Full Spectrum LED tank pictures

[sageblade24]

What color temperature you looking for? That should net you 7-8000k or so.

 

And over an 8g tank (I am presuming a cube, isn't that like 12x12x12?), that will fry anything you put under it unless you dim them down LOW, to the point where you wasted money on extra LEDs..

 

I'd recommend at most 3x NW, 6x RB, 1x OCW, 2x violet. At most.

 

My tank is 13x13x14 and I had planned on running everything at 500mA.

 

If I need to lessen the number of LEDs please let me know! This is my first build.

[jedimasterben]

My tank is 13x13x14 and I had planned on running everything at 500mA.

 

If I need to lessen the number of LEDs please let me know! This is my first build.

500ma is too much still. i think youd need to keep them around 150ma or so with the extreme amount of violets you have.

 

indeed, i suggest you remove a lot of them and get down to the numbers of each that i recommended you stick to.

[firebirdude]

Ahem. Yet another example of a situation where 1W LEDs would be beneficial...

[sageblade24]

500ma is too much still. i think youd need to keep them around 150ma or so with the extreme amount of violets you have.

 

indeed, i suggest you remove a lot of them and get down to the numbers of each that i recommended you stick to.

 

Can you give me an idea how I would situate them on my heatsink??

 

BTW, thanks for the help!

[sageblade24]

 

How is this??

 

TV = True Violet

NW = Neutral White

OCW = Ocean Coral White

RB = Royal Blue

ML = Moonlights

[Adrnalnrsh]

Here's my setup.

 

Using 3 x 40w drivers

VDM % power on my Neptune VDM

 

Driver 1 - 8xTV and 2xOCW - 40%

Driver 2 - 16xRB (using 3ups) - 40%

Driver 3 - 8xNW (using 3ups) - 20%

 

Using 12" MakersLED heatsink.

 

This is on my 10Gallon now, but its designed to run on my 25 (20L,20H,15D) thats being built.

 

Below are pics, I also made a project box that houses the three Inventronics Drivers two using 1amp fuses and 1 using a 1/2 amp fuse.

 

Pics taken with iphone

 

[jedimasterben]

 

How is this??

 

TV = True Violet

NW = Neutral White

OCW = Ocean Coral White

RB = Royal Blue

ML = Moonlights

Leave no space between the LEDs to reduce spotlighting and "disco". What are the moonlights?

 

Here's my setup.

 

Using 3 x 40w drivers

VDM % power on my Neptune VDM

 

Driver 1 - 8xTV and 2xOCW - 40%

Driver 2 - 16xRB (using 3ups) - 40%

Driver 3 - 8xNW (using 3ups) - 20%

 

Using 12" MakersLED heatsink.

 

This is on my 10Gallon now, but its designed to run on my 25 (20L,20H,15D) thats being built.

 

Below are pics, I also made a project box that houses the three Inventronics Drivers two using 1amp fuses and 1 using a 1/2 amp fuse.

 

Pics taken with iphone

[sageblade24]

They are from the moonlight kit on RapidLED

[jedimasterben]

They are from the moonlight kit on RapidLED

I wouldn't use two of those on a small tank, and not at 350ma. I am planning to use two white LEDs ran at around 100ma to light a 48"x24" area as moonlights. Anything else is too bright IMHO.

 

 

Blue light is brighter to fish than it is to us, and can disrupt normal night cycles if left on. I used to use cool blue LEDs ran at minimum for moonlights, and my fish never had "normal" activity in the morning until I stopped leaving them on and used no moonlights.

[sageblade24]

I wouldn't use two of those on a small tank, and not at 350ma. I am planning to use two white LEDs ran at around 100ma to light a 48"x24" area as moonlights. Anything else is too bright IMHO.

 

 

Blue light is brighter to fish than it is to us, and can disrupt normal night cycles if left on. I used to use cool blue LEDs ran at minimum for moonlights, and my fish never had "normal" activity in the morning until I stopped leaving them on and used no moonlights.

 

Can you run a single led on a channel of the DIM4?

[Victoss]

Hey guys, I have been reading this thread and am about to start my second LED build. My first was for a BC29 from rapidLED with 16 RB, 8 NW and 7 extra Violet UV. I'm not a fan of the colour, It seems too purple (not the violets, I've tested) so I want to make sure I don't end up the same on this build too. For this build I also was looking for a wider spectrum so thats why I'm here. It's a 55 4ft long and the plan is a 48 kit from rapid again. This is what I'm thinking so far...

