Cool/high k white leds.

Graham hunt · Jun 21, 2017

hello,I run orphek v3+,have an ongoing green slime algae on rock work mix of live and Arka man made.tried vibrant and fluco with some success but this stuff comes back nutrients are in hand and I carbon dose.
With the orphek most onboard settings for growth include high percentage cool white and wide angle red.
Have made a program for full power blue channels and 24% white which also includes some blue as leds are twin chip.
I am wondering I other people have trouble with cool white leds with regard algae,I will try the above program but am very tempted to put my old 400w halides back up as the only thing changed is lighting the tank has been running for about 15 years and growth and color has been much better.
regards graham.

Nano sapiens · Jun 21, 2017

LED Cool White (CW) is basically a blue emiter with just a bit of additional 'warmer' colors added. I wouldn't expect these CW to stimulate excessive algae growth unless they were run in excessive amounts and/or intensities. Red on the other hand is much more prone to promoting algae growth and most who have a dedicated red channel keep it quite low (I run mine at 8%) and many just don't run dedicated red at all (any type of 'white' LED will already produce some 'red').

Running your white channel at ~1/4 the power of your blue channel is quite common.

Graham hunt · Jun 21, 2017

Hi nano sap ion,thanks for your response,yes my interest/confusion is mainly because orphek onboard programs for. coral growth are 80-100% white and red channels,being twin chip and spread out at there typical mounting height 12 to15 inches par is not massive,but white/red intensity is high this seems to work well for a few lovely tanks I have seen on various threads I have looked at,on my tank though colour looks good but growth apart from algea does not hence the query.hoping for any experience from other led users meantime I will see what if any improvement my knew program gives. Or if it is something I am doing or not that is causing the algae(most likely)but I have very carefully checked my parameters and easy with hind sight tank did work well prior to leds.
Regards graham.

Donovan Joannes · Jun 21, 2017

I do run my warmer channel for 4 hours at 85% intensity without algae issue. It might be due to excess nutrients that promotes algae. I do have algae before, after a successful nutrients control, they are gone for good. Maybe not so good for CUC. What is your NO3/PO4 test result?

Graham hunt · Jun 22, 2017

Hi Donav on,thanks my no3 is 5ppm andpo4 0.06ppm presently which is farily average system is 1200l with a large bio filter,carbon dosing with a large scimmer.this system has been run like this for a long time.when running halides 14k,400w the par was at least twice the present figures with good growth and colour.i have read a couple of post regarding problem algae with specifically cool white leds at high intensity also notice the trend for blasting full spectrum units which seem to run a warmer,6.5k white leds as said recommendation to run orphek the same way to me gives a nice tank colour and spread and results for others are good but not for myself,I agree my nutrients may be a bit higher than theirs but probably not dramatically so.
I will see if I can get used to the new blue look and if algae backs off,if not I will replace one side of tank with original halide and see what happens.
Regards graham.

Donovan Joannes · Jun 22, 2017

My nutrient level is almost identical to yours, except PO4 which is less than 0.1 on Sera. I had massive hair algae before (I always run warmer lights) and it was due to LR leaching PO4 (after brought down NO3 below 5ppm) and not RODi for top off.