Steve's LED order help

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pjracer

Premium Member
I am ordering from Steve's LED and i am in the dark on what type of LED color i want. I know i want the 20k Spectrum but i also wanted to include the red's, Green's and deep blue's.

The package I am having built for me is the SPS pack with 126 3 watt leds. Acording to the website to get the 20k spectrup 2/3 of the lights should be royal blue. I am using the Apex to controll the lights. The lights will come on 3 of their heatsinks and spaced out in sets of 14 leds.

http://shop.stevesleds.com/SPS-Grade-LED-Retrofit-Kit-Package-64-84-tanks-SPS-Retrofit-Kit-64-84.htm

I just dont know how many reds, greens or other leds to include.

Please let me know your opinion.

Thanks, Peter
 
I think there was a guy on here selling one for a decent price. but if you wanted to buy it new. I would add 2 greens, 2 reds, 2 cyan per heat sink, as there is 4 in that kit in the link I like the 3 in one leds for this for better blending. Now I would also, try to do all 3 types of whites, keeping your ratio about 70% blues/colors. Use the remaining 70% minus the red, green, cyans, and do a 2/3 royal blue, then mix the last 1/3 with all the remaining blues. I hope this makes sense.
 
Don't you want uv/violets to hit the low 400nm's like actinics do? And i'm not sure but maybe some regular blues might help. I just know radion's setup is successful and they have a bit of every color lol.
 
Peter,
I'm running the 48" retrofit kit from Steve's over my 75 gallon tank. It has 28 Royal Blues and 28 Neutral Whites. After a while, I decided to add some other leds to increase the spectrum. I was going to add some green and reds along with some violets. Steve warned me off of the reds as they can cause algae outbreaks. I went with 7 violets and everything is doing well. I run mine with an Apex controller. I just increased the NW to 40%. They are ridiculously bright. you might want to contact Steve and see what he suggests.
 
Yes reds do promote algea growth but to get full spectrum you want all colors you can for leds.


Sent from inside the shark tank!
 
Algae needs more than just light....keep that in mind. Definately add in a few green's and a few red's, like two of each per strip is all you will need as they both are pretty overpowering. Also add the cyan/turquoise and true/hyper violet's. YMMV

Cheers,
 
How do these compare to the Ai Sol Blues? I was planning on going with 2 Ai Sols for my corner tank. I'm assuming based on that site that their lights don't have integrated controllers as well right?

Sent from my Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk.
 
bimmerz, what are true/hyper violets? 400nm or 420nm? I was looking at UV(400nm) and regular violets(420nm) and didn't know which to go after. I was thinking 420nm is the normal actinic sweet spot.
 
@Airstreamin wrote:
How do these compare to the Ai Sol Blues? I was planning on going with 2 Ai Sols for my corner tank. I'm assuming based on that site that their lights don't have integrated controllers as well right? Sent from my Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk. said:
No integrated controllers. I am going to automate mine withy the apex controller.
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I thought of getting 3 24" maxspect but wasn't sure if they would provide enough light for my tank. Also wanted to be able to control them with the apex. I don't think you can.
 
@johntran216 wrote:
bimmerz said:
Depend's on the led manufacturer, the 420nm wavelength really stimulates photosynthesis in coral's so I would go with that to help em "glow and grow".
True violet's = typically are 405nm
Hyper violet's = either 430nm or 390nm-430nm which typically run around 420nm


Cheers,
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I think I might not order from them. I tend to listen to the experience of the forum but Steve's led is telling me the lights they offer they do not recommend changing. It comes in 1 to 1 or 2 to 1. White and blue. So I may go with rapid or other DIY let sites. Any recommendations
 
Here is their thought on what they sell.

The standard configuration is standard for a reason - because it works so darn well. The 5,000K neutral whites we use are 100% full spectrum, and no other supplementation is required for maximum coral growth. Actually, adding in additional colors will likely detract from the amazing and proven growth rates. I highly recommend what I tell most of our customers - purchase the standard kit, and if you feel the color is not correct, then add an additional heatsink later on to fill in where you see necessary - but I don't think in the past 2,000 kits we have sold, nobody came back to supplement because the stock configuration is really excellent. The standard configuration is a product of 4 years of testing and refinement, with proven growth rates exceeding the ocean, and we sell to large coral farmers world wide in this particular configuration. If there was something better, then that is what would be offered as the new standard kit.

Copied directly from their email. What do you think.
 
Peter I have his 1 to 1 sps kit and the only color I would add is cool blues. My brother bought an radion that I was able to test the diffent colors with my system and the cool blues did make the oranges pop more. I would like to see if the UV adds more pop.
 
@pjracer wrote:
Here is their thought on what they sell. The standard configuration is standard for a reason - because it works so darn well. The 5 said:
The 5,000K neutral whites we use are 100% full spectrum, and no other supplementation is required for maximum coral growth.
[Myth! There is no such thing as a white LED, they are blue LEDs with a phosphorus coating over them so its impossible for them to be full spectrum ]

Actually, adding in additional colors will likely detract from the amazing and proven growth rates.
[If this were true then why are all the big name companies now adding colors to their fixtures and why even offer the different colors in the store?]

with proven growth rates exceeding the ocean
[This I would love to see evidence of!]

