Questions about my LED

[basiab]

I have a 24 gallon Aquapod (19X17X17) with some fish and a variety of LPS corals.
I used to have 96W of T5 lighting. About 8 weeks ago I bought a DIY LED fixture from an MR member. It is 72W. There are 12 3w CRE white and 12 blue. There are 4 rows with each row having 18w. The white and blue alternate. There are two controllers. One for the two inner rows and one for the two outer rows. So it looks like:

B W B W B W Controller 1
W B W B W B Controller 2
B W B W B W Controller 2
W B W B W B Controller 1

So far I have controller 1 on for 10 hours and controller 2 for 5 hours.
Most of my corals seem to like the new light and are growing better. But one large open brain was bright red and opened to about 6 inches. Now it is hot pink and only opens to 4 inches. It was on my rock so I moved it down to the bottom and moved another brain up in its place. Too early to see if it helps.
So one question is should I increase the time of controller 2 or is it too much light? The other question is the use of optics. As I understand it the optics focus the light. But since this is so strong maybe I am better off leaving some of the light to diffuse?

My fish were a bit spooked and hid for a few days. But now they are back as usual except for my Royal Gramma. He used to swim all over the place. Now there are very distinct shaddow areas and he keeps to them and very rarely goes into the lit up parts.
In general the look of the tank is really amazing. The brightness, color and shimmer affect really make it worth it.

 

[skene]

like all lights you need to give eveything time to adjust. either raise the fixture higher or dim the lights and allow time to adjust.

 

[basiab]

When I first got it I only put on one controller so that was only half the lighting. I have slowly been increasing the time for the second one but maybe not slow enough. There is no dimer on this.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

You have too much light for your open brain-move it to the shade.

If you have dimmable driver, you should dim down the maximum output when both controller is on.

 

[basiab]

You have too much light for your open brain-move it to the shade.
QUOTE]
Thanks
What about use of optics?

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

You have too much light for your open brain-move it to the shade.
QUOTE]
Thanks
What about use of optics?

The use of optics will increase intensity where the light shines but also scales down in coverage.

 

[basiab]

Scaling down coverage is why I have areas that are really in the shade which my fish like.
But since the optics increase intensity and I don't have a dimmer, would it make sense to remove the optics from some of the center lights?

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Scaling down coverage is why I have areas that are really in the shade which my fish like.
But since the optics increase intensity and I don't have a dimmer, would it make sense to remove the optics from some of the center lights?

I build most of my lights without optics in the center to minimize the hot spot effect.

 

[basiab]

Thanks for the LED lessons.

For those of you wondering if you should go LED, IMO it is a no brainer. The looks of the tank, the growth of the coral, saving on your electric bill and saving on buying bulbs adds up to a big YES. And there is one more subtle issue in that bulbs begin to deteriorate as soon as you start using them. So there is going to be a certain amount of time your corals will be getting a lot less than you think. And if a bulb deteriorates faster than usual you won't know until your corals tell you or you start getting unwanted algae growth.

 

[NewfiDog]

Hey Basiab i told 3 electricians and 1 electical engineer about the LED's i have for my reef. All 4 told me the same thing all at different times and 1 on 1 conversations. That LED's loose there color spectrum much faster than MH, or T5. So if this is the case even though the LED bulb will last till 50,000 hours that dosent mean its still putting out the spectrum, which is why you cange MH and T5 bulbs. I dont know how true this is mabey someone here like wingo knows but if thats the case thats not good news. Im a little worried that ill have to buy new LED lights alot sooner than i would like. Hopefully its not an issue.

 

[basiab]

That LED's loose there color spectrum much faster than MH, or T5. .

I havn't found anything documented about the spectrum life. I will look around some more. But this technology changes by the day and even if it was true a year ago it may no longer be true. And I really doubt it. Can you imagine all these people spending so much money with part of the equation to save money and the thing doesn't last 2 years.

 

[basiab]

Does LED light deteriorate?

I asked the question to a very knowledgable person who has studied and written articles about LED's.

The answer is:
Because LEDs have no filaments to deteriorate from heat, Kelvin temperature and intensity are said to remain constant over the life of the LED.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Your information is more or less correct.
However, spectrum does "shift" in white LED BUT not like the post by newfidog's informants said of faster than MH/T5....

The spectrum shift of white LED is very slow plus it shifts to the blue region when it happens. Don't we coral keepers like blue anyway? :tongue:

One reason for the spectrum shift is the deterioration of the coating on the white LEDs, not the LED metal alloy.

Intensity lost is due to many factors including matrix migration .... but once again that happens very slowly, compared to other lighting technology, unless we over current or over heat the LED.

I asked the question to a very knowledgable person who has studied and written articles about LED's.

The answer is:
Because LEDs have no filaments to deteriorate from heat, Kelvin temperature and intensity are said to remain constant over the life of the LED.

 

[basiab]

I think I will remove the optics and see how my corals like it.