Calling All LED Light Manufacturers

Brew12 · Mar 4, 2017

gpwdr said:
I think if you guys saw sunlight on your aquariums you would change your minds about the blue halloween lighting we are using now. I'm not so sure about the full lighting spectrum of some of the led light out now. Do they have the lower blue in them as sunlight does?
At certain times of the year the sunlight hits my tank and the fish and coral colors are amazing. I mean really amazing colors.

I really agree with your concept, but the execution wouldn't be very easy. LED lights are all single spectrum. White LED's are similar to florescent lights in that they use a phosphorus coating to get a broader spectrum. Different bandwidth LED's give the light from this coating slightly different characteristics. This still wouldn't be conducive to coral growth so you would need to add the blues and reds separately.
To best replicate sunlight you would need at least 3 different white LED's, 2 blues, a green, a purple, and a red. That is a lot of LED's to blend together to get uniform light distribution. Hence my earlier comment about the cost.

I agree with you that aquariums look great with more natural lighting. I run my blues much lower during non sunrise/sunset periods than most. I am content to just let them glow under actinic lights for an hour or two a day.

reeferfoxx · Mar 4, 2017

Just get some Orphek panels and stick a kessil in the middle. Run your kessil brighter than the orpheks and...done.

Surfandturf · Mar 4, 2017

I feel like this would be great for a tank with all shallow depth corals. Unless you you have a really deep tank it could be counterproductive. The whiter the light, the more green and red spectrum is received and that could help algae.

reeferfoxx · Mar 4, 2017

Surfandturf said:
I feel like this would be great for a tank with all shallow depth corals. Unless you you have a really deep tank it could be counterproductive. The whiter the light, the more green and red spectrum is received and that could help algae.

Are you talking to me? Leds can have intensity adjustments. If you were to mimic the OPs picture, set the orpheks to 18-20k spectrum and run the kessil with natural daylight of 5-6k spectrum. And yes this wouldnt be great for deep water coral.

Surfandturf · Mar 4, 2017

reeferfoxx said:
Are you talking to me? Leds can have intensity adjustments. If you were to mimic the OPs picture, set the orpheks to 18-20k spectrum and run the kessil with natural daylight of 5-6k spectrum. And yes this wouldnt be great for deep water coral.

I was talking in general. This is a great way to feed algae. "The whiter" the light, the more red and green spectrum. This feeds the algae. If you sprinkle in some excess nutrients...voila algae issues.

gpwdr · Mar 4, 2017

Two corals under sunlight

gpwdr · Mar 4, 2017

We'er not done improving our lighting

reeferfoxx · Mar 4, 2017

gpwdr said:
Two corals under sunlight

Do you get temp swings when the sun hits?

Brew12 · Mar 4, 2017

gpwdr said:
We'er not done improving our lighting

If you want to see an amazing system lit by natural sunlight, this is it. Took me awhile to find.

Just going to warn you. This thread will absolutely rip the average persons heart out. If you decide to start reading it, you may want to keep a box of tissues handy. That said, the build will blow your mind if you love natural sunlight lit tanks.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/our-400-gallon-in-wall-natural-sun-lit-reef.93875/

gpwdr · Mar 4, 2017

reeferfoxx said:
Do you get temp swings when the sun hits?

No I have a Chiller

hart24601 · Mar 6, 2017

Have you looked at the spectrum of the radion freshwater LEDs? And remember you can adjust each channel of LEDs the way you want - can turn down the reds or play with the spectrum until you find what you want. I did just a basic search of FW LEDs as well, I am sure there are many more out there.

Again I sure wouldn't say sunlight spectrum is "better" exactly, but if you like it then by all means enjoy. I know my personal tank gets some sunlight in winter and I don't care for it, but isn't that the fun of the hobby? Keeping your system as you like it?

gpwdr · Mar 6, 2017

hart24601 said:
Have you looked at the spectrum of the radion freshwater LEDs? And remember you can adjust each channel of LEDs the way you want - can turn down the reds or play with the spectrum until you find what you want. I did just a basic search of FW LEDs as well, I am sure there are many more out there.

Again I sure wouldn't say sunlight spectrum is "better" exactly, but if you like it then by all means enjoy. I know my personal tank gets some sunlight in winter and I don't care for it, but isn't that the fun of the hobby? Keeping your system as you like it?

This is the first spectrum graph I've seen on LED's. Thanks for the post.
I was looking at the Kessil freshwater lighting but there was no information on the blue end of the spectrum.
In sunlight you can't see the blue wave lengths. I wouldn't know If their there or not.

gpwdr · Mar 6, 2017

I like to snorkel in the Caribbean and like the colors I see down to 15 feet. Then I look at LED reef tanks and they look like unnatural halloween colored tanks.

Brew12 · Mar 6, 2017

gpwdr said:
This is the first spectrum graph I've seen on LED's. Thanks for the post.
I was looking at the Kessil freshwater lighting but there was no information on the blue end of the spectrum.
In sunlight you can't see the blue wave lengths. I wouldn't know If their there or not.

Have you checked out the Reef Breeders lights?
https://www.reefbreeders.com/new-photon-v2/

I have one and I really love the light spectrum. The graph below shows it with the blue turned way up for those who like the actenic effect from their LED's to highlight oranges and greens.