Jump to content
Cultivated Reef

Leds - all hands on deck!


baseballfanatic2

Recommended Posts

baseballfanatic2

Hello, 

 

looking to make the most epic led board for my new tank. Please help! 
 

What’s your preference as to Cree vs luxeon leds? Which are better in your opinion? 

 

thinking about doing… 

5 royal blue

5 blue

1 400 nm uv 

2 410 nm uv 

4 cool white

3 neutral white 

2 warm white 

2 cyan

1 lime or mint? Thinking lime

 

i got rid of reds and greens as I think my whites can cover those spectrums too 

 

Link to comment
mitten_reef

That’s a lot of white….

Just a thought, most commercial fixtures are now looking at 3-4:1 blue:white ratio and I feel that is appropriate. 2:1 would probably be as low as one should go.. depending on controllability of each channel/color

  • Like 1
Link to comment
baseballfanatic2
18 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

That’s a lot of white….

Just a thought, most commercial fixtures are now looking at 3-4:1 blue:white ratio and I feel that is appropriate. 2:1 would probably be as low as one should go.. depending on controllability of each channel/color

Not trying to run them all 100%. I like having options. Running half the whites to be like nanobox or run the cool whites to be like an ai prime. Not sure what the ideal look is 

Link to comment
mitten_reef
1 hour ago, baseballfanatic2 said:

Not trying to run them all 100%. I like having options. Running half the whites to be like nanobox or run the cool whites to be like an ai prime. Not sure what the ideal look is 

Nanobox is kinda where I’m coming from. With almost 1:1 blue:white, I ran the channels roughly around 80:20% anyway, so it’s kinda wasted space to use that many white leds. If that makes sense. 

Link to comment
baseballfanatic2
1 hour ago, mitten_reef said:

Nanobox is kinda where I’m coming from. With almost 1:1 blue:white, I ran the channels roughly around 80:20% anyway, so it’s kinda wasted space to use that many white leds. If that makes sense. 

Yeah it makes sense. How did you like the nanobox? Do you like warm whites and neutrals? Or did you wish you had some cool whites? Did you have the fixture with lime or mint? Which do you prefer? 

Link to comment

UV and violet are pointless gimmicks that have no scientific basis. You can't see these colors anyways ..maybe violet at super high levels, but thats it. Ive challenged Dana Riddle at R2R on this topic many times, but he doesn't own a reef tank. Sanjay Joshi, who has spectacular reef tanks along with a pHD says violet and UV is junk science. I agree with Sanjay.

 

Royal blue does all the work. 450nm is the backbone of all reef lights.. Cool white balances out the royal and you need some warm in there to bring out the reds. Just a little. Last time I talked to EvilC he was building royal , cool white and warm white on three channels and that's it. I agree with him and came to the same assessment. I have a XR15 Blue on my tank right now with all these channels and my DIY lights are suoerior with fewer channels. 

 

I would go at least 75% royal and 25% else.i would use XPG3s personally unless there's been some miraculous tech improvement at Luxeon.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
baseballfanatic2
11 hours ago, blasterman said:

UV and violet are pointless gimmicks that have no scientific basis. You can't see these colors anyways ..maybe violet at super high levels, but thats it. Ive challenged Dana Riddle at R2R on this topic many times, but he doesn't own a reef tank. Sanjay Joshi, who has spectacular reef tanks along with a pHD says violet and UV is junk science. I agree with Sanjay.

 

Royal blue does all the work. 450nm is the backbone of all reef lights.. Cool white balances out the royal and you need some warm in there to bring out the reds. Just a little. Last time I talked to EvilC he was building royal , cool white and warm white on three channels and that's it. I agree with him and came to the same assessment. I have a XR15 Blue on my tank right now with all these channels and my DIY lights are suoerior with fewer channels. 

 

I would go at least 75% royal and 25% else.i would use XPG3s personally unless there's been some miraculous tech improvement at Luxeon.

Thanks for your response! Do you run limes or mints? Didn’t know Dana riddle doesn’t have a reef tank lmao

Link to comment
ECLS Reefer
13 hours ago, blasterman said:

UV and violet are pointless gimmicks that have no scientific basis. You can't see these colors anyways ..maybe violet at super high levels, but thats it. Ive challenged Dana Riddle at R2R on this topic many times, but he doesn't own a reef tank. Sanjay Joshi, who has spectacular reef tanks along with a pHD says violet and UV is junk science. I agree with Sanjay.

 

Royal blue does all the work. 450nm is the backbone of all reef lights.. Cool white balances out the royal and you need some warm in there to bring out the reds. Just a little. Last time I talked to EvilC he was building royal , cool white and warm white on three channels and that's it. I agree with him and came to the same assessment. I have a XR15 Blue on my tank right now with all these channels and my DIY lights are suoerior with fewer channels. 

 

I would go at least 75% royal and 25% else.i would use XPG3s personally unless there's been some miraculous tech improvement at Luxeon.

Really? Maybe I need to revisit some of the settings on my hydras 🤔 

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
mitten_reef
23 hours ago, baseballfanatic2 said:

Yeah it makes sense. How did you like the nanobox? Do you like warm whites and neutrals? Or did you wish you had some cool whites? Did you have the fixture with lime or mint? Which do you prefer? 

Idk, i’ve only used the latest arrays with mint.  I liked it, but still crave more T5-style coverage, currently sitting on a T5-nanobox hybrid that I’m hoping to put on the new tank soon

 

13 hours ago, blasterman said:

UV and violet are pointless gimmicks that have no scientific basis. You can't see these colors anyways ..maybe violet at super high levels, but thats it. Ive challenged Dana Riddle at R2R on this topic many times, but he doesn't own a reef tank. Sanjay Joshi, who has spectacular reef tanks along with a pHD says violet and UV is junk science. I agree with Sanjay.

