# Is warm white necessary?



## Guy minai (Oct 24, 2017)

hello,
In The Last Weeks I have planing my 80g High-tech aquarium.
I decided to use LED light on this aquarium.
the led's i'm about to use are cree XM-L2.
i tought to use cool and warm leds In the ratio of 2:1
it mean that on every 2 cool white leds will have 1 warm white led but than is saw this item on ebay:
[Ebay Link Removed]
and now my question is if it will be necessary for the plants to use the warm white leds.
the only resone i decided to upgrade my low tech aquarium into hightech is because i very like the red color of the plants in high tech condisions.
so, the "full specrum led" can make red colors in the plants or should i Combine warm white leds in the lighting?

from your experience what should i do?
by the way all of the leds will be installed on 4 pieces of this heatsink:
[Ebay Link Removed]
sorry if i I wrote something wrong.. my english is'nt so well


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## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

Hello Guy minai and welcome to the forum. 

The kelvin rating, the thing that defines a light as warm white, neutral white, cool white etc., refers to the overall color. It tells little if anything about the spectral distribution of the light, even less so in the case of LED.
For plant growth you would want to look at a chart with the spectral radiation distribution and find a light that has some peaks in blue and red light at specific wavelengths for chlorophyll. All that said, if LEDs are true full spectrum , pick the one you like, plants will grow. Crisp clean look are typically associated with higher kelvin. Warm fuzzy feelly - low Kelvin.

There are a variety of environmental factors that can create a red color in plants. However, if you add a red light your plants will APPEAR redder. They will not be redder but just make you see them as red. Some of aquariums on this forum use this "trick". You can actually see that gray rocks have a red-purple tint to them.


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

Guy minai said:


> hello,
> In The Last Weeks I have planing my 80g High-tech aquarium.
> I decided to use LED light on this aquarium.
> the led's i'm about to use are cree XM-L2.
> ...


Necessary.. no
Desirable most would say yes.. mostly to add "bandwidth" where the high K whites are lacking in.
This 1)adds photosynthetic active red spectrum. 2) Makes reds "pop" better and 3) Increases, in general the overall balance to a more daylight spectrum and a higher CRI..

the "full spectrum" chips are mostly Royal blue emitters w/ a broad red phosphor (or 2)..

This "magenta" tone is a bit difficult to balance out w/ white emitters..There are those here that have designed very good overall spectrum lights w/ them. 
Generally you need very high K whites to balance.if I remember correctly..


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## Guy minai (Oct 24, 2017)

few more detail about the LEDs that will help you to help me:
cree xml2 wavelenghts:








the blue graph is the cool white
the green graph is the natural white
the red graph is the warm white.

the full specrum leds was recommended to me by a person i'm totally trust him, he tried this on his 300g tank and he said that it gives the plants nice colors.
this is the wavelenght of the "full spectrum" LED:









i don't want any effect to make the plants only look red, what i'm looking is something like this:









the aquarium in this picture lighted by 2 Finnex Planted+24/7 led fixtures and by 39" Hydroponic Led fixture.
the hydroponic led fixture:
[Ebay Link Removed]


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## Guy minai (Oct 24, 2017)

few more ditails about the leds:
the cree xml2 wavelenghts:








the blue graph present the cool white
the green graph present the natural white
the red graph present the warm white

the full spectrum led:
this led was recommended to me by one person that i'm totally trust him, he tried this leds on his 270g tank and he siad that in gives the plants nice colors









i don't want any effect to make the plants look red, i want them to be red!
im looking for something like this:

















this aquarium lighted by 2 Finnex Planted+24/7 led fixtures & 1 39" Hydroponic Led fixture.










the Hydroponic Led fixture:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/54W-LED-Gr...511206&hash=item2a90db66f0:g:G40AAOSwXedZ261M


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

The hydroponic LED w/ it's magenta tone will make anything look reddish practically..

SEE post #12

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/3...ed-plants-red-please-share-your-thoughts.html


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## Guy minai (Oct 24, 2017)

so if i use only cool white (6500K) and magenta the plants will be red? (1magenta on every 3 cool white)
i want the light to be same as posible to the aquarium in the pictures.
i read the post but i can find nothing about magenta tones in there.
thank you all, guy


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

Red and blue mixed = magenta..










If you want to duplicate it you just use royal blue plus 660nm red LEDs...
That part hort. light also seems to have had some "amber" chips thrown in..

Red green and blue = white.



> My most recent DIY build included 3 watt full spectrum LED beads.
> 4:3 ratio, whites:full spectrum. I used 10K for whites to cut the pink/purple look of the full spectrum LED's.


http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/10-lighting/1068041-help-quick-please.html#post9435777

SEE post 39..


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## Guy minai (Oct 24, 2017)

so you tell me that if the total lumen is 7000lm (just for example) so the white should be 4000lm and the magenta is 3000lm?
i think i will make the tank look very pink. again, i am looking for something like the aquarium in the pictures.


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## dukydaf (Dec 27, 2004)

Hey Guy, 

the photos you posted are a good example of using red LED to make the red pop out. Look at the pogostemon erectus in the last picture. That plant is always bright green, but you can see a orange tint. For red plants you can actually see a little bit of fluorescence as their colors in the photograph is overly saturated. In reality I do not like the look these type of lamps give but it does look great in photos. But if it is only for photos, you can do the same thing in photoshop. If you were able to view that aquarium under sunlight (the reference light), I guarantee the colors would be very different. So if you like that kind of look I agree blue and red LED are the way to go. If you put a full-spectrum lamp in the from your aquarium will look less weird.

I would think the 4:3 would be by number or W. Again a common problem with ratios  . Red and Blue lamps will typically give you less lumen/W and appear dimmer to human eyes. No worries though, the light is good for plants.


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## Guy minai (Oct 24, 2017)

Great! 
you answer my biggest question and now let's back to the warm white. if i want the light to be same as in the photos should i use only cool white led with red ad blue light. I'm right?
one thing that i haven't understood yet, the "full spectrum" led and the warm white leds would do the same in terms of red plants?
I found this on ebay: [Ebay Link Removed]
I thought to use this to dim the red leds (they working on 220V) and that way i can "make" the best ratio for me and for my plants. what do you think about that?

one more thing, since the red LED is working on 220v i thought to connect an ground or earth (sorry but i don't know the exact name) cable to the all light system to avoid electrocution by soldering a cable to the heatsink and the other side to the wall.
what are you thinking about it?
Guy


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