LED as main light

[ONAGI]

That's a good idea sfsuphys. One problem is that you will inhibit growth with the limited light concentration in a small portion of the tank.

[sandisct]

µE/m2 = wat lux??

[Dr. Drudge]

Originally posted by sandisct
This tread is getting very interesting!!!.. keep on going... someday some guy would get enough information from here and come out with a better array than i have with a full spectrum color of LED and intensity too...

I guess everyone here is trying to get this idea off to a good start so let's see what else we need to look into to make this thing works....

I might add some other colors LED into the array... What colors do you guys think would do?

Probably stay away from red and yellow

[RedEyeReef]

Anyone have LED's over corals?

I have been wanting to set up LED lighting over a Nano for my office. 24" x 16" by 24" high, how many LED's for low to medium light loving corals do you thinK?

[olemos]

Originally posted by Dr. Drudge
Probably stay away from red and yellow

red and yellow are part of the sun spect. Iwould still use a small % of red and yellow

[sandisct]

wat about orange?? I think it'll give a sunset/sunrise feel to the tank.....

[greenbean36191]

I agree that red, yellow, and orange probably aren't needed. Water filters out these colors so quickly that most sea creatures don't respond to them at all. There is some speculation about the red spike in coralvue bulbs even causing the bleaching many people are having with these bulbs.

[musicsmaker]

I would only use the red ones for pod watching. Most of the colored LED's have a very narrow spectrum of light, but the white ones are actually pretty close to what you see in reef lighting. Check the spectral analysis charts on many of the sites that are selling LED's, and compare them to the curves you see w/10K and 20K bulbs.

[MadTownMax]

Effects of Narrow Bandwidth Light Sources on Coral Host and Zooxanthellae Pigments

[MadTownMax]

at the top of this article it shows the absorbtion spectrum for a sample coral - Lighting the Reef Aquarium - Spectrum or Intensity?

also found info for LED spectrum peaks:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/leds.htm

so putting the two togather, it would probably be best to use a combination of LEDs

yellow, red, green, blue, and white LEDs are available in mcd values over 10000mcd, so they would probably be the way to go.

[bzzbee2]

Holy moly!!! I had to go away for business.. and i auctually am still away..(sitting in a hotel right now) I ordered my LED's on ebay before i left (last friday) from this seller "deidynamic2000". I got one white from him when i ordered my blue ones.. it had a blue tint to it, No yellow tones to it at all. Like was stated earlier in this long yet interesting thread, some white LED's are more twards the blue spectrum and some are more towards the yellow spectrum... i think i payed 26 for 100 (10000mcd at 20mA) shipped... also if your willing to pay the money he has i believe 16000mcd (at 20mA) LED's. which would throw a bunch more light... another thing...

These leds i believe are designed to run at like 20mA... and if you drive them to 30mA you may increase their output by anywhere from 15-45% (number varies from different sources). the only downside is decreased life... humm so i guess they may only last 7 years now.. what a bummer.

Awesome job on the light array!! Like you said Shimmer is awesome from LED's. I have experienced this with the blue LED's and found that angleing a couple of them at the surface will multiply the shimmer effect by a bunch!!

now.. for all those people worried about the lux... here are some numbers we can probably compare to that are more than just hearsay....



I am auctually attending a training conference for work down at the southern california edison (power/energy company) showroom... its basically a place full of all kidns of energy saving items from air conditioners on office buildings (chillers), to lighting systems for your homes.. They have some pretty neat info on lighting that i have been gathering. I am most interested in the QL light. has anyone heard of this?

[bzzbee2]

note that those are not aquairum bulbs. they are High output industrial bulbs

[Obi-dad]

Great article. Pocillopora has a specific pigment, pocilloporin, that other species, like Acropora, do not have. I would love to see a study like that with Acropora (I have both Pocillopora and Acropora, but acros have more variety so I am partial to them).

[Worldwithin]

bumpity, bump, bump...

[DennisRB]

I have heard that some car manufactures have already started using LEDs to replace head lamps in cars. An electronic shop near me sells ultra, ultra bright LED's. They range from 1 to 5 watts! They come in a reflector. It actually hurts to look at them enough that no one does it more than once. The guy told me that the maker of these LEDs have a replacement for 1000W MH flood lights that use 10 of these LEDs (I **** you not, thats what he told me) They cost $50 AU each though.

I think that comparing wattages is 100% irrelevant when dealing with LEDs. LEDs can automatically shine straight down at 15 deg, so much more of the light they produce ends up on your coral instead of being absorbed by your lighting hood and the walls and carpet of your house. This must be considered when comparing LEDs to other forms of lighting.

Also why are people concerned about the spectrum's of white LEDs? It is my understanding that all white light is made up of equal amounts of the other colors, or close enough to equal. Otherwise you would distinctly see a color tinge, which may be a good thing in the case of white LED's with a blue tinge.

