Diy lights for corals using ws2812b

[candymonster]

Hi, buying a light is not an option for me.
For my current lighting for fish only system I use 30 1w led's mix of blue warm white white red and green. I have 2 tanks 55g (18inch high) and 20g quarantine (12inch high). I'm planning to add corals and use my quarantine tank to quarantine corals. Has anyone tried using ws2812b individually addressable led strip for diy lighting? Will it be bright enough? If I use high density strips such as 60led/meter?

 

[theatrus]

Can you? Yes, probably. Would it be efficient? Probably not very.

WS2812b's have the blue LED at ~470nm and not ~450nm (blue vs royal blue) - this is where most of your PAR is and royals are the "right" LED for this. The red and green won't be particularly useful except to try to make a poor white light.

Sadly the WS2812b's also spec their output of blue in millicandela (mcd) and not milli-watts (mw) so its a more effort than I want to deal with at the moment to convert into how many you'd need to hit a particular PAR number.

Could you drop some soft corals in a tank? I think you'd be fine from that standpoint, but it requires a bit more math to figure out if its even a cost efficient idea (I suspect no, but don't let that stop you from experimenting)

 

[candymonster]

Can you? Yes, probably. Would it be efficient? Probably not very.

WS2812b's have the blue LED at ~470nm and not ~450nm (blue vs royal blue) - this is where most of your PAR is and royals are the "right" LED for this. The red and green won't be particularly useful except to try to make a poor white light.

Sadly the WS2812b's also spec their output of blue in millicandela (mcd) and not milli-watts (mw) so its a more effort than I want to deal with at the moment to convert into how many you'd need to hit a particular PAR number.

Could you drop some soft corals in a tank? I think you'd be fine from that standpoint, but it requires a bit more math to figure out if its even a cost efficient idea (I suspect no, but don't let that stop you from experimenting)

My first thought was using 3w cree but in my country I can only find blue 470s online, and If I visit stores they say this is blue led we don't know what is 450nm. And if asked for "royal blue" they say we don't have that brand.

As of being cost effective WS2812b is very cheap 5 meter of strip is equivalent to purchasing 20 cree 3w.
I will get zoathids first as soon as I'm done cycling

 

[bblumberg]

You can make lights that grow many corals well using Citizen COB LEDs @ 455 nm as the main light source. CLU048-1212C4-B455 are the ones I use. You also need the corresponding Ideal ChipLok holders to make life easy and an appropriate heat sink. Add some Seoul Viosys 420 nm hyperviolet and some neutral, warm white or whatever else you like to taste and you can make a very affordable light.

Too bad @theatrus doesn't sell his blueacro LED pucks any longer. I had some of those on my big tank until the DIY driver boards I had from 02surplus started behaving strangely so it is just running T5s for the moment.

 

[theatrus]

You can make lights that grow many corals well using Citizen COB LEDs @ 455 nm as the main light source. CLU048-1212C4-B455 are the ones I use. You also need the corresponding Ideal ChipLok holders to make life easy and an appropriate heat sink. Add some Seoul Viosys 420 nm hyperviolet and some neutral, warm white or whatever else you like to taste and you can make a very affordable light.

Too bad @theatrus doesn't sell his blueacro LED pucks any longer. I had some of those on my big tank until the DIY driver boards I had from 02surplus started behaving strangely so it is just running T5s for the moment.

Sorry about that, a number of things got very annoying to try to do during the supply crunches. Also time budgeting, reality of the much cheaper direct imports, etc.

If someone is interested, I'm always happy to see what I can pull together. Including fixing the driver situation out there though... (as long as I can someone else to actually make them at a reasonable cost, otherwise you run into the part time supply constrained garage shop problem ).

 

[bblumberg]

Sorry about that, a number of things got very annoying to try to do during the supply crunches. Also time budgeting, reality of the much cheaper direct imports, etc.

If someone is interested, I'm always happy to see what I can pull together. Including fixing the driver situation out there though... (as long as I can someone else to actually make them at a reasonable cost, otherwise you run into the part time supply constrained garage shop problem

OH, no worries. I don't take such things for granted. The acrostar pucks are a great product but I can easily imagine that the demand is not so high.

 

[theatrus]

OH, no worries. I don't take such things for granted. The acrostar pucks are a great product but I can easily imagine that the demand is not so high.

No worries from me either. I'm glad I had an impact for awhile and people did enjoy the LEDs - it was always fun seeing what was built.

With _good_ full fixtures at the prices they are now, I was selling an ever declining dozens a year, which is at the perfect intersection of too many for my very part-time capacity, but not enough to pre-scale and get volume built. Turn time and support suffered at times.

I'm more focused on building things for myself again and trying to enjoy the process, but still always looking for a niche .