A certain "look" and how do I get it?

[Mark75]

I think I know what look you mean, and in my opinion, it's a function of light intensity, light direction, and water clarity, not spectrum.

I agree, I don't think it is just spectrum.

Metal Halide, T5's, and LED all look different to me even at the same spectrum. I will go as far to say even LED lights from different companies look different at the same spectrum. I have a friend with Radion X30's(maybe Gen 3) that I have never been able to match the look of with my first gen. Hydra 52.

 

[oreo54]

I agree, I don't think it is just spectrum.

I suggested how to test it.. Give it a try. Feel free to post my failure if indeed is..
MH's and led shade similar..Lumen/watt output is similar.. what else do you have?
Unicorns and fairies?

 

[Mark75]

I suggested how to test it.. Give it a try. Feel free to post my failure if indeed is..
MH's and led shade similar..Lumen/watt output is similar.. what else do you have?
Unicorns and fairies?

I have been playing with my light and tried your suggestion and it is close but not the same. It is almost like the "white" light on my Hydra 52 is too white? Instead of the crisp/clear you see in the pictures you get a snowy almost over exposed white.

 

[oreo54]

I have been playing with my light and tried your suggestion and it is close but not the same.

Thanks. It can never be exactly the same.. Getting reasonably close is the primary goal..

It is almost like the "white" light on my Hydra 52 is too white? Instead of the crisp/clear you see in the pictures you get a snowy almost over exposed white.

hmm.. Like I said the big problem is how the white is made..
Also in photos exposure can kill any "glare" that one would normally see.
As I stated later.. would prefer to start w/ a R/G/B/A/Cyan/Violet array w/ no real whites..

You know I do remember someone who did this IN REAL LIFE (for jda) come to think of it.
Pretty sure it was this gentlemen..

Modern "white" aquarium T5 use the RGB trick

Sincerely Lasse

No white light

it is a blue LED covered with a phosphorous layer. This Picture show a typical spectra for a low Kelvin White LED My max settings is 80 % of amber, cyan and 100 % of the other in this matrix https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/no-white-light.318714/page-2#post-3944212 Sincerely Lasse i...

www.reef2reef.com

Meanwhile set everything to the best color and drop the overall intensity.. See if that clears it a bit..
Since it's your tank for all I know atm you are picking up haze from excitation of water impurities..

Diagnosing & Eliminating Cloudy Aquarium Water - ReefBum

A bacterial bloom is a common cause of cloudy water in a reef tank. A UV sterilizer is a good way to solve the problem and clear up the cloudiness.

reefbum.com

 

[oreo54]

Just a bit more..

The reason for the experiment with RGBA chip was the fact that too much intensity of the wavelengths between 500 and 600 will “kill” the magnificent fluorescence of many corals for your eye. Folks solve this problem with running extreme blue tanks but I like a white crispy light. The RGBA technology tricks your eyes to see a white light even if it’s only 4 different main wavelengths involved and hopefully it does not “kill” all of the fluorescence from your corals. The LED engines solution do not give any disco effect because the different LEDs is closely packed with a very small footprint

Build Thread - Lasses Dream Build

@bknapp Excuse me - of course, thank you as well. Sincerely Lasse

www.reef2reef.com

so the point is I'm not really starting from zero here

You know I was thinking about the problem of LED's emulating MH's and "industry".
As you have now seen it is very time consuming to do it.. Why would manuf bother if alternate, and simpler pathways are available? That is really what most have done.. line of least resistance..
Heck one MH "14000" doesn't look like another from a different manuf..
Or does the same bulb look the same way with 2 different ballasts..
What a mess.

Best that was done is the t5 blue plus emulation. Blue plus is a pretty simple spectrum.
Yet even that is a little hit or miss and tweaking it to "better" adds cost and some physics issues.

In freshwater lighting the same "problem" exists... LED vs t5's
Why can't they look identical.
Actually one question is why should they?

 

[jda]

...back to the real world. Have you had a chance to look at Therman's threads? If you like this, then get some Photon V2's raise them way up and run them at 100% on all channels. If you don't like them, then you have some MH in your future - they do not have to be power hungry or hot. 150w halides cover more area than a xr30 Radion at about the same wattage without much heat.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

What do these type of colors do for you? Too white, too blue, too something, good something or other?


[url=https://flic.kr/p/2bccu8w]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2hvrwxy]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2cH9BWk]

that's a very nice tank. Love the clams.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

...back to the real world. Have you had a chance to look at Therman's threads? If you like this, then get some Photon V2's raise them way up and run them at 100% on all channels. If you don't like them, then you have some MH in your future - they do not have to be power hungry or hot. 150w halides cover more area than a xr30 Radion at about the same wattage without much heat.

with supplemental T5's (DX-18's) how many 150w fixtures down the middle would you recommend for a 6ft 180 gallon?