For LED enthusiasts

[Tomoko Schum]

Obviously there are a few LED enthusiasts among us.

I am very impressed with what Eco Tech Radion can do. I saw the MH vs LED comparison demo on Vivid Aquarium (I think it was at Vivid). The owner of VA said that they cannot tell the difference in the appearances of the two set up side by side.

Have you guys seen this type of DIY LED project?

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This link below for the DIY control for the above LED lighting is out of a board for dart frogs. It shows that his LED set up and what the DIY'er managed to do with his software. It's very impressive:

My display terrarium - Page 4 - Dendroboard

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Humm, the embedded video does not show up here. I hope someone can help me with this. It seems to me that pictures and R2R do not always get along. If you want to see the video, go to the link below and check it out on page 3 there.

Would this work?

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/H-JFjc6Dibk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[H@rry]

Click on the link below to view the video.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/v/H-JFjc6Dibk[/video]

You can do the ramp up/down with a chip that has PWM pins like the ATMega in the controllers like Arduino or the DIY controller like I have built. Probably also PIC micros could do the same thing but I have no experience with them. I'm sure the mainsteam commercial reef controllers could do the same thing and would be easier to program for those not wanting to get into C++ coding.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Thanks Harry. You're quick. That's what I was going to try next.

 

[JSB]

Tomoko,

I have the Radion on my 60g cube. I am very, very, impressed with it, for a number of reasons: power consumption, heat transfer, sparkle/shimmer, selectable color, and more. I have only recently begun stocking SPS, and have just been dialing up the lights. Over the last six weeks I have been bringing up the lights gradually from ~40% intensity to now at 90%, and will move to 100% this weekend.

The monti caps, digitata, and birdsnest frags that I got from H@rry about a month ago, and the green slimmer and red planet from I got from Mike even more recently, have noticeable growth, despite the lower intensity early-on, and the less than pristine water quality of a new tank. I can't say how this compares to MH, as I tore down my last tank with MH almost 10 years ago. I will say that I will not be going back though.

While I have a twelve our photo period, I really only have the lights maxed out for about 4.5 hours a day. Currently, my lights come on at 7:00 in deep blue (actinic) color at 5%, then they ramp to 70% intensity and a 20KK color by 10am. 90% @ 14KK by 1:00pm, and stay that way until 5:30, during which time there is a 30% chance of cloud cover. At 5:30, they start to ramp down, back through 70% 20KK, on to 20% actinic by 7:30. Then a steady decline to black by 10pm. I have played with several color schemes dialing the reds and greens in and out to get just the color that I like and that make my corals pop. Those things are simply not possible with MH as far as I am aware.

Anyway, while these fixtures are expensive, I think they are an absolute must. My temps are steady within 2 degrees all the time, top off is low, bulb replacement is measured in years (like 5-10), power consumption is down.

I would be more than happy to discuss them with you at the meeting Sat.

Here is the light in demo mode when I first put it on the tank. Bad video, but shows capability:
[video=youtube;XmmDpcN0lcs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmmDpcN0lcs[/video]

Scott

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Thank you, Scott. I would like to see how Radion renders certain colors in person.

I have MH lamps on my 180 and I am happy with them at the moment. The temp has not been an issue for me (or for my SPS collection.) My only concern of using LED's has been the rendition of certain colors. Pleasing pink colors in particular seem to be very difficult to bring out with LED's that I have seen. I have not seen Radion in person so that I cannot say anything about its ability to render pink colors. The ability to adjust the colors is what I have been waiting for. I am pleased that a number of manufacturers of commercial aquarium LED fixtures are now offering such an ability. I am pretty much on holding mode until the price drops on these.

I posted the above links for the benefit of DIYers on NARC since some of them are building their own. The software to adjust the intensities of RBG lamps individually caught my eyes.

 

[JSB]

Thank you, Scott. I would like to see how Radion renders certain colors in person.

I have MH lamps on my 180 and I am happy with them at the moment. The temp has not been an issue for me (or for my SPS collection.) My only concern of using LED's has been the rendition of certain colors. Pleasing pink colors in particular seem to be very difficult to bring out with LED's that I have seen. I have not seen Radion in person so that I cannot say anything about its ability to render pink colors. The ability to adjust the colors is what I have been waiting for. I am pleased that a number of manufacturers of commercial aquarium LED fixtures are now offering such an ability. I am pretty much on holding mode until the price drops on these.

I posted the above links for the benefit of DIYers on NARC since some of them are building their own. The software to adjust the intensities of RBG lamps individually caught my eyes.

While I am not really sure which colors do what, I would assume that pink would be enhanced by red light. The radions have 5 colors of LEDs, blue, royal, white, green, and red, that are individually addressable. Most DIYs that I have seen don't include the red and green, although some do. For the radions, you can select the color MH bulb you want to mimic and it will automagically set up the appropriate intensities, or just grab the slider and turn the color up to what you want it to be. Any DIY project that is attempting to do the same thing, I think, would naturally need 5 independently addressable channels.

I included a screen shot of the light configuration dialog.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Thank you, Scott :)

I think some DIYers were considering including some other colors.

LED's seem to be getting better and better fast. I hope their price will drop soon.