 

12 RB @1500mA

8 NW + 4 RB @ 1500

12 Violet UV @ 700

4 B + 4 DR + 4 Cyan @ 700

 

 

What do you guys think? Would there be too much red/cyan, should I bring it down to one cluster on each heat sink? Right now there are 4 clusters, 2 on each 6 x 20 heat sink. I also have some blue (or cool blue) in there too and was not sure if 4 in total would be too strong, I have heard about the windex. In my original plan I had 4 cool white on the second driver but I replace them with 4 RB instead to increase the ratio, was this a good idea? Also too much violet? Thanks for all the help guys!

[rO.oster]

1) I would not. I'd recommend at least 3 drivers (one for NW, one for RB/violet, one for OCW), at most six (one per color).

 

3) Cool white won't "brighten" it up any. LEDs are bright. If you are meaning color temperature, it would only bring it up slightly, and it's not worth what you'd be missing having less NW.

 

4) Nope. NW is pretty damn yellow. This is completely offset by running a 1:2 ratio of NW to RB, and gives a roughly 12-14K look.

 

5) Should be. 6x NW ran at 1A will put out roughly 1800-1900 lumens. Do you know what bin they are? And what are your royal blue, are they XP-E or XT-E?

 

 

OCW stars make a "white" light to our eyes, though they are not replacements for White LEDs. The deep red and cool blue do hit some more photosynthetic peaks, but not to the point where you should swap out whites for them.

 

Adding OCW actually brings your total color temperature down because they look white, I'd venture to say that you should run a 1:3 ratio of NW to RB to offset the OCW and to give you a 16-18K look. You can then dim them to taste.

 

Ok, I will add another driver (Inverntronics 25w) for a total of 3 drivers. Since the OCW brings color temperature down slightly and coupled with your 1:3 NW:RB recommendation, my hope was that by adding the CW you would also be adding some blue back due to more blue being in the CW LED. (NW = Neutral White 4000-5000K, CW = Cool White 6000-6500K) Say a 2:1 NW:CW ratio, or even 1:1 NW:CW seem to produce a good white like Mr. Microscope and other posts on page 14/15 look like. Then, depending on how many total whites you have and their respective NW:CW ratio, dictates your OCW and RB numbers. Just a thought.

 

The LEDs are XP-G/E, roughly a year old. I know I shouldn't stress about the ratios too much, since I can dim to taste. I've decided to have only 4 TV 420nm, since overall I have wayyyy too much par as it is. But this is the cost of hitting all the wavelengths. Thanks for your comments Jedi.

 

I wouldn't use two of those on a small tank, and not at 350ma. I am planning to use two white LEDs ran at around 100ma to light a 48"x24" area as moonlights. Anything else is too bright IMHO.

 

 

Blue light is brighter to fish than it is to us, and can disrupt normal night cycles if left on. I used to use cool blue LEDs ran at minimum for moonlights, and my fish never had "normal" activity in the morning until I stopped leaving them on and used no moonlights.

 

agreed. currently i have the rapidled moonlight kit, and just 1 "moonlight" led, not even a plain RB, and it is still bright. I tend to believe that since most of us don't have controllers for our moonlights that would have lunar cycles and cloudy nights, a lot of tank activity would be very negatively affected. In fact, I'd venture to say that complete dark every night is healthier for your tank than bright moonlights. I read many people making this mistake.

 

with that said, what is a good way to dim a led thats already ran at the weakest amount? maybe a little black sharpie permanent marker on the lens? will that hurt the LED? or something like a screen or shield mounted directly above the led to filter down the intensity. I want moonlight to juuuuust give a tiny light for mood. I also wire into the moonlights my refugium lights.

[jedimasterben]

Can you run a single led on a channel of the DIM4?

I want to say yes, but I can't remember for sure if Milad has covered this anywhere or not.

 

Hey guys, I have been reading this thread and am about to start my second LED build. My first was for a BC29 from rapidLED with 16 RB, 8 NW and 7 extra Violet UV. I'm not a fan of the colour, It seems too purple (not the violets, I've tested) so I want to make sure I don't end up the same on this build too. For this build I also was looking for a wider spectrum so thats why I'm here. It's a 55 4ft long and the plan is a 48 kit from rapid again. This is what I'm thinking so far...

