Cool White vs Neutral White - Need opinions for LED lighting for Biocube

[asn-naso]

I just traded some corals for a Biocube 8 that I plan on putting on my desk. I was thinking about replacing the lighting with Rapids retrofit, but after digging around, I am not sure how to proceed. It seems as if more people are going with Neutral White, instead of Cool White. This appears to help compensate for the lack of the UV/Green/Red/Cyan that we are seeing in the full spectrum lights now a days.

Has anyone recently built a DIY LED fixture? If so, what color combination did you go with?

I would like to keep the costs down, and also have limited space to work with. Their Heatsink is pre-drilled for 9 LED's, but I can glue on extras if needed.

Another delimia I have is the drivers. To keep the costs down, I would like to go with the "0-10V Dimmable Nano Driver with Potentiometer", but if I do, I will not be able to control the blue vs the white, so I have to try and get it right with the bulb counts.

My thoughts were to do 6 blues royal blue, and 3 whites. Probably a row of blue, then row of white, then row of blue. Will this give me too much blue?

On a side note, the fans in this guy are super noisy. Does anyone have a cost effective way to replace the fans?

 

[asn-naso]

Also, what about blue LED's vs royal blue LED's? Should I do 1/2 and 1/2?

 

[xxHLTxx]

Micro center for fans... $4.00 at max.

As far as blues to whites, usually a 14-16k color comes from 2:1 blue:white. But depending on what corals you want to have would determine the color LEDs you choose. The lights I'm looking to change to will hve 420, 440 and 460 spectrum blues, but the whites will be 10k whites, not the usual 4 and 6k whites. 4 and 6k seems **** off acros.

 

[asn-naso]

So the dominant wave lenghts of the CREE's are:

Royal Blues - 456
Blue -474
UV - 415ish
cool white - 490
natural white - 577
Warm white - 582

How do I figure out what K the whites are? And where are you getting your 420/440/460 leds from?

 

[xxHLTxx]

If you're looking at CREE they should have the spectrum kelvin that the led puts out. I was using a rounded number. But those are from Bridgelux LEDs. They have a 420 blue that's the deepest blue you can have without turning UV.

 

[asn-naso]

Where are you getting your 10000K Bridgelux's from?

On a side note, my large display tank is using the following.


Cool White- 10000k (15 LEDs)
Royal Blue 450nm (22 LEDs) True Blue 465nm (10 LEDs)
​Green 525nm (2 LEDs)
Red 630 nm (2 LEDs)
UV 395nm (2 LEDs)
Violet 420nm (2 LEDs)

I have had good growth, and color, and really do not need CREE's in a 8 gal nano. After reading your post above, I have changed my thought, and will probably do bridgelux.

Maybe 3 cool whites, 4 Royal blues, and 2 true blues??? Should I add a UV or Violet? I think that driver maxes out at 10 LED's

 

[sethsolomon]

Ultimately what is your goal for the nano?

SPS tank you will want:
3 royal blue
2 blue
1 violet
2 cool white
1 neutral/warm white

lps tank
3 royal blue
2 blue
1 violet
1 cool white
2 neutral

softies tank
3 royal blue
3 blue
1 cool white
1 neutral
1 warm white

planted marine tank
3 cool white
2 neutral white
2 warm white
1 royal blue
1 blue


make sure you get the kit with the dimmable driver. otherwise you will cook almost all coral that go in there.

as for bridgelux vs Cree
I prefer cree. they have a good warranty and are USA made.

 

[sethsolomon]

Where are you getting your 10000K Bridgelux's from?

I have had good growth, and color, and really do not need CREE's in a 8 gal nano. After reading your post above, I have changed my thought, and will probably do bridgelux.

Maybe 3 cool whites, 4 Royal blues, and 2 true blues??? Should I add a UV or Violet? I think that driver maxes out at 10 LED's

that driver max's out at 14 led's at 700mA drive current (I would not run more than 12 personally)

I would do violet if you're doing sps or lps tank.

 

[asn-naso]

This will probably be a zoa tank, with some SPS thrown in, if I can get enough flow. looking at your list, I would the SPS grouping would be closest to what I was thinking. I am a little concerned with the warm whites, or even cree's cool whites after realizing my Chinese fixture is using 10000K whites.

SPS tank you will want:
3 royal blue
2 blue
1 violet
2 cool white
1 neutral/warm white

 

[asn-naso]

[TABLE]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl63, width: 89"]Royal Blue
[/TD]
[TD="class: xl63, width: 97"]Cool White[/TD]
[TD="class: xl63, width: 97"]Blue[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl63"][/TD]
[TD="class: xl63"][/TD]
[TD="class: xl63"][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl63"]Cool White[/TD]
[TD="class: xl63"]Neutral White[/TD]
[TD="class: xl63"]Cool White[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl63"][/TD]
[TD="class: xl63"]UV[/TD]
[TD="class: xl63"][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: xl63"]Royal Blue[/TD]
[TD="class: xl63"]Blue[/TD]
[TD="class: xl63"]Royal Blue
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


How does the above config look for 10 lights for a 8 gal bio cube?

I'm torn, because I'm afraid it won't be balanced if I have a blue in the back right corner.