Help me with my LED's please

[99taws6]

Ok so I have led's from Steves on my 75 gallon tank. I really don't like the coverage and it doesn't seem as bright as others tanks with leds. I will tell you a little about my setup and see what you think can help.

I have a total of 72 3w leds. I have 24 white, 40 blue and 8 green. Right now they are mounted on the square channel aluminum heatsinks. I have 3 heatsinks and 3 fans. Each heatsink has 24 leds and is run by a quad driver. Each driver runs 6 leds.

Right now my center array is like this wwwwww wwwwww wwwwww wwwwww with 60deg optics
Right now my front and rear arrays are bgbbbb bbbbgb bgbbbb bbbbgb with 60deg optics

The arrays are about 6" from the surface of the water in my fully enclosed canopy. They are about 5" apart with about 4" from the front and back of the canopy. I originally had them with no optics which is supposed to be standard 120deg.

I was thinking about redoing the placement of the led's on the heatsinks because I have way too much blue and when I turn the blue down it seems to get really dim. Also the blues tend to wash out the front of the tank because the whites are in the middle. I have a 2:1 ratio blue/white so that is what everyone recommends.

Please help me decide what to do. Thanks in advance.

 

[Pappy]

Mine are staggered versus an entire row of blues, whites, etc...


Mike D "like the beastie boys" Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Reef Breeders Verified Sponsor]

You could try raising the rows, or putting them closer together, or both. I would notreccomend optics for a tank 24" or shallower.

 

[KJAG]

Having done a few builds including this one, my take is that tighter clusters and no optics get rid of the disco effect as long as youre color ratios somewhat blended. Also, wasn't a fan of the standard 2:1 ratio. So many more color pigments in coral came to life after adding in more of the spectrum, with each led color on their own respective dimmable drivers.Drivers etc can get expensive the more colors you add in but it's nice to be able to dim each separate color. If you didn't wanna tweak it too much I'd add in a few ( just a few)660nm reds on their own channel and some 420nms as well.

 

[Reef Breeders Verified Sponsor]

I have had great experience with a 1:1 ratio, then adding enough greens, reds, blues, and violets to make it a 3:2 ratio (blues/colors to whites). I find 2:1 to be very blue, and more of a 20k look than a 14k as most say.

 

[Pappy]

You could try raising the rows, or putting them closer together, or both. I would notreccomend optics for a tank 24" or shallower.

I disagree with no optics. My light was done and we put it on tank and the optics were on back order...the disco effect was much less and the shadowing and definition within the rocks was way better once optics were added. I believe they are 90 degree.


Mike D "like the beastie boys" Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Reef Breeders Verified Sponsor]

I disagree with no optics. My light was done and we put it on tank and the optics were on back order...the disco effect was much less and the shadowing and definition within the rocks was way better once optics were added. I believe they are 90 degree.


Mike D "like the beastie boys" Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

90 degrees are great, but 60s on any tank shallower than 30" is not reccomended. Around the edges they do help a ton at reducing light spill.

 

[Pappy]

I'm sorry I didn't see where it said he had 60 on there...I def agree with anemone keeper!


Mike D "like the beastie boys" Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Young Frankenstein]

Having done a few builds including this one, my take is that tighter clusters and no optics get rid of the disco effect as long as youre color ratios somewhat blended. Also, wasn't a fan of the standard 2:1 ratio. So many more color pigments in coral came to life after adding in more of the spectrum, with each led color on their own respective dimmable drivers.Drivers etc can get expensive the more colors you add in but it's nice to be able to dim each separate color. If you didn't wanna tweak it too much I'd add in a few ( just a few)660nm reds on their own channel and some 420nms as well.

Shores thanks for the info, could you explain what bulbs you replaced and how big of a tank you are lighting, also total wattage and cost. Thanks.

 

[Singlefin]

I would alternate the whites and blues instead of having them in their own rows. (if I read correctly). Are you doing cool white or natural white? Might want to look into ocean coral white OCW LEDs from ledgroupbuy.com to bring out some color. They have red, turquoise, and cool blue on one star.
Crappy iPhone pic. Haven't messed with dimming colors yet.

Part of me is salty...,

 

[Onedesign1]

I know you have what you have already so lets start with that:

- 60 degree optics are way too tight unless you raise the fixture 12-14" from the water surface. Lose the optics.

- I'm not clear on what you are calling arrays but I believe they are rows of LEDs from left to right and the center row is all white and the outer (front & Back) rows are blues and greens. Slide those outer rows in such that center to center between the diodes in each row (array) is no more than 3" apart.

- 2-1 ratio is perfectly fine plus you have some greens in there.

Now....if you're willing to do some work:

1st off you have way more LEDs than you need, bridgelux or not. For a 75-90g using Crees I use 48-54....(ask Pappy above how his tank is doing)

Remove 4 greens and replace with just 2 reds...I prefer the Cree XPEs at 620nm but anything should do ok if used judiciously

- Start with the center row (array) and plant 1 red dead center on each half.
- On each side of the red stick a white
- On each side of the whites stick a green
- On each side of the greens stick a blue
- Then a white each side
- Then a Blue each side

so each half center row looks like BWBGWRWGBWB

In the outer rows mix and alternate the remaining blues and whites. The center row I depicted would only have 11 each half or 22 total row. Times 3 rows total LEDs 66. Again using Cree's I would only go 48-54.

Lose the 60 degree optics completely. If you cannot raise it higher than where it is run with no optics...note you may get splash and salt creep at this height.

If you can raise it up to 9" then 90 degree optics would be the ticket. Optics do truly improve alot of things including disco ball effect, shadows and contrast....everything looks more well defined. not to mention they help push the light deeper. Bottom line is even if you ran wide open 120 degree lenses the result is better than with no lens.

SO basically I think you have your stuff spaced way too far apart and way too close to the water with way too tight of optics. That combination is not letting you individual colors blend at all. I suspect that from the side of the tank you see tremendous color banding and from the front it seems like the blues are over powering everything. And I bet you can see the cone of the light from the optics as well.

Anyhow, I hope the above helps somewhat. There's plenty of help here so ask away.

 

[KJAG]

Shores thanks for the info, could you explain what bulbs you replaced and how big of a tank you are lighting, also total wattage and cost. Thanks.

That build was more along the lines of just messing around: i needed all those LEDs for two builds one for Home and one to cover my lady's office but first threw them all onto one heatsink to see the effect of tight clusters w no optics. Had it over my Solana for a few months but only ran it at about 20% intensity. All my builds are tight clusters now with more LEDs than needed run at a lower intensity. It's nice to cram in a bunch of colors in a small space on their own drivers so you can tune the color to a broader range. Just preference.