RapidLED 29bc

[MTF7]

I have a biocube 29 which I upgraded the lightibg with rapidled retrofit kit. At the time I didn't really care / know about different lighting spectrums so I just went with the normal 12 CW and 12RB , I love my led's but now that I am more I formed about lighting but still nowhere close to and expert or knowing what colors will give me different looks I want more of a 15k look, with my setup I am running the RB's at 100% power and the CW somewhere in between a 10%-25%. And I'm getting more of a 8-9k look still (just a guess) so I still feel like even with my whites turned down so low that I am not getting what I want which is 15k, is there anyone else who has a Rapidled on their 29BC that could tell me their led color mixes that could help?

[ReefWreak]

Hmmm, interesting situation.

I went with the full spectrum kit, and also swapped out some colors for custom colors. I would call my tank about 14k-15k where I have the settings now. The color on my corals is generally excellent though, and you can check my pictures (though it's hard to tell color from them) in my build thread.

For reference, I am running 12 RBs at 1300mA, at 40% power, and the other LEDs (stock color mixture for their full spectrum kit, I just swapped out two of the CWs for NWs) all at 700mA, at matching 40% power as well.

I guess if you run everything at 700mA, you would just double the power of the RBs, so ~80% RB and 40% everything else (UV, CW, NW, red, green).

I still want to swap the stock Cree green for a lime, which I have, just haven't swapped it out, to get the perceived color whiter.

I'm really glad I went with full spectrum instead of 50/50. Even if you pair RBs with NWs instead of CWs, I think there is value in having the mixed colors and true UV (violet) LEDs as well.

In a perfect world, I would play endlessly with these LEDs to eventually approximate the spectrum of a 10k Reeflux, which produces the bluest of blue colorations from corals I've ever seen.

I hope that helps. Let me know if you have questions (here or on my build thread linked above).

[MTF7]

So looking on the store and I do not see a full spectrum kit so could you list out what you have? And how many? Like I know 12RB but what about CW,NW, or all the other colors?

[ReefWreak]

Full spectrum kit:

http://www.rapidled.com/solderless-c...-retrofit-kit/

In the item options selections --> LED Color Ratio --> Full Spectrum: 1 Red, 1 Green, 4 UV, 8 Cool White, 10 Royal Blue (UV/Red must be run at 0.7A max)

Which is what I did, but I also purchased:

2x Solderless CREE XP-G2 Neutral White LED
2x Solderless Luxeon Philips Rebel ES Cyan LED and
2x Solderless Philips Rebel ES Lime LED

I only am running the original 24 LEDs, but I bought the others to experiment with down the road, since the cost of shipping a separate order ordering them separately down the road would almost be the cost of the LEDs, so might as well only get hit with shipping once.

I did replace 2 of the CWs that come with the full spectrum kit with NWs, and I think it helped warm up the color of the lights, which is why it doesn't feel "too blue"/"windex-ey"

Everything else is stock from the full spectrum option above. I would highly recommend kicking in the extra $7.50 for the NWs to swap them out at your convenience.

Since the kit is solderless and the LED pucks get screwed into the heatsink, you can play with different color combinations down the road with ease, and all you have to do is unplug, unscrew, and re-apply thermal paste, which since I play with computers a lot, I have a ton of it sitting around my house, not to mention that they send you a huge tube of it too.

[ReefWreak]

Also, don't forget to buy quick disconnects!

It'll make life a LOT easier when removing the hood or drivers or anything for maintenance.

[eddiereefs]

okay i think i can help u out as i have the same kit. full spectrum is not necesarry as i grow demanding corals such as sps, validias, bonsai, wolverine, purple monster etc.. the spectrum that u are running right now with 80 percent blue and 20 percent white would actually be around 16k. a pic may help but i run 90 percent blue and 50 percent white and i am getting around 14k which is ideal for my purposes, i like the natural look plus the pop of the extra strong blue on corals. just remember the white light is important for good coral growth which is why 10k is superior for coral growth because it is close to natural sunlight. u may be comparing your light setup to other leds which have these outrageous colorations like purple that doesnt replicate any natural sun light. i do agree with lighting in the range of 400 nm and uv can help but isnt entirley necesary. heres a good rule of thumb, if u take a picture and u cant clearly see any corals then u can assume u are in the 16-18 k range.

