Full spectrum leds

[Chipie]

Hi guys,
I have a 24X3w cree led DIY fixture for my 30"X12"X12" 20g tank and i don't seem to be getting the nice colors for my sps. I have 12 rb(xp-e), 8 cool whites(Xp-g) and 4 warm whites(xp-g). All running at 100% without lens for coverage.

Parameters are really good and stable.

Not sure of what to do and would like your opinions. Would adding some other colors of leds really help ? Any of you added other specturm leds and got good results of would it be a waste of money. I might decide to go with a T5 retrofit for a while to see if the leds are the problem. Or just add 2 T5 to the leds.

How many T5 bulbs would i need to cover my 30"X12"X12" tank for sps?

Oh and i'm not going back to MH because of the heat they produce. Especially on such a small tank.

 

[celamb89]

36 XTE Royal Blue @ 700mA and 60 degree lenses
12 XPE Blue @700mA and 60 degree lenses
24 XPG CWhite @900mA and 60 degree lenses
12 XPG NWhite @900mA and 60 degree lenses
6 XML Cyan @350mA
4 RapidLed UV @350mA
2 XPE Red @350mA
2 XPE Green @350mA

Im having good results but I still want to add more RED+GREEN+UV(420nm), I think Im going to add another 2 strings to one of the drivers...

 

[Nanook]

[moved]

 

[Chipie]

<i>This thread has been moved to the current forum.</i>

Ok but please remember that i'm asking sps growers for their input using leds. My tank is totally sps.

 

[Nanook]

Bulb colors really have little to do with SPS coloration. PAR, chemistry, stable tank parameters, nutrition and excessive nutrients all have impact on SPS coloration. You can have 20KK Radiums over your tank and still have brown acros. We try to keep the SPS forum focused on the actual husbandry of corals, not the latest bulb combinations.

 

[Chipie]

My parameters are Alk 8.5, Calcium 430, magnesium 1400,phosphates 0(Hanna) and nitrates 2. And all stable thanks to a doser. I'm not a newb and had other tanks with sps and never had a problem with coloration before using leds. I used T5 HO and MH lighting with very good success with parameters that where not as good as these.

 

[Allmost]

what do you mean by not getting nice colors on SPS ?

can you post a pic ?

 

[Chipie]

Well they look like sps that would be in a high nutrient tank or a tank lacking enough light. It has been a on going problem with this tank. It always had leds for lighting.

I'm totally not debating if leds are good or not. I' d love to keep them since they don't heat up the tank.I'm just trying to decide what i should do.

Add some different spectrum leds(if so, which ones?), add some t5 to supplement or get a t5 fixture?

 

[Allmost]

Well they look like sps that would be in a high nutrient tank or a tank lacking enough light. It has been a on going problem with this tank. It always had leds for lighting.

I'm totally not debating if leds are good or not. I' d love to keep them since they don't heat up the tank.I'm just trying to decide what i should do.

Add some different spectrum leds(if so, which ones?), add some t5 to supplement or get a t5 fixture?

I would lower nutrition for your SPS to color up.

if corals are brown, you have too much nitrition, and I know its hard to admit to it so ....

you say corals look like high nutrition, or not enough light, so what would adding a red LED do ? your ISsues dont have anything to do with full spectrum !

LEDs are very potent, so its not too little light.

after fixing nutrition ISsues, and coloring up SPS, then if you feel like certain colors and pigments in corals are not shownas well as they should, you could look into adding more colors to excite those pigments as well ....

 

[Chipie]

Why do you say it's a nutrition issue? My Nitrates are barely noticable and i don't have any phosphates. I don' thave any algea and i test with a Hanna meter. I just have 2 firefish and a very small wrasse for fish. I almost never have to clean the glass except for coraline algea.

 

[Allmost]

based on your last post

just my opinion though. some pics would help as well.

 

[ST1Doppelganger]

I've heard of some SPS tanks having a bit of color fade when switched from halides to LEDs but the color usually comes back.

I know violets, red, cyan, and even the regular blue add allot of color popping to the led fixtures and would consider doing tristar colored LEDs.

View attachment 205695
This is from halide tank

Then After a few weeks in my LEDs it got more color to it.

 

[ST1Doppelganger]

I've heard of some SPS tanks having a bit of color fade when switched from halides to LEDs but the color usually comes back.

I know violets, red, cyan, and even the regular blue add allot of color popping to the led fixtures and would consider doing tristar colored LEDs.

View attachment 205695
This is from halide tank
View attachment 205696
Then After a few weeks in my LEDs it got more color to it.

 

[ST1Doppelganger]

Well pic didn't post so I'll try again.



View attachment 205704

Brown was when I first got the coral then the pinkish purple is after its been in my tank for about 3 weeks

 

[ST1Doppelganger]

Blah sorry about the spam my phone got cracked out and now loaded everything then double posted the one that had no pics if some mod wants to delete the extra posts feel free to do so.

Sorry again

 

[Chipie]

Here's a few bad pictures of the tank. LOL

Sorry but i don't have a good lense to take better pictures. The corals are not as brown as the pictures show.

Oh and it is a glorified frag tank lol That's why it's so full. I should transfer some corals in my 180g but my boyfriend as just been diagnosed with cancer so my tanks have taken a back seat for a little while.

 

[reefgeezer]

Slowly reduce the power of the LED's to about 50% and work on water chemistry stability. Don't increase power unless the corals start to brown. If nitrate and phosphate are low, Alk and/or salinity flucuation may also be an issue. In a small tank, they are hard to keep stable.

You really have to be careful particularly about the RB and UV LED's. They don't look bright to the eye so people tend to max them out and end up bleaching SPS corals.