[DennisRB]

http://optics.org/articles/news/8/6/10/1

[DennisRB]

Audi Nuvolari quattro

Revolutionary: The LED headlights

LED headlights allow the designer more freedom, since they need less installation space than conventional ones. The cooled high-end lights, 18 on each side, are located much nearer the surface of the cover, which has also been reduced in size, so that the entire front end or the car is more harmonious in its styling.

LED – these three letters not only signify progress for the designers but also offer solid advantages such as longer life and energy consumption ten times lower than that of conventional bulbs.

As if this were not enough, LED technology offers further future potential. In a future development stage, LED headlights will make dynamic cornering beams possible without the need for movable parts in the system. The width and direction of the beam can be specifically adjusted by activating more light elements electronically.

More light on a dark night: adaptive LED rear lights with infrared sensors

LEDs are also used for the rear lights, brake lights and flashing turn indicators. The infrared sensors for the rear lights are revolutionary. They identify dirt on the covers and external factors such as spray or fog. The electronic control system increases the brightness steplessly in response to sensor impulses if required by outside conditions. This is an important step towards better visibility and, ultimately, a safer journey in all weather conditions.

The braking lights and flashers benefit additionally from the LED’s shorter response time. Whereas it takes conventional bulbs around 200 milliseconds to reach their full brightness, LEDs need less than one millisecond.

At the rear of the car too, LEDs provide the designers with additional styling options, since they require less space.

From here

I think it's safe to say LED's will light up the reef tanks of the near future.

[sandisct]

wwwoooowwww....... :O

[DennisRB]

I just noticed one of my links was a dud.

5 watt LED

Sandisct, You should use a multimeter to check the voltage of your supply. It might not be delivering the full 12 volts to your LED series banks. It's worth a go, there might be some brightness left if your system.

Good on you for giving this a go I had thought of it myself but I came to the conclusion it would cost way to much given that 7000mcd LEDs cost about $3 AU each in Australia. The 1 watt units in the link I gave above are supposed to give the light output of 12 normal high brightness LEDs. They cost $16 AU each though.

[MadTownMax]

Originally posted by DennisRB
I had thought of it myself but I came to the conclusion it would cost way to much given that 7000mcd LEDs cost about $3 AU each in Australia. The 1 watt units in the link I gave above are supposed to give the light output of 12 normal high brightness LEDs. They cost $16 AU each though.

They're expensive now, as they are cutting-edge. Give it a year or two- with new manufacturing facilities giving the market some competition, they'll probably cost a buck....

[sfsuphysics]

Dennis look to that place besthongkong.com they ship from china, and last time I ordered it was free shipping (its factored into the price already "free")

[AndyL]

I've been playing around with LEDs on some of my freshwater tanks for a while now. Had a 2g hex planted tank lit for a short time (heat issues killed the arrays) and was getting some impressive plant growth under them.

That said, besthongkong.com does have some nice LEDs - they sent me some demo's to try out. EBay has some of the best prices for LEDs if you're buying in quantities under 1000.

And I'd be beaten if I didn't mention www.luxeonstar.com - Luxeon stars have some of the best outputs you'll find - except they do cost $$$. There are a couple nano-tanks that have been lit with the luxeons - powerful little units.

Andy

[MadTownMax]

AndyL - what kind of heat issues?, how many were you using over what kind of an area?

[AndyL]

My arrays were 6 bulbs over I roughly 8" on a 1" wide PCB (Don't have a tape measure handy). Voltage and current checked out within the manufacturers specs (I double and triple checked after the first array burnt out).

I built my arrays using an old clearance bin radio shack PCB etching kit, then encased the PCB in about 1/8" of epoxy - to waterproof the whole thing. My guess would be the epoxy held the heat from the leds and the resistors - and resulted in a relatively quick failure (got about 10 days from the first array, second was done after 2 weeks).

Andy

[micaheli]

Check out:
http://www.luxeonstar.com/item.php?i...rtno=LXHL-PW09

Not sure if anyone has pointed these out yet, but they claim to emit 65 lumens per led.

The draw back is price:
1+ $14.53 ea
10+$13.14 ea
25+$12.83 ea
50+$12.53 ea
100+$12.12 ea
250+$11.48 ea

At those prices, ouch... but, you'd need drastically less LED's... My calculations yesterday estimated that you'd need 5.5Led's per lumen and a general equivelancy of 1400 LED's @ 10000mcd each (15 degree) to equal a 250watt metal halide fixture. That was a VERY rough calculation. But gives you some idea of the potential of these emitters.

You would need 212 of these emitters to equal 1400 LED's for light output. That comes out to somewhere around 2600-2800 dollars. Quite the bill for LED's.. but, still it would be a lot longer of an investment than halide bulbs, ballasts, etc... And you could replace LED's as they go bad.


Anyways, its early - I may or may not be making any sense, so I'm going to shut up and leave it at that.

--Micah