LED Aesthetics: What do you really think of your color?

[sammy113]

I was asked by a friend in my club about a lamp for a 180gal tank. I thought maybe 96 to 108 LEDs were enough but when it comes to using neutral whites in a 2:1 ratio it turns out to using just 27 NW and 81 RB in the 108 LEDs setup and 24 NW and 72 RB in the 96 setup. Does that sound alright? isn't it that too much blue and fewer whites for a 72" x 24" x24" tank?

[MDreefer]

I was asked by a friend in my club about a lamp for a 180gal tank. I thought maybe 96 to 108 LEDs were enough but when it comes to using neutral whites in a 2:1 ratio it turns out to using just 27 NW and 81 RB in the 108 LEDs setup and 24 NW and 72 RB in the 96 setup. Does that sound alright? isn't it that too much blue and fewer whites for a 72" x 24" x24" tank?

 

The ratios you described are 3:1 RB:NW, unless I am missing something...

 

for 108, and a 2:1 it would be: 72:36 and for 96 it is 64:32.

[NeveSSL]

Are they only doing softies?

 

96 LEDs seems like it may not be very many for SPS on a 180g.

 

Brandon

[Dustin11]

Hey, I read though this whole thread!!!!! And I think I've come up with my array mixture but I wanted to check it with some of you LED guru's here! I have two tanks I'm planning for. I want to plan to run the lights at 100% all the time, not buy twice as many as needed and run them at 50% like some are doing, for some reason . I have mostly LPS, softs, zoa's, and a few sps up high.

60gal (2'x2'x2')

16 RB

8 B

6 CW

6 NW

groups of clusters to avoid color shadowing.

 

6gal (fluval edge, 12"x6"x"6 ish)

2 RB

1 B

2 CW

1 NW

With diffuser over all of them to avoid color shadows.

 

Would you change any of these?

[evilc66]

Clustering won't get rid of color shadows, only reduce them.

 

The numbers of LED that you have per tank look fine. I don't think there is a good reason to have cool white and neutral white at the same time, although there is nothing stopping you from doing it. Reducing the number of colors just reduces the complexity. I'd also add blues only after you see a need for them. Start out with the 2:1 royal to neutral ratio for both fixtures.

 

On the Edge, make sure you seal the LEDs. There are a lot of failures coming about now from corrosion on DIY builds because the LEDs are so close to the water. Even the splash guard can't protect them completely.

[Machupicchu]

Sounds like too many blues on both, honestly after building a light with blues i didnt see much of a difference. Plus when you run the royals at a higher current the spectrum shifts a little higher and you kind of get more of a color closer to the blue leds anyway.

 

As for the cool whites, i used them in addition to neutrals on my last build and liked the results however ill be using only neutrals on my next build. I could see using cools if your trying to squeeze every ounce of par out of a fixture you can get as they are a little more powerful than the neutrals.

[M1A1]

Really loving my setup so far uusing Luxeon Rebels in a 2:1 ratio of royal blues to neutral whites. With both colors at 1000mA the overall tank color is quite white so I may add a few of the 10W Satistronics royal blues to keep the PAR at adequate levels across different dimming levels.

[reefskinner]

Wow, I just read this entire thread. An amazing amount of information here and people willing to help and share their knowledge with others. It is actually my reason for joining this site, this is my first post. I have learned a lot, but I have also got some questions. I am in the process of building an sps dominant 29 standard. I have an overflow across the back wall, so I have ~10"x28" of water column to light. How many leds do you all suggest I use? I am very fearful of spotting, so I plan on no optics and will more than likely add a diffuser panel as well. My initial thought is 52 in a 4x13 arrangement. Any advice on this would be great.

[evilc66]

Woah there killer. 52 LEDs on a tank that small is major overkill, and unnecessary cost. For that area, you can easily get away with 20 LEDs in a 10x2 arrangement. No need for optics, and no spotlighting to worry about. Spotlighting really only comes from the use of tight optics, or excessive spacing. Now, this won't get away from color shadowing. That's just an innevitability with using multiple light sources of different colors. The diffuser will help with that, but it does soften the light, similar to PCs or T5s.

[IrieReefer]

I am still contiplating going with the PAR38 bulbs (2) or a 4x4 array over my 15x15x12 nano. When looking though all the different par38's I could find I came across these.

