LED lighting for reef aquariums, tried and tested information and what are they.

This is a little of what i have learnt about LEDs and would have liked to have known this before researching LEDs for our buy up, this information is from mates LEDs purchased directly from china two months back and subsequent results from a tank with live rock filtration and old school filtration, with the corals, they both performed the same.

The cree xr-e 3 watt with 60 to 90 degree statistics still show this diode as being amongst the bestif not the best for photosynthetic dependant forms of life and over all marine aquarium use.

LEDs consist of a semiconductor crystal in the shape of a wafer that has impurities added to suit its intended use and is than encased in a transparent plastic, than normally attached to a substrate.

An LED, emits light by electronic excitation rather than resistance producing heat like standard lighting.

Diodes are electrical valves that allow electrical current to flow in only one direction, with this electrons move from a region of high electronic density to a region of low electronic density.
This movement of electrons is accompanied by the emission of light, hence the name (light emitting Diode).

The more electrons that get passed across the boundary between layers, known as a junction, the brighter the light which is the high out put Cree LEDS we got recently.

When diodes were in the infant stages the companies Texas Instruments and Hewlett Packard showed the first interest in commercially manufacturing the LEDs that were originally part of the development of serious laser techknowledgy back in the sixties.

The original LED techknowledgy was actually first seen in the early nineteen hundreds but no one realised its potential or what they were seeing.

Diodes, in general, are made of very thin layers of semiconductor material; one layer will have an excess of electrons, while the next will have a deficit of electrons.

This difference causes electrons to move from one layer to another, from this you get generated light.

Manufacturers can now make these layers as thin as .5 micron or less (1 micron = 1 ten-thousandth of an inch).

Within the semiconductor Impurities are used to create the required electron density.
A semiconductor is a crystalline material that conducts electricity only when there is a high density of impurities with in.

The slice, or what could be called a wafer, of semiconductor is a single uniform crystal, and the impurities are introduced later during the manufacturing process.

The particular semiconductors used for LED manufacture are gallium arsenide (GaAs), gallium phosphide (GaP), or gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP).
The different semiconductor materials (called substrates) and different impurities result in different colours of light from the LED.

Impurities are introduced later in the manufacturing process; unlike imperfections, they are introduced deliberately to make the LED function correctly.
This process is called doping.

The impurities commonly added are zinc or nitrogen, but silicon, germanium, and tellurium have also been used.
These will cause the semiconductor to conduct electricity and will make the LED function as an independent electronic device.
It is through the impurities that a layer with an excess or a deficit of electrons can be created.

To complete the device, it is necessary to bring electricity to it and from it.

For this to happen affectively wires must be attached onto the substrate.
These wires must stick well to the semiconductor and be strong enough to withstand subsequent processing such as soldering and heating.
Gold and silver compounds are most commonly used for this purpose as they form a chemical bond with the gallium at the surface of the wafer.

LEDs are encased in transparent plastic, similar in appearance to Lucite paperweights that have objects suspended in them.
The plastic can be any of a number of varieties, and its exact optical properties will determine what the output of the LED looks like.
Some plastics are diffusive, which means the light will scatter in many directions.
Some are transparent, and can be shaped into lenses that will direct the light straight out from the LED in a narrow beam, which is described as degrees.
The plastics can be tinted, which will change the color of the LED by allowing more or less light of a particular color to pass through.

Some mates in June 2011 purchased some cree 3 watt LED fittings and someone watt LEDs encased in tubes for fluorescent replacements.

The findings are,the way we used to think corals utilized light was wrong, they do not need UVR in the amounts we once thought.

The diodes we had put in the purchased fittings have very little UVR and the corals we tried under these LEDs,both from constantly dirty waters and others from very pristine waters, all adapted to them and are thriving with polyps multiplying, is some ways they look better than from the ocean originally.

The only draw back to near no UVR(ultraviolet radiation) is when we tested PAR(Photosynthetic Available Radiation) on these lights, we got what was once thought to be a poor reading,now we know better!

Plus the dimmers and copied natural cycles that are tried to be copied are a waste of time in the past found with the keeping of corals.

This is an example of what an LED looks like,the yellow square with in the plastic dome/casing is the LED/wafer.





