zilkerfish Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 2 to 1 royal blue to cool white? 1 to 1? would it be a good idea to have royal blue and some regular blue? what about accent colors? amber? red? green? cyan? Does anyone have a good combo to create cool looking dawn and dusk looks? What are your thoughts??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 1:1 blue white looks really white. 2:1 is recommended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woods Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 I would definitely recommend 2:1 but I would add in some accent colors. Not sure what ratio as my build is only the 2:1 ratio. I hope to swap some out eventually with Reds and Greens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 The UV are what Im thinking about swapping out some of my white with. Right now I have 1:1 B/W and I hate it with the whites cranked up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 I have 1:1 CW to RB, and i don't find that it is too white. What i really would like to do is to swap in some warmer whites for my cool whites. I might throw in a 2x red/cyan combos as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 I have 1:1 CW to RB as well. I don't know if "too white" is the right term, but I think it would look better with some more color spectrum added in. Like Victoly said, some day I would like to get a few warmer whites and try that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 I like 1/1/1 Cool white / 470nm blue / 450nm royal blue. Next to 12,000K, 14,000K or 20,000K MH it looks pretty close to 14,000K. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 I have 1:1. whites are mix of NW/CW. Blues are all RB. If I crank the whites up, you cant even see blue at all. Im wondering if the drivers are turned up too much or something then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 Did you adjust the amperage screw? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAMF_Aquatics Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 let me get home and I'll drop a knowledge bomb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zilkerfish Posted April 17, 2012 Author Share Posted April 17, 2012 great info all!!! Been planning an LED build for my 90 gallon. Ordered a little guy (6 LEDs) from rapid LED (sponsor shout out!) to ease myself into the world of LED lighting. It will just be lighting the little 10g in my classroom. a knowledge bomb!?!?!? Bombs away please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAMF_Aquatics Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 cw:rb isn't really ideal unless you're going to be using red and cyan.. having said that if you do it. do everything all at once do not waste your time and effort to do this in two steps. best bet is 2:1:1 thats rb:cw:nw for accents add .5-1 tv per rb 1 660nm osram hyper red & 1 phillips cyan per 18x18 area... these must be touching or very very close together. or you will end up with jacked up color shading. i repeat do not ever run red and cyan seperated, ever. if you plan on useing standard blue (470nm) use them very sparingly. 1 for a 18"x18" area max. if you use more expect to have a windex look to your tank. rapid led has a very good selection of leds to use all the best binning possible always. use clusters as much as possible this will help blend your colors in above the water (thats where you want the blending to occur) verify your driving current is set to its minimum prior to turning on your newly built system tune your max driver slowly and while holding a multimeter to bypass 1 led this must be done to ensure you don't blow, melt, or otherwise trash your new (read expensive) lights always no matter what anyone tells you use a fan kit i don't care how cold you keep your home trust me use a fan always oversize it, so you can run it slower and still keep the same cfm that a smaller fan set at full speed (read loud) will do. when setting up which leds will be on a dimmer channel i personally set them so the whites, reds, cyans are on 1 channel. then use a different channel for your rb and tv. finally use a third channel for standard blue. you will want it independantly controllable for the reason i stated above. if you want full control you can put the red/cyan leds on the 4th channel but you really shouldn't need it.unless you know what your doing. it can be alot harder to calibrate but deffinately doable. i like the typhoon controller from boost and the dim 4 controller from led group buy. both are good the differences are that the boost controller is pwn based (meanwell P code) and the dim 4 is 0-10v based (meanwell d code) also provide the dim4 with the proper power supply and it will light 3 leds per channel upto 500ma max with out needing extra drivers. if you want sunrise/set features and you want to play with what i call a true sunrise you the 4 channels for the colors combos i recommended above. and set your lights to turn on your r/c channel to come on for a 30 min fade, then set your blues to come in over a 1.5 hours fade, then set your whites and rb channels to work a 4-5hour fade. your over all time with lights on should be about 11 hours with this set up. it seems excessive but try it and you'll love the results, it will give you similar effects as a natural sunrise where the first light to break the night is a reddish to orange then eventually a full sun (high noon) then back down through out the day. please find someone with a par meter if you plan on trying this so you can set your peak intensities at a reasonable rate as your will be running a LONG light cycle. it is up to you to determine what is too bright for your tank as i can't go over and set it up for you. i hope this all helps please feel free to pick my brains if i left anything out. all the best, Gabe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zilkerfish Posted April 17, 2012 Author Share Posted April 17, 2012 ...WOW... