Calling all LED experts!

AFrederick

AFrederick

Active Member
I posted this message in my tank thread but figured I might have a better chance of getting responses here so sorry for the re-post:

I need help picking a color combination from Steve's LEDs for my RSM C130. I am mailing Jeff at Steve's my hood tomorrow to get the new v5.0 prototype. Very excited.

I am intrigued by the lime LEDs in the JMB special combos. Reef tank LED tech seems to be progressing at break-neck pace. The last information I saw about lime LEDs was about a year old. JediMasterBen (of the eponymous "JMB Special" series) was apparently just starting to experiment with Phillips' lime LEDs. Some said they were the greatest, some said they were a cheap trick at the expense of coral health.

Is the jury in yet? I definitely want to fill out this tank with corals. And I really want a clam! My concern is that warm white and royal blue LEDs seem to aid photosynthetic coral growth; I only have 28 LEDs to work with in Steve's fixture for the RSM C130. Limes will come at the expense of warms whites or royal blues.

If I get the 12,000K JMB Special, I get 6x 4,000K whites, 6x limes, 12x royal blues, and 4x cool blues. From my research, that would seem sufficient for growing whatever I wanted. But I might want more blue...

Enter, the 14,000K JMB Special. 4x 4,000K whites, 4x limes, 14x royal blues, 6x cool blues. This combo probably has the color I want. But does it have enough warm whites to support SPS and clams?

JMB, on his home forum, says the lime LEDs are like warm whites minus the blue spectrum. If that is true, then the extra blues plus the limes in the 14,000K JMB should do the trick for any corals, right?

But others say the limes are just a gimmick and do nothing for corals' health. In that case, I would worry if the 4x 4,000 warm whites would be enough?

Any advice? I need to decide on a color combination tomorrow, when I mail my hood to Steve's! Help!
 
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Desmond

Well-Known Member
I would go for more whites personally. But I think either will work for corals.

Sent from my SM-G870F using Tapatalk
 
Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
So, here's the bad news. There is no way for you to make this decision in an informed manner and there is even less of a way for us to help.

The thing is that lighting is functionally just a matter of what looks good *to you*. So, what looks good to me is completely irrelevant to what looks good to you. Also, there is no way for you to know what looks better to you without you actually seeing it, which you obviously can't do.

So, basically, you just have to make a decision and go with it.

But, here's the good news. You basically can't go too far wrong no matter what you decide as they are all good choices and you can adjust things like brightness of your blues and whites to get closer to what you like.

That said, let me say that I spent A LOT of time on this exact decision and let me tell you what I got and why.

I was trying to decide between 12k vs 14k and super full spectrum vs. JBM.

I asked several much more experienced members on this forum what they like. It turned out that almost all the more experienced members on this forum like 14k vs 12k. They feel the 12k is "too yellow". So, I went with 14k.

Then I tried to decide on super full spectrum vs JBM. This is a tough one because I don't know anyone with first hand knowledge of the differences.

So, I went with super full spectrum because Jeff at Steve's told me it's the #1 seller.

I'm very happy with my decision. My LEDs look great (to me). I love them. Would I have been even happier with JBM? Who knows. I know I'm still curious what JBM would like like and I suspect that I would have been happy with either, but I still think I made the right decision.

My bottom line decision was 14k super full spectrum (no JBM), but I think I probably would have been happy with anything.
 
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DaveK

Well-Known Member
Personally, I think I'd find the 14,000K a bit too blue, but everyone is different, and I wouldn't call someone that got 14,000K wrong.

Lighting is very subjective.As long as you get something decent, you will not go too far wrong.
 
nanoreefing4fun

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
Great post Pat ... I went through this same set of decisions... I like a bluer look & I asked Pat a lot of these same questions - in the end, I choose the same light Pat did & am very very happy with them.

I also called & talked to Jeff & got his input, I ended up going with his favorite ones & the most popular ones they sell.

+1 to Pat post & +1 to beauty is in the eyes of the beholder
 
Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
DaveK said:
Personally, I think I'd find the 14,000K a bit too blue, but everyone is different, and I wouldn't call someone that got 14,000K wrong.

Lighting is very subjective.As long as you get something decent, you will not go too far wrong.
Click to expand...

@DaveK, I hope you know by now how much I respect you. So, I'm not trying to embarrass you, but you are one of the reasons I went with 14,000k. :)

Which Spectrum Steve's LEDs

DaveK, "...No one can really answer this question for you. Lighting is just about the most talked about and the most subjective area in all of reef keeping. You have to go with what you like, even though many of the others may not like it at all.

