Jestersix

LED Lighting

Crosis

Crosis

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I know its a very common subject... I also know it seems to have hundreds of different opinions...

I plan on going all LED for my reef tank...

I've read reports that say SPS seem to not favor LED, but LPS and Zoa's seem to be okay with it... I haven't found anything on how softies respond to LED...

I plan on keeping mainly Zoa's inside of the tank... From them I would like to branch out into LPS and Softies... I haven't found any SPS that catch my eye...

I understand Violet seems to be a missing color inside of the light spectrum and many have complained about this...
I have not found a pre-made light setup that has LED's that can cover all of the current light spectrum's corals need...

It seems creating my own setup would be Ideal... while a little expensive, it would most likely have the most preferred outcome...


I would like any and all feedback and suggestions from here at BAR on LED...

Also, is anyone in the Brentwood / Antioch / Oakley / Livermore area? I'd love to have someone come by once I start setting everything up to help me out in person... Dinner would be on me (I grill a mean steak, and my neighbors line up outside for my Chili)...

I have a design on paper I'd like to go with for my custom light build... I might try to scan it, and upload it here for some critiquing...
 
Get some Reef Brites, Im using them for supplement w/10k halides cant say anything about LED ONLY, you should ask eldiablosrt8 hes running 100% leds in your area! :)
 
I built mine with tons of help from club members here. I did not have the skill set to make them when I started. If you have electric background you will be fine.

I did not put all blue on one and white on other I set mine up 5:7 white:blue, as I wanted more blue than one for one. My third set I call actinic, is 8 blue, 2 red and 1 UV. This way I can go more then two to one blue with dimming controls for all sets. The reds I have toned down by paper disks under the lamps. The color in the room with the 'actinic' set on is purple. There is slight banding of pink and blue on the wall and in the tank, but the glow is purple. The color of the coral is great and several are showing improved color in the weeks it has been on.

Several of the coral are discharging brown from the mouth, which I understand is shedding the internal algae. If anyone has other suggestions about what this could be please let me know. If they show any signs of decline my plan is to trade them off, back to MH tanks.

I am still building the remainder of the hood portion. My suggestion would be to build the hood first then the lights on the heat sink. I also have mine without lenses and about six inches above the water. May not be bright enough for the coral near the bottom given 24" tall tank. Work in progress.

Let me know if you want to see the set up.
 
Nice talking to you today... hey Richard I know when I first start with leds in red were known to cause algae,is that true? Or is that why you shield to get get purple....

I did a DIY over my biocube n I did 2 b to 1 w.... but with reefbrite I feel I get enough light @ 24 " n I'm bout 8-10" above water...par would be nice to know
 
The red was too much to look at. I have always had good algae growth in my tank. With LED it seems to grow well too. When I made the switch I took the refugium off line. The tiny bit of chaeto moved to the main tank has grown fast, but so has all the other algae. Hoping the chaeto will not pull much of the nutrients out and the other will fade back to what it was. I like the green in my tank. Bare rocks look a little skeletal to me so I am not going for the clean bone look.
 
LEDs appear to be able to grow SPS, softies, etc.
There are so many success stories, it is hard to debate that it is possible.
On the other hand, there are plenty of people that struggle to get there, so do not
be surprised if it is not trivial.

There are often big problems when transitioning to LED.
It is very hard to visually match the PAR between MH and LED, so there is almost always
a huge difference. And the radically different spectral qualities just make it worse.
So it is pretty easy to bleach sensitive corals when switching.

My old setup was T5 + LED. About 50/50. Grew softies and LPS fine. Never tried SPS.
My new setup is all LED, basically 2xRB + 1xCW, but CW is driven higher, so roughly 3:2 ratio.
I did add a bit of red, and really like it. But a little red goes a long ways. Just a touch.
I added neutral-white and standard-blue as well, but that was a waste of time.
I do not have SPS (or any) corals yet though. So we shall see.
 
yardartist said:
Several of the coral are discharging brown from the mouth, which I understand is shedding the internal algae. If anyone has other suggestions about what this could be please let me know. If they show any signs of decline my plan is to trade them off, back to MH tanks.
Click to expand...

* This is from memory, of an old thread on RC. You have been warned.
Same problem was given.
The problem was under-estimating the PAR. The LED looked about the same as the old MH,
but was in fact MUCH stronger.
Presumably due to a great new LED setup and weak old MH setup.
The solution was to really drop the lighting and shade the coral.
Once it recovers, slowly acclimate it to new lighting.
 
I am very thankful that nothing has bleached yet. My goal was to get past that hurtle. The second hurtle was to select coral that are not growing well and cull them out. So far everything is doing as good as MH. Many are color changing for the better to my eye. Tiny green mouthed merletti is now showing the green out in the neutral red/purple tissue. Brown acro frag that had gone green under MH is now sporting purple tips! The changes are great so far.
 
Richard - I'd love to see pictures of the setup...

