Educate me on LED lights

ravenmore

ravenmore

New member
Ok - I left the hobby for a couple of years but am getting back into it as I recently inherited my parents 75 gallon tank (currently complete with hair algae and cyano). One thing that's changed while I was out of the hobby is that LED lighting was introduced. I've been reading the boards trying to figure it out but am still working on it. Part of the problem is that everyone is fond of using acronyms like I'm supposed to know what they mean. 'WTH'? :) I just recently figured out RB means 'royal blue' - I think...

Anyway - tips and suggestions for an LED set up are appreciated.
 
Found myself in the same situation a few weeks ago.

CW = Cool White
NW = Neutral White
WW = Warm White
RB = Royal Blue
B or BB = Normal Blue

Star = little mounting plate for an LED emitter. Makes soldering and mounting easier for DIY (Do-It-Yourself) LEDs

Optic = focuses the light from an LED so it's less of a flood and more of a cone. Can help light penetrate deeper tanks, or increase intensity for SPS. Can cause spotlighting effects if used inappropriately.

Driver = LEDs require a current-regulated power source. Meanwell and BuckPucks are common drivers. Typical LED currents are 350mA or 1W (cheap/old emitters), 1A or 3W (typical), 1.5A (newer emitters), and 3A (newest top-of-the-line emitters).

LEDs are usually about 3.6 volts each. A 12V power supply/driver can drive 3 LEDs wired in series. A 24V supply/driver can drive 6, etc. Thus most installations require more than 1 driver.

Some drivers are dimmable; dimming is nice because full-power LEDs can be so intense they bleach corals. Also, putting white and RB on separate dimmable drivers can allow you to dial in any color temperature you fancy. Dimming drivers also allow sunrise/sunset effects when used in conjunction with a reef controller.

Par30, Par38 = describes a "bulb", i.e., a round screw-in housing that holds 5 LED emitters, a driver, and a heat sink. Much easier than DIY but I've never seen a dimmable Par3x.

HTH
 
cool - thanks tylernt. Some good info. I had been trying to figure out what 'NW' meant. :) So a driver is like a ballast more or less?

I like the idea of PAR bulbs. I was actually looking at these as one option: http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-PAR-Bulbs/Categories

I was also looking at some of the PAR bulbs on superbrightled.com but they don't seem to have any aquarium specific bulbs.

I like the idea of being able to create different color temps with a dimmer though. That is a cool way to apply the technology.
 
Are there any guidelines for how many LED's you need in regards to a certain tank size? I'm currently running 2x250 watt halides.
 
Are these acceptable specs on a bulb or how do you know what intensities will work?

High visibility, T-1 3/4 (5mm)
Intensity: 280mcd (typical), wavelength: 395nm (minimum), 410nm (maximum)
Viewing angle: 30°
FW current: 20mA; FW supply: 3.2 (typical), 3.8V (maximum)
RoHS compliant
 
Not sure how many LEDs you need for a tank of a given size. I'm sure many others can answer that.

ravenmore said:
Btw - not sure how good it is for an aquarium application but this PAR 30 is supposedly dimmable:
Click to expand...
From what I understand, you really need some RB for a reef tank as corals (or rather, zoox) require it for photosynthesis. Suggested ratios are 1NW:2RB or 1CW:1RB.

Are these acceptable specs on a bulb
Click to expand...
Generally, any 5mm LED is way too dim for photosynthesis. A bank of them (like, 25-50) might be appropriate for lighting a nano reef refugium with macroalgae but for the price, a power LED (3W) is likely to be cheaper.

For comparison, those 5mm LEDs you mention are 20mA. A power LED is 1,000mA (1A). Quite the difference in intensity. :)
 
I have been thinking of using a similar bulb. My question is how many of these do you think you would need to substitute for your 500watt MH? The LED bulb is 12 watts. If LED's are 4 times more efficient than MH, you would still need around 10 bulbs to replace your 2 MH. Are LED's really 4 times more efficient that MH's?
 
Well, the vendor has more of these in stock. I was going to order more but just found out I have a busted pipe under my foundation. :mad: So I can't invest a lot of $$$ into the tank right now.

I also need to figure out how to rig the PAR bulbs above the tank. Any suggestions?
 
tydtran said:
I have been thinking of using a similar bulb. My question is how many of these do you think you would need to substitute for your 500watt MH? The LED bulb is 12 watts. If LED's are 4 times more efficient than MH, you would still need around 10 bulbs to replace your 2 MH. Are LED's really 4 times more efficient that MH's?
Click to expand...