My personal choice would be for the 14000K Super Full Spectrum. I feel the 12000K would be a bit too yellow and the JMB specials would make the corals look very artificial. I really dislike some of the tanks you see where the light is almost all blue, all designed to make the corals bright, and in my opinion, very fake looking, but that's just me. Others really like that effect.

Go with what you like. You really can't go too far wrong here."
 
AFrederick

AFrederick

Active Member
Thank you all for sharing your knowledge. Pat and Nano, I read your threads on making this decision also.

I pulled the trigger on the 14,000K JMB Special. I've just gotta see these limes. If I didn't, the wondering what they would have looked like would kill me. Everyone who has them seems to like them.

My hood is on a big brown truck somewhere between South Carolina and Louisiana right now. Hopefully I will have it back late next week. When it's back I'll be sure to add pics to my tank thread.
 
Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
AFrederick said:
Thank you all for sharing your knowledge. Pat and Nano, I read your threads on making this decision also.

I pulled the trigger on the 14,000K JMB Special. I've just gotta see these limes. If I didn't, the wondering what they would have looked like would kill me. Everyone who has them seems to like them.

My hood is on a big brown truck somewhere between South Carolina and Louisiana right now. Hopefully I will have it back late next week. When it's back I'll be sure to add pics to my tank thread.
Click to expand...

I'm sure you will love them. Let me know what you think. I'm curious too!
 
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DaveK

Well-Known Member
Pat24601 said:
@DaveK, I hope you know by now how much I respect you. So, I'm not trying to embarrass you, but you are one of the reasons I went with 14,000k. :)

Which Spectrum Steve's LEDs

DaveK, "...No one can really answer this question for you. Lighting is just about the most talked about and the most subjective area in all of reef keeping. You have to go with what you like, even though many of the others may not like it at all.

My personal choice would be for the 14000K Super Full Spectrum. I feel the 12000K would be a bit too yellow and the JMB specials would make the corals look very artificial. I really dislike some of the tanks you see where the light is almost all blue, all designed to make the corals bright, and in my opinion, very fake looking, but that's just me. Others really like that effect.

Go with what you like. You really can't go too far wrong here."
Click to expand...

There is no embarrassment on my part. By all means go with what you like. Many people do like the look of the 14000K light.

Yea, I have backed away a bit from the 14000K a bit. Mostly because it's next to my planted tank. Side by side the reef tends to look far too blue, even with the planted tank about 8000K by my est. Note typical planted tanks are run at about 6500K for best plant growth. Think incandescent lighting color temp, or late afternoon sunlight. Another note, I'm using AI Hydra 52 on the reef, so it's very easy to dial in the color I happen to like.
 
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dacianb

dacianb

Active Member
Lime LEDs were developed by Philips following exactly the sensitivity curve of human eye. Basically everything a lime LED emits, it is visible to humans - such they created a very efficient LED from photometric point of view. White LEDs, on the other side have a very large deep blue component which human eye cannot see and from photometric point is a lost.
Corals use very low quantity of what a lime offer, but a large quantity of what a white LED offer. And even better what a deep-blue & violets offers. I kept my tank 3 months with only UV and deep blue leds on and corals grows crazy.

Any other color in a reef light is for users only and not for corals (or have very low impact on corals grow).
 
AFrederick

AFrederick

Active Member
Thanks for sharing your knowledge guys.

Dacianb: That's some very cool insight into the limes. Thanks.

I got the 14,000K JMB Special. It came with 4x 4,000K whites, 4x limes, 14x royal blues, and 6x cool blues.

It looks awesome. The color is a crisp, rich blue with a bit of violet. The shimmer it creates on the rocks is mesmerizing. All I have in the tank right now are two little clowns but I can just sit there and stare at them. It makes their orange deeper and more vivid. Their black is more black. And their white almost glows.

While acknowledging that the limes won't do anything for coral health, I don't think I sacrificed too many of my 28 total LEDs for aesthetic purposes - the array is still dominated by the blues. But we shall see once I get corals in there.

I will post pics in my tank thread as soon as I can figure out how to take pictures that fairly represent the colors I'm seeing. My cousin-in-law is coming over Saturday with her fancy shmancy DSLR.
 
Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
I think your corals will do well with the limes. I wouldn't worry about that. As you said, it's not even that many And they've done a lot of research on what impacts coral growth before they sell it.

Glad to hear it looks awesome! I always wondered.
 
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