DIY LED AI sol spectrum supplementation!

Jonathan at Reefwerks is the MAN!! We have been emailing all night over the possibilities!!

 

Grim, what about the panorama pro blue/magenta modules? They put off A LOT of PAR 2 or 3 w/ reflectors would be enough I would imagine?

 

I don't need the par. I'm looking specifically for UV and full spectrum wave lengths (neither of which are on most commercially available units). My AI's are par monsters and I'm getting great coloration and growth out of most of my corals. But like everyone else.. I think I can make it better!! I also need something that can reach the bottom of my 30" tank while still being mounted 15" above the water line...

 

This may sound very newbish but could a 48" black light work? Like what clubs and teenagers use for big posters or tapestries?

Someone said too much PAR can kill or scare your fish to the point of hiding all the time or just death. I'm receiving 3 19w Panorama Pro's (blue/white, blues, blue/magenta) And now I'm worried about either burning my tank with too much PAR or just scaring the crap out of my fish because they think the sun is about to fall on them!

BTW Grim - Your man cave is looking very very beautiful. Lotta respect for building a room around a tank and making it look as good as you did. Love the rock work, counter tops, hard wood, and the lazy boy! Would be amazing to watch the game in that room

 

I'm thinking you have mine mixed up. My whole house is basically a man cave lol. But it sounds like you are thinking of Blokes 210g. My tank is in my living room.

You can have too much light. But mostly its a matter of acclimation. Corals and fish can be acclimated to A LOT of light. Just takes time. Rushing it is the issue more than the actual par.

 

You're right! I feel so stupid. I apologize for the mix up. You both have amazing tanks and sometimes I forget whose is whose! *dope slap*

 

A thing to remember is the more colors you have, the more of a disco effect you'll have. Each color will produce it's own shadow, as they are separated and not spaced close together. The AI avoids this to a large extent, by placing the LEDs together in pucks, but once you start adding, that goes out the window.

So, my recommendation would be keep it simple. So, I'd scrap the colors that are know to have mixing issues, such as red. I'd probably substitute neutral
white, as it has plenty or red and mixes well. Then for UV to magenta, maybe split the middle with a 420nm leds. So, you'd just be adding 2 colors, but covering pretty much the same ground, plus some.

You can certainly change it up a bit, based on your preferences, but whatever you do, I'd strongly recommend keeping it as simple as possible. If you go overboard, we may all have to chip in and buy you some bell-bottoms

 

Rofl... Great points... I had not even thought about that... Hmmm... I'm still playing with a lot of ideas. I should have this project in place by the end of january though!!

 

im curious about this as well, because i really love my ai sol blue as a main light, but would love to get a fuller spectrum too. I will be tagging along to see what happens here.

 

Very interesting build. To keep banding to a minimum, could you build the leds in to tighter arrays?

Michael Rice
Marine Engineers Aquarium Blog
Sent from Tapatalk so excuse my poor English