These are cree diodes and the ones we got,XR-E diodes seem to do a very good job of growing corals,in two aquariums we tried they grow at roughly a rate of 3 mil per month.


Degrees of diodes explained.

Its the angle of the beam as it leaves the diode,like a torch beam,a wide beam,120 to 180 degrees,very narrow beam 30 degrees.

Turn a triangle on its point, you know upside down, from the point outwards to the wide part,that you could call a ninety degree beam.

Than a 60 degree beam of light can be explained by 30 degrees either side of a 90 degree verticle line,this is a 60 degree beam of the light coming out of the diode.

The optics of the diode dictates most of this and is the shape of the surface or an added surface to the diode that helps direct the light coming out of the diode along with a reflector at the base.

Just think of it as a torches beam of light which is normally a narrow beam, a light bulb above you in the house has a 180 degree beam of light, there is no reflector for it except the ceiling to make it just over 180 degrees, which is a half circle.

The narrower the beam the further it goes, like a laser, its very narrow.

That’s what diodes were originally worked on for,lasers!

Here are a couple of pics to show the degree of light as it leaves the diode and enters the water of a tank.

These pics are representing 60 degree diodes.



As you can see as they spread out getting fruther away from the diode of origin,they weaken,more spread less intensity.





Then you go to small of degree and you will have such narrow beams at the surface they will miss corals and at the bottom of the tank you will have circles of light rather than beams of light crossing over each other to fill your tank with photosynthetic light!


This is info on our buy up of the cree 3 watt LEDs from a chinese manufacturer.

Check this out

https://southeastqueenslandm.aforumfree.com/t907-365sunnyled-led-lighting-from-china

This is a great read guys,makes me wish i didnt already have new lights over my nano.
Next time.

I just ordered some from CHina as well.... 3w led diodes with 15000k and 460nm spectrum. They are NOT Cree brand though - does this mean they wont work well? What other parametres should I ask about?

What sort of Lumins rating should I be looking for for good coral growth. Does 2850-3050LM sound ok for a 3ft LED light?

The cree isn’t necessarily the best, the reason we went with cree is the two electricians that are club members said that cree is renowned as one the best in lighting and their optics and reflectors are an excellent combination for powerful water depth penetration.
The diodes you are getting are most likely good; the things we found that were important are amongst the information on the forum and with in this thread.
The degree, from 60 to 90,no greater and no less,30 to 40 spots to much and if you can have 50 percent white,40 percent non uvr blue and the rest a mix of green and red, though only cool white and royal blue seem to work fine!

One way to increase the Kelvin look of the lights is to run 60 percent blue and the rest white but the rating on yours is quite good.

At what distance from the light is that lumins rating?
It sounds good but just curious as to the distance.

We would need to know how many diodes in the fitting or the wattage at least to work out the spread over the three foot fiiting,the more diodes the more light strength which means more wattage, of course the closer the diode are together the more cooling you will need like ours need, they have 90 watts in just over a foot in length of fitting!

Our fittings are for two foot sections of tank,90 watts per two feet to do pretty good, more wattage would be better, as in more diodes, but these do to 20 inches of water per two feet in tank length reasonably well!

For tank water of around 20 inches depth you would need at least 30-3 watt diodes per 2 foot of tank length to get good strong wide spread penetration or there wouldn’t be much light available for a reasonable concentration of corals, a few of the more stronger corals will absorb the available light if there isn’t a good concentration of it.

Mate that lumins reading is fine, the kelvin is high but shouldn’t be a bother, I now know they are 60 degree viewing angle, this will give them some punch, so they will do great for hard corals ,water penetration and most colours if there are enough diodes inn the fitting.

Our fittings have between 3300 to 3400 lumins,but they are 90 watts in a small fitting blasting out wards.

Don’t forget if the water isn’t up to scratch it wont matter how good the LEDs are.

The fittings wattage, I don’t know what that is, hopefully it will suffice and the 60 degrees will reasonably do depths to two feet in the aquarium.

The blue and white diodes combined encourage greens, purples and blues in the hard corals nicely, but not quite as good for encouraging and displaying yellows, reds and orange variations, but still not bad!

The algae clades of these colours are not so popular for the corals under these LEDs.

