Placing LED order today

[WoodRiverTroutBum]

I was thinking about getting 12 blue, 12 royal blue for one driver and for the other do 4 cool white, 4 neutral white and 4 warm white on the other driver. I was also thinking about throw 2 red on the white driver as well. I was going to do 2 cyan also but they are out of stock and I don't know if I want UV or not. Any input before I place the order?

 

[WoodRiverTroutBum]

18x18x18 tank, 6x9 heatsink and 9-12" above water. 60 or 80 degree optics? I don't want to spill a crazy amount of light but don't want a spotlight either. Thanks.

 

[roy]

Depend on which driver
Most drivers support up to 15 led max
For color ratio, you want to go 3:1 blue to white otherwise the white is going to wash put the blue
Rapidled sell a special drivers that can run up to 60+ leds just so you know
On diy led project, you want to run as many led as possible on a single driver ro help reduce the messy

 

[WoodRiverTroutBum]

I believe the MeanWell ELN-60-48P drivers run 14 LEDs each. I am running 2 drivers like the kit comes with to control whites and blues separate. If I was just running royal blue and cool white I may go 3:1 but since I will be using warm and neutral whites as well I don't think that is needed. Right now I am THINKING 8 royal blue, 4 blue, 6 cool white, 3 neutral white and 3 warm white as well as possibly 2 red. I guess I am going to give the 80 degree optics a shot. Just working on the layout right now.

 

[WoodRiverTroutBum]

With such a small number of LEDs it is very difficult for me to pick my colors and layout. When I think I have it, I realize I may have too many blues next to each other.

 

[jarrodsanborn]

The color ratio of blue to white will vary with brand/model of led's you choose to use. Typical cree rigs are 2 or 3 blue to 1 white because cree white led's are super powerful.
Other brands will be closer to 1 to 1 because of less efficient whites.

Who/what are you using?

 

[WoodRiverTroutBum]

I am using Cree from RapidLED. I figured since I am using a mix of different whites they wouldn't be over powering like if I was just using all cool whites. I just don't want to end up with a light that is too blue. I wish they had cyan in stock because I would replace a couple whites with those, I just don't want to add any more blues.

 

[WoodRiverTroutBum]

Maybe my issue has been trying to make everything proportional. Does this layout seem like I am on the right track? I assume with the 80 degree optics everything should blend decently. As for the reds, they will not have optics at all. Also, I can replace the reds with something else and/or drill and tap a couple new holes for the reds if you think something else should take their place. I may order a couple cyan when they are in stock to switch a couple of these out if I feel the need to.

 

[WoodRiverTroutBum]

Maybe just switch the 2 warm whites with neutral whites and the neutral for 1 warm white?

 

[roy]

You can do 15 led on a single eln-60-48p/d driver. That is how i did mine.
How you going to wire the led? All white on a single driver and the rest on a second driver?
Remember to adjust the voltage on the drivers becausr royal/blue/red led are lower voltage than cool white/neutral white
Please ask mike at raipidlef just to be sure
Good luck

 

[jarrodsanborn]

Warm and neutral whites will over power the blues easier than cool white would.

Each white leds has some combination of red green blue and other colors. The royal blue leds are there to visually "overpower" the red yellow,and green and shift the visible appearance to a more blue look.

Cool white leds just have less red orange yellow than the neutral/warm white leds.

Our eyes are bad at seeing blue so we have to have much more....

Hypothetically, if its 3 to 1 with cool white.....it would be 4-5 to 1 if using warm white.
(those numbers are just for example. I dont personally use cree, and avoid cool white for the better spectrum of a warm led)

 

[WoodRiverTroutBum]

Thank you for pointing out the lower power for the red! I knew it was like that for the UV but I didn't realize it for the red! All blues will be on one driver and everything else on the other. Since I will have to power down the driver for the reds I am going to replace the 2 warm whites with UV. Or, should I replace the 2 outside CW with the UV and leave the warm whites? Just when I think I have it...LOL


Edit* How much will tuning down the power to 700ma affect the white leds on that driver that have a max rating of 1500ma?

 

[WoodRiverTroutBum]

 

[The River Reef]

I would strongly consider UV. I added 2 recently after playing with a few combos and will add them to all builds for now on. They give an extra pop to my corals... I have 12 cool white, 8 royal blue, 2 blue, 2 UV, and 2 royal moonlights. I am really happy, I have the non dimmable meanwell drivers from rapid 1050-white, 700-blue/UV, 350-moonlights. The whites and royal have 80 degree optics and the other have no optics to get more spread from them. I plan to add dimmable warms white eventually. Here is my thread

http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?122268-LED-Build-Non-dimming-for-now&highlight=

 

[The River Reef]

Also if you can figure way to seperate the reds, it makes a cool nighttime viewing capability

 

[WoodRiverTroutBum]

Thank you! Did you dial down the driver to prevent over powering the uv? I think I am going to do what I have in the last pic but instead of the green I will just have 2 cool whites there instead. I can always swap them later and am dying to place this order!

 

[WoodRiverTroutBum]

Also if you can figure way to seperate the reds, it makes a cool nighttime viewing capability

I do plan on adding moonlights later on a separate driver.

Edit* Placed the order, hoping for the best haha. Not a huge deal if I need to order a couple different LEDs to switch stuff out. We'll see how it goes.

 

[jarrodsanborn]

You may lose 30-40% ish power, but it will run cooler/last longer.
Unless you are going all sps, you already seem to have plenty of par and coverage.


1 thing to possibly help your decision: red led spectrum is already covered by the warm white leds. Skip the lower power reds, and simply run warms.
Running red leds in a cool white/royal blue rig is very smart.....but adds unnecessary complexity in rigs that have full spectrum coverage like you are designing.

Search google for cw and ww spectrum charts and compare to see what I mean.