Help me pick an LED array or multichip!

TimmyD16

TimmyD16

New member
Copying this from the Light/Equip forum (not the most helpful bunch...)

Hello all, I have a question for you all...

I am looking for a light fixture for a 24" cubed tank, I am confident in my DIY ability especially when it comes to electronics/LEDs, so I am pretty sure that I want to DIY a LED fixture (please don't make this a thread about the merits of LED vs. other forms of light, I'm set on LEDs).

I want the fixture to be compact and not look like a DIY special (so no heatsink over the whole tank etc.), and I am loving the small form factors offered by some of the LED arrays out there.

My question to you all is which one? I am leaning towards the Lumia 5.1 or the Rapid LED Borealis array due to their small form factors, but I want to know which array is the best from a light standpoint. So I have come to the light experts to ask, which LED array / Multichip would be the BEST (purely from a light output perspective) for me to DIY a fixture over my tank??? Or are none of them better than I will get from a Kessil360 (probably the only fixture I'd consider buying)?

Thanks in advanced for all your help!
 
pwreef said:
Check these guys out. reefll.com I am using their assemblies. They are a new sponsor.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=730
Much better than unknown LEDs in Lumia and no disco effect.
Not sure why you need all this lime LEDs in Borealis.
Click to expand...

Very interesting, thank you for pointing those out as I had not known about them until now... Just more to ponder...

I think "lime" is putting a lot of people off, but in reality they are more white LEDs sans the blue spike. They have a very broad spectrum of light output, not like the color LEDs we are used to seeing. Also they allow for the user to adjust the temperature of the light, essentially if you look at the Kelvin scale graphic you will see that if you plot a point at 10,000K white, and another at 20,000K white, then continue that line, it goes right into this "lime white" area. So essentially with the limes off it is stated as aprox. 22,000K light, but when adding the limes it pulls it into the 10,000K range... It is actually pretty sound light science, and serves little purpose other than to tune the light to what seems pleasing to any particular user.
 
Oh and another thing, you want to control red and "UV" separately. You want a lot of light in the 400-430nm range because that is what corals need most. Red is really optional for your taste. Corals don't use it. Combining those two colors onto single channel is silly.
 
No LED is specifically made to light up reef tanks, the market is WAY too small... Manufacturers have to use what they get...

I'm not saying that lime LEDs are the next best thing, but it is pretty interesting...
 
There are always other options, that's why I'm asking about the best from purely a light quality / spectrum side of things... We could get into an endless convo about the merits of certain led design choices, but the fact is I like the borealis' spectrum first, and concept second....

If there are other LED arrays or multichips that have that good of a blue spectrum (how it includes Blue, RB, & Violet), then I would love to hear about it...
 
I did a pair of RapidLED Aurora pucks over my 50g and have been thrilled with them so far. I'm controlling them with Apex and everything in my tank looks better now. I love the shimmer and the adjustability of four channel control.

I know there are potentially better lights out there, but I'm in for barely $400 total including cabling, mounting, cooling, drivers, and interfacing to the Apex.

As for heatsinks, the one provided is a bit clunky but it is significant overkill for this puck and could be cut down considerably, or just replaced with something else commercially available.
 
That's exactly right. They were created in order to achieve higher CRI levels out of LED lights... Which will have nothing to do with coral growth or health... But from an artistic perspective the higher your CRI the better "looking" your light is, and isn't that why we are in this hobby? To enjoy looking at our tanks?

FWIW, low CRI levels is a big reason why LEDs aren't mainstream in industries such as theater/venue lighting... These lime LEDs should take LEDs to a whole new level when it comes to that aspect... Whether that will translate into reefing, who knows....
 
pwreef said:
Those lime leds are made to light streets, not reef tanks. :-)
Click to expand...
There is no such thing as an LED made for aquarium use. They all are made for specific commercial markets (ink curing, counterfeit detection, signage, etc), but LED reef lighting is a niche market of an already very small market segment that will probably not get any attention for many years, like metal halide and fluorescent bulbs (which, as those markets begin to shrink and move towards LED, who is to say that manufacturers such as Sylvania [which makes ATI, KZ, Pacific Sun, and a few other popular bulb brands] will continue the production runs of these 'small time' bulbs? ;) ).

Lime is already working its way into commercial LED reef fixtures, and you'll be seeing them in the next revisions. :)

pwreef said:
At the price of this questionable Borealis you can get Ecotech pucks:
http://store.ecotechmarine.com/store/upgrades
Or the reefll stuff which is quite good. :-)
Click to expand...
There isn't anything 'questionable' about the Borealis, actually - for once, Rapid is on the cutting edge instead of just selling unbinned LEDs lol

TimmyD16 said:
That's exactly right. They were created in order to achieve higher CRI levels out of LED lights... Which will have nothing to do with coral growth or health... But from an artistic perspective the higher your CRI the better "looking" your light is, and isn't that why we are in this hobby? To enjoy looking at our tanks?

FWIW, low CRI levels is a big reason why LEDs aren't mainstream in industries such as theater/venue lighting... These lime LEDs should take LEDs to a whole new level when it comes to that aspect... Whether that will translate into reefing, who knows....
Click to expand...
High CRI white LEDs do exist, but up until this point there have been some significant tradeoffs - the diodes had to be warmer whites (usually 2700-3000K) and have very low efficacy. Bridgelux has recently released updates to their Vero line which brings 90CRI minimum (95 typical) to their 4000K and even their 5000K chips. In their larger arrays, there is even a 5600K 90CRI chip available. Bridgelux's color is already fantastic, ranking right up with Philips for their phosphor tech (should be noted that Cree typically lags behind in color, as their focus is more replacing halide and HPS streetlighting than indoor lighting, so color is not the main focus). Philips is also steadily increasing the flux on their LEDs, already coming far from the Rebels that were around when I first got into DIY lighting.

With Philips already having PC amber (a wide-spectrum amber made from a blue LED, which can be added to cool white arrays to increase color rendition without significant diode replacement), their new Luxeon UV and violet line, and adding lime to its portfolio, it's now easy to have a high-CRI base for a bright-looking LED array that will grow corals like wildfire, and have plenty of power available in violet and blue to make them look great. Maybe they're working on a wide-spectrum blue next, who knows :cool:
 
Totally agree Jedi, all those reasons are why I'm seriously looking at that array, not to mention the tiny footprint...

Excuse me, you are very right in that high CRI LEDs exist, but as you said there have been serious limitations on their intensity, which is why you don't see them in the theater/light design side of the industry (where I am familiar). Also I believe that the Lime is also a blue emitter, same as the amber.

Thank you for that amazing write up, you are making me more confident in the borealis!
 
Last edited:
Yes, the lime is a phosphor-converted blue like PC amber. :)

I still can't believe how tiny Philips has gotten the Luxeon Z and UV lines. I can't wait to see what the second generation chips will output, or if they scale the UV series to be the size of the Rebel/Luxeon T die :)
 
Some blue in lime... not much
26feb14LuxeonLimeSpectrum-611.jpg
 
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