Adding other colors LED to existing fixture

[Gracias]

I have a led DIY fixture that is several years old that is 50/50 blue/white ratio LEDS. Works well, no issues but noticed some other LED tanks had more colors and coral pop!

I was considering adding other colors on their own driver. Does anyone recommend this? or am I adding lipstick to a pig?

If so I heard cyan, RB, Green are good colors to add - Can someone recommend the colors I should try? Also, the arrangement - I was thinking of adding a 3" x 24" light bar will the linear bar create color spotting??

 

[Master Shake]

theres red and green but dont add too many of them because they can cause nuisance algae to grow, id just add one or 2 deep reds per 2 foot area of tank with a wide angle lens, there are different color blues you can try and just swap them out with some of the current blue ones you have on there now. the uv is what makes stuff pop because it causes the fluorescence of the coral without making it look too blue

 

[Geraud]

Sadly you cannot in general drive different LEDs at the same intensity. So you might have to go with their own drivers. I recommend the Violet from LED group buy... they make corals pop!

 

[smoq]

Yes, what you are thinking is certainly possible. I modified my DIY LEDs for the upgrade and added a string of near-UV (violet) LEDs, a couple of green and cyan LEDs. Reds are a no-no IMO, unless they are on a separate circuit and are dimmed down almost all the way. The violet LEDs are great to accent fluorescence in corals and are of a wavelenght usable for photosynthesis. If I'd do it again, I would replace cool white with neutral white and change the blue-to white ratio from current 1:1 to about 60:40 towards blue. That being said, I am very satisfied with results my DIY light provides for my corals (mostly SPS). Be aware of different maximum currents for different LEDs, Cree XP-G can be driven up to 1.5A, XP-E and most Philips LEDs have a maximum current of 1A, while the new XT-E can withstand 1.5A. UV leds I have are Bridgelux clones and can be safely run at max 700mA. Please read my article about DIY LEDs for further reference and tell mje what you think: http://www.reefs.com/blog/2012/06/04/diy-your-hobby-new-color-choices-for-diy-led-lights/

 

[Gracias]

Thanks guys, Thanks smoq - after reading you article I will probably swap out some whites and blues for neutral whites and royal blues.
(I have crees now so I will make sure I get the same ones) And add a string of UV's on their own driver as suggested.

Question,


1 Should I put the UV lights on a bar or just scatter over the existing heat sink?
2 My current fixture is 48 leds 50/50 - Do you think adding 8 UV LEDs are enough?

Thanks

 

[bhazard451]

Reds are not a no-no. 660nm is very beneficial in small quantities.

I have made dozens of layout changes to my DIY and Evergrow LED fixtures over the past year. This is the best color/growth layout additions so far

Neutral Whites instead of cool white
4 495nm cyan per 24" 120 degree optics
4 660nm red per 24" 120 degree optics
4 420nm violet per 24" 90 degree
4 430nm violet per 24" 90 degree
4 480nm blue per 24" 90 degree

My SPS grow quite well and keep color. Acans keep red color. It rivals/bests MH/T5. This is after a year of tinkering, starting from just blue/white, so I know what works and what doesn't.

 

[Geraud]

If I were you I would scatter them.

You do not need to add a lot (see the ratios that are used by other people, or by Ecotech for the Radion Pro), so sometimes it can be a pain to find a driver able to run few LED's. If you need to drive less than 6 LEDs, Meanwell has the LDD-***H(W) drivers for that. They are even controllable by PWM. (sadly not by 1-10V from the Apex)

Also note that even though they are called UV lights, that is actually BS. We put glass in front of bulbs precisely because we do not want UV. Those are actually violet in the 405-430nm range.

I am using the True/Hyper Violet from LED GroupBuy and when they are alone you can see a pruplish light, while if you look at them when the Royal Blue's are on they look blue.

 

[Gracias]

Thanks for input I was shopping the net for my list and came across these:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/more...igh-power-led-flexible-light-strip/1466/2903/

If I put these on a dimmable meanwell would they be powerful enough to penetrate a 24" deep tank ?

 

[Geraud]

I do not believe these kind of LED stripes can go very deep in general. Especially since you probably want to use optics when you want to light deep into a tank.

 

[bhazard451]

Thanks for input I was shopping the net for my list and came across these:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/more...igh-power-led-flexible-light-strip/1466/2903/

If I put these on a dimmable meanwell would they be powerful enough to penetrate a 24" deep tank ?

Not even close.

Ebay has a lot of the 3w leds, like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3W-495nm-Tu...440?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ccdb39a20

You just need to pop them off the star.

If anything, it would probably be much easier to just replace the fixture with a newer one unless you are good at soldering.

 

[smoq]

Thanks for input I was shopping the net for my list and came across these:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/more...igh-power-led-flexible-light-strip/1466/2903/

If I put these on a dimmable meanwell would they be powerful enough to penetrate a 24" deep tank ?

Those are SMD leds, they're not a high power LEDs. You can still use them for FOWLR tank but they are not bright enough for hard corals. They don't need to be hooked up to a driver, I install a lot of them at work and all they need is a 12V DC power source.

 

[Geraud]

If you could post a picture of your fixture (especially the underside) we can probably help you more with the difficulty involved in adding new LED's to it.

 

[Gracias]

Yeah I though t super lights were to good to be true.


Here is the pic of bot of existing LED - its about 4-5 years old know bought from another MR member. Thanks for the offer to look at light any advice is appreciated.

 

[Geraud]

It should not be too hard to add LED's in between the existing rows, since there is space for cabling. After that it is a matter of heat dissipation. The Violet I have run only at 500mA and are pretty "cold" compared to royal blue ones. The blue and white could be a problem: you might want to ask the "LED guy" on Nano-reef is opinion about how close can they be.

Other than that you can buy the optics and the mounted LED's, glue them using two-part epoxy (the heat conductive version) and solder them to one another.

ps: something I also noticed: you are keeping your lights with egg crate underneath. That will actually diffuse the light, aka no nice shimmer, but also slightly reduce their intensity. If you want to have a "jumper" protection but no loss, you should look into the nylon nets BRS sells. Very easy to mount.