LED colors

[NyteGTI]

So I'm going LED on my NC12. since im not that electrically savvy and I like the look of the stock hood, i'm gonig to stick with a plug & play kit from RapidLED. the question is what color LED in what qty should I be geting. it's 12 3W XPE/XPG LEDs & probably 2 dimmable drivers so I can control blue & white seperately. I know it's a personal preference but if I'm looking for that 14K look during daylight what should I be doing?
Also should I pickup some magenta ones(or any other color) from another site & just solder?

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[ldb]

Try and get a few greens and reds in there as well. The white, blue, and royal are lacking in other parts of the spectrum that other lighting methods cover. Mh and t5 are more like a shotgun covering much of the spectrum where led are more like a sniper. They cover a very specific range of the spectrum.

 

[mnat]

I think if you went 1 to 1 white to blue it is going to be too white. Granted with dimmable drivers you can dim them to get any color you want. Most systems run 2 to 1 blue to white to get a 14 to 20k look.

I also agree with the above poster, there are a ton more LED colors out there now and you can plug and play.

 

[greybolt03]

I would suggest 2 to 1 blues to whites and mix in magenta and green... That's what I plan on doing in my redsea max 250

 

[TanksNStuff]

I did a lot of internet searching on the same topic before I ended up just buying my Apollo LED's. From what I gathered, the 2 blue to 1 white ratio seems to be the most popular as a base to start with, then mixing a few other colors in.

UV / Purples seem to cover a good part of what the RB/W combo misses as far as PAR is concerned and give you the missing spectrums that you'd find in T5 and MH bulbs.

The reds (including magenta) and greens seem to be more of an aesthetic look to the human eye than a benefit to growing corals. At least that's what I've heard a lot while reading about colors. They do improve the look though so worth looking into if you go the LED route. Otherwise, RB/W combo (even with independant dimming) can leave you unhappy with appearance.

A lot of people are raving about using the Ecoxotic stunner strips to complement the RB LEDs. Jim (downbeach) has a few that he uses with his Amazon-LED's (those cheap ones ) + 1 AI Sol LED. When he added 2 or 3 magenta strips, it really improved the colors.

http://reefbuilders.com/2011/07/18/magenta-royal-blue-stunner-led/

You can get the stunner strips at many online stores.

 

[ldb]

My ai sols have a blue, a royal, and a white. I think 1 blue to every white would be too white.

 

[demon16v]

Hey Ryan,
I have a 14gal BioCube (stock hood) with 17 Cree 7 white and 10 blue. I have the whites turned so far down (say 25 %) and blues at half. It is still WAY to much light. It will bleach an SPS coral in no time if I turn it up. I also have a BioCube 8 (stock hood) with 12 Cree 4 white 8 blues on one controller. Turned down to 35%. The color is about 15k. Same problem, will bleach anything if i turn higher. Add any other color will cause that color to spot light and not blend right. I've tried it and that's what happened. We are limited because of our stock hoods. In the Stunners strip LEDs are closer together and blend better. If you want to have different colors go with 3 of the Stunners I think you'll be happy then. It use to be that you couldn't have to much light but with LEDs it seems different. I've seen many setups, homemade, Sol, Chinese etc and everyone has them turned down.
Hope that helps.

 

[fatoldsun]

I've also read that the other areas of the spectrum are better achieved using a mix of cool white and warm and/or neutral white. I've also read about the spotlighting issue with reds - definitely don't use an optic on a red.