Led q&a

I did this on another forum, and figured I would share my knowledge with everyone on 3Reef as well. If you have any LED questions, shoot away!!

 

How many LED's would you need on a standard 10 gallon tank to keep SPS, LPS, Softies, and Clams? What color combo would be best?

 

I would do 18 LEDs, 6 cree XT-E 450nm royal blues, 6 cree XT-E or XP-G 7500k cool white, 2 reds, 1 green, and 3 violets. Keep the XT-E on seperate drivers, and run them at 1300ma max, that way you get the most out of them. Be sure to start at a lower power, of course.

 

Well that was a fast reply Thanks so much!

 

It was kinda a flop 2 years ago http://www.3reef.com/forums/led-aquarium-lighting/led-q-92437.html

But now with a lot of mis-information surrounding the testing and effectiveness of LEDs, thus making LEDs more popular, you may have more interest/ success.

 

So, seriously... what is your response to my tank?

 

I assume this would also be okay for a biocube 14. Is this a DIY, and how much am I looking at as far as cost?

Also I currently run a par38 rapidLED bulb non-dimmable, 7 leds, 3 Royal BLue, 1 Cool Blue, 2 Cool White, and 1 Warm white. Some of my SPS lose color, and I know its not from params, will fixture hieght and amount of daily light allow for a gain of color? It currently runs from 4pm, to around 12:30am ish and is suspended ~13" off the water.

Thanks, Adrian

 

It is a DIY, unless you could find a fixture like that already built. I would run your lights about 12 hours a day, also reds, greens, and violets will help a lot with colors.

 

LOL, LEDs are effective, that is beyond proven.

 

It is very nice. The nicest led tank i have ever seen. However you have a ton of money into your lighting to get as many spectrums as possible (which is very important)
But coloration is much more than lights. Although they are a great deal of where the color comes from we cannot forget the impeccably maintained nutrient levels and the highly nutritious reef nutrition products that you feed.

I'm not here to debate it because it's honestly a fruitless debate. I am just so hard headed because 1. I have not seen the results to back it up yet. (granted I do see a lot of nice led tanks, I only see halides with VHO or t5 as spectacular ones. I'm talking totm and other amazing tanks) 2. I have had extensive discussions with Sanjay examining spectral outputs between halides and LEDs. Side by side they just don't even compare. I don't even know how to word this but it has been hours and hours of debate! Corals adapt but science doesn't lie. And 3. The amount of people who are "experts" on lighting just because they have had LEDs on their first setup for 3 months really annoys me and leads to more misinformation on the lighting subject.
Obviously none of these are directed at you or anyone else... but it's kinda been building up and you asked so I told.