Add violet LED or t5's to DIY LED??

[cpandrewschmidt]

Hi all,
I've been running a DIY Led system (rapid's stuff) for about 6 months now. I'm having the same problems I'm seeing others have. Some corals look great, others not so. My reds and some greens are washing out quite a bit. I'm seeing people sell these Violets. Would you add these to help with that spectrum loss? I see UV ones that Rapid sells but also see people use "True Violet" Is one better or worse?

Do you think that can help with the sps's that are loosing color, does that spectrum make sense for reds and greens? My other option is to add 4 48" T5 blubs. I've never used t5's so don't know if those cover the spectrum I may be losing.

Otherwise I love the the LEDs, growth and other colors are great on most corals.

I run three PODs of LEDs w/ 36 on the outside and 26 on the middle over a 180. Cool Whites, RBs and Blues. Attached is the distribution pattern of them.

Thanks for the help!
Andrew

[Honks69]

I was just looking for the same answer myself

I was gonna post this in the DIY forum but since you already made the post I will wait and see

I was gonna add some RED GREEN and VIOLET leds to my 180 and see if it helps

I had no idea what combo would be the best

[keihi20]

I would recommend going with a natural white, not cool white but a warm white. That temperature white includes a lot of the spectrum that your looking for. (green, red, etc.)

[Collinrb]

I use a stunner strip to achieve the color i'm looking for. (magenta and blue) and use MH for growth


It actually is so bright when its just the strip, that my cell phone can't focus its camera at all


But it makes the colors of the coral amazing. I'm going to add a little purple into every light I have from now on most likely

[lighthouze08]

the most effective way is to add T5 to your setup. I've tried violet, UV LEDs but yielded the same result. throw some blue+ t5, fiji purple or purple plus and you'll see a big difference, that's what i did

[cpandrewschmidt]

Looks like I might go the t5 route. Just wondering if anyone else had any other experiences with this?

[Jamesus]

I added two T5s. A blue + in back and purple + in front and have had fantastic results.

[joelespinoza]

Originally Posted by keihi20

I would recommend going with a natural white, not cool white but a warm white. That temperature white includes a lot of the spectrum that your looking for. (green, red, etc.)

^ This, Stevesleds has a 2700k Luxeon warm white with a CRI of 95, it looks amazing.

My first build was my 55 gallon display, it was a 66 LED build with 6 Turquoise, 6 deep red, 6 True Violet, 14 Neutral White Cree XP-G, and 34 Cree XT-E Royal Blues.

The reds, greens and violets were pretty much a complete waste of time and money, The violets look great on their own, however they produce almost no visible light. So if you want to make moonlights, great, but dont expect them to make your display lighting look any different, because you wont notice a change.

Since then I have made MUCH better looking lights with stevesleds Luxeon 2700k warm whites and Luxeon Royal blues without any extra colors. They are all I use now.

[reeferman1128]

Originally Posted by joelespinoza

^ This, Stevesleds has a 2700k Luxeon warm white with a CRI of 95, it looks amazing.

My first build was my 55 gallon display, it was a 66 LED build with 6 Turquoise, 6 deep red, 6 True Violet, 14 Neutral White Cree XP-G, and 34 Cree XT-E Royal Blues.

The reds, greens and violets were pretty much a complete waste of time and money, The violets look great on their own, however they produce almost no visible light. So if you want to make moonlights, great, but dont expect them to make your display lighting look any different, because you wont notice a change.

Since then I have made MUCH better looking lights with stevesleds Luxeon 2700k warm whites and Luxeon Royal blues without any extra colors. They are all I use now.

what ratio of warm white/royal blue do you use?

[zachts]

Originally Posted by joelespinoza

^ This, Stevesleds has a 2700k Luxeon warm white with a CRI of 95, it looks amazing.

They are indeed amazing! and provide very good results for the missing "reds" that most people seem to be seeing, myself included. T5 has a lot of Red in the spectrum so it's not surprising that Leds seem lacking when most have almost no red.

Originally Posted by joelespinoza

The reds, greens and violets were pretty much a complete waste of time and money, The violets look great on their own, however they produce almost no visible light. So if you want to make moonlights, great, but dont expect them to make your display lighting look any different, because you wont notice a change.

The Red's and Greens are indeed not real practical right now as the right spectums are not available in densly placed RBG form so color mixing is a problem. I've not given up but am waiting for things to evolve here.

Violets ARE VERY USEFUL in my humble opinon. the only problem is they are not as powerfull yet as Royal Blue. so it takes around 3 violet LEDs to produce the same radiometric output as a single royal blue. that being said the color they create at that ratio is absolutly stunning. very similar to the good old VHO actinics when you throw in a little regular blue.


Personaly I am very pleased right now with a ratio of around 3 violets, 1 royal blue, 1 blue, 1 warm white(95CRI) and one neutral white. this is giving me color very close to my VHO setup. I had a 617nm red in the mix and that was over all very good but required a difuser to mix the color and that just cut the light output too much. Warmer color whites are definately the way to go!

[Dseg]

I'd recommend going T5's, that is what I am doing over my 180. I am adding a Blue+ and a Purple+. Can't go wrong with T5s and are proven to work.

I have AI SOLs and tried Radions, but I would wait a while before recommending LEDs to anyone, they still have a long way to go...

[Michigan Mike]

T5
I was thinking coral pluses , blue pluses and purple pluses are good bulbs to help.
I figure if your LEDs have plenty of blue then the coral plus will give you a good full spectrum t5. Using in combo to tailor the color to your liking.