 

Royal blue does all the work. 450nm is the backbone of all reef lights.. Cool white balances out the royal and you need some warm in there to bring out the reds. Just a little. Last time I talked to EvilC he was building royal , cool white and warm white on three channels and that's it. I agree with him and came to the same assessment. I have a XR15 Blue on my tank right now with all these channels and my DIY lights are suoerior with fewer channels. 

 

I would go at least 75% royal and 25% else.i would use XPG3s personally unless there's been some miraculous tech improvement at Luxeon.

Didn’t know that about V/UV, is it purely for our own enjoyment “more pop”, and not health and growth then?  At the same time, aren’t the shorter wavelengths the ones that can penetrate the water depth best?  One would think then, that they’d be the useful wavelengths by underwater photosynthesis. 

 

 

Link to comment
baseballfanatic2
4 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

Idk, i’ve only used the latest arrays with mint.  I liked it, but still crave more T5-style coverage, currently sitting on a T5-nanobox hybrid that I’m hoping to put on the new tank soon

 

Didn’t know that about V/UV, is it purely for our own enjoyment “more pop”, and not health and growth then?  At the same time, aren’t the shorter wavelengths the ones that can penetrate the water depth best?  One would think then, that they’d be the useful wavelengths by underwater photosynthesis. 

 

 

 

4 hours ago, ECLS Reefer said:

Really? Maybe I need to revisit some of the settings on my hydras 🤔 

https://web.archive.org/web/20180211073334/http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2014/5/aafeature

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment

UV and violet LEDs have been added to reef lights after these specific LEDs were introduced as replacement for DJ black  lights and became durable enough to not brown out their coatings. Has nothing to do with reefing.

 

While 420nm is closer to the optimum chlorophyll point than 450nm  there's a bigger problem. 420 and UV (typically 395nm) LEDs are significantly less efficient than 450nm (royal blue). So, any theoretical advantage from a biologic point of view with 395/420nm is going to be significantly eclipsed over the lower radiologic efficacy loss of not using 450nm. 

 

Also, please look up the spectral graphs Sanjay made of classic metal halides used for year over reef tanks, They are all deficient in 400-440 wavelengths. Yet halides are still regarded as the platinum standard for reefing. You can't claim halides are awesome to grow coral and 395nm / violet is required for coral growth, The statement is contradictory.

 

The Zooanthale algae in corals doesn't care. 450nm just requires a few more photons over 420nm to reach the same biological conversion, but the450nm  LED is going to produce far more 450nm photons per watt. Also, 450nm is brighter to our eyes. I've tested 430-440nm LEDs exclusively for growing coral and the tank was simply darker and more purple than a 450nm / cool white LED. I like to look at my tank.

 

The best light I ever has was a black box I modified that had 460nm and 450nm LEDs. The 460nm being more sensitive to our eyes made the tank look crisper and brighter. However, 460-470nm is next to impossible to find in American bins like Cree or Luxeon.

 

I'm currently running a XR 15 blue on my tank, and with the UV and violet LEDs turned off. They just produce more heat. I don't need the PAR given the light is running at 80%. I also find it laughable that Ecotech and Kessil show elevated levels of violet in their spectral charts yet the actual wattage of LEDs in this wavelength are a fraction of 450nm wattage output. 

 

Last, and I will try to be polite about this...but I've never seen a really nice reef tank where the owner obsesses over UV and Violet LEDs.

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
baseballfanatic2
10 hours ago, blasterman said:

UV and violet LEDs have been added to reef lights after these specific LEDs were introduced as replacement for DJ black  lights and became durable enough to not brown out their coatings. Has nothing to do with reefing.

 

While 420nm is closer to the optimum chlorophyll point than 450nm  there's a bigger problem. 420 and UV (typically 395nm) LEDs are significantly less efficient than 450nm (royal blue). So, any theoretical advantage from a biologic point of view with 395/420nm is going to be significantly eclipsed over the lower radiologic efficacy loss of not using 450nm. 

 

Also, please look up the spectral graphs Sanjay made of classic metal halides used for year over reef tanks, They are all deficient in 400-440 wavelengths. Yet halides are still regarded as the platinum standard for reefing. You can't claim halides are awesome to grow coral and 395nm / violet is required for coral growth, The statement is contradictory.

 

The Zooanthale algae in corals doesn't care. 450nm just requires a few more photons over 420nm to reach the same biological conversion, but the450nm  LED is going to produce far more 450nm photons per watt. Also, 450nm is brighter to our eyes. I've tested 430-440nm LEDs exclusively for growing coral and the tank was simply darker and more purple than a 450nm / cool white LED. I like to look at my tank.

 

The best light I ever has was a black box I modified that had 460nm and 450nm LEDs. The 460nm being more sensitive to our eyes made the tank look crisper and brighter. However, 460-470nm is next to impossible to find in American bins like Cree or Luxeon.

 

I'm currently running a XR 15 blue on my tank, and with the UV and violet LEDs turned off. They just produce more heat. I don't need the PAR given the light is running at 80%. I also find it laughable that Ecotech and Kessil show elevated levels of violet in their spectral charts yet the actual wattage of LEDs in this wavelength are a fraction of 450nm wattage output. 

 

Last, and I will try to be polite about this...but I've never seen a really nice reef tank where the owner obsesses over UV and Violet LEDs.

 

 

 

 

Explain why uv and violet would bring out certain colors in let’s say rainbow acans? 

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...