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

[blasterman]

1Watts would work fine. No need to bother with optics either - just spread them around.

 

I just don't mess with one-watters because they are typically the cheaper Asian varities, and hence wavelength isn't always as advertised.

[DaveFason]

Photo's in a second. Loading them now.

 

-Dave

[Mr. Microscope]

Note, I've never put together or played with LED color combinations, but from what I've read I've been working with the following color ratios on my models (I'm on version 15 btw):

 

RB:CB = 3:1

NW:CW = about 1:1 (maybe slightly weighted towards NW like 5:4) or 2:1

Blue:White = 1.5:1

 

My last two models had 12RB & 4CB, and either 4NW & 4CW, or 6NW & 3CW.

 

I'm not sure about TVs yet. Thinking about incorporating them somehow.

[DaveFason]

After a couple of hours of shooting and hundreds of photo's later here is what I have. Sorry for the photo's not being super clear but I think the color is pretty accurate. All testing was done through my controller and my own housing. I am using all Rebel LED's on my 3-Up board.

 

Rebel LED Colors Tested

• Neutral White - Brings out warmer colors. Much better than CW
  
• Royal Blue - The Rebel royals put out a violet/blue color.
  
• Cyan - Looks green. This brings out some wicked colors but don't run this very high. Its very over powering.
  
• Cool Blue A.K.A Blue - Also a green tint. This also pulls out some great coloring and looks great with NW,RB,B
  

 

2Cool Blue - 1A

 

6Royal Blue - 1A

 

[b2]Cool Blue - 1A / 6Royal Blue - 750mA[/b]

 

6Neutral White - 1A

 

6Neutral White - 500mA / 6Royal Blue - 1A / 2Cool Blue - 750mA

 

6Neutral White - 500mA / 2Cool Blue - 750mA / 5Royal Blue/1Cyan - 1A

 

6Neutral White - 500mA / 6Royal Blue - 750mA / 5Royal Blue/1Cyan - 1A

 

My 1st to 3rd would be...

1. NW/RB/Cyan
   
2. NW/RB/CB
   
3. NW/CB/RB/Cyan
   

 

-Dave

[joelsaxton]

I have 6 RB and 6 CW over my 5.5g and now I am beginning to feel inadequate..

[moto826]

jest get a halide and be done i had leds and my corals lost a lot of color

[Mr. Microscope]

That is some awesome data Dave! Thanks for doing all that work for the community! It's amazing to see the effect on the birds nest with purple polyps.

 

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but did you take any shots compairing the use of CW vs. NW?

[blasterman]

jest get a halide and be done i had leds and my corals lost a lot of color

 

jest whatcha talkin' bout mr yoda and what the force does it have to do with this thread?

 

(again, what the heck is it with LED haters and SmartPhones)

 

I've looked at every low wattage, small halide out there and they don't come close to the color I'm getting with my LED mix, and I'd put money on my 445's delivering more PAR.

 

Hey Dave, you having a problem with color? I mean, it must have taken days for you to CGI render all those corals along with Beeker. Oh, BTW, I've been trying to get some burgandy Acans like that for months , so you officially suck :-) Here's some orange and whites I shot a few hours ago:

 

[joelsaxton]

jest get a halide and be done i had leds and my corals lost a lot of color

 

I haven't noticed any color loss with 1:1 RB:CW but I just wonder what I am missing with all these new LED schemes.

 

I also have 6 CW running my hob fuge which works well, but I think if I mixed it up with some warm and neutral whites it might grow my chaeto even faster.

[moto826]

want me to post pics as proof i had the maxpect and had them for a year and my zoas shrunk and were not as bright as they were under my halides ill look for pics

 

so please tell me how do your corals get uv from leds and please no i jest set them up and they look insane not bashing jest stating facts sorry if fellings were hurt

[DaveFason]

This is an LED thread. If you have something to bash go elsewhere. UV, seriously?

 

P.S - Explain jest.

 

want me to post pics as proof i had the maxpect and had them for a year and my zoas shrunk and were not as bright as they were under my halides ill look for pics

 

so please tell me how do your corals get uv from leds and please no i jest set them up and they look insane not bashing jest stating facts sorry if fellings were hurt

 

Blaster - The guys that made Avatar helped me render my photo's. I jest hit dem up and they maid dem look like that

 

Anyways I'll edit the post later to give more info. I had to go grab some taco's and beer for a break.

 

-Dave

[Machupicchu]

hey blaster what combo is the acan in that pic under?

[Genj]

This is an LED thread. If you have something to bash go elsewhere. UV, seriously?

 

Dave,

 

I have formed no conclusion, but I was reading this, and perhaps this is why the prior poster mentioned UV? When I read this, I was confused and concerned about my own LED setup, since UV hasn't been something I've been concerned with.

 

Color Loss Of SPS Corals

Acropora (and SPS corals) lose color under less UV radiation, the nice colors that all reefers want is basically a sunscreen that protects the zooxanthellae algae that feed the coral through photosynthesis the "sunscreen" comes from mass amounts of UV radiation and light and this tells the zooxanthellae algae living within the corals tissue that it needs to protect itself from bleaching and then it becomes a bright color,

- From the Acro Coral Guide sticky in the Corals Forums.

[DaveFason]

Who was it at MACNA that did the talk about LED's? You dont need UV LED's and you can can check countless tanks with LED's that have SPS that retain there colors just fine. The new RC TOTM is all LED's!

 

-Dave

[Genj]

Ok, that's good to know, because I keep reading a lot of conflicting information about why corals grow, are colored, are brown, etc.. etc.. It's very confusing.

[reeftankguy]

I have 6 RB and 6 CW over my 5.5g and now I am beginning to feel inadequate..

