LED Color Combos

[ponokareefer]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

the debate on this is not how they look, but rather the missing wave lenths that are in the nutral white that catch some of the colors of the corals that the cool whites miss.

if I were building a system right now it would be 1 nutral white, to 1 or 2 royal blue and 1 true violet.

Steve

Cool whites are rated at 5000 to 8300, neutral whites are 3700 to 5000. Where are you going to get the 5000 to 8300 wave lengths? I'm curious why you wouldn't use neutral whites and cool whites to catch even more wave lengths?

[Jfish]

Yeah, i'm debating breaking out the soldering gun again and possibly mixing in a couple neutral whites just to catch some more wave length. Also considering supplementing in a t5 fiji purple for the reds.

[Nabey]

When I recently built my LED fixture, I read through that nano reef thread mentioned above. They recommended having all four main colours, rb, nw, cw and normal blues. If going with one colour of white, they recommend nw's over cw's, with the nw's and rb's in a 1:2 ratio. Not sure how important it is to have nw's over the cw's but supposedly you get a wider spectrum that way.

The normal blues are more of a baby blue colour (whereas rb's are slightly purple) and I've noticed some corals pop more with the blues on as well. You only need a few of them, as they are very overpowering and easily give the whole tank a baby blue colour (unless you like that colour).

The misc. colours (cyan, red, violet, etc) seemed too difficult to add in effectively as the drawbacks seem to outweigh the benefits. Adding those in might be overkill IMO.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by ponokareefer

Cool whites are rated at 5000 to 8300, neutral whites are 3700 to 5000. Where are you going to get the 5000 to 8300 wave lengths? I'm curious why you wouldn't use neutral whites and cool whites to catch even more wave lengths?

ok, your confusing final kelvin equivalent with spectrum. I am talking spectrum. so lets look at a royal blue vs a blue. they both have a peak of about 430nm and they both have small spikes in the 430 to 520 rang also. the blue has more in the secondary range than the royal blue does so the resultant kelvin equivalent is higher.

also they don't have a range of 3700 to 5000 what they mean is some bins will have a 3700 rating, some bins will have a 4000 rating and some bins will have a 5000 rating.. other bins are different. so the bin of led is also very important.

same with the whites, a nutral white will still have wavelengths in the whole range but the amounts will be different than in the cool white. Kelvin is just the perceved color output to our eye which is a combanation of all the different wavelenghts the source emits.

go to page 5 of this PDF to see the spectral chart for the three white leds and you can see what I mean
http://www.cree.com/products/pdf/xlamp7090xr-e.pdf

Steve

[ponokareefer]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

ok, your confusing final kelvin equivalent with spectrum. I am talking spectrum. so lets look at a royal blue vs a blue. they both have a peak of about 430nm and they both have small spikes in the 430 to 520 rang also. the blue has more in the secondary range than the royal blue does so the resultant kelvin equivalent is higher.

also they don't have a range of 3700 to 5000 what they mean is some bins will have a 3700 rating, some bins will have a 4000 rating and some bins will have a 5000 rating.. other bins are different. so the bin of led is also very important.

same with the whites, a nutral white will still have wavelengths in the whole range but the amounts will be different than in the cool white. Kelvin is just the perceved color output to our eye which is a combanation of all the different wavelenghts the source emits.

go to page 5 of this PDF to see the spectral chart for the three white leds and you can see what I mean
http://www.cree.com/products/pdf/xlamp7090xr-e.pdf

Steve

Thank you for the information and link to the chart. I do think the chart's show that a combination of both is still best to get a good mixture of wavelengths.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by ponokareefer

Thank you for the information and link to the chart. I do think the chart's show that a combination of both is still best to get a good mixture of wavelengths.

I wouldn't say that realy, I think it shows that the nutral white is a good ballance of the other two, and combines good with RB. I also feel the adition of True viliot would be a good thing as it provides for a lot of the missing spectrum in the chlorophyll A spectrum peak.

the wave lenth for photosynthisis is 380nm to 750nm (lot of misconception that anything under 400 is UV but UV doesnt start till under 380) the absorption of light by chlorophyll "A" is at a maximum at 430, and the max rate of photosynthisis is about 460, but its actualy a broad curve between 380 and 500. there is also evidence to show that chlorophyll can use light we cannot see in the 320 to 380 range but it is at a lower rate of adsorption so it wouldn't be nessasary at this point.

ok realy got side tracked here LOL anyways what I am looking at for my setup is 1 nutral white, to 1 royal blue to 1 true violet. I am thinking about adding blue to the mix also, but I am ordering two of each to play with and set my exact combo. I want to set a final color that is close to what I like when all LEDs are at 100% this way i can get and exact color with minimal reductions in any one color compared to the others.

Steve

[reefermadness]

The problem you will have with neutral white and even the yellower cool white bins is spot lighting effect (especially with optics)....it's just too hard to blend a yellow light. What they need is a true white with a broader spectrum. Have you built any LED fixtures yet Steve?

No one is using 3000k or 6500k T5s and trying to blend them with blue......

IMO the Cree whites have a ways to go in development for aquarium use. I really like the direction Orphek is going. LEDs designed for aquarium use.....not LED designed for home and industrial use and adopted by the aquarium industry.

[ponokareefer]

Originally Posted by reefermadness

IMO the Cree whites have a ways to go in development for aquarium use. I really like the direction Orphek is going. LEDs designed for aquarium use.....not LED designed for home and industrial use and adopted by the aquarium industry.

The orphek PR-156 looks great. From their website, it looks like you only need 1 for a 48 inch long tank. Can anyone confirm this?

[mseepman]

I saw this light at MACNA and I would say that's a no. I think you need at least 2. They quoted me as needing 5 to cover my 7' by 32" wide tank.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by reefermadness

The problem you will have with neutral white and even the yellower cool white bins is spot lighting effect (especially with optics)....it's just too hard to blend a yellow light. What they need is a true white with a broader spectrum. Have you built any LED fixtures yet Steve?

just some small ones playing around. I have minimixed the spotting by clustering, but waiting for a few more LEDs to come in to try it on a little bigger area. I am still playing with the older x-re for my white and royal blues so that might be why I am not having as much problem as you seem to be having as the newer whites are a lot brighter and will be harder to blend IMO.

Steve