Led Optics

[FlyTekk]

Hey i just saw Alan's (reef creations) tank and he has the same LEDs as me. But for some reason i love the way his tank looks.

I loved the way mine looks but not anymore after seeing his.

the only difference is that he i have optics on mine and he doesnt.

I feel his tank is well lit. Every square inch is getting enough light. Not alot of light. Enough light. Its lit well. Kinda of a dull hue all across the tank but his corals and fishes POP! Their colors really come out.

In my tank with 40 and 60 degree optics (30" high and leds are 6-8 inches above the water) i feel like the light is too bright and penetrates the coral and fish so much that it dulls their color. The best i can do is drop the whites down to 25% and keep the blues at 100%. This allows for the fish and corals color to pop a bit but the tank seems purplish. Also there is swimming spaces up closer to the surface where there is barely any light where other spaces there is so much light the live rock glows.

Im assuming this is all the optics focusing the light in certain places where as his are shooting light everywhere.

I like how his looks so much better. Anyone using or not using their optics wanna chime in? Why are you using and why arent you. Also how do you feel about them?

 

[CHEMCHEF]

I would ask Alan what optics he is using and make sure his fixture has the same color blue LED's.
Other than that. I know nothing about LED's

 

[FlyTekk]

He isnt using any optics. I am. Thats the only difference. We have the same LEDs.

 

[qy7400]

Would need to know a little more, whats the ratio of blue to white, how many, tank size, drivers, where did you set the drivers mA to?

LEDs by themselves are typically 120*, switching to 60 narrows the beam in half and 40* to 1/3 original. If you liked that look better why not pull the optics off?

 

[FlyTekk]

I cant pull the optics off cause they are glued on. LoL Unless your trying to tell me that its safe to pull them with force.

I have 24 LEDs spaced an inch apart more or less. 12 Blues 12 whites. They are all on meanwell drivers. I got the premium 24 led kit from rapidLEDS.

The are dimmed via my ReefKeeper i use 44% whites and 99% blues. I somtimes like going for toward 25% whites but while the color is nice the brightness goes down alot.

I feel like the white and the blues are not mixing. If you look at the rocks up high i can see blue and white shimmer instead of a mixture of the two.

I called Rapid Leds and they told me to raise the LEDs higher and because the optics if glued will damage some led lens if i try to pull them.

My tank is 30x30x18 and LEDs are already 10" above the water surface. But the guy said try 12". Jeez!