Can you get a natural looking light from LEDs?

[Jbotelho85]

I want to go with a more natural reef look and I currently have a reefbreeders V2, I can't seem to tune it to my liking visually, but, I want to make the tank look the best, but natural. Can LEDs produce this? What Kelvin rating is an average reef from where are corals come from? I'm thinking most come from fairly shallow reefs? Is anybody trying this, or just the typical blue reef?

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

There isn't a typical average reef, depends on what type of specific corals. I just watched a pretty good video last night of the GBR and what species corals come from which section of the reef. Also, I'm sure you can create natural lighting with that light. Try @dz6t or even reach out to Logan at Reefbreeders.com

 

[dz6t]

The natural reef is under sun light, depends on the depth, the shallow part is quite yellowish looking. The deeper part is more blue. But none looks like the blue led lit tanks you normally see at frag shows, for example.

Many coral have brighter color under artificial blue heavy lighting, which is not even close to what they look like in the wild.

To get the closest look of deeper part of the natural reef, you can use metal halide with 14K phoenix bulbs.

To get the look of shallow part of the natural reef, you can use Geisemann MegaChrome Coral metal halide bulbs.


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[dz6t]

Since you are keeping your tank as a Caribbean theme, most of the coral and anemone were collected in shallow water, a warmer temperature can make them look more natural.

I guess the strong shimmer in shallow water also strongly contributes to the look.

In order to mimic what you see in Caribbean, metal halide is the best option. It is hard to tune a led because the white LED has very different spectrum distribution than metal halide. Also the common led color combination is favor blue over white.


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[dz6t]

This is not about which technology is better, MH and led both are good lighting options but they do give different look for different applications.



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[FishieBusiness]

thanks for dropping knowledge Dong. still running MH myself the Geisemann MegaChrome 17,5K. thinking of going with the 14k phoenix next bulb change.

 

[Aquanaut]

On the reefbreeders photon I have a one hour of sunset that is only whites and reds and goddamn does it look natural. Really makes my algae noticable tho

 

[Sparky88]

Ive been scubba diving and after about 20' things turn very blue from natural filtering. Other colors of light are filtered out realy quickly. 95% of large farms use radions. Radion a+b is one of the best proven coral growing spectrums. I don't have proof but it seems logical this is the case cause its close to natural spectrum at depth in the ocea

 

[dz6t]

95% of large farms use radions. Radion a+b is one of the best proven coral growing spectrums.

That is far from the truth.
Actually I have to say it is absolutely not true at all.


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[dz6t]

I guess you got brain washed by advertisement.


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[dz6t]

All major led manufacturers use the same led chips from Cree, Osram and SemiLED.
The major differences between them are price, software, light spread, built quality and customer service.

AB plus program is basically drop the white, bump up the blue and care less about the red and green. The reason behind it is that every LED manufacturers put too many high power white led chips in their fixtures due to legacy layouts.

Cree white led chips also have a huge bump between 550nm and 650 nm which can burn coral.


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[Sparky88]

Is that why a+b only runs reds at 20%. Which part of that was in true?

 

[Sparky88]

What does that graph even mean?

 

[Jbotelho85]

So in order to get a more natural look, I'd have to go halide? A 14k setting on the photon would look way too blue? I do like the fluorescence, but gorgonians, and some of my St. Thomas dont fluoresce.

 

[Sparky88]

I have 15 years of exsperience in lighting I dont think cause I disagree with what your selling makes me brainwashed.

 

[Sparky88]

Mh is the wides spectrum used in coral growing so this will be closest to the sun above the water.

 

[dz6t]

Which part of that was in true?

First, Radion is not widely used in farming coral, it is a poor choice for farming coral due to its high cost and over driven led chips that lower the lifespan. The G3, which is still the most installed version, has a power factor of 55%. The fan on G4 is constantly on due to build up of moisture on the computer board.

2nd, if you actually read the AB+ white paper published by Ecotech, you can see they choose the species of sps that favor strong blue spectrum for their study.


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[dz6t]

So in order to get a more natural look, I'd have to go halide? A 14k setting on the photon would look way too blue? I do like the fluorescence, but gorgonians, and some of my St. Thomas dont fluoresce.

Kelvin setting is not a reliable way to judge color spectrum. I am not sure how to set Photon led based on 14K setting.
You can turn up the white channel, #4, and see if you can get the desired color.


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[Sparky88]

Calling me brainwashed implies im to stupid to gather evidence and do research myself. Its very insulting. Zoozanthelle is an algea. Algea get energy from photosynthesis. Photosynthesis accurs with in the blue spike and the red spike at 660 you mentioned burning corals. How can they be photosynthetic and burnt by the most absorbed spectrum. If you gunna attract my inteligence please do it with more than a photon v sales brochure plz. All the best farms use hydra or radion and your rants against them are a simple product of you trying to generate revenue.

 

[Sparky88]

I'll donate $ 100 to the club if you can name one coral farm that uses photons. Scouts honor. A huge portion of ppl growing use radions. Every light spikes in blue for a reason.