This email worries me. I dont see the need for the misinformation. The big companies have moved to a more full spectrum light for better coral color and growth so why would we build a fixture that doesnt embrace this same concept. Ideally this light will last you 5+ years on this tank and with as expensive as its going to be Im sure you would hate to have to redo it in 6 months because it wasnt to your satisfaction just to add the colors you were shooting for in the first place! I would also bet that while the claim of 2000 kits is nice I bet it is very small in comparison to that of RapidLED or reefledlights. Also 126 LEDs seems small to me on a tank that size. Just by dummy math my 70g was recommended to have 48 leds your tank is 3.8 times the size, thats 184 LEDs. Your tank is 2.5x longer, 6in deeper and 7in taller. 24in deep I would say needs at least 3 rows for coverage, that would put about 40 leds per row meaning 1 per 2in, with 31in of depth I would say the front row would need something like 40* optics and the middle probably 70* with the LEDs 2in apart that will give you quite a bit of spotlighting from the lenses. Take some time and do some more looking, but I wouldnt buy this kit! I would also talk to Mike at RapidLED and Nick at BuildMyLED.com and see what they recommends.
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Agreed. That email sounds like nothing more than a marketing ploy. "Better than the ocean" say what? I don't think so.

Sent from my Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk.
 
@pjracer wrote:
I think I might not order from them. I tend to listen to the experience of the forum but Steve's led is telling me the lights they offer they do not recommend changing. It comes in 1 to 1 or 2 to 1. White and blue. So I may go with rapid or other DIY let sites. Any recommendations said:
Hold on...dissect the information a bit. Steve knows what he doing with led's, you have to determine your goal...do you want maximum growth, accurate color rendition of coral's in their natural state, or the abnormal blue skewed tank's we love. 5000K is not a specific wavelength for a reason, the sun put's out basically 5800K and is full spectrum when you break it down, a 5000K led is full spectrum in that sense, yes a blue led has a coating to make it appear white blue it's not that simple. What Steve say's is correct in that sense and a 5000K led will give you maximum growth however, the coral's will appear as they do in nature and not the way we want them to necessarily look in our tank's. You cannot compare what works for a coral farmer, to what works for a hobbist, farmers want quick growth so they can maximixe profit's then then color up the coral's later. I would get the kit steve offers and see how you like it, if you want additianal coloration etc., then make a decision from there....no different from what buildmyled recommend's. Some coral's<u> will </u>have growth rates that exceed those in nature and other's will not, you can say that about any lighting setup in a closed system, it's not deceptive or incorrect. I guarantee you that if you sub out 10 neutral whites for 10 red led's....the growth rate will indeed decrease. . YMMV

@customer who spoke with buildmyled wrote:
He advised me to get his custom light and then order another fixture later to achieve the look you want said:
How is the above statement any different from what steve said except....one would think a custom configured light would be all you need with no reason to spend more money later on to get what you should have gotten in the first place, now thats marketing. [smilie=lipssealed.gif] Steve has years of result's over actual tank's, he didn't come out wowing you with software, he's been wowing folks with result's. Again YMMV

Cheers,
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Interesting discussion. I find in all my research that all the DIY sites "standard kit" comes with only Whites and Blues. Just like with Steve's. All will allow you to change out LED's per your request and all will originally steer you toward their standard kit. Maybe that is why they call it their standard kit. If you place your order with Steve's and you say I want X, Y, and Z he will give you that. You asked for <u>his </u> recommendation and got it. Take that for what it is worth and gather more information from others and then make your decision.
And just for the record, tons of people are still buying just the blue and white combo's and are loving them and are having great success with them. Put a couple of AI Sol blues on the for sale thread and watch how fast they go and for a very good price for a used light in my opinion. Why is that? Because they have a proven track record of working well at what we want, Growing coral and coral glow. I have seen some killer tanks with just AI Sol blues on them. I have also seen some tanks with Radion's and they were awesome as well. As was said earlier, most of the LED folks are moving toward the "multi-spectrum lighting" and if you tell Steve I want 8- 420's, and 8- deep red, 8- whatever, he will do it because you are the customer. Even if he doesn't agree with you and even if there is a track record of amazing coral growth using just his standard kit just like there is for AI Sol's product.
Point being, my intention is not to come off as being rude or insulting anyone. Both LED routes will work. Both have been proven to work. The real question is what do you want on your DIY lighting setup? Are you more concerned about cost or about colors of LED's, or having your tank at 100% output on your lights look a certain color? If you want a DIY Radion Pro then just put on your setup what they have on theirs. Again, I hope that this didn't come off as being rude pjracer as I am also looking at several companies products to light my 270 build.
 
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