led color and T-5's

[mfinn]

I had 2 x12" ecoxotic panorama blue leds strips mounted on my Sunpower T-5 fixture.
The leds were nice by themselves, but as soon as the T-5's came on you couldn't tell there were leds on the tank. No difference in the corals.
Do all blue leds wash out with other light?

I'd like to keep my ATI fixture, but be able to get a little extra color from my corals using a led add-on.
Is this possible?
A person local to me has a diy led strip that has 14- 3watt Cree XP-E Royal Blues running on a non dimmable meanwell 1050ma driver.
Would these washout with my 6 x 24 watt T-5's?

 

[creefer]

I just added a 36" ecoexotic stunner to my aquatic life t5 and have the same issue you mention. The LED is giving me much more "pop" however I was really hoping for more with the T5 running. It almost seems to me that the best way to do this is supplement the LED with T5 and not supplement T5 with LED. At least that's what my eye is telling me.

 

[Troylee]

I had 2 x12" ecoxotic panorama blue leds strips mounted on my Sunpower T-5 fixture.
The leds were nice by themselves, but as soon as the T-5's came on you couldn't tell there were leds on the tank. No difference in the corals.
Do all blue leds wash out with other light?

I'd like to keep my ATI fixture, but be able to get a little extra color from my corals using a led add-on.
Is this possible?
A person local to me has a diy led strip that has 14- 3watt Cree XP-E Royal Blues running on a non dimmable meanwell 1050ma driver.
Would these washout with my 6 x 24 watt T-5's?

I run 2 DIY strips of 24 royal blues on each side of my fixture "48 LEDs total" zero optics.... It holds it's own against 2 blue+, 2 purple plus and a 250w Phoniex 14k hqi... DIY is the way to go... If you don't want to build,reefbrite would be my second choice..

 

[creefer]

I run 2 DIY strips of 24 royal blues on each side of my fixture "48 LEDs total" zero optics.... It holds it's own against 2 blue+, 2 purple plus and a 250w Phoniex 14k hqi... DIY is the way to go... If you don't want to build,reefbrite would be my second choice..

I would like to hear more details on this. I have a canopy for my tank that's not being used right now and have contemplated doing a DIY with the canopy to include MH / T5 / LED. Do you have a link that you can share with some details?

 

[MyReefToYours]

I have a 3WX9 blue LED strip accenting a 150W MH fixture and it does make a difference. I have to unplug the LED fixture when taking pics otherwise the pics are way to blue. I might just be the wattage. You might want to see if your local guy will let you test drive the 3WX14 fixture to see if it gives you what you want. Competing with 6 bulbs T5 you might need even more to get the blue you want but I give it a shot.

 

[Big E]

Do you want more blue in your tank or just more light over the corals? If you just want more blue you might want to try swaping a bulb that has more blue/purple than what you have.

 

[mfinn]

Do you want more blue in your tank or just more light over the corals? If you just want more blue you might want to try swaping a bulb that has more blue/purple than what you have.

My question wasn't about adding blue to the tank.

 

[Big E]

Umm............okay. The word "pop" is subjective. Sometimes too much blue or purple will darken the tank & you lose the pop in colors & ambient light.

Other times adding blue will pop your corals more if the tank is too white............that's why I asked & suggested that if you want more blue you can swap out a t5 bulb instead of spending more money on more lights to get the look you want.

If your intent on adding more blue Leds & that's all your asking than you don't need my help.........sorry for suggesting trying to save you some money.

 

[MBG75]

ReefBrite cuts through my 6 bulb t5.

 

[-Logzor]

The problem is T5 bulbs are much brighter to the eye than LEDs when looking into the aquarium. You need strong ones to cut through. Even my ReefBrite XHO LEDs didn't cut through very well against 7 T5 bulbs. Like Troy said a DIY option is the best to get the power.

 

[johnboy411]

whats the size of your tank?
the more led (watts) of royal blue the more pop
im sure there is a formula somewhere but you could add a pwm after the driver to dim the leds as i believe those are dimmable

 

[mfinn]

.......sorry for suggesting trying to save you some money.

not needed.
any help is appreciated.

Mostly looking for leds that don't get washed out by T-5's, as the first ones I tried.

One of my questions, was, Is it possible to get the effect I'm looking for, using my ATI T-5 fixture and leds?

 

[mfinn]

whats the size of your tank?
the more led (watts) of royal blue the more pop
im sure there is a formula somewhere but you could add a pwm after the driver to dim the leds as i believe those are dimmable

The tank is 30" x 20" x 20".