 

http://www.ledpacific.com/categories/27w-Marine-LED-Bulbs/

 

Does anyone use these? I don't want spotting in my tank but I believe a par38 with 80* optics might solve that. Or should I stick with an array?

 

Its just about $100 more for the array and I like the idea of using a cool art deco lamp for the par38. any advice would be great. I asked this question a couple days ago but I still cant decide. LOL Thanks

[evilc66]

Regardless of how good the lamps may perform, I wouldn't buy them on the fact that they are kind of shady. They don't even use pictures of tanks with their own products on it. The main page has 4 pictures of tanks. The first two have Japanese MH spotlights over them. Picture two also has Grassy Ledio LED spots on the right side. The thrid and fourth picture have my PAR38's over them.

[reefskinner]

Evil, This is all new to me and I realize you are the resident expert, so please don't take this the wrong way. I see where a lot of folks run 48 leds on 24" of an 18" wide tank. This is sort of what I am basing my layout on. I am trying to stick to the 2" on center rule. What about a setup of 3x13? Perhaps a row of 13 Neutral Whites down the center with two rows of 13 Royal Blues, one on each side?

[DaveFason]

Here's my new cube I set up. 18 Rebel ES running around 350-400mA. No optics.

 

6 - Neutral White

11 - Royal

1 - Cyan

 

Normally I dont recommend the Cyan but it looks killer in this. I know its not the best FTS but I am working on it!

 

[therman]

I have 44 XREs in a 4 x 11 arrangement over a 29. It grows sps and zoanthids quite well, but you will want to be able to dim them, as it is overkill. I have 25 degree optics on it and run it high (~30") over the tank so I can work in it without the fixture interfering. I really like it.

 

I personally prefer more LEDs run at lower current over pushing fewer to their max. Fewer issues with color shadowing and more flexibility for the future. But it is certainly more expensive on startup.

 

Good luck with your build!

Tim

 

Evil, This is all new to me and I realize you are the resident expert, so please don't take this the wrong way. I see where a lot of folks run 48 leds on 24" of an 18" wide tank. This is sort of what I am basing my layout on. I am trying to stick to the 2" on center rule. What about a setup of 3x13? Perhaps a row of 13 Neutral Whites down the center with two rows of 13 Royal Blues, one on each side?

[kevlow]

Clustering won't get rid of color shadows, only reduce them.

 

The numbers of LED that you have per tank look fine. I don't think there is a good reason to have cool white and neutral white at the same time, although there is nothing stopping you from doing it. Reducing the number of colors just reduces the complexity. I'd also add blues only after you see a need for them. Start out with the 2:1 royal to neutral ratio for both fixtures.

 

On the Edge, make sure you seal the LEDs. There are a lot of failures coming about now from corrosion on DIY builds because the LEDs are so close to the water. Even the splash guard can't protect them completely.

 

 

Wow! just read the entire thread and it took a week. How do I go about sealing the LEDs?

 

While reading this thread, my DIY build of six weeks died. Lights were barely on. At first I suspected my "world's worst" soldering ability. But upon inspection, I see salt creep and a general poor condition. Meter shows current is still passing through but just no light produced.

Can I save this project? Are the emitters ruined? Will re soldering work? Or, should I reorder new Leds and start over again?

 

Any advice is greatly appreciated

Thank you,

 

Kevin

[kevlow]

Wow! just read the entire thread and it took a week. How do I go about sealing the LEDs?

 

While reading this thread, my DIY build of six weeks died. Lights were barely on. At first I suspected my "world's worst" soldering ability. But upon inspection, I see salt creep and a general poor condition. Meter shows current is still passing through but just no light produced.

Can I save this project? Are the emitters ruined? Will re soldering work? Or, should I reorder new Leds and start over again?

 

Any advice is greatly appreciated

Thank you,

 

Kevin

 

 

 

After posting, I realized that my question should have been on a new thread. As to the topic of Aesthetics, I can only say my experience is consistant with what has already been posted here previously. Using more CW then RB I found that my blues and green and yellows were strong and I had increased growth almost immediately. My reds faded to washed out orange and my purples were disappearing. I will use the wealth of knowledge in this thread to correct my colors and hopefully I will learn to properly seal the LEDs. I will also make use of splash guards and raise the heigth of the fixture.

 

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this thread with testing and pics.

 

Kevin

[rhawnk]

Finally managed to find the time to "finish" up my build. Finished as in working, but not yet as pleasing to they eye as i would like .