Mine still encourage all colours to florece but some better than others.

Four days ago I changed my scrubber and in two days two of the hard corals faded in colour,so no lighting will do it all!

Support your light fitting at around six inches off the water,air and water both defuse lighting strength,the higher it is off your water the weaker it goes into your water!!


Keep your hard corals from a third of the way up,they do better up higher,especialy with the lights you are getting and get a good current on them to keep them clean!!

Hi guys just came across this thread and thought I'd ask a couple of questions.
At the moment I've got two 3 foot 10k kelvin tubes and 2 3 foot t5 blue tubes over my 3x2x2 but would like to convert over to led in the near future

Being a newbie I did understand parts of what's written above but not all of it,
Could anyone recommend anywhere to buy led lighting on the net and the sort of strength to put over a general reef tank, thanks guys

What sized tank in length and depth do you want to do mate?

For 3 watt diodes to represent each 2 foot in length of tank it is good to have around 90 watts for depths of no more 20 inches,120 watt for 2 foot deep and 180 watts for deeper, oh and get 60 degree diodes for any deeper than 20 inches, that’s very important!!

You can work it out from this,they are fittings of 400 mill in length full of Leds for a two foot spread of tank in length.

So for a three foot tank at 2 foot deep, no less than 180 watts,better still greater than this of out put to cover the tank to do all kinds of corals,60 degree diodes of course.

One watt diodes are near as powerful,the same,60 degree and the same wattage.

Oops sorry,365sunnyled is most likely the cheapest,but work out the exact fitting and how you want it made because they dont know a lot of what they doing,work out the whole thing before ordering.

and what sort of power and the like am i looking for, is there anywhere i can calculate what i need/?

The tank dimensions and what you want to keep callum,what are they?

Have a look at these.

Get a feel of whats out there.

Sunnyled

http://365sunnyled.com/products.asp?NumberID=001


bsled

http://www.bsled.com/led-aquarium-lights/

More reading on learnt stuff on LEDs.

Its the same as with any lighting you get for the aquairum, you have a lot of light you keep a lot of corals, you have a little light ,just a little of corals.

The large polyps and softs draw the light in literaly, they drag it away from the weaker stony and other acros,so positioning of corals/life forms is important as well, plus soft and elegant corals can be toxic to others in tanks with no algae back up to absorb all they excrete towards other corals, so there is another reason to apply positioning at its best and a current designed to protect from excreted toxins directed at other corals.

Water and air defuses lighting strength as it passes through these, consider that as well.

60 degree diodes blast light deeper and cover a reasonable area on the floor of the tank,30 degree even deeper but they spot on the floor of the tank and you cant pack them in the fitting, the heat if to close together will kill the diodes life span, than you would need high volume cooling fans like ours and are noisy.

I have 90 degree diodes as the tank is just less than 20 inches in depth, they throw out a massive spread, which includes growing algae on the front glass, I should have gotten 60 degree at the front,dam!

They put in the same high volume fans for our 90 watt as they do for the 120 watt fitting, they will make the diodes last for even longer but are a bit of an over kill for 90 watts.

ok im starting to understand a bit more haha

yeah im running a 3 x 2 x 2 tank with all soft corals at the moment but in time will add some hard corals in there

If algae is out for nutrient and toxin control via NWMS for your tank there are chemical filters to purchase, but if you have to many soft corals, just remove some to add hard corals and have a mix and keep the softs (except xenia, it wont hurt much at all) away from the hard corals the best you can.

It can be with in your current direction some ways to protect your corals, if the current goes past the hards first and than softs,that will help defuse any issues with them.

Plus large polyps like,acans,brains,they will sting the hell out of any other hards with in 20 mill of them,not xenia though, nothing bothers it more or less and it bothers nothing more or less.

With out a good rolling current,20 mil might not be enough to protect them, some stingers will reach up to a foot or two away with not enough current to make it hard for the fine thread to keep going as they reach out with to sting the neighbours.

For everything in a marine aquarium there needs to be a fail safe for pretty much everything, or small to large things will go wrong.

