LED regrets

[speedie408]

Originally Posted by IWANNAGOFAST

lol man for the cost of this light i could've bought a 4 bulb tek fixture and be done with it!

But the shimmer.... lol

I dropped by Neptunes today... saw those Kessels on the show tank. How much do one of those run bro?

[plantbrain]

Or an ATI and kick the LED's butt.

Ian was right along time ago about them(and good rimless tanks), but the controller was the deal clincher for me.

I have some LED's I can make you deal on if you want to add to this system Nick.

28 10,000 and 8000K on 2 rails.

[plantbrain]

Originally Posted by samamorgan

And be done with your plants you mean, after the algae decimated everything.

I have this much on my 120 Gallon and add 50% to that number in umols.

No algae issues after a year.

[IWANNAGOFAST]

I think the kessils are 260 a piece. Pricey for not having any controllability but so far the growth is good. Time will tell though.

If you've seen that big ol tank that's been sitting on the ground, we're planning on running 3 kessils over that one.

[astrosag]

Completely unrelated but just dropping in to say its good to see some old timers still posting making sure the science of this hobby is sound

Been in and out of TPT over the past year.

[Schneeball]

Here is my DIY LED setup on my 100 gallon tank after 2 months running 15 Cree XML T6 on a 700ma Inventronics driver burning a whopping 32 watts going through my Kill A Watt meter. I added C02 and lite ferts a few weeks ago and things have been steadily improving.

[they call me bruce]

Im running 6500k t5ho's 8" over the top and its a heavy planted tank i only ei dose pherts
once every 4 days and iron once a week i do pump co2 pretty lime colored and its been running perfect for 8 months now--lights are on 11 hours--
Im on a led build anf
d i thought a equal mix of neutral and cool would get me to 6500k am i wrong?
ive never seen anywhere a place that names a led 6500k

[samamorgan]

Most manufacturers work on a chromatic scale, and not color temperature, bruce. So the LEDs you would get should fall under a range of white shades, mostly indistinguishable by the human eye.

The only manufacturer i've seen selling LED fixtures in the 6500k range are the Ecoxotic with their panorama freshwater fixtures. Most are 8000k.

[Schneeball]

Originally Posted by they call me bruce

Im running 6500k t5ho's 8" over the top and its a heavy planted tank i only ei dose pherts
once every 4 days and iron once a week i do pump co2 pretty lime colored and its been running perfect for 8 months now--lights are on 11 hours--
Im on a led build anf
d i thought a equal mix of neutral and cool would get me to 6500k am i wrong?
ive never seen anywhere a place that names a led 6500k

Cree give min-max temperature ratings. For XML they give.
Cool white 5,000k-8,300k
Neutral white 3,700k-5,000k

http://www.cree.com/products/pdf/XLampXM-L.pdf
I don't know about others but I'm running all cool white.

[salmon]

Originally Posted by they call me bruce

Im running 6500k t5ho's 8" over the top and its a heavy planted tank i only ei dose pherts
once every 4 days and iron once a week i do pump co2 pretty lime colored and its been running perfect for 8 months now--lights are on 11 hours--
Im on a led build anf
d i thought a equal mix of neutral and cool would get me to 6500k am i wrong?
ive never seen anywhere a place that names a led 6500k

Just DIY'd one myself using 2/1 ratio of cools to neutral XML's, looks great. when looking at the leds themselves you can tell the neutrals from the cools, but when over the tank, they blend and you cant see a diff. it's more eye appealing than my midday 6500k t5h0, but the plants will tell the real story.

To try to answer your question though, when you start mixing, it's kind of a shot in the dark as to what kelvin rating you'll end up with, so many variables with LEDs....but in short yes it should put you in that ballpark.


************

OP, have the new additions made a noticeable difference yet or still to early to tell? It looks really good. the scape is looking great too btw

[IWANNAGOFAST]

it's still too early to tell. I haven't had a chance to trim out the algae yet so i'm not sure if it's new growth or just the same.

Probably in 2 weeks I'll have a good answer for you all

[they call me bruce]

salmon &Schneeball does a putting them on a dimmable driver with a pot make a difference in k rating?

[oldpunk78]

Originally Posted by they call me bruce

salmon &Schneeball does a putting them on a dimmable driver with a pot make a difference in k rating?

No, a dimmable driver just lets you control output. Has nothing to do with the K rating of the leds.

You could (and I have) run different color leds on different drivers allowing you to fine tune the color you want. The fixture I'm working on at the moment goes from about 3,000K to 20,000K by playing with different color leds running on separate drivers.

No one really mentions it but instead of just say going with all cool white leds, you get a much better result using many different colors.

When you think about the color spectrum analysis from a florescent tube, it has many little peaks of different wave lengths. Leds on the other hand have a very narrow peak in a specific wavelength. To get the full spectrum you'd get from a t-5 or Mh you need to use a hand full of different color leds.

For an idea of what I'm talking about I have not only royal blue and cool white leds in my reef fixture but also have some neutral white, deep red, violet, cyan, and blue.

[they call me bruce]

very good that makes sense ill have to pull up the spectrum plants get from the sun and overlay it with led,s to see what combo works best thanks