T5 / LED hybrid DIY

[Xavier613]

Took the optics off and the spread is much better. All,deoends on the application but on such a shallow tank they really weren't necessary

 

[mnat]

I may have missed it, but what degree optics where you working with?

 

[Xavier613]

I only used optics on the royal blues, and they were 80 degree optics for the XT-E's from RapidLed. Being that the fixture was only roughly 5" over the tank height, and the heatsinks are set up like halides would be, it caused too much of a focus on the left and right sides of the tank and left the middle awesome bridge void of blue led awesomeness.

80 was the largest size they had so i figured id give it a shot. If the fixture was done in a linear fashion like LED t5 bulbs kinda deal it would have worked very well.

 

[mnat]

I have some extra 100 degree kicking around from my mazzaras depending on how many you need if you want to give those a shot.

 

[Xavier613]

I have some extra 100 degree kicking around from my mazzaras depending on how many you need if you want to give those a shot.

I might take you up on that...

On a side note, i am not at all happy with the spectrum being produced from the Rapidled xt-e royal blues. they are way too far on the "Cool blue" side of the spectrum, and the tank has a "windex" look to it. I am going to take the fixture back down and swap out the rapidleds for new ones that i am purchasing from reef led lights.com.

apparently in my absence from the hobby for 2 years, rapid has gone downhill into a bottom of the barrel whatever we can get cheapest kind of dealer selling outdated versions of their kit leds and crap 'bins' of leds since they are cheaper. i wont be re-ordering from them again. that and their 2 color dimmer kit is a cheaply made undersized piece of junk lol. oh well, you want something done right, do it yourself. Should have just fabbed up my own dimmer box. still waiting on a reply as to why their uv leds wont work lol

 

[jose7878]

Any updates?

 

[Xavier613]

Any updates?

Hey Jose,

Yeah, got the KZ fiji pink bulb and the ati purple plus in. I like the fiji much better so I'm running an ati blue plusnin front and the kz fiji pink in the rear. Using those two inatead of the white leds, and eunning the cool blue and royal blue leds for blues and actinics.

Everything seems to be responding very well, coming from tanks with leds, t5 or mh, doesn't much matter everything is open colorful and happy. Sps are encrusting, I see new polyps on zoa and paly frags, and coloration of most corals has maintained or improved from where they were at the point of purchase.

Overall I'm pretty happy with it, although if I had known I wouldn't be using the whites, I would have gone with just using aluminum U channel and mounting the blues lineraly between t5 tubes. Its tough to find a balance color wise between the t5 and led where one doesn't drown out the other. I think with rows of blues it would spread and mesh better with the t5s rather than having 2 heatsinks centered on each side like halides would be.

If I get time I'm gonna pull it apart and mount them on aluminum channel. But idk when that will be now that corals are in the tank lol.



Overall I'm happy with the combo. The lumens put out my t5s are just much higher for higher spectrum bulbs such as the kz or purple plus so you have to have a good deal of royal blues to maintain that "pop" if that makes sense.

 

[Xavier613]

I feel these most accurately represent how the color looks In person and overall how the corals look, That is until I have a chance to get my dslr over there for some real pics

 

[Trio91]

@Xavier613 , are you still using this fixture? If not do you have still have the mounting legs for this tek light fixture?

Been searching the Web and this thread came up