Sweatervest's New LED Lights

sweatervest13

sweatervest13

Active Member
Hi all,
I recently purchased some new LED lights. I went through a US supplier who gets the units built over in China. They are Evergrow lighting Co IT fixtures. I went with the IT2080 which is a 32", 99 LED, full spectrum unit that is controllable.
I ordered them a week before Christmas, yesterday there were delivered. I was happy with how quick they were manufactured and delivered. I had read that they were taking up to a full month to come from China.
I was very impressed when I first plugged them in and tested off the tank. I currently use a few Aquatrader MH combo units, 2 x 150w and 1 250w units. Each of the old fixtures had 4 plugs needed to run all the lights and fans. So, I had 12 plugs needed to light the tank. Now, each IT2080 has 1 plug needed to run. This makes me super happy!!!
I wanted to see how the lights looked over the tank so I removed a couple of the MH units and had a buddy help me hold them in place. We quickly realized that I could use the same eye hooks that I used to hang my MH lights, and decided just to set the new LED's up. It took all of 5 minutes to hang both (most of that was unplugging all the darn cords from the old MH fixtures) LOL. I need to redo the eye hooks to get the lights to the middle of the tank, I plan on getting this done on the weekend.
I am excited to get home tonight and play with the program to set a custom light schedule. They can ramp from 0 to 100% on two different channels. The first channel has all the blues and the second channel has the whites, greens, reds, and UV. There is a third channel that runs 3 moon lights on each fixture. At 100% both channels it has a 20K look (At least to me). I decided to go with 90 degree lenses, and it does not seem to be spotlighting at all.
The 20K look gives the corals quite a "pop". Even when I lowered the blue channel and had the whites higher I could still see some nice colors. Much better then the 15K Odyssea bulbs that my other units had at least.
I will take a few pics tonight and post. I wanted to share because I am just so darn excited!!
 
al&burke

al&burke

Active Member
Sounds great sweatervest, can you post some pictures would love to see that. I always say the fewer the plugs the better.
 
sweatervest13

sweatervest13

Active Member
For sure!! I will take some pics of the units over the tank. They are not hung where I want them, but I still get good coverage. It will take some playing around to find the right height to have them over the water. Right now they are about 10"-11" above the water.
I wish I had a PAR meter gizmo to test the PAR numbers. All the research I have done before the purchase say that the numbers are very good.
I'll even try to take the pics and post them on here tonight.
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Sounds super....Did you custom order the LED layout or go with their stock plan....I was reading elsewhere that you can special order your LED configurations.....I've seen good things about these setups.....Apparently they don't have issues with send replacement emitters as well.....
Curious as to if your running any optics on your setup and couldn't find a definitive answer, but are these units able to be linked up with a controller as well......
 
sweatervest13

sweatervest13

Active Member
I ordered the stock layout. it seemed that that people who customized were doing pretty close to what the stock layout was. I did request a few extra emitters of various colors. They sent 9 extra. I was super happy about that. I opted for the 90 degree lenses. The 120's would spread too much and the 60's would spotlight in my 22" depth.
I have read that some newer versions cam be controlled with an Apex but I cant confirm that.
I am back from hockey now. A little food and then I will take a few pics.
 
sweatervest13

sweatervest13

Active Member
Here is the run down of what color LED's are on the new units:
Channel 1; 16 X 7500k cool whites, 8 x 3500k warm whites, 4 x 480nm blues, 4 x 520nm greens, 4 x 630nm red, 4 x 660nm reds, and 4 x 410-420nm violets
Channel 2; 48 X 450nm royal blue. Channel 3; 3 480nm blue moonlights. This gives a total of 99 3 watt LEDs (Bridgelux I believe). Again, I choose the 90 degree optics.
I programmed the custom setting to my prior light schedule. The tank is in my basement (which can/does stay dark during the day) I have them start with just the blue channel at 10% going up each hour up to 45% on both channels. I did not want to go over 45% and fry anything. I will see how everything is doing over the next couple of weeks and see what adjustments need to be made. I wonder if I will ever get up to the full 100% of both channels? They come on at about 1 pm and go off at 1 am, this way the tank is lit up when I want to view it. The first issue I have found is that in the custom setting mode when I have the dark period the moonlights do not come on, the tank is just dark. There is a large thread over on RC that I will need to ask how to fix this on.
I am excited to get the lights centered on the tank. As you can see in some of the pics the center of the tank is very shaded. I may need to try to get this done in the next day or two. The old light set up I had used a 250w MH in the center of the tank and 150w MH flanking the sides. Now the sides have the full coverage and the middle has only partial coverage. I am sure it will be fine as long as I move them soon.
I'll tell ya, the coolest thing about them so far is the little remote used to control the units. LOL.
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Curious if the greens really help enhance anything....Have you tried blocking them out seeing a difference in coloration.....Also curious as to the 2 types of red.....
 
