LEDs - How do you like them????

Love the response!!!! I'm going to be following up with several of you.


The topic for the DM region's August meeting is LED lights. The hope is that I will make a decision (sooooon) and purchase the components so that we can do a DIY build. But if that doesn't work, my alternative may be to do a LED light tank tour. Plan a tour around vising people's tanks with LED fixtures - so that everyone can see the alternatives!!!!!

 

Can you list additional details regarding your custom layout. How many of each LED do you have? What size of tank do you have? Which model of the reefbreeders do you have? What % of power are you running on? How long have you had it?

 

Matt - which version of the Reefbreeder LED's do you have?

 

I would also like to have some understanding about the difference between using an LED fixture with Bridgelux LED's (Reefbreeders) vs a fixtrue with CREE LED's. I understand that the CREE's are better and brighter. But what I don't understand is the following. If most people have their LED's dialed up to only about 50%, why difference does it make whether the LED fixture has Bridgelux vs CREE LED's? Isn't the end result just that the Bridgelux fixture runs at a higher %? Or are their other considerations?

 

I've seen 2 LED set-ups in the last few days. Charmaine (Thinktank) and Mike (Rocketmann).


Charmaine has the Onyx unit - non-dimmable. It has 28 LED's: 14 Royal Blues, 8 Cool White, 4 True violet, 1 Red, and 1 Green. Its over a 29 gallon cube. Very nice nano tank set-up. Some nice looking corals in it - and from my perspective the colors popped. She's got a piece of bonsai that looked amazing. Don't remember who she got it from. I've got a piece of bonsai in my 75 gallon that doesn't look half as good. I really liked the coloring that she had, even w/o being able to dim.


Mike has a DIY fixture. Its a full spectrum with I believe 3 groups of 8 RB, 4 neutral white, 4 True violet, and 2 OCW. 4 drivers for complete control over the color. Sweet set-up. However, while the coloration was good, I don't think I liked it as well as Charmaine's colors - which has me puzzled. The materials I read indicate that Neutral white is better than Cool white (for coloration and growth) - and I would have expected the OCW to also give better color rendition than a Red and Green. So, maybe I just didn't do a good job playing with the control knobs. Any thoughts anyone??? I've PM's with Mike and plan to have another look next week.


Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to see Dave's set-up - Reefbreeders. And next week I'm also going to take a look at Hart's Panorama Pro strips.


I'm leaning toward a DIY retrofit kit - Rapid LED or Steve's LED - for the RSM 130D. I didn't see a retrofit kit from Maker's LED. I'm not sure that his heat sink would fit into my RSM 130 hood. ??????


Anyone use Steve's LED's??? I kind of liked the idea of the fan blowing air thru the heat sink, instead of over it - given that the hood on the RSM is pretty tight. ????


I've also thought about just adding a LED strip light to my 2 bulb T-5 over the 15 gallon. Anyone got thoughts on that idea???


Matt - I'll probably want to look at your set-up again after looking at Dave's. Maybe play more with the controls for coloration.

 

Thanks for the correction. I'm really stumped on whether to go with cool white or neutral white. The literature that I've been reading recommends neutral white. The Reefbuilders units have neutral whites, but both the Onyx unit and the AI Hydra that just came out have cool whites. ????? Anybody got any thoughts on this?????

 

So I ended up purchasing a Reefbreeder's Value fixture for my 20 gal frag tank. I've had it up for 2 weeks now and love it. I'm running the blues at 50% and the other channel with the whites, red, and violet at 35%.


Now, I'm ready to make the plunge to LED's for my Red Sea Max 130D. Its a 34 gallon cube. I've been looking at MakersLED, Rapid LED, and Steve's LEDs'. As I want to keep my hood, I believe that I'm limited to Rapid LED and Steve's LED's. I like Rapid LED better because the heatsink they provide has holes for the LEDs in 3 rows instead of only 2 rows with Steve's LEDs. I've decided on the solderless kit. Although I'm sure I could get help from club members with a solder kit, if anything goes wrong later, I think I would be better off with the solderless version.


So, I think I'm down to deciding on the specific LED's, the configuration, and what goes on each driver. Right now my plan is for 2 dimmable drivers. I'd like all Royal Blues on one driver and the other colored LED's on the other driver, if that's possible. Here's my first cut on LED's and colors (based on what I've seen with the Reefbreeder's value fixture and the Onyx fixture): The standard kit comes with 27 LED's.


Royal Blue: 12


Neutral white: 6


Violet: 4


Deep Red: 1


Cool Blue: 2


Cyan: 2


Feedback????????

 

Anyone got thoughts on my LED color combination????