recently i've been asked quite a bit what leds i'm using, and i see led threads daily here with questions usually aimed at "which led fixture should i buy"?
i think we've come a long way in understanding how led output affects corals, and have really just more recently begun exploring spectrum blending.
it's my belief that all these so-called early adopters who abandoned leds due to the effects on their corals, probably did it at a time when there was just a basic blue/white combination of leds (and likely low quality emitters, at that) with no real dimming control. we see loads of successful led tanks nowadays, and i think it's mostly because we've come to understand the potential of full-powered leds and the necessity of dimming and additional spectrum.
i'm by no means trying to start yet another thread to debate that topic, rather i would like to show what's currently working for me. and i invite anyone else who is happy with their led tank to share what is working for them.
there are 4 channels of lights. in the image below you can see the array. i chose the warm white v/s a red emitter because i was told by a vendor here that the warm white cree has the same red peak as the all-red peak, but with additional beneficial spectrum. the hyper violets are on their own driver and it is not dimmable. i also run the fans at 24v from the power supply of the reefbrite, so it is also running at 100%. the whites are on another driver, dimmed to about 25%. the remaining blues are on the final driver, dimmed to about 33%. there are no optics, so it's a full 120* spread, and the tank this is all over is a nano tank with diminsions of 18x18x20.
it makes for a very blue-dominant dim look, but has enough white that it's not a pure windex-look. i would say it's similar to the look of what a low wattage 20k halide would look like over the tank, but with the electric pop on the corals that you can only get with leds.
hard to say that i don't want to experiment more with additional colors, but i'm happy with how my corals are looking and growing at the moment!
cheers!
i think we've come a long way in understanding how led output affects corals, and have really just more recently begun exploring spectrum blending.
it's my belief that all these so-called early adopters who abandoned leds due to the effects on their corals, probably did it at a time when there was just a basic blue/white combination of leds (and likely low quality emitters, at that) with no real dimming control. we see loads of successful led tanks nowadays, and i think it's mostly because we've come to understand the potential of full-powered leds and the necessity of dimming and additional spectrum.
i'm by no means trying to start yet another thread to debate that topic, rather i would like to show what's currently working for me. and i invite anyone else who is happy with their led tank to share what is working for them.
there are 4 channels of lights. in the image below you can see the array. i chose the warm white v/s a red emitter because i was told by a vendor here that the warm white cree has the same red peak as the all-red peak, but with additional beneficial spectrum. the hyper violets are on their own driver and it is not dimmable. i also run the fans at 24v from the power supply of the reefbrite, so it is also running at 100%. the whites are on another driver, dimmed to about 25%. the remaining blues are on the final driver, dimmed to about 33%. there are no optics, so it's a full 120* spread, and the tank this is all over is a nano tank with diminsions of 18x18x20.
it makes for a very blue-dominant dim look, but has enough white that it's not a pure windex-look. i would say it's similar to the look of what a low wattage 20k halide would look like over the tank, but with the electric pop on the corals that you can only get with leds.
hard to say that i don't want to experiment more with additional colors, but i'm happy with how my corals are looking and growing at the moment!
cheers!
