LED Color Aesthetics: The Emperor's got no clothes. Or does he?
- Thread starter scolley
- Start date
Wow, that was fast shipping! usually takes a week for me. swap in that 8th 2700k. Like I mentioned, I tried the 2:1 Royal Blue and 2700K and it looked a little too purple so you might want to keep a few of the NW around if you find you need them. (It's all really personal preference though)
and now for a small chapter on violet LEDs: :reading:
I've used their violets, along with everyone elses, and for the moment the only ones I can recommend are Rapids. I had my first 4 from Steve's Burn up after a very short time at 680mA (they kindly shipped replacements, and even threw in a couple extra, so +1 on customer service) Jurry is still out on the new ones which are like what is being currently sold on their site. (much better looking, quality wise, IMHO than the original 4) My replacements haven't been running long enough to make a determination.
I am suspect of any violet LED with a peak below 420nm which uses those little plastic domes as they often are not UV stable (good share of Violet LEDs do output light below 400nm, not much but enough to damage some plastics at close range, and your eyes....) higer drive currents just burns the plastic faster, it would burn more slowly at lower current but burn all the same if suseptable due to the small amout of UVA being emmited. (keep an eye out Steve's batches change periodically, he had one that peaked at 422nm a while ago, but they sold out fast)
That is not to say all of that style of violets will fail, some seem to be fine, but so far the only ones that I have proven to last are the ones Rapid sold me over a year ago (thier old style, havent run the new ones long enough, but no plastic to burn, so........)
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worm5406: I have been wanting to take some pics, but I want to hold off a week or so for the lawnmower blenny to work his magic in the 10g. I've got solid carbon dosing going on to help remove nutrients as well so it's mostly just wait on the CUC. I could take some pics tomorrow if you want to see, I need to take some new PAR numbers anyways.
zachts: I agree that most of the actinic LEDs are crap.. I have had good luck with the Fedy ones, they put two 3w class emitters on a standard sort of chip.. Keeps them much cooler and they will last much longer at 700ma, and I haven't had a single problem with any of their domes burning.
If your light is too purple, you may need to swap some 440-450nm with some 455-460-475.
zachts: I agree that most of the actinic LEDs are crap.. I have had good luck with the Fedy ones, they put two 3w class emitters on a standard sort of chip.. Keeps them much cooler and they will last much longer at 700ma, and I haven't had a single problem with any of their domes burning.
If your light is too purple, you may need to swap some 440-450nm with some 455-460-475.
stancfii
Member
Thanks Zachts, I was surprised also at how fast I got the lights. I just got the email that morning saying they had been shipped and to give the USPS a day or two to get tracking info online. How about the Luxeon RB vs the Cree XT-E RB? I don't know if my eyes will be able to tell a difference, but I checked binning on the XT-E I'm using. They show 450-465nm. The Luxeon bins Steve's has right now are 440-450nm. Considering most metal halides have a peak from 440-460, I wonder if I should swap out half of my RB for Luxeons.
thanks for the tip on the Fedy source, I'll have to look into it. burning lenses isn't realy a heat issue for me, it's related to the UVA in the emmiters causing damage to the plastic. if these Fedy emitters hold up well then they must use the correct UV stable plastic, same as RapidLED used on theirs.
Thanks, however my purple issue is due to Blue light plus red light = purple light, and the 2700k has mostly red and orange in the spectrum with very little green to offset it. so a more purple look than when mixed with the NW. (to each their own though, everyones eyes pick things up a bit different)
I've got a broad blue range from 445-480 covered, if anything it's too Blue and needs more of the 445nm, and less of the 480nm, but that's getting rather picky. (I've already gone through countless dozens of combinations of chips on this 14 LED "test rig" just to get close. ultimately when expanded for my display tanks it will have each color controllable to really dial things in just right. I just tried to get some where close with all on.)
that would be up to personal aesthetic preference, to my eyes the XTE apear brighter blue, and the Luxeons are a little dimmer more violet shade of blue, but only very slight difference if you fire up two side by side and hold a piece of white paper over them to difuse so you can compare with out getting blinded
the luxeons are more efficient and from what I understand provide light that is a little bit beter suited for photosythesis in corals, but the difference there is probably negligable......