 

12 RB @1500mA

8 NW + 4 RB @ 1500

12 Violet UV @ 700

4 B + 4 DR + 4 Cyan @ 700

 

 

What do you guys think? Would there be too much red/cyan, should I bring it down to one cluster on each heat sink? Right now there are 4 clusters, 2 on each 6 x 20 heat sink. I also have some blue (or cool blue) in there too and was not sure if 4 in total would be too strong, I have heard about the windex. In my original plan I had 4 cool white on the second driver but I replace them with 4 RB instead to increase the ratio, was this a good idea? Also too much violet? Thanks for all the help guys!

If you're going to run the main LEDs at 1500ma, looks good to me. Way too much violet, though. I'd cut it in half, six is enough for a 55g (I ran 16x on my system before I know what I know now and burned every piece of SPS I put into it).

 

I would look to upping the amount of cool blue, deep red, and cyan to six of each, better coverage on the 55g. If they were all Luxeon Rebels, I would say you could use four and still have good coverage and output.

 

And about the cool blue-Windex thing, you'd need a ton more cool blue for that to happen. When cool blue 470nm, deep red 660nm, and cyan 490-520nm mix, it makes a white light to our eyes, so you won't get the Windex look when keeping all three together.

 

Ok, I will add another driver (Inverntronics 25w) for a total of 3 drivers. Since the OCW brings color temperature down slightly and coupled with your 1:3 NW:RB recommendation, my hope was that by adding the CW you would also be adding some blue back due to more blue being in the CW LED. (NW = Neutral White 4000-5000K, CW = Cool White 6000-6500K) Say a 2:1 NW:CW ratio, or even 1:1 NW:CW seem to produce a good white like Mr. Microscope and other posts on page 14/15 look like. Then, depending on how many total whites you have and their respective NW:CW ratio, dictates your OCW and RB numbers. Just a thought.

IMHO, cool white offers nothing that neutral doesn't offer better, other than needing less royal blue to get a higher color temp, but the tradeoffs just aren't worth it. With what we know now, I will never recommend cool white LEDs except for a planted freshwater tank.

 

The LEDs are XP-G/E, roughly a year old. I know I shouldn't stress about the ratios too much, since I can dim to taste. I've decided to have only 4 TV 420nm, since overall I have wayyyy too much par as it is. But this is the cost of hitting all the wavelengths. Thanks for your comments Jedi.

Yeah, luckily, most deep red and cool blue LEDs don't have a lot of output (like the Bridgelux and Epistar that most sell for the colors), so you don't have to worry too much about overloading with PAR from them, and especially since they are used in such small amounts.

 

agreed. currently i have the rapidled moonlight kit, and just 1 "moonlight" led, not even a plain RB, and it is still bright. I tend to believe that since most of us don't have controllers for our moonlights that would have lunar cycles and cloudy nights, a lot of tank activity would be very negatively affected. In fact, I'd venture to say that complete dark every night is healthier for your tank than bright moonlights. I read many people making this mistake.

 

with that said, what is a good way to dim a led thats already ran at the weakest amount? maybe a little black sharpie permanent marker on the lens? will that hurt the LED? or something like a screen or shield mounted directly above the led to filter down the intensity. I want moonlight to juuuuust give a tiny light for mood. I also wire into the moonlights my refugium lights.

Yes, doing absolutely anything to the lens can damage the LED directly or cause it to burn up. I always clean my diode lenses after doing anything to an array, just in case. You could mount an optic to the LED star and shade the optic, though. That would indeed work.

[rO.oster]

IMHO, cool white offers nothing that neutral doesn't offer better What tradeoffs and what does the NW offer better?, other than needing less royal blue to get a higher color temp, but the tradeoffs just aren't worth it. With what we know now, I will never recommend cool white LEDs except for a planted freshwater tank.

 

Just what exactly does the NW have that makes the CW obsolete in the reefing tank? I know since the NW peaks in the 5,000K range, more of the yellow and red spectrum is represented in the coloring (hence the yellowish diode appearance we discussed, and the need for a 1:2 NW RB ratio)

 

But to discount its use entirely? Why? surely it has a unique role to play in visual aesthetics.

 

Why is the addition of OCW recommended for NW:RB tanks and not CW:RB tanks?

 

What are you losing by having a 3:1 NW/CW ratio vs. just using 4NW? What would you gain?

 

Thanks for the good discussion.

[jedimasterben]

Just what exactly does the NW have that makes the CW obsolete in the reefing tank? I know since the NW peaks in the 5,000K range, more of the yellow and red spectrum is represented in the coloring (hence the yellowish diode appearance we discussed, and the need for a 1:2 NW RB ratio)

 

But to discount its use entirely? Why? surely it has a unique role to play in visual aesthetics.