Halide: 65-115 lumens per watt
T5HO: 80-100 lumens per watt
LEDs: 132-160 lumens per watt

It isn't a matter of electrical efficiency, however. First, corals don't care about watts or even lumens, they care about PAR (Photosynthetic Radiation). LEDs have different PAR than T5/halides so you cannot make an apples-to-apples comparison until you start working with PAR instead of watts and lumens.

Second, it depends on how tightly the light is focused. Halide and T5 shine 360° all around so you need a reflector to point all the light down, and the reflector has some losses. LEDs start out with a less than 180° pattern so they are easier to focus with optics (lenses). Focus is where 3W to 9W LEDs can compete with 500W halides; concentrate 99% of the LED's light into a tight little cone, and you can easily burn corals. Of course, with a tight little cone, you need more LEDs for coverage over your whole tank. But even with all those LEDs, you still come out ahead in electrical efficiency.

I don't know how many LEDs you need to get an equivalent PAR compared to a 500W halide. Depends on how wide of an area you need to cover and how deep of water you need to penetrate.
 
tylernt said:
Found myself in the same situation a few weeks ago.

CW = Cool White
NW = Neutral White
WW = Warm White
RB = Royal Blue
B or BB = Normal Blue

Star = little mounting plate for an LED emitter. Makes soldering and mounting easier for DIY (Do-It-Yourself) LEDs

Optic = focuses the light from an LED so it's less of a flood and more of a cone. Can help light penetrate deeper tanks, or increase intensity for SPS. Can cause spotlighting effects if used inappropriately.

Driver = LEDs require a current-regulated power source. Meanwell and BuckPucks are common drivers. Typical LED currents are 350mA or 1W (cheap/old emitters), 1A or 3W (typical), 1.5A (newer emitters), and 3A (newest top-of-the-line emitters).

LEDs are usually about 3.6 volts each. A 12V power supply/driver can drive 3 LEDs wired in series. A 24V supply/driver can drive 6, etc. Thus most installations require more than 1 driver.

Some drivers are dimmable; dimming is nice because full-power LEDs can be so intense they bleach corals. Also, putting white and RB on separate dimmable drivers can allow you to dial in any color temperature you fancy. Dimming drivers also allow sunrise/sunset effects when used in conjunction with a reef controller.

Par30, Par38 = describes a "bulb", i.e., a round screw-in housing that holds 5 LED emitters, a driver, and a heat sink. Much easier than DIY but I've never seen a dimmable Par3x.

HTH
Click to expand...

This is going to get buried ... am I wrong to req a sticky?
 
I had PC's at 260 watts before. In Jan when I got back into my tank I got some LED's made by ReefBrite. My tank is 4 feet long and the LED strip is 4 ft also. It has 24 white bulbs.The don't get hot and I was very shocked by how bright they are. I absolutely love them!
I'm not sure about other corals but my shrooms and bubble are much more happier. The shrooms have multiplied so rapid that I had to pull some out. The place I got them from had them over most of the tanks and everything looked great.
 
I'll post pics of my PAR38 bulb when it gets in and maybe a vid showing the dimming and remote. I'm thinking I'll need at least 4 of these. Might try to post some comparisons to my halides although my tank looks like crap right now (inherited it with algae issues).
 
Got my PAR38 bulb today. Very impressed. Both blue and white channels fully independently dimmable with a remote! They seem pretty bright too. I could clearly see them shining them in my tank while my halides were on. And this is just one bulb. Ordered another today. :)
 
There is tons of information in DIY section and few very good DIY LED fixture threads there too. Might be a good idea to have a look at what other people are doing. Good luck.

Tahir
 
As stated above, what really counts is PAR (photosynthetically Active Radiation) This will tell you how much usuable light is available at a certain spot in your tank. Lumens, watts, kelvin (color) and temp also play a part in your lighting setup but are more opinion than anything. i.e. what you think is most pleasing to your eyes.

Lighting is a huge debate amongst people and you can really just get lost in the different arguments.

If you really want to be specific you should buy a PAR meter.
 
I'll make one point here. When I was researching DIY led's it seemed every thread bragged about more and more led's over their tanks. Then in the next post they would say they have to dim them down so as not to fry their coral. Why not be a little more conservative and get what you actually need? My tank is 4x2 and I ended up with 60 of the 3w cree's. I read of people with anywhere from 40 to well over a 100 cree's. I think even my 60 are over doing it. This is for SPS btw.
 
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