kessil or cree, advice needed

[ReeferBill]

It sounds like you know a lot about LED colorations. What LED combo would you recommend for my 24 gallon nano then?

 

[jedimasterben]

A base configuration is the 2:4:1 ratio of NW to RB to CB. For the larger AiO tanks, the high end on the numbers is 6x NW, 12x RB, 3x CB, and low end is 4x NW, 8x RB, 2x CB. I'd say you should be in the middle of that, 5x, 10x, and 2x, respectively. Maybe trade one of the NW for a warm white, then add a third CB, that way you can keep the NW, WW, and CB on one string (so that it will have enough LEDs to work) and the RB on the other. You should be ok to keep all 12x RB. That would bring your totals to 4x NW, 1x WW, 3x CB, 12x RB. That should net you a roughly 14-16K color temp with both strings at 1000ma (I would tune both drivers to 1000ma).

 

[ReeferBill]

So you see no need for cyan, green or UV?

 

[bucksfan1976]

I did the LED swap on my sons 29 gallon biocube, same result and I was using crap epistar LEDs. I just removed the top and suspended the fixture.

 

[ReeferBill]

Did that help?

 

[jedimasterben]

So you see no need for cyan, green or UV?

White LEDs contain too much green as it is and you will see absolute zero benefit from their addition.

UV is damaging to nearly all life and should not be used. This is commonly mistaken for violet (ultraviolet is less than 400nm, violet is 400-440nm). Violet, and specifically 428nm, is the most used photosynthetic peak, used by chlorophyll a, and is the primary drive of all coral photosynthesis. Second to that is chlorophyll c's 448nm peak, and then peridinin/neo-peridinin's peaks at around 470nm, which again, in the PCP complex, deliver about 95% of its total absorbed energy to chlorophyll a.

Cyan can be helpful with color rendition, but it is difficult to blend with other LEDs, especially on smaller tanks. Not running optics on them helps, but it is a bright LED (since our eyes see green light the best) and can stick out like a sore thumb.

 

[ReeferBill]

Great, thanks. I will make those changes and see if that helps my corals.

 

[ReeferBill]

So I have 24 LEDs plugs. Your total gave me 20 LEDs. Should I not add 4 more LEDs to those plugs?

 

[bucksfan1976]

Yes bill I suspended it aprox 12 inches above the tank and never had a issue since, be for warned removing the canopy it will cause more evaporation

 

[ReeferBill]

I expected more evaporation, just want the corals to look better. Did the corals color back up?

 

[diablomaster9045]

I was in the same boat with my rapid led fixture. with the fixture that close to the tank you need to drop the current of the driver down to 600mA - 650mA. To adjust the amperage you need a multimeter and a philips head screwdriver. 4 bucks at harbor freight will get you a multi meter that will work (the 10A setting works well). rapid led has a pdf you can look at for instructions on adjusting the current. and an FYI use 2 people to do it one to hold the multi meter contacts and the other to turn the adjustment knob inside the driver.

 

[ReeferBill]

What will reducing the amperage do?