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonJones Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Gabe makes some really good points. It all depends on what you are going for. A mixture of just whites and royal blues will not look bad. However, it will miss parts of the spectrum and therefore some coral colors will be washed out. By adding other colors, you are able to plug the wholes in the spectrum and bring out some of those washed out colors. Frankly, if I were in your shoes I would order 3up clusters from ledgroupbuy.com (they also make a very nice heatsink/housing combo). They have three ups with 2RB and 1 NW. This is a great base. They make an "ocean coral white" 3up, which is just a RB, Red, Cyan. I would order one of those for every 2 or 3 of the RB/NW 3ups. Send them an email and they can help you with how many ocean coral whites to add. I would then add some violets (can we all agree to stop calling them UVs and call them violets??? UV is below 400nm, the leds everyone is calling UV is 420nm). I also like Gabe's recommendation of .5 violets for every RB. Finally, you can add one or two normal blue leds in there for another element, but dont add more than 1 per 7 or 8 RBs. Last, but most important IMHO, if you are going to do multicolors, I would add a diffusion material. It really cleans up the color mixing. You can purchase a cheap one here that I have used on multiple builds that works excellent and tests have shown only drops light output by about 5%: http://www.berlinwal...Transparent.htm -get the "sand" color. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAMF_Aquatics Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 thanks, and yes i agree i make it a point to call "uv" led true violet as thats what they are. you'll need aprox 3-4 ocean whites mer 24x24 area. but you really don't need a diffuser unless your really close to the waters surface and at that point it won't do much to help. really though unless your running deeper than 20 inches you don't even need optics to aim the light down. they come stock with a 110-120° optic from the factory. i also wanted to add for your primary colors always use cree leds the best you can afford, smaller build xpg whites, bigger builds xml's royals should always be xt-e, i prefer the quality of light from osram vs the chinese knock offs as the phillips cyan. if you want to use green cree makes a good version thats also very efficent. remember when going leds just bite the bullet and spend your money once. the last thing you want is to pay for 2 lights only to use one. also buy LED Seal great stuff once you are "finished" with your light i use the " " because i'm never finished there is always something i'm tweaking on my lights so i have the best possible solutions for all the senarios that come up with custom lighting tanks. and remember if this becomes too much for you to handle i'm just a phone call away. i 3d model all lights, optical output and the tank it will sit over along with finding the perfect installed height for your light to find the perfect light spread so everything is illuminated properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonJones Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 but you really don't need a diffuser unless your really close to the waters surface and at that point it won't do much to help. really though unless your running deeper than 20 inches you don't even need optics to aim the light down. they come stock with a 110-120° optic from the factory. I would have to disagree with you here. Not only does the diffuser material help remove color banding, but it also significantly reduces the disco ball effect that LEDs create, especially multi-color builds. It makes the shimmer look like a halide, versus the intense shimmer of LEDs. You are right that this effect is more pronounced when the LEDs are closer to the water, but I have found it makes LEDs look much more natural regardless of the LED height. For those that have not seen these, here are a couple of videos of my wife's tank before and after diffusion material. This build only uses three LED colors, so you will not notice the color banding as much as you would in other builds, but the shimmer difference is unmistakable. Before: After: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAMF_Aquatics Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 do you mind my asking how far apart the leds are from each other? I've noticed when you start getting near 2 inches of separation the effect becomes more pronounced. in your light it seems to have helped a good deal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 I've read that green/yellow/red wavelengths promote algae growth. Makes sense as algae is usually on or near the surface. Is that true? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAMF_Aquatics Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 algae like plants will grow well under heavy reds and in 410-465 nm light. the key there is husbandry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonJones Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 do you mind my asking how far apart the leds are from each other? I've noticed when you start getting near 2 inches of separation the effect becomes more pronounced. in your light it seems to have helped a good deal The LEDs are in four clusters. The LEDs in each cluster are right next to each other and each cluster is about 2 inches apart, similar to an AI SOL fixture on a smaller scale. The light on this tank is only 2" from the surface, so as we discussed earlier, that makes the shimmer much more pronounced than if the light source was higher up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAMF_Aquatics Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 ok thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 It is a good thing when knowledgable people discuss points of view and science. Very good thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAMF_Aquatics Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 here is my main DT, i use this tank for all my R&D shown is 1500mA of white light, 6 cw xpg/6 nw xpg 1050mA of rb, 450nm 12 xpg soon to be xte 700mA tv 5x 700mA osram 660 hyper red 2x 700mA Phillips cyan 2x 700mA cree 470nm blue xpg 2x 350mA rb moonlights (always on) spacing is even at 1.5" between leds left to right, 3 rows of leds front to back 1 4" fan at max die temp is 83°C no light defuser max output without optics is 274 par at 12" over water, 16" deep tank 28" overall from bottom of the tank. par at surface is 700, just under the fixture is over 2000PAR i was filming an hd video and my battery died so i'll record one tonight with a max on, white fade out, blue fade out, white fade up, blue fade up, spectral enhancement leds off then another blue fade out and white fade out to all off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zilkerfish Posted April 18, 2012 Author Share Posted April 18, 2012 What size tank is that? Planning lighting over a 90 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAMF_Aquatics Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 40 breeder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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