I usually don’t ask for advice, I just do the research and then jump in like I know what I’m doing…
This this time I have an expensive lighting system and a tank full of corals at stake.
About five years ago I invested between 400 and 500 bucks on a fully programmable black box LED system:
can set the intensity to whatever down to the half hour
blue and white channel
can save multiple programs
it has I think 96 or more 3 watt diodes
32" fits my 90 gallon perfectly
tank looks beautiful under it
corals are healthy and do grow
It’s ok but I want something better, the research I’ve been doing has me believing that there are better diodes/better spectrums that will give the corals more color and grow faster, It seems as if SB Reef Lights, has got the right idea.
So my plan is to replace all of the diodes in my light (five years old and don’t know the specific NM values of the diodes) with new ones of the right/better spectrum.
My first thought was to order them individually from eBay and switch them out, would be cheap and I am fairly confident in my ability to do it.
Then there is the fear of not knowing the quality of the diodes and hoping to get good ones that will last.
Second thought was to order a couple SB retro fit boards and just remove the diodes (already proven to be high quality) and replace the ones in my fixture.
So for a total of $140.00 and some elbow grease I could have a light that would probably cost over 500 new…
Am I crazy?
Anyone have any thoughts or experience to throw at me?
I’ve been doing extensive research myself on LED lights as I want to upgrade my current setup to get that “pop” and promote coral growth. What separates the high dollar fixtures from the black boxes is that the UV is less than 420nm on the better lights and that’s what truly makes corals pop. I have played with the settings on AI hydras to find this out. My problem with the “puck” style lights is that they produce a lot of shadows even when hung high over the light and that’s why I prefer the “board” style. I am. Interested to see how yours turns out
Not sure where Bryant is, but he is really good at that kind of stuff. Maybe he’ll jump on here soon enough to help you out. I would like to see the out come if you ever decide to do it.
Here’s the spectrum breakdown for that light I showed up yesterday, if it helps at all. I also have a friend who’s degree is computer engineering so he’s pretty good at that stuff. Helps me with all my electrical projects. Let me know if you have any technical difficulties and I can ask Matt
My problem with the "puck" style lights is that they produce a lot of shadows even when hung high over the light and that's why I prefer the "board" style.
That’s exactly why I took the lenses off of my current diodes, to eliminate the shadowing and reduce the disco effects
I sacrifice some penetration/par but I’m still only at85-90% intensity at mid day.
I think SB has better lenses I may be able to leave them on. and they claims to have a better color layout, although I probably can’t match the layout with my current set up. Due to the channel configuration.
I’ve read a little about the UV, AN claims to hit the right color, I’m starting to understand this lighting stuff a little more now, and am anxious to see if it works
My xr30 had a disco effect going on in my tank til I went with the 120° wide angle lens. Now it has a great balance. I still had to add 2 Hamilton t5 retro kits to offset the shadowing my corals were getting. Now my 60 cube is fully lit front to back.
As for led’s make sure you go with a quality brand. If I were to change anything I’d start with Cree and if Cree sismt have the color I desired then probably Phillips.
Wide angle lenses are your friend.
[quote=“JustSumGuy, post:7, topic:9139”]
My xr30 had a disco effect going on in my tank til I went with the 120° wide angle lens. Now it has a great balance. I still had to add 2 Hamilton t5 retro kits to offset the shadowing my corals were getting. Now my 60 cube is fully lit front to back.
As for led’s make sure you go with a quality brand. If I were to change anything I’d start with Cree and if Cree sismt have the color I desired then probably Phillips.
Wide angle lenses are your friend.[/quote]
Thanks for the advise, I will look into Cree and Phillips,
Could you suggest a source that might save me time in searching? I’m guessing they would have lenses to fit their diodes, or do you know a source for them?
[quote=“JustSumGuy, post:7, topic:9139”]
My xr30 had a disco effect going on in my tank til I went with the 120° wide angle lens. Now it has a great balance. I still had to add 2 Hamilton t5 retro kits to offset the shadowing my corals were getting. Now my 60 cube is fully lit front to back.
As for led’s make sure you go with a quality brand. If I were to change anything I’d start with Cree and if Cree sismt have the color I desired then probably Phillips.
Wide angle lenses are your friend.[/quote]
Thanks for the advise, I will look into Cree and Phillips,
Could you suggest a source that might save me time in searching? I’m guessing they would have lenses to fit their diodes, or do you know a source for them?
I would appreciate it.[/quote]One site that I do remember was www.rapidled.com there was another site that used to be popular for aquarists to buy led’s from just can not remember the name if I have it saved on my computer I’ll post it for yoy
I have designed two LED lights one with 96 leds with 4 channels and another with 48 leds with 3 channels
even trying to mimic name brand fixtures, I could not get what I wanted, ended up scraping them both and bought a Photon 48 and supplement that with two t5s
OK, so I chickened out, I’m going to buy an SB light, I believe.
Does anyone here have one or have experience with them?
I’m looking at the 32" Pro w/timer
The description on the website tells all about the spectrum of light and the layout, but I can’t find much on the programmability (is that a word) What I want is to program each channelled separately, and be able to change the intensity by the hour, does anyone know if the SB pros do that?