 

Personally I think that you have to many.... Can you control the Spectrum/Output?

[blasterman]

hey blaster what combo is the acan in that pic under?

 

445 + NW.

 

2x RB + 1 NW would be close.

 

I shot RAW and had to pull saturation *down* a bit. Scary thing is, when I tested CBs the color was even more obnoxious, so that's nothing compared to how it's going to be. I really want some burgandy or 'superman' Acans to compliment those.

 

Also, this Acan colony is pretty high up on the rocks and seems to really like the10 watt 445's. My Candy Canes *hate* them and are having issues - can't move them far enough away. I just got a hammer coral, and it's also pretty close to the lights - we'll see how it does under all that extreme blue.

 

The UV / SPS theory is interesting. Obviously halides throw more (a lot more) UV than our typical LED rigs which never get below 440nm.

 

Here's the kicker though. Assuming UV is required for better pigment colors in SPS, then we have the issue with halides being erratic in terms of UV out-put. Check Sanjay Joshi's tests on the topic because he found reef halides very erratic in this respect. Explains why some bulbs bleach and cause problems while others don't even though the wattage / temperature is the same. Personally I'd rather lose a bit of color and at least have a parameter I can control, but that's just me.

[joelsaxton]

Personally I think that you have to many.... Can you control the Spectrum/Output?

 

I have buckpucks with potentiometers so I can control both the blues and whites, and 90% of the time I keep them well below the max.

[joelsaxton]

I have buckpucks with potentiometers so I can control both the blues and whites, and 90% of the time I keep them well below the max.

 

Also, I was referring more to the quality of color than quantity. Maybe we will soon develop a new consensus opinion on the proper proportion of different color led's for optimal growth, best appearance, hard vs soft, etc.

[northstar1357]

i just got my LED 3.6 from Nick. The color is not as distributed evenly. and it looks really purple like. I guess thats the downfall for LED. too much spotlight.

[blasterman]

i just got my LED 3.6 from Nick. The color is not as distributed evenly. and it looks really purple like. I guess thats the downfall for LED. too much spotlight.

 

I run bare LEDs and color is perfectly uniform. Bare LEDs look just like halides, except I have absolute control of color.

 

If you're using optics you can reduce uniformity and shadow/disco issues by putting different colored LEDs close together in clusters.

[joelsaxton]

I run bare LEDs and color is perfectly uniform. Bare LEDs look just like halides, except I have absolute control of color.

 

If you're using optics you can reduce uniformity and shadow/disco issues by putting different colored LEDs close together in clusters.

 

That's what I did. I don't see any separation of the colors at all. The shimmer looks a lot like halides to me. I will never go back to MH.

[Rcplain123]

I recently installed the 5.6 kit from nanocustoms with 2xRB and 3xCW strips and love the color, shimmer and brightness. I didn't spring for the dimmable driver. The colors blend perfectly in my BC29 (I have a photo up in my Members Aquarium thread).

[evilc66]

want me to post pics as proof i had the maxpect and had them for a year and my zoas shrunk and were not as bright as they were under my halides ill look for pics

 

so please tell me how do your corals get uv from leds and please no i jest set them up and they look insane not bashing jest stating facts sorry if fellings were hurt

You are stating your experience, not facts. I'm sorry that you had such a bad experience with LEDs, but there are many, many times more people that have very good luck with them overall. The issue that we are discussing here is not that we don't get any color from LEDs, or that we are losing colors on all corals, but there are some deficiencies in certain colors in certain corals, and how to fix it. None of this is revolving around UV BTW. Had you ever thought that maybe it was the fault of the particular LEDs used in your fixture that may have created the problem rather than throwing out a blanket statement of " LEDs suck, they make corals lose all their color"?

 

As for the UV discussion, I have my theories about that, and none of them really have a huge impact on overall color. The lack of UV is not the root cause behind color loss at all, and would be more beneficial to overall health and growth, which is something that I have stated multiple times during previous discussions about UV use and LEDs. It's the poor color rendering performance of the white LEDs that are used that creates the coloring problem in some situations, and every DIY and commercial LED fixture has the same problem.

 

i just got my LED 3.6 from Nick. The color is not as distributed evenly. and it looks really purple like. I guess thats the downfall for LED. too much spotlight.

Which strips did you get? Makes a big difference.

[beeker]

Lets just say i blasted a Purple/brownish acro with tons of Royal blue and Cool blue

 

I've now turned that purple/brown piece into a cyan/green acro, lol

 

i don't believe this is better for the Acro growth/color wise but honestly it's cool to know that with enough blue influence you can completely change a corals starting color, i recently just moved the piece because the green/cyan look of the acro itself wasn't very appealing to the eye but none the less the effect the blue leds had on it was cool

 

i did a lot of coral moving yesterday which will be shown in the new pics i take

 

it isn't about not being able to get growth or color from leds

 

it's more just having to rethink the process of placement for corals

 

I've had a lot of sps do great in the first placement spot in my tank, but with any corals, some need to be placed lower to get better color and some need to be moved up higher to get the color

 

Also seeing what colors are more influenced by Royal blue than Cool blue is also something you have to take into account

 

leds aren't a set it and forget it method of lighting, you will have to place corals accordingly to get the best results, just as you would with a MH setup (but it is somewhat easier since the bulb itself offers all the spectrums needed)

 

hence why i turned a purple/brown acro into a cyan/green acro, i was trying to see which blue led had more influence to acheive the purple the acro had orignally

 

i'm thinking Royal blue leds to better purples on most acro's, but some seem to do better under cool blue, i'm still working out color on about 4-5 of my sps, but so far so good, it will take me another 2 months atleast to get the mental aspects of arrangement worked out but so far i can't say i'm unhappy with leds