$20 budget LED bar looks better than my $70 aquaknight :(

[CoralScape123]

So I just went to a frag swap ran by local businesses and got a bunch of frags (as is tradition).
Put them into my 10 gallon and was disappointed because the colors were not matching up to what I saw at the swap. They were under my budget aquaknight v1 light ($70)
The hammers looked dull and a bright yellow favia was lime green.

I ordered an underwater RGB light bar for $20 for my freshwater tank earlier this week, So I was like what the heck, let's try it out.

The light bar had an app that let you mix colors on a gradient (not just adjust brightness) so after tinkering with it I got pretty much exactly what I saw at the frag swap. The favia was yellow, my hammers looked better. I could also add in more magenta for red, or aqua for green. There's also a timer and a music mode if you're into that kind of kinky stuff.

I took some pics w/ orange filter and they are fairly different from what I see with the naked eye. Just looking at the tank, the $20 look significantly better than the aquaknight.
I'll probably use the two together, dial down the aquaknight a bit so I can get the colors I want. Here's a few pics w/ a orange filter.

1.Aquaknight 2.Bar LED 3.Mixed

 

[James M]

The $20 light bar will not do anything beneficial for the corals, All it’s doing is adding blue to the tank. I would keep your original light on the same settings to prevent bleaching.
So in the end your aqua knight is still better than a $20 light bar.

 

[homer1475]

Another person figuring out corals don't come in crazy colors without the windex tank look.

FYI that light bar is JUNK. It will provide nothing but color to your eyes, and do absolutely nothing for the coral. So in reality, that aquaknight fixture is still way better then the 20$ light bar.

 

[CoralScape123]

The $20 light bar will not do anything beneficial for the corals, All it’s doing is adding blue to the tank. I would keep your original light on the same settings to prevent bleaching.
So in the end your aqua knight is still better than a $20 light bar.

Ah, yea I plan to keep using the Aquaknight for the growing part. The cheap LED is going to be on at 1/3 intensity for 4 hours at night to help w/ viewing when the Aquaknight will get dimmed from 40% to 20%.

With that said, what is the difference between LEDs on a proper light vs a cheap LED? In terms of spectrum, since you can adjust it on a color wheel on the app, you can literally get anything outside of UV. So what's the difference in say, the blue, royal blue, cyan, and violet LEDs in a Kessel vs a color adjustable LED that could be changed to those respective spectrums?

Is there another factor outside of wavelength and intensity?

 

[homer1475]

Major difference is in the power of the diodes used. Cheap LED's use 1w or lower diodes, better lights use 3w or higher diodes.

Simple way to tell is take the amount of diodes and divide by the wattage.

 

[CoralScape123]

Major difference is in the power of the diodes used. Cheap LED's use 1w or lower diodes, better lights use 3w or higher diodes.

Simple way to tell is take the amount of diodes and divide by the wattage.

Ah, that's interesting! Does the higher wattage change anything besides the amount of light generated? like 3 cheapo LED at 1 watt each vs 1 LED at 3 watt?

 

[homer1475]

Its all about penetration and how far the lights would penetrate the depths. I do not know if 3 1W dioeds would put out the same amount of light as a single 3w diode.

 

[CoralScape123]

Its all about penetration and how far the lights would penetrate the depths. I do not know if 3 1W dioeds would put out the same amount of light as a single 3w diode.

I think you're right. Maybe It's like tying a 100 10watt flash lights together vs 1 1000 watt search light. Even though the same energy is used, one wouldn't penetrate as high into the air.