Steve's LED order help

@bimmerzs wrote:
[I]@pjracer wrote:[/I][quote="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,"]
I want to advise that when you contact Steve's led's you speak with Jeff. This is Jeff's input but I think he is on the same level as Steve.
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@hoopsdaddy wrote:
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 said:
Non taken. My goal is growth and color. I want growth of corse but I want the 20 k spectrum. I want 2 to 1 instead of 1 to 1. I have read and heard that adding some of the other color LEDs help the zoas an other colors pop. That's what I want. I'm not getting that with my 20 k metal halides and my vhos. I will do some more reaserch today. But my main question was is the 2 to 1 ratio ok or is their a reason to add reds, greens and other color to make my tank colors stand out more or grow more. 2 blues to 1 white.
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The beauty of the DIY led route is that you can add to, subtract from, and adjust as new products come into the game. That is if they will work on the same string. If not you can simply add a new string.
From all that I have seen and read you will at least want to go 2 to 1. Many I ready about on DIY threads are going 2.5 to 1 and even 3 to 1. I think if you want to build it once and build it "right", which is a term in LED's that changes daily, I would incorporate a small amount of several different colors into your build from the start. You don't HAVE TO, but in the long run you will most likely wish that you did. Also remember that reds, greens, and cyans tend to be overpowering. Spread them out and you only need a few. Also, on the setup Steve's is making, will the heat-sinks be run front to back or the length of the tank. So will you have 6- 18" heat-sinks, or will you have 2 or 3- 6' heat-sinks. Just wondering...
I would PM some of the folks on here who have done the DIY your layout. Tell them that you want to be able at 100% to be around 18-20K and that deep blue color is important to you.
 
Here would be my suggestion: Talk to mtraylor first. He is using the GHL Mitras since switching from his 20K Radium MHs and seems to love them, maybe you can go by and see his tank. He has stated that he has been able to replicate the color exactly and his tank is about the same size as yours so it would be a good comparison. (viewtopic.php?f=100&t=68625)

Here is the configuration for the Mitras which uses the most colors of any fixture on the market today:

12 x Cree XP-E blue
12 x Cree XT-E cool white
12 x Cree XT-E royal blue
6 x Cree XT-E neutral white
6 x Osram Oslon SSL true green
6 x Osram Oslon SSL yellow
6 x Osram Oslon SSL red
6 x Osram Oslon SSL hyperred
6 x hyper violet 425 nm

Here is the configuration for the Radion XR30W Pro:

White: 8 Cree XT-E Cool White
Red: 4 Osram Oslon SSL Hyper Red, 660nm
Yellow: 2 Osram Oslon SSL Yellow, 590nm
Green: 4 Cree XP-E Green, 520nm
Blue: 8 Cree XP-E Blue, 468nm
Royal Blue: 8 Cree XT-E Royal Blue, 442nm
Indigo: 4 SemiLEDs UV, 415nm
Ultraviolet: 4 SemiLEDs UV, 405nm

The Mitras has about a 1.5:1 ratio and the Radion has a 2:1 ratio. I think the Radions are the better bang for the buck but then again thats not the question at hand! The colors are obviously important but as hoopsdaddy says with DIY they can be changed. So go with a base number of colors, say 1 set (red/green/cyan/yellow etc) per 2 feet and about 2-4 UV per 2 feet to help get the pop you desire. If that ends up not being enough then swap some of the whites for colors. Are you set on DIY?
 
Over the last week I weighed all my options and I decided to go for it and ordered from Steve's LEDs. I have seen a couple of our members tanks and thy looked really nice. I change up my color combination and this is what I ordered.

Their 72 inch sps kit with the extra 50% pack.

I ordered their Refugio's algae kit for my sump.

I ordered their apex controller interface.

I will update my main thread once all is installed with pictures. I am also starting my build of my canopy.

Thanks everyone for your help.
 
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