[ReefWreak]

Originally Posted by eddiereefs

just remember the white light is important for good coral growth which is why 10k is superior for coral growth because it is close to natural sunlight. u may be comparing your light setup to other leds which have these outrageous colorations like purple that doesnt replicate any natural sun light. i do agree with lighting in the range of 400 nm and uv can help but isnt entirley necesary. heres a good rule of thumb, if u take a picture and u cant clearly see any corals then u can assume u are in the 16-18 k range.

I'm no expert, but there are a few things I want to clarify. I believe these to be correct, though I would welcome an accurate cited alternative perspective.

Originally Posted by eddiereefs

is why 10k is superior for coral growth because it is close to natural sunlight

That is true for most lighting types, however going on the assumption that increased PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) leads to increased growth, LEDs are different than other types of lighting because Royal Blue LEDs are the higher PAR lights/colors, where white lights tend to be lower PAR on a PAR per watt basis. This is very different than what we were used to with Metal Halide, Power Compact, and T5s where white created the most PAR (or at least whiter bulbs had higher PAR).

Originally Posted by eddiereefs

u may be comparing your light setup to other leds which have these outrageous colorations like purple that doesnt replicate any natural sun light.

Most metal halide bulbs and T5 setups do not look like or replicate natural sun light. Even the yellowest of MH bulbs I've ever run or seen, a 10k XM (250w on e-ballast) was still whiter/bluer than natural sunlight.

Keep in mind that most corals are found in intermediate depths where the spectrum of natural light that hits that coral is not the yellow/white sunlight that we are used to, as red and orange are the first colors to be absorbed by the water through depth, and as a result, technically reefs do look "bluer" than natural sunlight. Sure, many acropora are found in shallower waters, but I think generally the larger amount and diversity of corals can be found in water deeper than a few feet. A good article on coral depth and light spectrum can be found here

Originally Posted by eddiereefs

i do agree with lighting in the range of 400 nm and uv can help but isnt entirley necesary.

I agree, however I feel pretty strongly about mixing the spectrum of LEDs whenever possible. I know that white are "full spectrum," and non-blue LEDs are mostly just differently phosphor coated blue LEDs, but I still see the people who understand LEDs at a much higher level than I do, and run multiple systems for longer periods of time with better results than I all mixing spectrum. Maybe they know less than you do, but they seem to be getting good results on a broad scale, and the manufactures whose bills get paid by selling LEDs have all moved to full spectrum instead of white/blue, so I think there's more to full spectrum.

Originally Posted by eddiereefs

heres a good rule of thumb, if u take a picture and u cant clearly see any corals then u can assume u are in the 16-18 k range.

I'm not sure what that means. I can see corals when my whites are on their dimmest settings before shutting off (10%/1v at 700mA power to drivers' dimmers on 0-10v) and my blues are at full power (40% on 1300mA). When my whites shut off entirely, I only see fluorescence, but I still see corals, so I'm kind of confused. Maybe you mean full UV, but then you would only see fluorescence and only very dimly.

I would really appreciate learning more about LEDs if you have any sources of some of the statements that you have suggested.

Remember, this is still relatively new in the hobby, and as with everything in this hobby, there are a million ways to do everything, and most of them are not incorrect.

[MTF7]

Oh man well that's the reason I didn't see the full spectrum, it is for coralife, I have a oceanic, and I don't know if it makes a difference but my led's are about 3-4 inches off the water in the original hood, when I was running my RB's at 100 and Cw's at around 30-50% my corals ( frogspawn, GSP and 4 candy can heads) one of my candy canes actually bleached and died and my frogspawn lost some color, even my clam was losing color, my RBTA wasn't happy either it would open but not very much, then I changed it to the 100rb's 10-20% for a more blue color and my candy canes have made a good revcovery and my clam came back within 12 hours and looks great again RBTA has loved it and look's beautiful my frogspawn is still a little pale but it's natural color is a pale too but I will say that it's has been doing fine growing from 6 heads to 18 in 5 months thinking about trading it in for some other corals it's taking up quite a bit of space, I would like to post a picture but I have all apple products and I'm too lazy to use my Mac to upload pictures and the iPhone and ipad are near helpless in posting a picture to RC, I agree if there is a sticky or anything that helps get more familiar with LED's that would be so helpful

[ReefWreak]

Oh.My.God.The.Return.Button.

You can download tapatalk from the itunes store and use it to attach photos without having to mess around on the computer.

For my pics, I have my phone upload them to google (or I manually upload them to google/googleplus) and then I use a link to them on RC.

I'm glad turning your lights down helped your corals, and sorry about the confusion about the full spectrum option.