Reef Discussion

[MagicJ]

im thinking of swaping a blue for a violet on the nano Ibox. cyan is a no no from what i have read. does anyone else have information on this? would realy like to see some information

Just to catch up on this question :

I have been thinking of adding some additional spectrum for a while. A couple of things have convinced me that it is worth a try – 1) a number of higher end commercial units are new employing violet LED’s and 2) a recent article by Bernhard Jasiek in the Sept/Oct 2011 Coral magazine.

Bernhard is currently running a 6.5ft tank with the following LED combination:

• 90 Blue 50%
• 45 White (6,500K) 25%
• 15 UV 9%
• 15 Cyan 8%
• 15 Red 8%

These LED’s have been running for about 2 years so it is fair to assume that the output per LED would be less than the current generation LED’s, especially the whites.

I am currently running with 60 LED’s over my 4ft tank with the following combination:

• 30 Cool White (2 different bins) 50%
• 10 Royal Blue 17%
• 20 Blue (2 different bins) 33%

True UV are not readily available at a reasonable price so I am looking to try the following combination:

• 10 Cool White 17%
• 14 Neutral White 22%
• 10 Royal Blue 17%
• 10 Blue (2 different bins) 17%
• 4 Cyan 7%
• 8 Purple 13%
• 4 Red 7%

These numbers are influenced somewhat by the requirement to fit in with my 5 existing drivers i.e

· Driver 1 – 5 CW + 7 NW
· Driver 2 – 5 CW + 7 NW
· Driver 3 – 6 RB + 6 B
· Driver 4 – 4 RB + 4 B + 4 Cyan
· Driver 5 – 8 Purple + 4 Red

I am not saying this is going to work, and I am open to any suggestions, but I think it is worth a try.

 

[slin1977]

I think it will look awesome. :)

 

[n0rk]

· Driver 1 – 5 CW + 7 NW
· Driver 2 – 5 CW + 7 NW
· Driver 3 – 6 RB + 6 B
· Driver 4 – 4 RB + 4 B + 4 Cyan
· Driver 5 – 8 Purple + 4 Red

I am not saying this is going to work, and I am open to any suggestions, but I think it is worth a try.

I'd relegate your RBs to the same driver as one another then focus the remainder of the blues/cyans on another, that way you can tune each aspect independently (a RB/B/Cyan string would look odd). Same goes for the whites. Does make placement a little more difficult, but if you can't tune them independently it does make it harder to get a good colour that's exactly how you want it.

 

[MagicJ]

n0rk thanks for your suggestion - I will need to have a think about the best way to set them out.

To find the 'current' trends, I spent a few hours last night going through a number of threads on reefcentral and nano-reef - what are your thoughts on the deep red LED's (660nm)??

A popular mix at the moment is:

• 3 Neutral White
• 3 Cool White
• 4 Royal Blue
• 2 Blue
• 1 Deep Red

There does not seem to be many useing a true violet (420nm) unlike some of the commercial fixtures??

 

[n0rk]

I wouldn't be inclined to deep red myself, I'd rather use a warmer white as they're less inclined to miss the spectral peaks being wider band. Violet is good if you can get decent ones, though finding them isn't easy.

 

[Joshwaaaa]

I grabbed a handful of tue violet to throw in the mix with my DIY LED build, we'll see how it goes anyway

 

[MagicJ]

I grabbed a handful of tue violet to throw in the mix with my DIY LED build, we'll see how it goes anyway

Where did you get them from??

 

[Joshwaaaa]

they are just cheapies from aquastyle;)

http://www.aquastyleonline.com/products/420nm-3W-True-Violet-LED.html

 

[MagicJ]

they are just cheapies from aquastyle;)

http://www.aquastyleonline.com/products/420nm-3W-True-Violet-LED.html

Thanks - I am looking at these ones.

 

[VaultBoy]

Any luck with the violet leds?

I bought 1 from aquastyleonline.com and along with 4 blue 2 x 2 different whites made a little fixture for my soon to be mantis tank and they look amazing... I have put a single morph in there and it has lit up nicely so ill see how it goes over the next couple weeks and make my judgement accordingly

 

[MagicJ]

Time to resurrect this thread :)

I will be placing an order with http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/ next Wednesday evening - they have a range of LED's available, including some 'exotic' ones i.e. True Violet, Deep Red and Turquoise.

If anyone is interested in sharing some postage post with your wish list and I will see what can be done.

Cheers

 

[VaultBoy]

I just checked out that site and I added up my order to about 170$.... I could spend a lot more! I will speak to the minister and see if she will release the funds and ill let you know by wednesday.

PS thats a great site and even if I miss out on this order I will prob place another from there soon!

 

[MagicJ]

The Inventronics drivers are supposed to be pretty good too :)

 

[VaultBoy]

They look alright but are not PWM dimmable... I am building an arduino based controller and dont want to have to build another circuit to convert the pwm into 0 - 10v... I dont know enought about that to do it.

 

[Joshwaaaa]

That is an awesome site, thanks for sharing MagicJ ;) will come in handy forsome later down the track ideas I have

 

[VaultBoy]

I like the idea of using a deep red, true violet and royal blue to make a white light around 10,000K

That site is great!

 

[MagicJ]

I like the idea of using a deep red, true violet and royal blue to make a white light around 10,000K

That site is great!

This is what I plan on trying.

 

[MagicJ]

I will be away tomorrow night so I will actually be placing the order on Thursday night - let me know if you are interested in anything.

 

[VaultBoy]

Sorry its not going to happen... I have to get 2 new halides to get me through the gap before I can start the LED build :( There goes $80 from the LED budget! But it does buy me 6 months breathing room, just have to wait it out!

 

[MagicJ]

VaultBoy - what wattage are you getting?