sweatervest13

sweatervest13

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by acrylic51 http:///t/394095/sweatervests-new-led-lights#post_3507482
Curious if the greens really help enhance anything....Have you tried blocking them out seeing a difference in coloration.....Also curious as to the 2 types of red.....
I have not tried yet, but will try to mock something up this week and test for the greens.
Do mean you are curious if the reds enhance anything?? Or, why the two reds? I think one is red and one is cyan.
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Thanks......Really curious as to the benefits if any of the greens.....A lot of people speculate no gain, and they say to heavy of the green really disrupts everything.....I'm not sure, but very curious......That would make sense the cyan.....It just threw me when I seen red listed twice.....Violets are said to make the colors pop, but aren't really visual by the naked eye and are drowned out by the RB, but do cause the "pop"....Some are going a little heavier in the violet area.
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
I dont think you'd be able to tell much from just running the greens alone. Its just going to make the tank look like baby poop.
There are some pigments that are excited under the green spectrum from what I understand though. The benefit for photosynthesis seems pretty negligeable for what chlorophyll's require.
 
sweatervest13

sweatervest13

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Quills http:///t/394095/sweatervests-new-led-lights#post_3507488
I dont think you'd be able to tell much from just running the greens alone. Its just going to make the tank look like baby poop.
There are some pigments that are excited under the green spectrum from what I understand though. The benefit for photosynthesis seems pretty negligeable for what chlorophyll's require.

Nice one.
I can't run the greens alone, they are on the channel with all the cool and warm whites along with the reds (red and cyan) and the violets. I can try to put a little tape to cover the greens on the glass of the fixture and try to block them out and see what it looks like without the greens shining through.
I am by no means a coral growth spectrum expert, the research I did pointed to needing some green and red. My initial thoughts after seeing these units in action is maybe too much red/cyan. I really can't tell by my naked eye that the green has much of impact. The violet though do make the corals "POP" a lot.
I took a video but I have no idea how to get it off of the camera. LOL My wife will have to do that. She is much better then I am at that sort of thing.
I really wish I had access to a PAR meter so I could see what kind of readings these things get. There is that large thread over on RC that has some real nice numbers. I would imagine that these fall in the same range. NikeSB has an IT2040 (the 16" unit) and I think he was testing PAR on his tank.
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
What are your guy's thoughts on this little write up? http://www.reefbrite.com/benefits-red-green-leds-science-or-hype/
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Interesting article.....I'm curious they beat on everyone using reds.....Funny I looked at the units they offer and red is an option.....
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by acrylic51 http:///t/394095/sweatervests-new-led-lights#post_3507540
Interesting article.....I'm curious they beat on everyone using reds.....Funny I looked at the units they offer and red is an option.....
My take on it was not so much that they were knocking on the use of red but more about being careful that too much of a good thing can be bad. In fact it mentions the importance of blue red and even green. That green actually does have some significance in providing wavelength that is important for the absorption of usable radiation for coral from it's light source.
It also mentioned light in the infra red spectrum being important as well but didn't go into detail. And ofcorse there's the discussion of u.v that we all know and love. I kind of wonder if yellow may not even have some small significance. Perhaps it has the least amount of benefit or desired effect but perhaps there's something there that we're missing as well?
 
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