How Much Blue LED Light is Too Much?

[herring_fish]

I have a 6 foot long by 24 inched deep by 18 inch form front to back, 130 gallon reef tank. That’s 182 x 61 x 46 and 492 liters.

I have a couple of metal halides that I hope to change to LED’s at some point but thought that I would start by replacing my T5 actinics with blue LED’s.

I just bought 2 of those 50 watt, flood lamps from China. I wanted a strong blue look so that the metal arks wouldn’t drown them out so to speak.

They arrived quickly and they were well build. I had to add the AC plug as advertised but that was easy and it didn’t take long. They are REALLY BRIGHT! That is in the air.

I put them over the tank and they had that nice shimmering look. Yes they looked good but not as strong as I would like. In looking back, I got on a local forum to ask for the best wave length to buy and the guys said that I should go lower to the 420nm range so that is what I ordered. Only now do I realize that 420 is violet not blue or royal blue.

 Could this be why it doesn’t look as bright in the tank?
 Would 455nm look better?

Now I am thinking about building my own LED lamps. I can get 50 or 100 watt blue LED’s and I can also get those cylindrical shaped heat sinks for high bay lights like those high powered warehouse LED lights. They could standing vertically so they don’t have a big foot print. I don’t want to use reflectors. I would rather use blades to keep the light off of the tank glass. Of course there is the lens approach. I bought one of those to play with already.

This would allow me to put 2 or even 4 of these things over the tank and still have room for everything else.

This brings me to the main question.

 How much blue light is too much for my sized tank?

I want a lot of blue light but I don’t want to overdo it so I need your help on the color range and for the total wattage.

 

[nanoreefer1000]

I have a 6 foot long by 24 inched deep by 18 inch form front to back, 130 gallon reef tank. That's 182 x 61 x 46 and 492 liters.

I have a couple of metal halides that I hope to change to LED's at some point but thought that I would start by replacing my T5 actinics with blue LED's.
Good idea
I just bought 2 of those 50 watt, flood lamps from China. I wanted a strong blue look so that the metal arks wouldn't drown them out so to speak.
Return them, those are probably going to either be lower quality or light on fire
They arrived quickly and they were well build. I had to add the AC plug as advertised but that was easy and it didn't take long. They are REALLY BRIGHT! That is in the air. I'd still return them, but thats me

I put them over the tank and they had that nice shimmering look. Yes they looked good but not as strong as I would like. In looking back, I got on a local forum to ask for the best wave length to buy and the guys said that I should go lower to the 420nm range so that is what I ordered. Only now do I realize that 420 is violet not blue or royal blue. Violet may not look like RB, but they are PAR/PUR monsters and can easily burn corals if they aren't acclimated properly or used too much

 Could this be why it doesn't look as bright in the tank? Yes
 Would 455nm look better? Both look good, RB may look better

Now I am thinking about building my own LED lamps. I can get 50 or 100 watt blue LED's and I can also get those cylindrical shaped heat sinks for high bay lights like those high powered warehouse LED lights. They could standing vertically so they don't have a big foot print. I don't want to use reflectors. I would rather use blades to keep the light off of the tank glass. Of course there is the lens approach. I bought one of those to play with already.If I were you I'd get a few RB Luxeon M's from Stevesleds and some HV from ledgroupbuy, plus a few CB

This would allow me to put 2 or even 4 of these things over the tank and still have room for everything else.

This brings me to the main question.

 How much blue light is too much for my sized tank? So much your corals bleach lol

I want a lot of blue light but I don't want to overdo it so I need your help on the color range and for the total wattage.

I would get 4 Luxeon M's, then space 2-4 HVs around them, and 1-2 CB's