$100 DIY Cree LED XR-E - Actinic Supplement 48" Light Strip

Those lights look awesome!! I am working on building a custom fuge to sit next to my DT and I am trying to figure out what to do for lighting and I found this thread and I am very interested. How many of what color would you recommend for some macro algae and a clam. The tank is going to be 18"x11" and 24" deep.

 

My 24 Ultra Premium LED project on my build Thread.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/coreys-90-gallon-build-87532-3.html#post1065163

 

This is a really great project, I am starting my own at the moment so it's not a coincidence I found yours! So much useful info, thanks for sharing with us!

Little about my current setup:
29gal tank with 2x T5s (Marine and Actinic) and night blue light with lunar cycle (ebay)

I want to replace my Actinic T5 with LED strip (no room for one more T5) and have two Marine T5s (24W each should satisfy my corals I guess)

I'll move to the question which is basically the same you asked in the post above:
How would it look with let's say 6 Royal Blue + 2 Green + 2 Orange-Red. If I look at my current T5's datasheet, it produces a range of 380nm (that ultraviolet.... ?!!) to 700nm, there are two main spikes, one at 420nm and another at 540nm.

I have to split the strip in the middle of my dank due to a current lid-tank design, so each side would have 3 blue, 1 green and 1 orange, blues 60 degrees, green and orange smth like 90.

My plan is to make them all dimmable (all colours independently) which might even let me create a red -ish sunset effect - everything controllable with Arduino controller.

What are your thoughts, have you tried multiple colours yourself? Anyone else? I know it doesn't cost too much to buy couple of extra LEDs but forums are for sharing our experience, don't want waste time inventing wheel if someone else has already done that Any input is much appreciated!

 

thats a great idea and project you got on your hands. I personally havent heard of anyone using this color combo myself. but with dimmable leds per different colors and your buying a few extras leds shouldnt be a big deal. you'll just have to do trial and error until you get what you like. be sure to post some pics up for us! fYI: think theres two different blues (royal blue and blue) you could experiment with as well. to bad they dont make a cree purple/violet color.. that would be nice.

 

Looking at all other actinic light systems, they try to get wavelengths as low as 420nm, royal blue is about 450 so even that is not low enough.. normal blue peaks at approx 470, but not sure if this wavelength is that much useful for coral life.. Knowing I need only few LEDs (10 in total) it won't cost much to try lots out. Since I have only few hours to spare every week, it will take me few months. Haven't decided how to cool LEDs down.. Hopefully few fans and heat-sinks from smth like PC RAM memory on a aluminium strip will do for the hole tank..
will do much more research and start experimenting soon 8)

 

Hey NR, just wondering if I upped the LED count to 12 for a 180, would the driver have trouble? I know it is rated for up to 12 but don't want to overrun the LEDs...

 

should be no problems going to 12 leds. im still using 8 on a 4' 55g, if my tank was longer 5' or 6' i would already gone to 12 leds.

 

K+ Thanks! Should I use Blue or Royal Blue? What makes the difference? Wavelength? Sorry to hijack

 

Yes, the main difference is wavelength:

Royal Blue 450 nm
Blue 470nm

What you actually need is a range of approx 400 to 700 nm so mixing both will give you a wider spectrum but still not perfect. Even so, I have LED actinics (pretty cheap but with lunar cycle) and my corals quite like it, at max light I sometimes find them with slightly open polyps at night!

 

This is a fantastic build, I have been looking for the right resources to do something very similar, I want to add red and green to mine with dimmer switches to mine though, similar to what I have now except Ive used micro 1/8 watt LEDs just to give a moon lighting effect. (or red or green or whatever color you can imagine with RGB on seperate dimmers)