LED regrets

[nikonD70s]

i think its best to stick to T5's or PC's for planted tanks. and LED's for fish only. but i love the shimmering effect the led gives. just bought 2 marineland double led for my altum tank and they make the tank really nice.

[OverStocked]

I don't have time to look at the specifics of the particular LED's your using, but I have noticed the spectral curves of a lot of LEDs is much narrower than many of the normal bulbs we use. This is "good" for most of their original purposes, but not great for us, I suspect.

40 umol is plenty of light. You could even have too much in some areas.

Co2 is almost always what I suspect. Trying to up it is worth a shot. How is your surface ripple? Oxygenation? I am a firm believer that you need good oxygen levels, too. This is usually underestimated in our tanks.

[plantbrain]

Originally Posted by Raul-7

I cannot comment on why this is occurring, but a lot of the reef guys have switched back to T5s due to a number of factors: unpleasant coloration [Kelvin rating] when compared to T5/MH, poor or bleached color growth (could be due to focused 40 degree optics) and the fact that LEDs do not output light in various wavelengths (ie. UV is missing).

Check RC, plenty of people ditching their AI Sols, etc.

Me too, I am a fan of ATI(ain't cheap, but vs ADA, they are much cheaper) and I use less energy vs the LED and the dim controller is awesome.

I do like the shimmering though.

I'm still green with T5 color type of bulbs, I have not tried enough, the PC's, I'm comfy, with HQI, I'm comfy........
I've run quite a few different LED 3 w Cree and a few others......but still not happy.

It'll be awhile.

[IWANNAGOFAST]

Yeah, the color when I run all my cool whites is about 5500k, which in my eye is too yellow for me, so I threw on the blues, which brings it up to about 8000k.

I've shut off the blues for now, we'll see how it goes.

I've actually built another fixture for my gf's tank, slightly different than what I've done before. This one has 3 clusters of 3 LEDs, 1 blue, 1 cool white, 1 neutral white, using a dimmable driver/controller, I was able to set the exact color I want. However, this tank is at her apt at school and I haven't been up there in a while so I don't know how things are growing. I'll have to check soon...

[generalpetres]

try throwing some red leds in there to see if it might help.

[Naekuh]

I have led regrets...

my regrets are i didnt listen to hoppy and went overkill, and ended up with an epic algae bloom on biblical sizes... :P

I fixed that... and i have no more regrets... but i have NO PROBLEM growing anything thats high light requirement...

Then again... if u ask anyone that knows me, they will probably say i am koo koo on LED's.

[IWANNAGOFAST]

are you running red LEDs or anything other than cool white on yours Naekuh?

[Naekuh]

Originally Posted by IWANNAGOFAST

are you running red LEDs or anything other than cool white on yours Naekuh?

i tried everything...

I ran the bridgelux cool white.. which are near the cree's... not there but near..

and i ran the 660nm reds, and i ran the 10w arrays..

if u ask me... the 10W arrays are the BEST. Color spectrum falls in 5000-7000k so its not too blue.

They have what in my eyes looks like the closest daylight u can get.... have enough of them, and it looks like the sun is hitting your tank directly.

The bridgelux give off a slight blue.. which most of u guys are complaining about..
In honestly i dont think u need any blue in your array unless its purely for bling, you get enough blue in the spectrum from the cool white.

I decided to pretend to be smarter then hoppy and others and added red...
660nm.... i realized why they only use it on canibus plants now and not fish tanks... although they may work in a air setup really good... non submerged.
It attracts hair algae on epic sizes... or in my tank it did... and i tested it with intensity on different led's and kept getting hair algae when i added the red.

I remember reading... blue light stunts growth on plants... while the red makes them grow longer... Well it makes algae GROW VERY VERY VERY VERY LONG too... lololol....

if u guys ask me... the chinese 10W the ones u can get either in circle or square are the BEST... and i will stand by this.. this is why people u see with LED flood lights, aka 10W or higher class, work, and the owners are happy.

infact, im getting a couple more in and i think this time i may send hoppy one to run though his par meter and give me real numbers, and i bet you hoppy will agree the 10W's are the BEST.

[prototyp3]

Good topic for discussion.

I've also been seeing more and more people admit to being disappointed with their LED lights. I figure it's got to be pretty bad for people to admit their mistake given the hefty investment made.

I think there could be some truth to the limited spectrum theory. I always thought a simple cool whites + royal blue was silly. (no offense to anyone using this sort of arrangement) I understand that it adjusts the color to be more appealing to our eyes, but plants don't care what we think of their light source.

That being said, I'm currently building a 4 channel LED light. I have red, green, and blue, with white channel for extra strength. I'm hoping that mixing these different channels will give both a balanced spectrum and a pleasing look. I'll definitely post once it's completed. I'm guessing I shouldn't sell my T5's or halides just yet..

[Naekuh]

u dont need green unless that is for bling.

The reason why plants are greed is to filter out the green light.

Chloraphyl works the best with red.. but that means everything thats a plant algae included will flourish from red light.

[prototyp3]

The thinking is that green offsets the blue and red to make a more visually appealing "white" light.

[Naekuh]

Originally Posted by prototyp3

The thinking is that green offsets the blue and red to make a more visually appealing "white" light.

which is why i said a 10W is the best cuz u get the closest to daylight:



vs the standard blueish tint u guys are accustomed to:

[IWANNAGOFAST]

Yeah, I like the 10w floodlight color too, I'm using it on my refugium in my reef. Hard to make a good looking fixture though using those. I wonder if they're dimmable, hook them up to a controller and get that sunrise/sunset feature.

[Naekuh]

Originally Posted by IWANNAGOFAST

Yeah, I like the 10w floodlight color too, I'm using it on my refugium in my reef. Hard to make a good looking fixture though using those. I wonder if they're dimmable, hook them up to a controller and get that sunrise/sunset feature.

meanwell 48P can handle up to 4 of them and is dimable... however u need to DIY it and u cant use the flood light unless ur going to gut it for the LED only.

You pair with a PWM driver... (this is what i got) ~ 60 dollars
http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-...troller/Detail


And u get your daylight...

how does that dimmer work?
It has preset memory options... 12 hour cycle... 8 hour cycle.. 6 hour cycle... and the intensity at which each cycle should hit.

When the timer goes on, the last preset cycle starts... in my case its the 12 hours... so 1 hour for it to get full intensity, and 1 hour to shut off after the cycle is complete, and the timer i have then turns the unit off until the next day where my cycle starts up again.


My only real grief is i spent way more $$$ then i should playing with LED's to get a final product... but i love playing with TOYS, so i dont really consider it a grief as it killed a lot of time which i wanted killed.

[prototyp3]

You're welcome to rate the 10w as the "best" but everyone has different tastes. I prefer the flexibility to adjust things, that's why I went for the multi channel route.