Timfish Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 . . . Even after all the lighting research I have done, I still feel pretty ignorant about it all . . . Your in good company! The physics of light and how corals use it makes rocket science look like basic math. Also like this thread, lot of good discussion and info. . . . Can you tell me the big difference between neutral white and cool white? . . . Color temperature or Kelvin. Some may consider this an overly simplified explanation but for reference sunlight is 5500K and saltwater filters out the red then yellow then green wavelengths leaving light bluer the deeper you go and raising the color temperature. This is why many aquarist use bulbs with color temperature or Kelvin rating of 14,000K or 20,000K. The cool white LEDs are 5000K to 8000K the nuetral white are 3700K to 5000K. The actinic LEDs just have their wavelength listed but when mixed in different ratios with the whites will give higher color temperatures or bluer light. Obviously there are different opinions on what looks best. As far as what is best for the coral is far more ambiguous. Different species will grow better under different lighting conditions than others so there is no such thing as an "ideal" lighting fixture or combination. (I would generally think the wider range of bulbs included the better but people are obviously very succesfull with just one or two types of bulbs.) Advanced Aquarist has several good research articles by Dr. Joshi Sanjey and Dana Riddle among others for more reading. To help complicate your decision making process bear in mind the fluorescing pigments a coral uses is sensitive to only one wavelength in the blue and green range, for example you may need a specific wavelength of blue to get a desired orange fluoresence. Non fluorescing pigments will need need that range of wavelength for that color, ie - yellow rock polyps (non- fluorescing) will need yellow light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aqua Girl Posted November 16, 2011 Author Share Posted November 16, 2011 Timfish> The more I learn, the more I realize how much I dont know... seems to be the story of my academic career at UT. I remember learning about lights and Kelvin a few years back in my first Physics course, but it has since all escaped me. So basically what you're saying is that I can go with one shade of white and it will not compromise anything to my knowledge, OR I could do a mixture of whites, and it may or may not benefit the corals depending on what light specificities that they require. Seems like I have a decision to make. I will probably get on the phone or email the rapidled folks and have them guide me or educate me a little better before I make a call on the colors just to be sure. Since I plan on going dimmable, and only using 20, out of the 24 leds, it will allow me the option to play around with whatever color configuration so I definitely dont think I can go wrong but I just want to make sure I do this right and to my best knowledge (which is still currently lacking). Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 FYI I got word back from rapidled and they are coming out with a plug and play for the biocube as the current plug and play 24 led doesn't have that long of wires to really alternate like you want. they said it should be out in a couple weeks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 I dont feel so bad after reading this. Threads on other forums confuse the hell out of me as Im no electrician and hearing the stories about using to many or too few LED bulbs with the wrong driver ect....or whaterver they were trying to convey, but in the end they burn up a bunch of LED's and was a waste of money. I'd like to go LED in the next few months but will be on a 48" tank and that seems pretty common but still have yet to find a thread that explains WHY you must use this many LED in series parallel ect with this driver pulling "x" amount of mA ect....Im no electrician by any means so a simple formula would be nice.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 . . . The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know . . . AMEN! After 25 years I still feel very ignorant of what's going on in our tanks! So basically what you're saying is that I can go with one shade of white and it will not compromise anything to my knowledge, OR I could do a mixture of whites, and it may or may not benefit the corals depending on what light specificities that they require. . . so I definitely dont think I can go wrong but I just want to make sure I do this right and to my best knowledge (which is still currently lacking). Thanks! I want to emphasize there is no "wrong" or "right" answer. What ever type of bulbs you use there will be coral species that will do well and species that will not do so well. If you just used 5000K bulbs your tank will look yellowish and you could have corals grow well but the main color will tend to be brown. The "ideal" color temperature or combination of bulbs depends on what YOU like and the colors you are trying to bring out in your corals. Most people like a mix of white and blue that highlights the fluorescing pigments many corals have. AquaJohns reccommendation of 1:1 would work fine with many corals. If there are specific corals you want I would talk with other hobbyists who are keeping them and see what type of lighting is working for them. JasonJones ratio of 4:1:7 will work well also and I would think work better for corals with a lot of fluoresence. If you wanted more corals like Pink Birdsnest that don't flouresce much you would want more white light and less blue than either of those (like 3/2 or 6/1/7). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 . . Threads on other forums confuse the hell out of me as . . . but still have yet to find a thread that explains WHY you must use this many LED in series parallel ect with this driver pulling "x" amount of mA ect....Im no electrician by any means so a simple formula would be nice.... I've found some of them pretty confusing too. If you want a simple formula they are all basicly using Ohm's law and I'd pass you off to the internet at this point for an explanation (yes, it's a copout). Part of the confusion is a specific LED will work with different voltages but depending on how it's configured will put out more or less light and have longer or shorter life expectancies. Then you have drivers, or power supplies, that put out different voltages and have different wattages. So for a given LED you might configure it with 5 hooked up together in series to get an individual voltage on the low side of it's operating range with one manufacturers driver and a lower light output, but with a different driver you might hook up 4 but they are running at a higher voltage and putting out more light (and shorter life). Now to further complicate things you have LEDs that are designed with different operating voltages and different light outputs so you can't mix and match them without really understanding how the electrical circuit is working. How well the LEDs are cooled is another very important factor. I am really glad Biocubed posted rapidled.com. I hadn't come across them before and they look like they have nice DIY kits easy for the novice with some basic assembly skills to put together and save considerably over ready to go fixtures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Yeah Im looking at a couple smaller kits from them to start with and see how that turns out. Im wondering if one very large heatsink would be any better or worse than using 4 smaller heat sinks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 I wouldn't think so, but I'd think rapidled.com would have some suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaJohn Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 I don't want credit for 1:1 its the basic setup from rapid and to me it looks good but then again I have more fish than coral but im working on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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