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DIY LEDS - save me

Xavier613

Xavier613

Well I woke up today with a neat little package of 24 XM-L Cool White Leds and 2 more meanwell drivers. :) :) :) so off to home depot I went, picked up the rest of my heatsinks, and here I am. Hoping to have a complete running fixture by tonight. With pictures. If the girlfriend will give the camera up. Lol.
 
Xavier613

Xavier613

Alright, well. I got the entire fixture up and running. Consists of:
24x Cree XM-L Cool White
28x Cree XP-E Royal Blue
6x Cree XP-E Blue
2x Bridgelux Green
2x Bridgelux Turquoise

I am running only 12 of the Cool whites right now because they really really overpower the rest of the LEDS. Driven at almost twice the mA, I actually only need 12 for the entire tank. So i spent an extra like $100 lol. Oh well. Better to have em and not use em then not have enough.

My thoughts on the combo i am running now are that there is a definite lack of some parts of the spectrum... I really like the color from my T5's a LOT better than the overall color of these LED's. I am not sure what is missing, but i am ordering some other types of LEDs to throw into the mix to see if there is anything i can do to bring out the parts i feel are lacking.


Specifically; Yellows, Deep Reds, Pinks, Cream colors, and purples. Sometimes even blues like on SPS specifically. I just dont really see them at all with this light. I am not happy. There are some parts that really just WOW stand out, and so many others that just are not there at all. Looks like a completely different tank than with the T5 fixture.

For reference, my bulb combo is
ATI blue plus
Ati Blue Plus
Ati blue plus
KZ fiji pink
ATI Ab Special
ati blue plus
ati blue plus
uvl super actinic



I feel that this bulb combo produces a lot "truer" color than the LEDS. The leds feels kid of sterile. I dont know. any opinions? anyone nearby wanna stop by and check em out? Ill throw up pictures sometime when i feel like it, but my camera doesnt really get what i am trying to show
 
Fish Brain

Fish Brain

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Your KZ fiji pink is what you are missing. Ecoxotic has magenta stunner strips but I do not know anyone who sells magenta 3W stars. Might be something to look into. If you can find 3W stars, you might be able to replace some of the cool whites with magenta. RapidLED sells Violet UV stars, but I don't know anyone that has used them, or what they look like. You could maybe give two of them a try and see what they do if you can't find magenta stars.
 
TanksNStuff

TanksNStuff

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I agree with Brian. The pink is what you're missing. I've been researching DIY kits myself and I know that RapidLED just got the UV purples, as Brian said. They also have 660nm Reds (they're Osram, not Cree) so either of those two or a mix of them might give you what you're missing.

Another alternative would be Bridgelux Pinks from Aquastyle. They don't list the color spectrum, but they are pink. This site also has reds, UV Violet, and one called Actinic Violet. Both the violets have different color spectrums listed. All the Bridgelux LED's have a max of 700mA though, which is much less than the Crees you're already using... meaning you would likely need new (or at least separate) drivers for the Bridgelux if you mixed them in.
 
Xavier613

Xavier613

glad someone else is up late with me haha..

appreciate the responses. Ive been looking at the UV, and pink/red leds. I am also debating adding some Warm white or neutral whites to compliment my cool whites. I just feel that the LEDS give off too "sterile" of a look right now

im thinking of adding an entire additional string of LEDS, a mixture of say... 2 red, 4 UV, 2 pink, 4 neutral or warm white. maybe instead of the whites, 2 cyan and 2 of something else. (sets of 2 because my tank is 48" long/ atleast 1 for each side to balance.
 
Xavier613

Xavier613

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Xavier613

Xavier613

Its only been like 2 days of use, but mostly everything has response fed positively to the change in lighting. The anemones are still bubbled up, so I guess lighting is not a factor in that lol. All sps are holding their color well, and starting the whites at 25% is not shocking anything. Polyp extention is very nice, and the only thing I can notice a difference in, aside from the lack of reds and purples, is that the palys and zoas seem to be thinner looking, slightly see-through around the edges and skirts. I have seen this often in higher Res pictures under leds, and am not sure why. I am going to see how the next few days go, try to move some to the shady parts of the tank (they are all on the bottom to begin with) and possibly try dosing some iodine.

Water change coming up tonight.... do you guys vacuum out detritus from your sumps/fuges (barebottom fuge for me) or just leave it? I have a lot of build up on the bottom of my fuge, and am probably going to draw my waste water from there when I do my water change tonight. Opinions appreciated.
 
Xavier613

Xavier613

Just wanted to add, I am having a friend come over later in the week with his par meter. We are going to run many many tests at the different intensities of the leds as well as tests on the t5 setup I was using with great success, to compare the two.

Should be noted that as much as I have read online, blue leds don't get measured fully. So par readings for leds are lower because of that.

Pretty excited to see what it measures out at... and of course I will conduct a formal write up and documentation to be posted, possibly stickied, on this site. ;)
 
TanksNStuff

TanksNStuff

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Cool, let us know what your readings are for both setups. One note... make sure you have the par meter set to "electric" not "sun". It will give a slight difference in Par but it will be a bit more accurate.
 
F

Flare1185

Question for you, did you ever have your fixture with just CW and RB? I currently have 2x24 led fixtures with ratio of 1RBx1CW. It's on a dimmable meanwell driver so I can change the color temperature to my liking but was curious if the Blue, Green, and Turquoise really added extra pop to your corals? Also would you be able to take any pictures to show the differences with just RB and CW and ones with all of them on side by side for comparison? I blew 8 CW and 4 RB so was thinking about switching my fixture up a little bit. Thanks.
 
Xavier613

Xavier613

There is definitely a huge difference in color temperature overall. I can control each strand independently, and the cool blue, green, and turquoise really add to the color that comes out of the corals and fish. The overall look is slightly warmer, as the turquoise and green are on the warmer end of the spectrum, but it doesnt overpower and wash the tank out. I have 2 greena dn 2 turquoise and feel that is PLENTY for my 75 gallon tank. so adjust accordingly.
 
F

Flare1185

I'm thinking about getting the same amount and add 2 UV or red led because you said you were missing that spectrum with your corals? If so should I switch out the CW or RB leds? I also have a 75 gl tank. Also would you recommend adding optics or leave it bare? I currently have on all 40 optics.
 
joeyhatch11

joeyhatch11

Where are you guys getting these LED's and drivers? I'm going to do a 30L build soon and would like to make a DIY led fixture for it.
 
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