needmorecowbell
New member
After looking around the web for something that would show me what diodes I would need for my corals to thrive under LEDs, I came up blank. I decided to make my own. I thought, if halides have worked for this long, why not make LEDs as close as possible in likeness to them? I wanted all the pros of halide with all the pros of led.
With that said, this is how I went about doing it. I searched sanjay from Michiganreefer's thread for a spectroscopy of a good 20k 250w fixture which is shown below. I used that information against the spectroscopies of some LEDs, mainly royal blue and cool white, the diodes that almost all units have. I found that we are missing some parts of the spectrum, which might be why we aren't getting all the results we would like. We are missing the 390nm-420nm range, the 540nm-550nm range, and the 680nm-690nm range. These colors are violet, green, cyan, and red. The only problem is that the red isn't obtainable in the aquarium industry to my knowledge. It is called far red, and is used in plant keeping. The main ones to worry about are cyan and violet, because that is where we miss the most. Then green and red, but in much less intensity.
Right now i have a 120w dimmable led unit with royal blues and cool whites. I will be making a DIY strip that will have cyan and uv on it over the summer, and will post back with results. I will be adding a small amount of red and green to the mixture at a later time.
Questions, comments, constructive critisism are welcome.
Here's the pics..
With that said, this is how I went about doing it. I searched sanjay from Michiganreefer's thread for a spectroscopy of a good 20k 250w fixture which is shown below. I used that information against the spectroscopies of some LEDs, mainly royal blue and cool white, the diodes that almost all units have. I found that we are missing some parts of the spectrum, which might be why we aren't getting all the results we would like. We are missing the 390nm-420nm range, the 540nm-550nm range, and the 680nm-690nm range. These colors are violet, green, cyan, and red. The only problem is that the red isn't obtainable in the aquarium industry to my knowledge. It is called far red, and is used in plant keeping. The main ones to worry about are cyan and violet, because that is where we miss the most. Then green and red, but in much less intensity.
Right now i have a 120w dimmable led unit with royal blues and cool whites. I will be making a DIY strip that will have cyan and uv on it over the summer, and will post back with results. I will be adding a small amount of red and green to the mixture at a later time.
Questions, comments, constructive critisism are welcome.
Here's the pics..
