Reef Addicts - Comments

melev - 06-05-2011 09:49 PM

I've got nothing more to say other than: Get to it already!

Sam11909 - 01-23-2011 08:13 AM

I read through that thread when I was setting up the LED's, great thread. I have 1 cyan, 2 neutral white, 2 cool white, and 4 royal blue. Colors seem to be good, the red planet actually looks better than when it was under MH IMO. I'm going to be experimenting with some of the other different color LED's when I light my 55g.

freewest - 01-23-2011 04:08 AM

The fading in colors could be due to not getting a wide enough spectrum that you need out of your LEDs. There is a big post on nano-reef.com in the lighting forum about this, and people are trying out different color LEDs (like cyan, neutral white, cool blue, regular blue, red, and even uv) in order to bring certain coral colors back. May want to do a site search and check it out, since i'm not sure about the rules about linking on this site.

Sam11909 - 01-22-2011 10:12 PM

Some of my acros got a little bleached at first, but they recovered nicely and have good color. They are probably just adapting to the intensity of the LED's, but that's just my opinion.

Hans - 01-22-2011 09:08 PM

I've also been seeing great growth with my own LED's, particularly a Derasa clam has shown a lot of growth in the month and a half that I've had it. But I've also seen the colors really fade out on a few pieces. The Derasa's colors have come back nicely, as has one acro frag, but everything is is really washed out now. Particularly my almost transparent, but growing like mad, frogspawn.

I'm not sure yet if it's because they are taking so long to adapt to the LED's, or if it's because of the EcoBak pellets I'm running.

-Hans

cruelle - 12-08-2010 11:00 PM

looks awesome, love the contrast of the whiteish rock work with the colors of the corals

Sam11909 - 11-04-2010 02:29 PM

It's caulerpa prolifera, grows fast and gives the impression of seagrass without all of the requirements.

Sam11909 - 11-03-2010 03:32 PM

Sounds like a good plan, can't wait to see the results!

chrisfowler99 - 11-03-2010 02:41 PM

I might think about adding a cyan to each string of blue. I'm going with thermal paste and screws so I can make some easy adjustments.

The way I plan on building is I'm going to have each heatsink drilled for 18 LEDs, but I'm initially going to only populate 12. It leaves it open for me to expand by adding another string of six blue LEDs to each heat sink if I can't balance out the blue/white by simply using dimming.

I'm pretty sure there will be a lot of experimenting with color early on in my setup.

I've also seen some comments about adding a red LED...I'm a little more pessimistic about the viability of that, but I'll probably end up trying one at some point just to see.

Sam11909 - 11-03-2010 02:25 PM

It does have a small spotlight effect, but I like it because I have some areas to put lower light coral. The light is 1 foot above the tank.

After reading the thread on NR, I decided for that combination because I wanted to add red, but didn't want the red to over power the other LED's. By adding neutral white it adds to the red spectrum and other missing colors without too much extra red and yellow light. Cyan I added because it brings out other colors. According to some of the people on NR, it could be one of the main colors that are missing from the white/blue original setup. I will get some pics and evidence once I get more coral in the tank. Right now I'm just experimenting, that's why I have RB, CW+NW, and cyan on different dimmers.

Sounds good, but I would would have something like 6 RB : 2 CW : 2 NW. That's just my opinion though.

There is a bunch more info in the NR thread linked above. They have some good evidence that cyan and red help color-up some coral in posts #63 and #87.

chrisfowler99 - 11-03-2010 12:46 PM

I was curious if you were going to end up with spotlighting with 40 degree optics, but I see you're running it pretty high, so it looks like you should be good.

2 cool white, 2 natural white, 4 royal blue and one cyan. May I ask how you decided on the color combination? Do you feel like the cyan adds significant color?

I'm in the early stages of building a much larger LED setup (at the collecting/ordering parts stage) and, at this point, I'm looking at 1:1 blue:white with 6 royal blues on a string and 5 cool white and 1 natural white on a string, mixed, per heatsink.

I'm curious about the ratio of cool white to natural white and the addition of cyan.

Sam11909 - 11-03-2010 12:09 PM

I'm honored, I hope I can post some coral growth pics soon.

melev - 11-03-2010 01:50 AM

Great job Sam. We decided it deserved to be promoted to an article here on RA, and it can be found in the DIY category from now on. Be sure to update us with any news and/or improvements.

Sam11909 - 11-02-2010 08:12 PM

(continued)

Cooling:

Most likely you will need to add a fan to keep the LED's cool. Without sufficient cooling the LED's life will significantly drop. I used a fan that I found in an old computer and a power supply from a game station. Doesn't have to be fancy just keep the air moving over the heatsink. Any power supply that is between 9-12 volts should work.

Optics:

Optics are optional, it all depends on how you want your light set up. If you want it directly over a shallow tank you will most likely not need optics, but with deeper tanks optics are usually needed to keep the light focused and intense enough for corals lower in the tank. I used 40 degree optics because my light is hanging 1 foot above the tank and I did not want the LED's to be blinding when you are looking at the tank. I attached the optics with Superglue Gel because it was the only thing I had on hand. Superglue is usually not reccomended because the fumes from drying can actually fog the clear dome over the LED's. I used very little and got away with it, but I don't recommend it. I tried optics from LED Supply and Nanotuner's, but I eventually switched all the optics to Nanotuner optics just because of their better spread (IMO) and better overall look.

Attachment 3061

PAR Readings:

This is the part I am excited about, PAR READINGS!

These PAR readings were taken in air only, not water. Keep in mind that the PAR readings will decrease slightly after the light enters the water.

Attachment 3060

We did take one PAR reading under water. At 25" below the light, 15" under water at full power, the meter reads 250. Led's are very strong definitely able to compete with the intensity of MH's in my opinion.

IMHO, LED's are the ultimate lighting choice for our reef tanks.

More LED Info:

Ultimate LED Guide by Evil - http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/inde...owtopic=186982

Comprehensive DIY LED Project List also by Evil - http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/inde...owtopic=200335

I'd like to thank my LFS guy, Scott, for letting me use his PAR meter, Evil for providing all his great information, people on RC that answered my questions, and Marc for this awesome site where I can share my experience with other addicts.

Happy Reefing!