The creatures with in salt water make waste,lots and lots of waste,including toxins,these need to be washed away to be scrubbed out of the water by the only thing that can do this with 100 percent accuracy,algae,those almost microscopic weird looking shrimp type creatures and many other shapes in the sea with in this group are all algae,phytoplankton,thats what cleans out our,chemicals, sewerage,nitrates,oils,silt,co2,sunscreen,beer,virtually everything!!!

Hi! folks I am back so I am interested in obtaining some LED lighting as well, regards Bob.

Ok mate thats three of you now,i will get a price on some cree xp diode fittings over the weekend.

What size aquarium do you want it to have this wonderful lighting over?

Tell me exactly what you want,tubes with one watt diodes for simple use if needed,even high out put LED direct 240 volt bulbs,i am getting couple of those and the 3 watt crees for more serious reef keeping.

I have checked out Epistar or Bridgelux and cree still has better out put and they mke cree in china now so they are nice and cheap even for the xm and xp range,xm is more powerful but only comes in cool and warm white so the xp range is the go now.

What are the tanks you want them for mate?????

I'd like it for my 3 x 2 x 2 tank it's a reef tank and if
Love to put LEDs on it

Hi! I want them for my new 4x2x2 that I am setting up. I will leave the selection to you as you have a better grip on this stuff than me, thanks, see you soon Bob.

I will shake the tree for prices on the weekend, but you and clevecallum would be best to go with two cree diode fittings over each of your tanks, that would be the cheapest way to go.

The same size as the ones we got last time, each one does up to 2 foot of tank length each, so 4 foot or 3 foot will do well with two over your tanks.

The diode section of the fitting is 400 mil long and spreads out the light quite well from 22 to 24 inches long by around 14 inches wide, so the live rock needs to be under them as with any light fittings, anything over the 22ish inches long and you get very weak light at each end.

Callum have a look at the links on here and see if you like a certain fitting and we will try for a good price.

The ones we got last time have noisy high volume fans because of the XR-E diodes heat sensitivity, we are going to try for XP variations, but you need to be aware that ther XPs last 35000 hours and the XR-Es last 50000 hours with good cooling, so its up to you lot.

Ulster if you are happy enough for me to chase up the best I can find for your tanks size,that’s cool!

I am just getting some bulbs and tubes, I got two fittings last time to last 10 years over the aquarium the same as straddy boy,so just spare tubes and bulbs for the house and I am going to try LED bulbs next to each other in a huge cluster over a tank as an experiment, I think it will do amazingly well, maybe?

If you guys go with the same sized fittings five of us have,for two foot deep tanks each one will have to be 120 watts and we need to try and get you 60 degree diodes to get down to the bottom nicely with some strength, ours are 90 watts and 90 degrees, but its only to max of 20 inches in depth for ours.

If you want to go cheap,90 watts per fitting will be okay just keep the more light dependant corals up higher,there are 60 watt fittings but the spread of light from them will only do light dependant corals at around 14 inches deep no more and not many of the corals will get the needed light and the lights will have to be left on longer (so they can have the symbiotic algae with in photosynthesising completed in each lighting cycle) you see the concentration of light from them is not really robust and far less than the 90s and the 120s.

Kit has 180 watts per fitting with her two over the four foot tank and she says they are great, so similar will have to be done if you want to easily keep all corals at any depth!

Do what you think is best hang the expense its only the kids inheritance. See you at the next meeting, regards Bob

Hi All

Please keep me in the loop on this too - LEDs to suit a 4 Footer half blue / half what even is best for reef.....but I would like to include the timer they have, it simulates sun rise, mid day and sunset was about $100 extra

Hey Liquidg - can you call me about those tanks please, keen to get a start.... should get some small LEDs to suit them as well perhaps..........

Thanks

Hey Liquid,

Can you price me on 3 watt Cree leds? I'm after a 120cm unit with 30 degree lenses in the front row, and 60 degree for the rest. White to blue ratio of 2:1. Whites must go up to at least 15000k and blues about the 460nm mark.

Much appreciated.

Cheers
Henzo

Hi All

FYI- if you haven't seen the latest CORAL magazine it has a lot of great info on LED lighting and various brands etc....

Ignobolis wrote:Hi All

FYI- if you haven't seen the latest CORAL magazine it has a lot of great info on LED lighting and various brands etc....

Hey dude could you put some of the types,prices and websites up