Need help with RapidLed

[Billybatz9]

Hey guys,

I got surprised for Christmas with a RapidLed setup. My gf picked out the colors which is what I am worried about. Lmao. Are these colors okay?

3 UV
3 X-PE Blue
6 XP- GA Cool White
12 XT - Royal Blue

 

[rwb500]

pretty good actually! The lack of warm white might be seen as an issue by some, but when people first started building LED's, warm white was hardly ever included and the fixtures still looked and worked just fine. In fact even on my more recent builds, a lot of times I end up using them with the warm white LED's turned off, and everything is healthy and looking good.

I also don't remember what the "correct" number of UV diodes is. I believe they're not very powerful so 3 should be fine, but just double check that.

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

for that many LED i would say 3 UV is good…i have 4 on my fixture with less LEDs and it looks fine, but i don't think the coral liked it very much at first, almost everything was cooked and died…all good now though.(side note, all the corals added came from my other LED lit tank with no UV)

do you have drivers and heatsinks?

 

[Billybatz9]

for that many LED i would say 3 UV is good"¦i have 4 on my fixture with less LEDs and it looks fine, but i don't think the coral liked it very much at first, almost everything was cooked and died"¦all good now though.(side note, all the corals added came from my other LED lit tank with no UV)

do you have drivers and heatsinks?

Yes I do. I was just curious about the white to blue ratio. I have 12 blue with 6 white. Will that make the display look way too blue? And what exactly do the UV ones do?

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

Yes I do. I was just curious about the white to blue ratio. I have 12 blue with 6 white. Will that make the display look way too blue? And what exactly do the UV ones do?

If they are individual drivers you will be fine..even if they arent it should be fine...mine is 50/50white to blue and if I turn it full the whites easily wash out the blues...

Thev UV will excite the algea on the corals and cause them to display very vibrant colours...same way a "black light" works...

Depending on the actual wavelength of th UV led, they can be very good for photosynthesis, as been tested most algea living on the corals is most active to light in 420 spectrum and almost equaly active in the 455 wavelength. most UV leds are too low though generally ranging from 405-420.. i cant remeber what rapid sells...the 455 mark is hit by your royal blues...the rest of the leds simply make it more pleasing to our eyes...as in nature very little white red or yellow or green light makes to the depths coarls tend to grow. ..

 

[ghellin]

I assume you have two drivers for the 24 LEDs. Know that what ever driver you end up putting the UV on you can only drive them to 700mA.

 

[Billybatz9]

I assume you have two drivers for the 24 LEDs. Know that what ever driver you end up putting the UV on you can only drive them to 700mA.

Should I return some leds and get a different set? Which color combo do you recommend.. I want the color to look like this tank...

 

[ghellin]

So hard to say, I like UV on its own channel since it can only handle the 700mA. Rapid LED has a driver that is perfect for 3-10 UV LEDs http://www.rapidled.com/0-10v-dimmable-nano-driver-with-potentiometer/ Then you could do all RB on one driver, and the Whites and Blues on the 2nd driver you have.