LED Colour choice

[Seggsy]

The pro LED group keeps getting me pumped ;D, and then an anti-LED posts crop up and I clench :-\

However, I am thinking of taking the plunge.  Looking at getting 2 120W 55 bulb units over my 75g.  I may order a third just in case, and sell it if I don't need it.

I didn't plan on using lenses - seems like the 110 bulbs may have to be dimmed down anyway, so might as well keep them difuse, is what I am thinking.  And I can only have them 6  or 7 inches off the water.

Now, for colour, here are my options:

blue in the range of 450-475
white
cool white
warm white
red
green
orange

I am thinking at least 30 blue and some combo of 25 whites?

I love the fact that the white and blue are dimmable separately, but I still worry about getting a full spectrum (for the coral, and for visual appeal).  Please help with a good combo (if there is one)!

 

[reeffreak]

another LED thread lol this forum is packed with LED threads ...... every other thread almost lol sorry I have nothing to add to this good luck with the choices .

 

[xxmurrxx]

Not sure on the best combo but with mine at 50/50 RB / white, I would have def gone with slightly more blues. I have my whites dimmed down considerably to allow the blues to make it look the best.

 

[unibob]

Not sure on the best combo but with mine at 50/50 RB / white, I would have def gone with slightly more blues. I have my whites dimmed down considerably to allow the blues to make it look the best.

+1 I would have went double the number of blues over whites

 

[chrisstevens]

i have these leds on my 200 gal, and you'll only need 2 for a 75 gal.

 

[Seggsy]

another LED thread lol this forum is packed with LED threads ...... every other thread almost lol sorry I have nothing to add to this good luck with the choices .

I know, I know :?

But I am nervous of the colour decision!  a)  I hate buying something that I haven't seen in action, but b)  It's a great deal if it will work.  I just don't want to get it here and realize that I got the wrong colours, or that there IS no good colour combo here...

 

[spyd]

Definitely double up the blues over the whites. I would go for cool whites and blues. No other colours. If there was an option for UV leds, I would add some of those.

 

[Salty Cracker]

those must be 2W bulbs?

I'm not being a jerk, but I just don't know if they will work well.  You really need to use 3W blues and 5W whites for good results. 

I see too many threads on boards about 'these LED's dont' work!!' but almost everyone having trouble is using lower wattage bulbs. 

That said, 60-40 or 70-30 blue to white is best.  I tried the UV bulbs, and they were just sort of weak blues to the eye.  I would strongly recommend CREE cool whites and Royal blues.  In my setup I also have a 5' heatsink with just RB's on it, that runs in the evening, basically an actinic accent.  Looks really good to my eye (or you could add a blue T5 to the mix too).

Anyway, as with everything you get what you pay for.  I have colour and growth, and 14 month old bulbs.  I have considered adding a T5 for extra glow, but not as a regular running light. 

 

[Seggsy]

They are definitely listed as 3W bridgelux (I know that they are underdriven).
Seems like most people end up dimming way down anyway.  Wish they had purple, would probably throw some in (will likely need to dim the blue anyway, so diluting with purple might just mean I keep em a little brighter).

So, 35 blue,  20 cool white

Or, if I can swing it 32 blue, 17 cool white, 6 UV

Sound good?  Other opinions?

 

[Duke]

the UV's do absolutely nothing, I have them installed but I would have just replaced them with RB if I could, they are so dim it makes no difference if there on or off. iirc they are selling a violet LED now, its not a bridgelux but its what I would get to bring out the purples.

 

[Duke]

cool whites aren't very cool colored either, if I just fire up the CW only, you would think that I was running 6500k warm whites, I would go with something like 40 Blues and 18 whites and get 2 drivers for the blues and 1 driver for the whites.

 

[chrisstevens]

i my opinion i would just get the stock number of blue and whites, as long as your getting a dimmable model you just dim the whites or blues to the colour you like. I have mine way dimmed down (1/4) as my corals were starting to bleech, but my lights are only about 2 inches from the water.

 

[Duke]

i my opinion i would just get the stock number of blue and whites, as long as your getting a dimmable model you just dim the whites or blues to the colour you like. I have mine way dimmed down (1/4) as my corals were starting to bleech, but my lights are only about 2 inches from the water.

that works too, I just figure you don't want to dim your whites down to like 40% to get the right color your looking for, i'd aim for like 90% on your whites and enough blues to tune it to where you want with keeping the whites at 90%, I have 90 LEDS and im running like 60 blues, 30 whites, and with my whites cranked I still cant get that perfect 20K look, I have to turn my whites down to get that look..

 

[Salty Cracker]

I have to agree, if the whites aren't run at 100% they definitely go 'yellow' pretty quick.  I think you need a good number of whites for good growth, so for me it was add more blues, instead of dimming or reducing the number of whites. 

UVs definitely were a disappointment. 

 

[Duke]

I have to agree, if the whites aren't run at 100% they definitely go 'yellow' pretty quick.  I think you need a good number of whites for good growth, so for me it was add more blues, instead of dimming or reducing the number of whites. 

UVs definitely were a disappointment.

yes anything less than 2:1 RB:CW and your going to disappointed with how far down you have to dial the whites to get the color your looking for.

 

[unibob]

Yes to the above 

The colour I want...the whites are only at 20-30%

 

[Victoss]

When I did my build I did a lot of research and ended up deciding it would be more beneficial to the corals to have more colour spectrums. When you compare a white and blue LED with a MH bulb (or even T5) you can see there is many lacking areas these 2 LEDs don't cover themselves. The whites do cover a middle ground somewhat but at its peak in the green/yellow there is no usable light for photosynthesis to occur. Here is a great chart that covers the areas zooxanthellae can use light. (Can also be found as a spectrum chart instead)

As well as royal blue (cree):

And cool white (cree):

There are many areas of the spectrum we are not covering such as the low range of chlorophyll a (violet) which you will generally find in the other light sources. So some were mentioning that they were not a fan of the uv (not really uv but violet) and yes they will look dimmer because they are close to the uv range and show a dark purple colour but they truly are bright to the corals. Another area we are missing would be the cyan (or aqua on the chart) which contributes a lot to growth. And lastly red but many have a hard time justifying this because it is known as a great spectrum for algae. Most who use red use it sparingly and rarely will you hear problems from it.

This is just my opinion on adding extra colours which I believe will grant better growth and colouring from corals. For my build I used :

12 RB @1300 mA (royal blue, total of 20)
8 NW + 4 RB @1300 mA (neutral white because of the washed out colour I was hearing about from cool white and greater spectrum)
8 UV + 4 RB @600 mA (violet uv)
4 B + 4 R + 4 Cyan @600 mA (blue, deep red and cyan)

My only complaint would be wanting more blue.
Given all this information you always need to consider how you will like it in the end. It's all down to your own personal opinion on what you what your tank to look like and that's the great thing about LEDs we can always dim or change them .
Sorry for the rant i'm done now :?

 

[daleomilla]

I would 40 rb and 15 cw and let the white run at full not dimming them down.

 

[Seggsy]

Nice to see that it can be as simple as 2:1 blue to white.

Thanks Victoss - that is tons of info! 

No matter what, I will limit the # of white so I can run them less dimmed.

Thanks all - I will let you know what I end up with when I finally pull the trigger.

 

[Salty Cracker]

Victoss: Interesting read.  It definitely makes me think I'll add some UV next time I order.

That said, I have really good sps growth with just cool white and RB (no supplemental lighting at all) so they must be able to adapt fairly well!