LED experience for under $2

[Milad]

Originally Posted by reefwars

i guess you answered it lol so if i were to power them down what the benefit of having them full power say to half power?? or vice versa what would the effect be say to corals what would they lose or gain??

Less power
Cons: Less lm, so less light for the corals
Pros: LEDs run at lower heat so they last longer and they are easier to cool

More Power
Cons: LEDs run hotter, harder to cool, can reduce the life of the LED if they are running hot for too long
Pros: More light for your corals


Someone posted a very interesting picture somewhere which I should have saved on dimming his LED fixture when he had just put in the sand into his aquarium. The sand "grabbed" the light and it was interesting to see how dimming effected the intensity.

The only way I can explain it is if you had a balloon and you filled it with air and put it inside an empty tank. The area of the balloon was the most intense part of the light (100 intensity). A bit outside the area it fades down to 0.

So as you release air out of the balloon you can imagine it getting smaller and the intense part of the light becomes smaller. This is you running them at lower power. Now you add air to the balloon, the intense part of the light gets bigger and it starts getting closer to the sand and hitting the glass. This is you turning up the power.

Its not efficient to turn up the power to hit the sand, its more efficient to just add optics to control the light to where you want it to go.

im kicking my self for not saving that image. I might have to just grab a tank and throw some sand in it and an LED light over it and dim it to show you what i mean. It was kinda eye opening.