30 White/10 Blue vs 20 White/16 Blue. Which is better?

[miogpsrocks]

Hello.

Which is a better light


30 White/10 Blue vs 20 White/16 Blue. All lights being 3 Watts LED?

EVO
Includes 36 LEDs
4400 Lumen
3 watt LEDs
20x 10000K
16x Actinic 460nm
Two mode on/off switch
Mode 1 turns on all LEDs
Mode 2 turns on Actinic LEDs only

vs

Beamworks
Includes 40 LEDs
3 watt LEDs
30x 10000K
10x Actinic 460nm
5500 lumens.
1x manual two mode on/off switch
Mode 1 turns on all LEDs.
Mode 2 turns on the two middle rows


http://www.ebay.com/itm/EVO-Quad-30-Timer-LED-Aquarium-Light-Marine-Coral-Reef-Cichlid-36x-3W-75-cm-/111032347659?hash=item19da0b2c0b:m:mWVzuhyL2w0NtuDY1j_AIgg

vs

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LED-Quad-30-3W-Timer-Aquarium-Light-Marine-Coral-Reef-40x-3-watt-75cm-5500-lumen-/301685086172?hash=item463dd517dc:g:njcAAOSwHnFVn-fZ

 

[3dees]

neither. you can get Chinese dimmable units for the same price. one timer for blues and one for whites and you won't have to do anything manually.

 

[slief]

Neither unless you like growing algae. You ideally want more blue than white IMO. Those lights are not well suited for a reef tank in terms of LED mix. Corals get most of their photosynthetic radiation between 420nm and 460nm. White LED's give the perception of intensity but do very little for coral growth.

 

[miogpsrocks]

Neither unless you like growing algae. You ideally want more blue than white IMO. Those lights are not well suited for a reef tank in terms of LED mix. Corals get most of their photosynthetic radiation between 420nm and 460nm. White LED's give the perception of intensity but do very little for coral growth.

More blue then white lights are better if you had to choose?

One of them has 16x Actinic 460nm the other one has 10.

So if you had to make a decision, more blue would be better?

Please keep in mind that I am mostly going grow the beginner stuff(Softies) and I don't think I will be able to mount a light to a steel cable hanging down from my ceiling.

I don't know why they don't make the good one in a usable strip that can fit nicely on most aquariums.

This is just a starter tank, if all goes well, I might get something better down the road.

So the takeaway is that more blue= better ?

 

[miogpsrocks]

Neither unless you like growing algae. You ideally want more blue than white IMO. Those lights are not well suited for a reef tank in terms of LED mix. Corals get most of their photosynthetic radiation between 420nm and 460nm. White LED's give the perception of intensity but do very little for coral growth.

One of them(EVO) has 16 X Blue LED lights at the 450 NM.

Is that not good?

 

[slief]

One of them(EVO) has 16 X Blue LED lights at the 450 NM.

Is that not good?

But it still has 20 whites to 16 blues. If it were the other way around it might be a different story. I just setup reef lighting on a friends tank using 2 Reef Brite XO strips that were blue and two that were white 10k. The whites ended up at 60% vs the blues at 100% and there was still almost too much white. I think a proper ratio is one white for ever 2-3 blues. You want a mix of royal blue and blue on the blue channel. If you can dim down the whites greatly on an improper mix but you are just wasting LED's/channels. You would be better suited finding a light that is designed for reefs than just picking a light because it's cheap. That is assuming you don't want to pour good money after bad and want your reef to thrive under the new lights. Those lights you are looking at are suited for fresh water. Not reef tanks with corals so if you are planning lights for a reef tank, you are wasting your money with either of those lights. They just aren't right for this application.

 

[miogpsrocks]

Those lights are described as LED Aquarium Light Marine Coral Reef and Cichlid. Plus its for a 29 gallon with sorf coral with i assume are less lighting required than hard corals. They look to be design for an aquarium where as the other ones look like an box like what you my see at indoor marijuana grow operations on the news during a police raid. They dont seem like the lights you normally see on an aquarium. My landlord is not thrilled at the idea of a screwing hardware into the ceiling to hang those other lights. Whatever light i get must sit on the aquarium like a normal tan
k light and not look like a crazy swing hanging from the ceiling

 

[slief]

Those lights are described as LED Aquarium Light Marine Coral Reef and Cichlid. Plus its for a 29 gallon with sorf coral with i assume are less lighting required than hard corals. They look to be design for an aquarium where as the other ones look like an box like what you my see at indoor marijuana grow operations on the news during a police raid. They dont seem like the lights you normally see on an aquarium. My landlord is not thrilled at the idea of a screwing hardware into the ceiling to hang those other lights. Whatever light i get must sit on the aquarium like a normal tan
k light and not look like a crazy swing hanging from the ceiling

Find something designed for reef tanks and not "fish". Those lights are definitely not well suited for a reef regardless of what the listing states. They will promote nuisance algae growth instead of good coral growth. For corals (soft or hard), correct light spectrum is extremely important. Heck, maybe you should consider a Kessil A160. That is a potentially great light for your size tank depending on the dims and could attach via a goose neck. That said, it may be out of your budget though.

There are a number of ways to mount fixtures over a tank that doesn't require ceiling mounting. Do an advanced search here for "Light Mount" or "LED Mount" and search by title. There are dozens of threads with lots of great ideas ranging from goose neck mounts to custom mounts that use electrical conduit. All kinds of stuff.

 

[Mark426]

Two blues for every white

 

[Ron Reefman]

Two blues for every white

And 3 blues for each white would be even better, but hardly anybody makes them that way.

Just remember, it only takes a little bit of white to completely wash away the look of a lot of blue led. My custom led layout was done 3 years ago and it's 5 blue to every 2 white and I still run my tank at 90% blue and 40% white and the tank looks white. If I had it to do over again I'd go 3:1 at the minimum. But you'll be lucky to find anything like that.