missing something in color

I recently completed my aquastyle 72 led build.
Overall I am pleased with the results. my corals are thriving, and seem to be growing like crazy.

But something is missing ...

Greens, Yellows, Bright oranges ( Dendros) and basic Red look great.

but
Pinks, Purples, dark Blues, and oranges close to red just fade out.

Im running 44 RM 6 True Violet 420nm, 14 10000K CW and 8 6500k ww
4 rows of 18 lights about 8 inchs off the water of a standard 90 gallon ( 48x18x24)
the leds run across the middle 40" of the tank

Should I be looking to add some more differant LEDS? change Some out with blue, Cyan, Red, green?

Any input will be appreciated

 

Forgot to mention Im running 3 meanwell eln 60-48P drivers

1 all RB
1 RB and Violet
1 all white + 2 RB

 

How long have you running the 420nm LEDs?

You should check out my wide spectrum LED build as well

 

I ran the all rb driver and the white driver for about 2 weeks, while i had an issue with the 3rd driver and got the.remaining bluea and the 420s about 3 days ago. Beforw that driver was added i had almost no color when the whites were on

 

Its the whites that are horrible from aquastyle. I have the 10K ones too. I added red/green/blue to them, but mixing is tough and overall I am not happy with the result. I am going the neutral white route using Cree XT-E royals and neutrals 2:1 ratio. Now that they are $3 a piece, not sure I want to mess with 'allegedly Bridgelux' emitters with no spec sheet. Also adding turquoise, blue and deep red and 420nm in the mix as well. Just waiting for the new heatsink to come in to build it all. I did a test fixture with that mix and I think its looking much, much better, but need more testing time to verify.

 

I agree with pwreef. These higher K-temp whites are your problem (the 10,000K, more specifically).


If you were to remove every white you have, and replace them with 4200K neutral white LEDs (I suggest Rebel ES or Cree XTE, for good cost and performance), you'll suddenly see a drastic change in your color.


Just for reference, I run both warm (3,000K) and neutral (4200K) whites on my 11g reef (total of 6 whites, 12 blues) and the tank looks gorgeous.


Some companies sell 10,000K as "cool white" and 6500K as "warm white", and this is completely inaccurate. The top-tier LED companies (Luxeon, Cree, and true Bridgelux) label the 6,000-8,000K whites as "cool", the 4200K range as "neutral" and the 3,000K range as "warm".