"Cheap" LED Fixture...

G

GraviT

Premium Member
So, I decided on a whim to buy an off brand LED fixture to see if it will meet my needs at 1/2 the cost of some of the cooler alternatives. Yes, I know that its from another country. Yes, I understand that it could one day burst into flames and yes, I know that there are better LEDs, newer systems with more features, and that a blue and white only fixture might not meet my full spectrum needs. Now that we have that out of the way...

It runs 55 3watt Bridgelux LEDs (28, 460 blue, 27, 10000K - 14000K blue) with 90° optics and is mounted on the right side, about 12" off the surface of the water. The left side is a 14000K, 250 watt Hamilton with T5 actinic supplementation.

I'm still trying to get the hang of taking shots with the light. Right now, its only running at about 30% on both white and blue (they claim it can outperform a 400 watt halide at 100%) and really isn't anywhere near as blinding as it would appear. I'll post more pictures as I figure out how get better shots under the new light. At 6 days in, the corals on that side are all responding well and starting to show some signs of coloring up a bit.

Its been a while since I've posted any pictures since my tank has been a battle zone for over a year after a poorly planned move which caused a lot of die off and more algae/dino/you name it issues than I care to think about right now. Excuse the algae remains! [smilie=itwasntme.gif]
 
My current led setup is blue white only and I see pretty good growth. Some corals will change colors some for the ugly and some for the better. But I am redoing my leds right now as I want to see what it can do with better spectrum.


Sent from inside the shark tank!
 
@Burbarry wrote:
My current led setup is blue white only and I see pretty good growth. Some corals will change colors some for the ugly and some for the better. But I am redoing my leds right now as I want to see what it can do with better spectrum. Sent from inside the shark tank! said:
Yup, pretty much hit the nail on the head. I intend on adding some red, green, and additional UV to mine. The Blue/White only will make things look amazing at first, but the colors will morph, and its not always for the best.
Click to expand...
 
@Heathd wrote:
[I]@Burbarry wrote:[/I][quote="My current led setup is blue white only and I see pretty good growth. Some corals will change colors some for the ugly and some for the better. But I am redoing my leds right now as I want to see what it can do with better spectrum. Sent from inside the shark tank! said:
Yup, pretty much hit the nail on the head. I intend on adding some red, green, and additional UV to mine. The Blue/White only will make things look amazing at first, but the colors will morph, and its not always for the best."]

That's what I'm worried about and the main reason that I didn't go all in at once. I'd be interested to see what you guys do to add the additional colors.
Click to expand...
 
The color in the picture is pretty close to true, but maybe just a bit more white than it was set that day. As for intensity, they're probably about 30 - 35%.
 
So, its been a couple of weeks and I wound up turning the lights down more. The monitors confusa colony on that side has turned atomic green (pretty cool actually) but the base on my meteor shower cyphastrea is almost white at almost 36" from the fixture.

What types/colors of corals are you guys seeing the unfavorable change?
 
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