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Thoughts on RapidLED Onyx lights? I heard they compare to Radions?
ive heared that if the kelvin of light gows higher than 14000k the corals do not survive more than 1 year for example 25000k[/QU
Had to repost as what I'm typing is part of Arman's quote for some reason
In my humble opinion, buying a LED fixture I would look for:
- brand and type of LEDs - we cannot dream to see flux / color bins on a fixture, but yeah, this would be more pricey. Those binnings are the main reason that not 2 lights are identical (even the same model of fixture can have 20-30% difference just thanks to unbinned LEDs). But also hate the "ultra efficient LEDs" slogan on some lights
- take the published power and consider only 75% of it in best case. All LEDs manufacturers websites publishes graphs and studies on which conditions have a light fixture to fulfill in order to be able to power a LED at 100% power. I have doubts that a small heatsink and a cheap fan can keep dozens of LEDs in a low enough temperature. As result the lifetime of LED drops (read intensity level in next few months) and in worst case color shifts. I would never power a led at more than 75% current without knowing lot of thermal details.
- leds to be clustered as close possible - to avoid ghosting / disco effects
- personally I consider collimators useless and prefer bare leds, as much wider / uniform spread. Someone will tell me that with collimators PAR values increase, etc. Agree, increase locally, right under the light. Keeping uncollimated LEDs I dont lost energy - everything is there, in the tank, everywhere. I can place corals everywhere in the tank, no risk to burn them, not risk to underfeed them.
- everybody admits that corals needs 400-500 nm spectral range to grow, with highest peak at 450 nm. Great. But then why PAR is an essential parameter?? PAR means radiometric power measured on 400-700 nm interval.
Having a lime/green/yellow light will show a huge PAR reading, but I will should not try it above a reef tank. Probably algaes will explode . Lumens / Lux are also useless parameters as are related to human eye sensitivity (V lambda curve for who needs more details) and will show you couple of lux on a high power deep blue led. I would consider radiometric power in 400-500 nm interval as the main parameter. All other wavelengths (500-650) - greens, yellow, red, far red, lime and whatever other leds are on market are for visual appealing of tank only. Not influencing the corals.
- safety features of the lights - what happens if the 2USD fan breaks? What if airflow is clogged? Will a thousand $ light just burn out?? Most probably components as fans have a much shorter lifetime than a well cooled/decently powered LED, so a nice way to replace it / clean it is essential.
And other details which convinced me in the end to not buy, but to build my own lights... If something goes wrong I can look into mirror, blame myself and repair/improve . Easier.
There are manufacturers of LED lights which provide books of details on the lights, including X-Rays for LEDs soldered on boards to prove that there are no micro air-bubbles in the solder to affect the thermal transfer... Sadly non of those guys plan to build reef lights . Hopefully the hobby market will mature someday and real pro lights will pop on shops.
I think you might enjoy this read at this lighting link: http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.html
Curious, Like what and why?Sorry, but I red it before and not agree with lots of things in there.