 

Anyways, Went with a 3 clusters of 4 leds (RB,B,CW,NW) setup over a 3gal. A 1:1:1:1 ratio. Overkill yes, but as far as i can tell right now there is no spotlighting, discoballing, shadowing at all.

 

Here is the setup:

 

And here it is over the tank. Both blue and white channels are running just below 25%. Trust me, its bright.

 

Color is pretty much exactly what i was looking for, though im sure i will still spend hours playing with the color channels.

[dhraakoxr]

Ok so it's been many many many months since I've been running NW/CW/V/B/RB at a good and seemly proper current rate.

 

These are my SPS results:

 

Bleached from my BC14 days (well just after I moved it over) -> Nov 15 2010:

 

Same corals taken today Feb 12 2011:

 

Now whether its the spectrum or the intensity or both or just the water chem I have no clue. My BLUE sps never had an issue being blue so there is no change there. My purple/red monti was almost completely white and is finally almost 90 percent brilliant purple/red again.

 

Oh and as an aside grown is retardedly good.

 

Ohh yeah this one used to look just like the first two back in the day as well and now we have:

 

 

The tips are actually a really really light blue which is neat. It wasn't even like that when I first bought it back in the BC14 days.

[NeveSSL]

Nice, man. That coral looks great.

 

Brandon

[maxwell]

I hope I'm posting this in the right thread but if it's not then mods feel free to delete. When I was turning over ideas of what to do for LEDs on my new tank I considered everything. I didn't know if DIY was for me so I settled on getting a Sunbrite system because you could buy bulbs in different color spectrums. Found it hard trying to find a dealer who sold Sunbrite so decided I would try the DIY route. Well, yesterday I went into the LFS and they had a Sunbrite system set up and while it was nice looking with all the different color spectrum bulbs on it, I must say I like my DIY better. I used 1 to 1 ratio of cw to rb with dimming and I can make the tank look much more like a natural coral reef than the Sunbrite. I have been to the Cayman Island's, bahama's, Cozumel, and other islands and seen some of this stuff in its natural enviroment and I don't remember the sun putting off all the different colors in the water that I was seeing with the Sunbrite fixture though I will say again, it was very attractive...just not in a natural sort of way. Just my .02 worth. Thanks

[gojk]

I have a BC29 with 30 LEDs 15RB/15CW and it seems that my reds and purples are washed out. What LEDs should I add and in what quantity to bring out the reds a bit more? It looks like I just needs some NWs and maybe 2 CBs, I just don't know how many I should get. What does everyone recommend?

[NeveSSL]

I think it depends on how you want to do it. If you're wanting to do neutral whites, you would probably want to pretty much replace most if not all of your neutral whites. Or you may be able to strategically place a few warm whites to help. I would say definitely 2 cool blues, maybe just one. Probably without optics, too. Maybe also without optics on your warm whites as well.

 

Just my opinion. I'm trying to do this same thing with a friend's LED build now.

 

Brandon

[gojk]

I think it depends on how you want to do it. If you're wanting to do neutral whites, you would probably want to pretty much replace most if not all of your neutral whites. Or you may be able to strategically place a few warm whites to help. I would say definitely 2 cool blues, maybe just one. Probably without optics, too. Maybe also without optics on your warm whites as well.

 

Just my opinion. I'm trying to do this same thing with a friend's LED build now.

 

Brandon

 

 

That isn't a bad idea, maybe I will get 10-12 WW and 2 CB and see what color I get.

[NeveSSL]

Sorry, I may not have been clear. By a few, I only meant maybe 2 to 4. You would need 100 royal blues to offset those 10-12 warm whites. Not really, but you would need a lot. If you do 10 to 12, make it neutral whites.

 

Brandon

[disaster999]

So im planning on redoing my frag light and want to add more LEDs to my original setup. Right now i have 12 LED, 4 cool whites, 7 blue and 1 red all spaced out on a 12x4" heat sink. all the LED have 60degree optics except for the red. it is around 2-3 inches off the water. the color blending isnt very good and im getting patches of white and blue.

 

for the new light, im planning on reusing what i have lying around and buying a few more LEDs to add to the light. the new light im going to use 6 cool white, 6 blue, 6 royal blue and 2 cyan. all the lights cept for the cyan will have 60 degree optics and 4" off the water. they will be more tightly knit that my previous light so i HOPE the colors will blend better and maybe the cyan will add more color overall.

 

what do you guys think about my plan? should i bother with the cyan?