Baloney. I'm the only one that's brought up a solution to the issue. Many of you are so busy copying what one or two guys have done over at Nano-Reef with small tanks and arguing about dimmer circuits it's annoying.
99% of DIY reef builds are RB + cool-white Crees,
with no discussion towards other brands of LEDs or colors. I can hit the same PAR values and improve color with a build that costs no more than half what it costs with current Cree centric designs, and you don't see me making official write-ups.
[
I]" As matter of fact washout colour from LED fixtures was and still been highlighted and discussed. Since you have also pointed out that many of us has joined the bandwagon what one or two people on forums has either recommended or tried with their DIY fixtures "WRONG". I am almost done with my prototype LED boards and each board has set number of LEDs from different colour flux and not only that, I have also employed plain blue LEDs with equal ratio royal blues. I have also employed Cree's MCEW (RGB)LEDs which would also help me to blend and mix the colour very well to suit and meet my needs."This will enable me to make the right decision as what ratio or what particular make/brand LEDs to go for" Lets not forget that we have not worked out the best way to use the optics to mix the colour with our current setups. [/I]
Again, total Bull, and OP here has confirmed this.
The rule is that you use 3watt Crees, only use RB and cool-white, spread them all over your tank like recessed lighting in your basement, and obsess over the best way to build a dimmer circuit. Would you like me to link 1,000+ or so threads to prove it?
" Once again there is no set rule regarding the use of 3 watt LEDs but only to point out that some LEDs in "3watt" bracket are much better than others brands. I have used high power LEDs (jumble of 1 watt LED DIES plastered on a jumbo ceramic) long before you even started to read about LEDs and trust me they failed miserably so don't even go there. 10/20/30/50 or even 100 watt LEDs are no way as good "efficiency point of view" when compared with any well known branded LEDs. IMO, If you want to go with any other brand than what people are already using then no one is stopping anyone.
A couple guys dictate these LED tutorials, and they're all the same. "
Use cool-white and RB Crees because they're the standard". The result is crap color, and there is no open thought on this because those of you who've dropped several hundred dollars on cool-white based lights won't admit it. However, a year or two down the road I'm betting you'll quietly dump your lights and replace them with SMD based strips using better color combos, cheaper, and likely not running Cree.
Sorry, but SMD LED are not powerful enough to punch the light on deeper tanks so going with SMD would not be an option.
It hasn't been discussed because the guys pushing Cree lights also sell them, which is a
serious conflict of interest and a forum violation.
I don't care what emitters you use, but I encourage people to at least
try different color ratios small scale before commiting. You have a problem with that? Also,
please don't tell me what to post or how to think, got it? If we were discussing this in an engineering board room you'd likely be excused because I'm objectively open to other solutions.
It shoudn't be difficult, and that's what's annoying. With metal halide you have a choice of a dozen brands of bulbs all of which deliver excellent color and PAR, nobody obsesses over dimmer circuits for halides, and nobody running 400watt halides is told they should use a dozen 30watt halides so they can get 'better coverage'. T5 users have an ever greater array of options.
However, with DIY LED threads you are only allowed the option of Cree, RB, and cool-white, and how dare you use something other than Cree or cool-whites? Doesn't this seem a bit odd? Why is it nobody pushes you to use cool-white CFLs over your tank, but cool-white Crees are 'the standard' when the spectrum is similiar?
Originally the Chinese were just using cool-white and RB because for the most part Asians manufacturers are copycats. However, the trend has been increasing towards SMD based lights that look like T5's, and those tubes having color combos of preference. So, your color options will likely be like changing T5 tubes.
The current DIY design of spreading 3watt LEDs evenly around a big chunk of aluminum is already obsolete. Again, this works fine for a nano tank, but is inefficient and expensive on larger tanks. Don't take my word for it - just look at the direction recent commercial lights are going.
Another controversial topic is that PAR meters are typically not skewed properly for reef requirements and put too much weight on longer spectrums because they are
primarily designed for terrestrial fruiting plants. The result is that cool-white LEDs yield a false high meter reading with PAR meters, even to the point where I've seen white only LEDs deliver higher meter readings than twice the wattage of RBs. This is absurd and why I don't trust PAR meters except for same spectrum reference tests. Far blue is the action spectrum for corals, and if you think the high levels of green and yellow-green light in a cool-white LED contribute to photosynthesis somebody needs to go back to science class.
What this means is your tank looks darker than your halides as I believe you complained about. The main reason for this is because cool-white LEDs are given more PAR weighting than they should. As long as you have sufficient RB, and this includes the blue that's in cool-whites to be fair, everything else is optional. The good thing is that LEDs are hyper efficient at producing 450-470nm light. Originally I was using 450lumen Bridgelux cool-whites without RB, and getting decent PAR. It was simply because there was enough far blue buried in those high powered emitters to keep things growing. Color sucked though, but at the time I was on the band wagon.
Again, the color problem is greatly helped by simply trying different color combos, such as warmer LEDs closely flanked with two or even three RBs. It will get you in the ballpark of 20k or 14k halides and actually drive actinic colors harder. This fixes color disco problems as well. Also, once you stop using cool-white LEDs Cree doesn't have such an efficiency lead and there's more LED options.