LED's with respect to color of Sps corals

[michaellee64]

I am enjoying better growth with my led's vs T5's. I was struggling with my colors due to having only RB/CW in my first fixtures. I went the diy route and they definitely started looking better but still kind of blah. My nitrates were undetectable and my phosphate was at. 01. Well to make a long story short, due to other obligations my tanks were neglected for a few months and I noticed that my corals were starting to get better coloring. Checked my water parameters and found my NO3 at 2ppm, and my PO4 at .04ppm. I believe that my corals were starving due to low nutrients. There is a lot of threads blaming led's for the decline of their sps, but I'm willing to bet that the water parameters might be more to blame.

 

[TropTrea]

Sorry.. ww is warm white and cw is cool white.
WW = warm white
NW = neutral white
CW = cool white
RB = royal blue
CB = cool blue also known as TB = true blue
CY = cyan known as Turquoise
R = red
DR = deep red
UV = ultra violet
TV = true violet

You have to careful on these broad definitions as different manufacturers of LED's define colors differently.

WW or Warm White can be anything under 4,000K
NW or Neutral Withes can be anything between 3,400K and 6,000K
CW or Cool White is any thing over 5,000K
UV or Ultra Violet is anything shorter than 380 nm (invisible to 90% of humans)
HV or Hyper Violet is anything between 380 nm and 430 nm
NV or Near Violet is anything between 420 nm and 450nm.
RB or Royal Blue is anything between 445nm and 460 nm
TB or True Blue is anything between 470 and 480 nm
CY or Cyan is anything between 490 and 520 nm
TR or Turquoise is anything between 505 and 530 nm
GR or Green is anything between 520 and 540 nm
Lm or Lime is a wide spectrum rarely used in Aquariums between 550 and 600nm
AM or Amber is in the range of 580 to 600nm
RO or Red Orange is in the range of 600 to 620 nm
R or Red is in the Range of 610 to 640 nm
DR or Deep Red is in a Range from 630 to 680 nm
IR or Infra Red is anything above 700nm (invisible to 90% of humans)

Note that different manufacturers will name chips at the same wave length different names. Others will claim the same name to a chip that is a different wave length than there competition. Before I pick any Chip I do not like to go by just the name but want to look at the manufacturers specification sheet. All quality LED manufacturers have these available for the general public. I would be very hesitant to purchase a LED that did not have this information readily published.

 

[TropTrea]

My suggestion would be 1 Blue Plus and 1 Purple Plus, lower your white led's and run your blues at 100%. The Razor's use cw which is terrible at color rendering but they did throw in some ww's which helped compensate for it. The purple plus will do an awesome job of bringing out the color in your red and orange corals.

Normally I supplement my LED;'s with Blue Plus bulbs. However when I build my LED fixtures I always use Neutral Whites rather than Cool Whites for Salt water use. This allows me to have more Blues per the number of White chips giving me more growth per Watt. However with Cool Whites you do have a lack in the Red end of the spectrum so some individuals will add 620nm Red Chips or supplement them with a Purple Plus Bulb.

 

[Fredfish]

... Checked my water parameters and found my NO3 at 2ppm, and my PO4 at .04ppm. I believe that my corals were starving due to low nutrients. There is a lot of threads blaming led's for the decline of their sps, but I'm willing to bet that the water parameters might be more to blame.

 

[Big E]

There's a lot of LED vs other light source threads..........please keep this clean to technical info concerning spectrum, coverage, par, ect.

Save the water quality and other comments about how great LEDs are on those other debate threads.

 

[tofubox]

My suggestion would be 1 Blue Plus and 1 Purple Plus, lower your white led's and run your blues at 100%. The Razor's use cw which is terrible at color rendering but they did throw in some ww's which helped compensate for it. The purple plus will do an awesome job of bringing out the color in your red and orange corals.

Thanks alot michaellee64 for your suggestion. I've spoken to a local club member and he has sent me a couple of photos of hes LED + different t5 combos. He personally recommended me blue plus and purple plus as well. I guess i shall try this combo. Very appreciate of this thread. Thanks guys.

 

[AD87]

Well I'm just not happy with my Leds. Did they grow my coral .... yes but not a fast as i want. I have had an Ocean Revive (cheap led) unit over my 35 cube and now have a had a G3 Pro for about 3 months and still not happy.

Im going to go with a ATI fixture 6 bulb.

 

[Reefvet]

You have to careful on these broad definitions as different manufacturers of LED's define colors differently.

Note that different manufacturers will name chips at the same wave length different names. Others will claim the same name to a chip that is a different wave length than there competition. Before I pick any Chip I do not like to go by just the name but want to look at the manufacturers specification sheet. All quality LED manufacturers have these available for the general public. I would be very hesitant to purchase a LED that did not have this information readily published.

Very useful information.

 

[TropTrea]

Well I'm just not happy with my Leds. Did they grow my coral .... yes but not a fast as i want. I have had an Ocean Revive (cheap led) unit over my 35 cube and now have a had a G3 Pro for about 3 months and still not happy.

Im going to go with a ATI fixture 6 bulb.

As many said prior there is more to coral growth than just the lighting. But if all else is ideal then I would say your LED fixtures are probably deficient on the blue end of the spectrum or excessive on the red end of the spectrum. A good color balanced fixture in the range of 70 to 90 watts is all you should need with quality LEd's for a 35 gallon tank. With T-5 however you want something closer to 200 Watts of power.

