LED LAYOUTS, Which COLORS SHOULD I HAVE

[Greywaczera]

I have REEF BREEDER PHOTON 32's over my tank and wanted to know what color LED lights I should have in them. I have no idea what the colors do or are used for. All i know is blue lights and white. Here is my current layout

24 4500K neutral whites
4 480nm blues,
4 520nm greens
4 450nm royal blues
4 660nm reds
8 410-420nm violets
48 450nm royal blue
3 480nm blue moonlights

Should i change the Greens to Purple and the Red to Hyper Red?
and
Neutral Whites to Cool White or Warm White?

Example:
15 4500K neutral whites
9 Cool Whites or Warm Whites
4 480nm blues,
3 520nm greens
4 450nm royal blues
4 660nm Hyper reds
9 410-420nm violets
48 450nm royal blue
3 480nm blue moonlights

 

[muppet]

Aside from whites, which are for growth, and blues, which are for color, I think you have a lot of play with the rest. I think they have a lot more to do with what colors you want to bring out in your corals and fish than they do with PAR/growth. I'm definitely no expert on this, though. This might be a good thread for the lighting forum on the main RC.

 

[slipknottin]

Is there a reason you want to change the LEDs you have?

 

[Greywaczera]

Well I have 2 units - one came with green leds and the second came with purple leds where the greens are supposed to be. So instead of bringing both of them to RB's I wanted to figure out how they work and wanted to ask the experience of people in my area

 

[slipknottin]

Do you prefer the look of one of the units over the other?

Why not just pick the one you prefer then change the other units LEDs to match it

 

[Greywaczera]

Yes I have considered that but want to know the characteristic and what lights bring out what. Are some colors better then others? Does one color bring out certain colors...and so forth

 

[Bett]

When I built my LED array for my tank I ended up using:
6 neutral white
2 cool white
1 red
6 royal blues
1 blue

I would have liked to add a cyan in there but I couldn't find a Cree version of it. I think the most useful thing I added was making the blue and white circuits individually dimmable so I can set the lighting however I want it.
The LEDs you already have seem fine. There's a good mixture of colors in there along with the basic neutral whites and royal blues. You already have reds so you don't really need more warm colors from warm whites. Neutral white is a nice midpoint so it probably wouldn't be worthwhile changing them over. I would leave the greens instead of replacing them with purple. You get purpleish parts of the spectrum from the royal blues and violets, but green tends to be missing from the spectrum of most LEDs.
If you know the specific brand of LEDs your light uses, you can probably look up spectrum charts for each one from the manufacturer. It looks like you have a nice variety already that covers much of the spectrum, so you probably don't have to change anything.

 

[spjames]

Aside from whites, which are for growth, and blues, which are for color, I think you have a lot of play with the rest. I think they have a lot more to do with what colors you want to bring out in your corals and fish than they do with PAR/growth. I'm definitely no expert on this, though. This might be a good thread for the lighting forum on the main RC.

Actually, you would be surprised...take a look at the absorption spectra graph for zooxanthellae and you will see that royal blue, blue, violet and deep red all hit peaks for chlorophyll or the carotenoid pigments.



...and violet leds put out lots of par, you just can't see it too well because our eyes are not overly sensitive to those wavelengths.

There are two different aspects to consider when designing an led array that Muppet alluded to :

1. What do your coarls need for growth.
2. How do you want your tank to look.

Both are important, but if you first ensure you have the right wavelengths and intensity to cover the growth, then you can add other colors for your viewing pleasure.

Should i change the Greens to Purple and the Red to Hyper Red?
and
Neutral Whites to Cool White or Warm White?

You don't need the greens for growth, but it is difficult for someone to tell you what you need for it to look appealing to you - it is very subjective and only you know the answer ! Making everything dimmable will give you the greatest control over the look of the tank.

The red and hyper red that you listed are the same wavelength, so unless there is something else different I don't see a reason to change. You also have royal blue (450nm) listed twice.

Currently, many diy led builds are using 1:1.5 to 1:2 Neutral white : Royal blue, and you are already using approx 1:2 so you are good.

 

[muppet]

Like I said, definitely not an expert, but if we're talking 4 violet LEDs, basically in the center of a 24" fixture, with (probably) 60 degree optics, is it really making that much of a PAR difference, or is it primarily for appearance?

 

[spjames]

Both

There's 8 violets in Grey's fixture and I'm no expert either, but I believe that would make a difference.

 

[Greywaczera]

Yea well 1 fixture i got had purples where the greens were. So i was trying to figure out which ones i were going to switch to. My significant other likes the green because of the reflection it gives off.

Bett - What does adding teal do/show and why would you want one on your fixture instead of blue?

Muppet - I have 2 32inch fixtures, the red and green are spaced evenly over the fixture. The 2 towards the middle have 120 degree lens and the 2 outside lens have 90 degree

 

[Bett]

I wasn't going to replace the blue with teal, but I would have added it in with what I already had. I just heard that it helped with making some colors in corals brighter, I think reds and oranges? I ended up adding a single blue along with the royal blues since the blue fell a bit more into the green spectrum than the royal blues did, but I would have liked to try a green or teal as well to cover a bit more of that area.

Also, if you look at an absorption chart for different photosynthetic pigments, green is still absorbed to some degree, though not as much as other colors. If you already have a ton of blues that are covering most of the blue and violet spectrum, I can't see a few purples adding much more. The greens in the second fixture would probably be more useful, plus if your SO likes them better, then you have another reason to stick with those.

 

[Greywaczera]

Ahh I gotcha. Do you think haveing blues and greens will make colors pop just as much as teal? and does anybody know if reef breeders makes a teal for the photon 32 fixture - These lights are freaking awesome

 

[GaryLCrouch]

How about some pics

 

[spjames]

Also, if you look at an absorption chart for different photosynthetic pigments, green is still absorbed to some degree, though not as much as other colors. If you already have a ton of blues that are covering most of the blue and violet spectrum, I can't see a few purples adding much more. The greens in the second fixture would probably be more useful, plus if your SO likes them better, then you have another reason to stick with those.

Did you see the absorption chart I posted ? Why would you use a green led that contains a small % of the required spectra when you can add a different wavelength that hits the peak exactly ?

A ton of blues will not cover most of the violet spectrum. This is the output spectra for a Bridgelux 3w royal blue led...

Violet is 380-450nm. Take another look at the absorption chart and see how many peaks are in this range. If you have a blue led that covers most of the violet spectrum please post the details as I'd be interested to see it.

Once again, this is in relation to what a coral needs to grow. How it appears in your tank is a different story.