LED's

[evilc66]

Half cool white and half royal blue is fine. Don't worry about UV for the time being.

Stick with reputable LED retailers for your purchace. Prices may not be cheaper than ebay, but you will get customer support that you normally don't find with ebay sellers. Plus, you will know exactly what you are getting from these retailers. They will also sell other supporting products like drivers, optics, and mounting equipment.

[Mike]

CUtter Electronics seems to have decent prices on the Cree LEd's
Nano-tuners has the meanwell drivers

[evilc66]

While not horrible, Cutters prices aren't that great. The big advantage with that site is being able to pick the bin you want. XR-E WG bin Q5s mounted are more than most US retailers.

[Mike]

I was looking at the XPGWHT-L1-1A0-R5-0-01. My understanding is those are closer to a 10K color temp correct? With the Q5 XRE what si the color temp closer to? 6500K or 10K?

[evilc66]

WG bins are 6500K. Personally, I don't like the higher color temp whites. The are stark and wash out the colors. It's all about how they end up adjusting the phosphors to raise the color temp. They typically drop the red and green content of the spectral output. If you like the windex blue of an XM 20K, then they work well, but 6500K whites, which are far more common and cheaper, produce a much more well rounded and deeper color.

I used the XR-E as a comparison, as that is still what is most commonly used for DIYs. It's mainly because of the lack of wide optics for the XP series (40 degree is currently the widest angle). For my recommendation to Jonas, he would have to use the XR-Es for that reason.

[Mike]

Evil,

SInce I am going to be using the 40 degree optics over an acropora tank do you think there is much advantage to the XPG over the XRE?

[evilc66]

XP-Gs produce more light for the same current (and at a lower voltage). For an acro tank, more light is better. If you do find that it's too much, you can always dial it back a bit and save a little energy.

Now, where XP-Gs could really shine is when you crank the current up to the max at 1500mA. The light output from that is rediculous, and you could step down one optic angle size to get the same overall light, but with a wider spread. Only problem is there isn't a blue LED that can keep up with it.

[Mike]

I was thinking the R4 bin. It is cheaper than the R5 and is only 9 lumen less. Going to stick with the XR-E RB hopefully the D3 color bin.

[dcook]

Anyone understand all this french... LOL

[evilc66]

I was thinking the R4 bin. It is cheaper than the R5 and is only 9 lumen less. Going to stick with the XR-E RB hopefully the D3 color bin.

Why not get the XP-E royal? You will use the same optics then for both colors.