I've been talking with Jess... Looks like I am going with 144x Cree XR-E Q5 Cool White 3w LED, 136x Cree XR-E Royal Blue 3w LED, 8x Cree XP-E Red 1w LED (Giving me a total of 848 Watts if the system is running at full load)... The Blue and White will have 80 Degree Lenses on them... I plan on having Dimmers on all of the lights... Makes it easier to acclimate new coral / livestock if I dial it up slowly... The limited number of Red should help provide Some Red supplementation without provoking a huge Algae Bloom... I've also been kicking around the idea of throwing in 8 UV LED's but I haven't found any I'd like to use as of yet...

I understand this may be a lot of light, or it could be way to little... To ensure I have the right amount I went and ordered the Apogee MQ-200... Once it comes in, I guess I'll have to make a trip to your house huh Jess?

RapidLED has great customer service so far...

I have a basic lighting array drawn up, I should be able to scan and upload later on.
 
Crosis said:
Richard - I'd love to see pictures of the setup...

I've been talking with Jess... Looks like I am going with 144x Cree XR-E Q5 Cool White 3w LED, 136x Cree XR-E Royal Blue 3w LED, 8x Cree XP-E Red 1w LED (Giving me a total of 848 Watts if the system is running at full load)... The Blue and White will have 80 Degree Lenses on them... I plan on having Dimmers on all of the lights... Makes it easier to acclimate new coral / livestock if I dial it up slowly... The limited number of Red should help provide Some Red supplementation without provoking a huge Algae Bloom... I've also been kicking around the idea of throwing in 8 UV LED's but I haven't found any I'd like to use as of yet...

I understand this may be a lot of light, or it could be way to little... To ensure I have the right amount I went and ordered the Apogee MQ-200... Once it comes in, I guess I'll have to make a trip to your house huh Jess?

RapidLED has great customer service so far...

I have a basic lighting array drawn up, I should be able to scan and upload later on.
Click to expand...

Start a thread. There seems to be a lot of interest in LEDs these days.
My opinion - I think you will find that mixture is too much white. And I am someone who
does not like the super-blue 20,000K look.
Also, you might want to bump up to XP-G for the whites. A bit more up front, but more efficient.
Overall, that is pretty close to double mine.
http://www.bareefers.org/home/node/11490
I am in Union City, if you want to see it in progress. (One side is done)

There are some deep violet LEDs as well. You might want to consider that instead of true UV.
I would if I was starting over.
 
This is the last photo I have. None taken of it installed. The black star is UV, the two red are two in on the center row.
P1020018.jpg
 
If you look at the output spectrum of these LEDs, I don't think you NEED the red emitters. You can mix in a few warm whites and cover your bases that way. I'm 50/50 cool white and royal blue and have no perceived color temp problems. In fact, if I dial the blues down it looks yellowish, like 10K or even lower, and I can't imagine that red mixed in to that would look good... but YMMV.

Everything that I had under PC is responding positively to the LEDs, currently dialed to 60% or so (I am slowly ramping up intensity) except my Favia which had a slight bleaching spot, but it looks like it may be getting used to the light. If it doesn't, I'll just move it somewhere else. SPS is growing well so far.
 
Glad to hear it is going well!
Agree, none of this color tweaking is needed by coral.

But I disagree on using warm white / red interchangeably.
There is a very big visible difference between using warm whites versus reds.
The difference in the yellow range is quite pronounced.

Now as to which is better. Not for me to say. The only way is to buy some LEDs, look
at them, and decide what your personal preference is.

If you like the cool 15K-20K look, adding nothing at all is probably best.
If you want something that looks more like real sunlight, then warm white is probably best.

Me: I like the 10K look, fairly broad spectrum, but not a lot of yellow.
So turning up the whites from a 1:2 ratio to 2:3, and adding reds made me quite happy.
Except I still need to fix the banding issue.
 
Here is a rough diagram I had planned on using... I'd appreciate critique on this...

No wiring shown here... Each square represents 1"... the tank is 72" x 36"

 
Some quick thoughts:
1) That is a lot of LEDs for a 72x36 tank. Is it really deep?
2) It helps a bit to cluster the RB/W together, to reduce banding. But with that many and 80-deg optics, probably not an issue.
3) Think about your heat sink mounting and cooling strategy.
It is potentially easier to build using long heat sinks, with a fan in the middle, instead of lots of squares.
 
1. 24" Deep. Its a lot of lights, but they all will be on dimmers
2. I figured the lenses with it being about 8-10" off the water surface would help reduce banding.
3. Each Heatsink will have a 9db 120mm Computer fan connected to it for cooling.

If I can cut back on lights that would be great, I'm all for spending less money...
 
I am still learning as well, but my tank is larger, I have half the number of LEDs you have, and I am not running at full brightness.
BUT: Other than cost, it is a lot better to err on the side of too many LEDS on dimmers.

Well, you certainly will not have thermal problems with that setup. Again - probably overkill.

At 10" off the water, 80-deg optics, and LEDs so close to the edge, it appears you will have a ton of light spilling out the sides.
Suggest a side view drawing, with light angles. You may want to push all LEDs toward the center.

---

My suggestion: Build a square or two before ordering all the parts for the whole thing.
Look at light output. It will give you a better idea on final build.
Also a good way to play around with red / warm white / other colors.
 
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