 

Why is the addition of OCW recommended for NW:RB tanks and not CW:RB tanks?

 

What are you losing by having a 3:1 NW/CW ratio vs. just using 4NW? What would you gain?

 

Thanks for the good discussion.

the main tradeoff between NW and CW is coloration vs. total luminous output. cool white has slightly more output vs an equally-binned neutral white chip, but since neutral has more red and yellow, it brings out colors in corals that you otherwise just would not see under cool white.

 

i honestly dont know what a 3:1 nw to cw would do - i doubt the cool white would do anything noticeable in the midst of three neutrals. if not being supplemented with blue spectrum, it would be very important to add and use cool white if keeping photosynthetic animals and plants.

 

i would definitely recommend supplementing cool white arrays with additional spectrum, as they are even more lacking than neutral-based arrays. i have seen (pretty sure, it has been a while) davefason recommend red-amber leds to supplement cool white arrays to bring their color temperature and CRI up, but then that would require more royal blue supplementation to keep final mixed color temperature high..

 

if starting from the ground up, though, starting with a neutral base to have what is, at the moment, considered by hobbyists to have the best end-results.

[NanoAlex]

I currently have a Custom 30gal (22.5x21.5x18) (mixed corals, 90% of it SPS) rimless with leds (just NW and RB) and im planning an upgrade! But I still need help with the design of the fixture!!! This is just an idea of what i planned:

-19RB

-8B

-10NW

-3CW

-6 Red? Orange-red? Hyper Red???

-8 TV

Moonlights: 2TV & 1RB

2 drivers for the RB and B (700mA)

1 driver for the whites (700mA)

1 driver for the TV (500mA)

1 drivers for the RED (?????mA)

 

All leds will have 80 degree optics

 

All ideas and corrections are accepted!

[phasezero]

I currently have a Custom 30gal (22.5x21.5x18) (mixed corals, 90% of it SPS) rimless with leds (just NW and RB) and im planning an upgrade! But I still need help with the design of the fixture!!! This is just an idea of what i planned:

-19RB

-8B

-10NW

-3CW

-6 Red? Orange-red? Hyper Red???

-8 TV

Moonlights: 2TV & 1RB

2 drivers for the RB and B (700mA)

1 driver for the whites (700mA)

1 driver for the TV (500mA)

1 drivers for the RED (?????mA)

 

All leds will have 80 degree optics

 

All ideas and corrections are accepted!

 

Looks like a good setup to me. Perhaps you could make 6 tight clusters to improve the blending of the colors. I prefer meanwell 48D's for drivers, but what you picked will work fine too.

[Seamonkey84]

I've got the full spectrum par38 from LEDtric

Befor I was using boostled 4color

Previously was also using boost 20k

Sorry all shots were taken weeks apart and with iPhone 3GS

[NanoAlex]

Looks like a good setup to me. Perhaps you could make 6 tight clusters to improve the blending of the colors. I prefer meanwell 48D's for drivers, but what you picked will work fine too.

I forgot to say that Im gonna use meanwell for drivers!

[jedimasterben]

I currently have a Custom 30gal (22.5x21.5x18) (mixed corals, 90% of it SPS) rimless with leds (just NW and RB) and im planning an upgrade! But I still need help with the design of the fixture!!! This is just an idea of what i planned:

-19RB

-8B

-10NW

-3CW

-6 Red? Orange-red? Hyper Red???

-8 TV

Moonlights: 2TV & 1RB

2 drivers for the RB and B (700mA)

1 driver for the whites (700mA)

1 driver for the TV (500mA)

1 drivers for the RED (?????mA)

 

All leds will have 80 degree optics

 

All ideas and corrections are accepted!

You're actually missing a few things, and I would change a few things up.

 

1) if you mix red and royal blue, you get purple, but not the purple as in "Purple Fiji", the popular T5 bulb. Adding that much red with that much blue is going to make a lot of purple, and the red is going to stick out like a sore thumb, not sure where you decided to only add red.

