Blue and Royal Blue LED's

[biglurr54]

So I have been researching LED's and I noticed most of the high end fixtures had 50% blue and 50% Royal Blue for their blue color. Most DIY set ups seem to be running all Royal Blues. Do corals react differently to the regular blues? Is 50/50 for blues a good way to go? Im building a light for a 16 gallon bow front tank and im trying to figure out what i need for my build. Right now I am thinking of 8 RB, 4 Blue, 4 CW, 4 NW, 1 Red, 1 Green, and two of rapidled's full spectrum uvs.

I originally was going to do 12 RB and no blue, red, or green, but i was advised that it would look alot better to go "Full Spectrum"

[evolutionZ]

i would go with 8 RB, 4 B, 2 Warm white, 4 NW and 4 full spectrum UV. no need for those red and green. warm whites are much better for this. generally a 2:1 B:W is preferred. and Cool white are pretty much useless.

[biglurr54]

That's 80 bucks in just uvs! From what I've ready you have to be careful to not over do the violets because they are way more powerful than rb and can burn corals easily.

[Jerzey]

i'm actually gonna be changing over from 6 violets on my fixture to 2 total spectrum uvs out of 49 leds.... i'm curious why do you recommend so many over a 16 g i haven't read much about them and would like to know also ... it might pursuade me to order more!

[nanoreefer1000]

I would say most have more RB, to much CB can make a tank like like windex.
With 22 leds I'd do 4 NW, 9 RB, 4 CB, 1 WW or DR, 3 TV/HV NOT UV!, 1 cyan for full spectrum

[Jerzey]

4 cree total spectrum uv sounds like alot over a 16 g... that's 8 (400-410 nm) 8 (410-420 nm)

[michaellee64]

Per cluster.... 4-4000K NW, 8-RB, 2-CB, 2-CY and 2-TV (410-420nm) The 2 Cyans is a little strong, so if you can't dim them separately, then only use one! This is based off of the Evil cluster.

[michaellee64]

Also stay away from the Red and the green... The 4000k chips have plenty of this already. I would highly recommend the Luxeon chips over the Crees.

[biglurr54]

Really? Luxeon over Cree? Interesting. Why is that?

[michaellee64]

Look at the specs.... Also from person experience. I really like the RB's compared to Crees.

[biglurr54]

Ok How does this look for a set up.

Steves LEDS has tri stars with luxeon LEDS.

I was thinking of doing 2 tri-stars of 2rb and 1 cb

I would put a tri-star on either side of a 4000k Luxeon M 12 watt.

I would put 2 true violet and 2 hyper violets around the 4000k as well.

I would do two of these clusters over the tank.


In between the clusters I would put one tristar of 1 Cyan, 1 Cool Blue, and 1 deep red.

I would do either 3 channels with all rb, cb, tv, and hv, on one channel. 4000k on one channel, and the remaining rcb tristar on the last channel. Or i could do two channels and put the rcb tristar on the white channel.

[michaellee64]

I just have a second so here goes..... If you're going to do the Luxeon M's, (which I highly suggest) use them for the NW & RB. Per cluster - 1 4000k in the middle, 1 RB on either end for a total of 2, and 1 CY, 1 HV (version 2) and 1 CB on each side. The ideal ratio is... 4 RB, 1 NW, 1 CB, 1 CY and 1 HV. As I stated before, if you can't dim the Cyans separately then it might be just a little strong so I would suggest adding another CB in place of one of the Cyans. You really want to stay away from the Reds and Greens as there is more than enough in the 4000k Chip. Each Luxeon M counts as 4 standard 3 watt LEDs, so this would make each cluster 18 LEDs. I would only do one cluster over that tank unless you are going to be able to dim these. What really works out great is to do 2 clusters on a 12" Makers heat sink. This covers a 24 x24 area quite nicely. The Makers heat sinks seem a little pricy, until you consider how easy it is to change LED's as technology advances, plus they look good too! I am running these with just the one fan that comes with it, and they are completely cool to the touch. Basically you are to an extent duplicating a Radion fixture, but with much better color rendition. I can not stress enough that you do not want to put any Reds or Greens in this combo. It will make everything look unnatural, and promote algae growth with the Reds. Do not underestimate the power of these Hyper Violets, they will literally burn the flesh off of your corals if you're not careful. Been there.... done that! These Hypers from Steve's are powerful and can be driven at 1000ma. You could drive them at 700ma and get more than enough par for your application. I can't tell you for a fact that adding some TV's will or will not help with the growth, but just using these HV's has made a tremendous difference in my coloring and growth. I've been using LEDs for a few years now, and this is my first combo that I'm truly happy with. I can't take any credit for it though as it is basically a version of the "Evil Cluster" I have quite a few LEDs laying around trying to get the correct coloring. There is no place for Cool Whites whatsoever in a reef tank. They are bright but do nothing but wash out all of the colors. That's where adding Reds and Greens have their place in trying to balance it all out. I was using 5000K chips for awhile, but found that the 4000k has much better color rendering. If you've seen a tank lit with Radion Pro's and like it.... Then you'll love the what these will do for your tank. Just doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the commercial built fixtures, but they're a fraction of the cost also. I hope this helps.

Michael

[biglurr54]

Michael great feed back. Thank you so much.