 11cm x 3cm x 2.2cm(H)
• Net weight: 0.16kg

[Benny314]

Hummm interesting the driver only recons it can do 12 diodes, 51 divided by 3 is 17 so I'd of thought you'd be able to run at least 16 LEDs off a 51V driver unless I'm missing something.

2 drivers to give you 2 channels will indeed open up a lot more control over colour. Think most 2 channel setups have a blue channel and a white/violet channel, not sure which side to throw the cyan on, I think most exotics get run on the white channel in 2 channel setups but I might be wrong.

[evilc66]

Well, if he's using Aquastyle LEDs, then the vf of the LEDs isn't 3v, and more likely closer to 3.4v at 700mA. That still gets you 15 LEDs per driver.