 

2) Over such a tank, I'd do the following:

 

10x NW

20x RB

4x cool blue

4x deep red (not red-orange, not red, not hyper, all are the wrong spectrum)

4x cyan or turquoise

4x violet (these put out too much PAR to use 8 of them without significant dimming)

 

Run the NW on one driver, RB on the second, deep red, cyan/turquoise, and cool blue all on the third, and violet on the fourth. If you get the LEDs from LEDgroupBuy, get the Ocean Coral White stars (they have 3x LEDs on each, one deep red, one turquoise, and one cool blue) instead of four each of the exotics and run them no more than 500ma or they will burn out quickly. Those LEDs do not tolerate heat very well. I'd recommend using Luxeon Rebels for the exotics, but they are slightly more costly, but you don't have to worry about thermal issues, and their output is up to triple that of the others.

 

3) Do not use violet LEDs for moonlights. Again, they put out a lot of PAR and will most likely throw off the corals' "night cycle". Use a single white LED (not Cree, use Bridgelux or another lower output chip) ran at 150ma or less as a moonlight.

[phasezero]

You're actually missing a few things, and I would change a few things up.

 

1) if you mix red and royal blue, you get purple, but not the purple as in "Purple Fiji", the popular T5 bulb.

4x violet (these put out too much PAR to use 8 of them without significant dimming)

 

 

3) Do not use violet LEDs for moonlights. Again, they put out a lot of PAR and will most likely throw off the corals' "night cycle". Use a single white LED (not Cree, use Bridgelux or another lower output chip) ran at 150ma or less as a moonlight.

 

Do you have anywhere I can read about the violet LED's giving too much PAR and causing problems? I have 12 of them @ 500 mA over a 26g bow front (24"x15"x21") along with 12 RB/6 CW/6NW without optics. My light is 2 inches off the surface of the water and I have a few sps colonies and frags mid-upper part of the tank that have not experienced any issues.

[jedimasterben]

Do you have anywhere I can read about the violet LED's giving too much PAR and causing problems? I have 12 of them @ 500 mA over a 26g bow front (24"x15"x21") along with 12 RB/6 CW/6NW without optics. My light is 2 inches off the surface of the water and I have a few sps colonies and frags mid-upper part of the tank that have not experienced any issues.

are they dimmed any? did you acclimate the corals to the light? a lot of sps can handle that much light, but not if they were in lower light before and moved under them all at once.

 

leaving optics off has helped too, doesnt focus the light down any.

[nickman]

I have a 120 gallon (4x2x2) and will have a mixed reef. This will be controlled by an Apex.

 

So far I have decided on:

18 24 x Neutral White XT-E

6 x Cool White XT-E thanks jedi

48 x Royal Blue XT-E

All driven at 700mA on 40W Invertronics drivers

 

18 x True Violet

10 x Ocean Coral White 3-UPS with one LED each at 470nm 495nm and 660nm (an LED group buy dot com product)

Driven at 500mA by 40W Inverntronics drivers

 

Is this too much light for what Im aiming for? Id rather not over do it now because i can always add LEDs later. How does the ratio look? Ill be able to adjust it to a large degree but at 100% id like a 14k -20k look.

 

Got to get back to work, thanks in advance!

 

-Nick

[nickman]

I have a 120 gallon (4x2x2) and will have a mixed reef. This will be controlled by an Apex.

 

So far I have decided on:

18 24 x Neutral White XT-E

6 x Cool White XT-E thanks jedi

48 x Royal Blue XT-E

All driven at 700mA on 40W Invertronics drivers

 

18 x True Violet

10 x Ocean Coral White 3-UPS with one LED each at 470nm 495nm and 660nm (an LED group buy dot com product)

Driven at 500mA by 40W Inverntronics drivers

 

Is this too much light for what Im aiming for? Id rather not over do it now because i can always add LEDs later. How does the ratio look? Ill be able to adjust it to a large degree but at 100% id like a 14k -20k look.

 

Got to get back to work, thanks in advance!

 

-Nick

 

 

I forgot some details....

 

Ill be attempting to mount all of these on 2 18" MakersLED heatsinks. Am i overdoing it or should i add another fan?

I was leaning towards 80 deg optics so i could keep the fixture closer to the tank unless 60 would give me sufficient spread and help minimize light hitting the glass and spilling out into the room at a slightly higher mounting height.

[phasezero]

I forgot some details....

 

Ill be attempting to mount all of these on 2 18" MakersLED heatsinks. Am i overdoing it or should i add another fan?

I was leaning towards 80 deg optics so i could keep the fixture closer to the tank unless 60 would give me sufficient spread and help minimize light hitting the glass and spilling out into the room at a slightly higher mounting height.

 

Will your ocw 3ups be wired to adjust each color independently?