 

[zachts]

Well I'm just not happy with my Leds. Did they grow my coral .... yes but not a fast as i want. I have had an Ocean Revive (cheap led) unit over my 35 cube and now have a had a G3 Pro for about 3 months and still not happy.

Im going to go with a ATI fixture 6 bulb.

So, How was the coral color? This thread isn't about growth rate.

With a G3 you might have simply been providing too much concentrated light in the red/yellow range. and that stunted growth. Those things can produce well over 1000 PAR below center. Now if your talking 35" cube then you might just not be getting enough spread from them, an issue with using a point source LED over any tank, but also off topic.

 

[AD87]

You guys are right. It's not always about light but I assure you growth wasn't water quality issue. I just had someone take some pictures to show a lot of the shadowing and color issues I am having I will post some pics once I get them.

 

[meshwheel]

Hi guys,
I run the Reefbreeders photon fixture and love it! My tank has only been going for 4 months,but I am getting excellent growth and my SPS are coloring up like crazy!
AND.........................I BURN 84 WATTS FOR 4 HOURS A DAY DOING IT!!!!!
The 4 before and after are sunrise and sunset. Try that with metal halides!!!!
I have a Lumenbright pendant(250 watt) 2 bulbs and a Ice Cap ballast for sale. Mine was just a matter of getting water quality where It needed to be. Then the colors started lighting up like crazy!
I honestly think alot of people blame the lights, when it's something else or a combination of other little things........

 

[TropTrea]

Yes water quality is something that you cannot always put your finger on when it is an issue. A while back I was forced to change brands of salt. Slowly over about 4 months I started noticing some thing changing negative on some corals and positive on others. I increased my water changes and thing looked better. But I could keep up with 25% weekly water changes on a 400 plus gallon water column. I found an independent comparison between brands of salt on here and it listed my new salt as running about 10% of the level of some the trace elements my old salt was was at. I started dosing trace elements and it only took a couple weeks to notice a sufficient change.

In another case when I had separate tanks on there systems I noticed a decline that turned out to be chemical warfare between some corals.

 

[Big E]

Hi guys,
I run the Reefbreeders photon fixture and love it! My tank has only been going for 4 months,but I am getting excellent growth and my SPS are coloring up like crazy!
AND.........................I BURN 84 WATTS FOR 4 HOURS A DAY DOING IT!!!!!
The 4 before and after are sunrise and sunset. Try that with metal halides!!!!
I have a Lumenbright pendant(250 watt) 2 bulbs and a Ice Cap ballast for sale. Mine was just a matter of getting water quality where It needed to be. Then the colors started lighting up like crazy!
I honestly think alot of people blame the lights, when it's something else or a combination of other little things........

Mesh, you are all over threads on RC with similar posts as the one you just posted.

I just asked to keep that type of stuff off this thread---

There's a lot of LED vs other light source threads..........please keep this clean to technical info concerning spectrum, coverage, par, ect.

Save the water quality and other comments about how great LEDs are on those other debate threads.

 

[roberto_lopes]

Well, i'm very happy with the colors and growth of my corals with the Hydra52. But be aware. You will have to buy at least the double of recommended from AI to get a smooth PAR distribution all over the tank.

To compensate the lack of par outside the 20" square the crossing lights are the solution.

Keep this in mind unless you have some SPS only just bellow the fixture.

 

[meshwheel]

I apologize Big E. Your thread! Will stay on topic from now on.

 

[meshwheel]

Roberto,
Thats why I like the reefbreeders. Full leds across the entire fixture. Very comparable to a T5 lighting layout. Great coverage and spread! ALOT of leds to do it, but I think it's actually better. I cannot even run them over 50%.

 

[Big E]

Just saw this article..............I'd like to hear some comments, ect.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2014/4/lighting

 

[luismu]

Hi all,
I’ve been using 4 AI Blue Sol fixtures for about a year and a half over a 6 foot long 125 True View. Before the AI’s, I was using 880 watts of VHO’s. I really wanted to get out of having to buy so many VHO bulbs and was really looking forward to using LED’s.
I don’t think the LED’s are growing corals as fast as the VHO’s and the main reason I’m writing here is to see if I can do anything to improve the coral colors. Since moving to the LED’s, my Purple Deaths have turned brown, still living nicely, just no color anymore. I have a purple and orange Cap, each has faded to brown for the orange and gray for the purple. Again, living, growing slowly, but no color.
Not all corals are dull. My blue Stag is very nice and blue, the green Stag is good and green, although the blue tips it use to have are now gone. Both Stags are in good shape and grow ok.
I have Fire and Ice Zoos that are growing too well and the other assorted sps seem to have ok color.
My photo period is about 12 hr’s and I ramp up to 90% Royal Blue, 93% Blue, and 95% White.
Has anyone had experience with the fading of color on some of their sps? And if so, how can it be corrected.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Luis

 

[JPMagyar]

Luis, I think if you spend some time reading all the threads discussing LEDs you will find that your story is not uncommon and many people in your situation are switching lights in order to get back the colors they liked. If you don't like using so many bulbs you might consider switching to metal halide.