Help me bring out the Blues!!!!!

We’ll I set up and my fish tank, built my LED lights from RapidLED and was all excited to get some fish in my tank. I finished my Cycle in about 3 weeks all parameters where good. Put in 2 Clown fish and my CuC. Everything looked good and is going well so far. On black Friday we bought am awesome looking blue maxima clam. Under the T-5s at the LFS he was a very vibrant Blue color. Under my LED he is purple with some grey spots. He looks healthy so far, not much ruffling on his edges, not overextending, quick response to light changes. But his color isn’t as appealing as it was in the LFS



Here is a picture from the day I got him. He’s up in the rockwork now and doing alright. But you can tell he dosen’t really look blue.


I really wana bring out his blue color and I think I might need to change some LEDs to do it. Here’s my current setup:

48 dimmable kit from RapidLED
24 Cool White LED running at .750 amps at max
24 Royal Blue LED running at .750 amps max but at ~70%
2x 8”x18” Heatsinks with 80mm fan on each
60~ optics on all approximately 8-10 inches above the water.
4 Blue Moonlights with 120 degree optics

Anyone have some recommendations to bring out his color? Maybe some different colored LED? Should I up the Brightness of my current LEDs? Thanks in advanced for your help!

 

I would increase the power to the blues and decrease the power to the whites.

 

Buy some ecoxotic stunners, really cheap and will give your colors a boost.

 

Try toning down the CW and upping the RB.

 

If you use just the blues does it fluoresce? If not, you may be missing the correct spectrum. Different pigments fluoresce at different wavelengths. The LEDs you are using will tend to be missing 400-440nm and 470-490ish. So, if the pigments need something in that range to fluoresce, they won't. The 470-490 range you can get by adding some regular "bues". The 400-440 you would need something else. I know there are some 420nm LEDs that should cover this range, I forget who sells them though. Also, I think you can get UV stunner strips, which aren't really UV and will cover much of this range. The stunners are pretty wimpy though, I'm not sure you'd notice them over the CREEs. Try turning off the whites first though. If it fluoresces with the blues, then you probably just have too much white, as white will tend to wash out fluorescence.

 

I havent had clams nor have I been running LEDs long enough, but here is my 2c.
First of all, you can turn up the drivers tad bit, especially the ones that run RBs. Mine are adjusted at 1.0A for RB, and the CW, they are rated to be at 1.5A, so you can turn up way more (Mine are at 1.45A). Then Id definately add UVs (at least 12, 3 watts) and blues (Cree XPs at least 6) to widen the spectrum.

Here is my LED build thread, in case you wanna know more

 

So... i turned off my whites and turned my blues to max. my Zoas and flowerpot (which both have green in them) glow like there is no tomorrow. my clam has blue lines that glow all around his body which are VERY dim. you can see them in the pictures, looks more like dots than lines. I'm thinking i might take my lights down right now and de-solder a connection and re-adjust my max amperage. get my blues running 1 amp and get my white running at 1.4 amps and see what happens.

 

I agree with setting the driver currrents higher. Also how long have u had the clam? It may still be getting adjusted to your tank.