lighting a standard 90 gallon with rapid leds

[pfcreed]

Can anyone help me pick led colors, and other components for my mixed reef. I'm hoping this will be my last light upgrade so help me plan accordingly. I also need moonlights that I can have come on at night. I appreciate any help in advance.

[reefgeezer]

I use royal blue, cool white, warm white, and violet. They are 3W LEDs arranged in rows. Much has changed in the last year though. I think there are now LEDs up to 10w and people are arranging the in groups to approximate single point light sources like halides.

Check out making them dimmable and programmable. I think a couple of the royal blues run at very low power can be your moonlights. Figure out how high above the tank you are going to mount the unit and get the right optics. Check out the DIY forum. There are some real LED Gurus there.

[pikachusalad]

I apologize in advance for not actually answering your quesiton - but I'm just trying to point out that you can order their standard set - and then adjust later.

I just ordered their standard "retrofit" kit by tank size (the 75 seems to be the same as the 90). I got the solderless version, so that I can mess with it if needed. If you notice the diagram they have, one driver has the 14 non-royal-blue LEDs, and the other has the 10 royal blue ones (there are 2 of each driver). The driver with the royal blue can also power the white ones (which I believe are 5w now), so you can add up to 8 of any of the included LEDs to the standard set by shifting white ones if necessary. I'm gonna see how the standard set looks, and then change it if necessary.

[ajsvmax]

I ordered the 48 dimmable kit. 24rb 14 cw 6nw 6ww. Then i added 4uv 2cyan 2deep red. I got 2 drilled and tapped 20 inch heatsinks and the dimmable controller. If you don't like the way they are you can change the out soooo easy. You need to be 12 - 15 inches from the water from my testing.

[pfcreed]

I may be mis interpreting what ive been reading about leds. But is white light mostly for astetics. Is it the blue and other shades of blue that are most benificial.

[reefgeezer]

The low end of the visible light spectrum from violet to cyan and the higher end from red-orange to red have been shown to be used by corals. Those photons in between, green, yellow, and orange are required to a much lesser extent if you want colors in the tank to look "natural". FWIW, I think cool white Cree LEDs have enough Cyan in them, and the Warm Whites have enough red so that additional LEDs in those colors are not needed. I would not bother with the neutral white ones.