WRGB color settings on a 4 channel light

[Pepere]

Ok, I struggled to figure out what forum to put this question out to. I originally thought the equipment forum but the description on that was finding the best equipment.etc..

But here goes. Redirect me to adifferent forum if thought best…

Can anyone give guidance on setting up a 4 channel light for ratios between Red, Blue, Green and white channels?

I have a Chihiros WRGB Pro 260 I have on a 29 gallon tank and I am trying to determine where to out the settings.

Any guidance beyond fiddle with the settings until you find what looks good to you?

 

[ElleDee]

I did it by what looked good, but I did have a process. I looked up par data so I had an idea of the overall intensity that would be appropriate, then I balanced the RGB diodes to something that looked reasonable. Red gets the highest, then blue, then green. Then I cranked the white up so my total power was in the ballpark of the par I was targeting, then I tinkered with the RGB settings again.

Whatever you do, I suggest making sure your aquasoil looks black and/or your white sand looks white. If they look pink, magenta, or purple you've got too much red and/or blue. I understand people use this lighting trick to make their plants look colored up, but it's very obvious once you know what you're looking at. This is admittedly a personal pet peeve and *I* think it reeks of amateur hour, but truly your personal eye is the boss here.

 

[Pepere]

again.

Whatever you do, I suggest making sure your aquasoil looks black and/or your white sand looks white. If they look pink, magenta, or purple you've got too much red and/or blue. I understand people use this lighting trick to make their plants look colored up, but it's very obvious once you know what you're looking at.

I have BDBS. It is looking black with current settings.

My red plants are much more red and my greens are greener. Some Ammania Gracilus that looked yellow before with prior lighting shows red highlights now.

Using just the red, Blue, Green color channels has the tank looking artificially colored. I had to add white to tone it down and look more natural, but even so the colors are still popping more. My male cherry barbs are more stunning read, the Harlequins are more vivid, and the glow eye Tetras pop significantly like a neon tube in them…

And my Ipad’s camera does not accurately reflect what I am seeing with my eye.


In real life the Ludwigia repens is brilliantly red at the top and the Hra is glowing at the tips.

This tank is in serious revision right now. I pulled all the hardscape and it is mostly acting as a nursery as I plan out where I am going forward.. It is a 29 gallon tank that I am planning on using as a Dutch scape lab to start learning the discipline and plant selection, placement, trimming techniques which will be used when I get my livingroom remodeled and get a 75 gallon tank to do a Dutch Aquascape if I have relative success in this tank…

 

[RickyV]

I just try to find what looks good to me. But like @ElleDee said I try to make it balanced so no one color is overpowering. You can only make the plants color pop so much, after a certain point your just tinting the water that color and washing colors of the other plants.

I personally prefer a cooler spectrum and this is what I run. I dont use the white channel as I found it makes the color to warm for me. I also just really like the deep/vivid colors I get with just the RGB.

 

[rzn7z7]

Hi @Pepere I have two Chihiros WRGB 2 Pro 90's over a 225 gallon tank and below are the settings I'm using

As you can see I have a generous ramp-up/down built into the lighting schedule rather than just on/off....I've always liked the ability to simulate sunrise/sunset. The white channel is turned down since these lights are paired with some Fluval 3.0's

Hope this helps

 

[Art]

So this is a HUGE pet peeve of mine so thank you for posting @Pepere. I will try not to go down a rabbit hole or to stand on my soapbox too long.

Unless you are a botanist focused on aquatic plants, you don’t know what spectrum is best for your plants. You can, as a fellow human being, decide on what looks good to your eye but that doesn’t mean (and usually doesn’t) that it is best for the plants. Think of the grow lights at Home Depot that look red pink to our eyes. Why then, do some light manufacturers leave it completely to us to figure this out? I appreciate the flexibility but, man, please do the research and tell me what to set it at. Companies like Kessil know this and allow you to tune intensity but the spectrum stays the same, focused on coral or plant photosynthetic optimization.

Here’s what I’ve done to solve for this:

1. See is the company or someone has come up with a photosynthetic focused setting; if not then
2. Set the red, green and blue spiking with red highest, blue then green. Then
3. I adjust white to make the light look good to my eye. Then
4. If I want it brighter to my eye, I increase everything together until it looks good to me.
5. Lastly, I ask @GreggZ to please let me borrow his par meter to see how I’m doing with par at different points in the aquarium.

With a Kessil, I would just adjust intensity and then check par once.

Anyway, hope that helps. Please let us all know what settings you end up with so that others can have a starting point.

 

[Jhardee85]

I just recently picked up my first light with 4 adjustable channels and am going through the same process. On the recommendation of others, I’ve used the same method Art suggested and have found it very useful. My lights app isn’t as sophisticated as Chihiros, but the methodology is the same. This what I’ve settled on after a few days of tweaking.

 

[Art]

Wow! Beautiful!

 

[ElleDee]

I just recently picked up my first light with 4 adjustable channels and am going through the same process. On the recommendation of others, I’ve used the same method Art suggested and have found it very useful. My lights app isn’t as sophisticated as Chihiros, but the methodology is the same. This what I’ve settled on after a few days of tweaking.

View attachment 5323

View attachment 5324

What light is that?

 

[Jhardee85]

What light is that?

It’s one of the new Amazon special budget lights. It’s new to the market. Magtool BRITE 90cm. Bunch of white LED’s, a row of RGB diodes, and some UV which is unique to lights at similar price points. It’s also Bluetooth controlled via a decent, albeit basic, app.

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

Colors look good, now the real test is how well it grows plants

 

[Pepere]

It’s one of the new Amazon special budget lights. It’s new to the market. Magtool BRITE 90cm. Bunch of white LED’s, a row of RGB diodes, and some UV which is unique to lights at similar price points. It’s also Bluetooth controlled via a decent, albeit basic, app.

Well, the colors look awfully good… and the price is certainly attractive…

I decided to buy a small one for my 20 high which I would never upgrade to a chihiros on. It is designed for 24 to 30, so I might try it on my other 29 before buying a Chihiros WRGB 2 pro for it…

 

[Joel Armstrong]

I'm not sure if it will help you or not, but I have week aqua a430pro lights. I had no idea what settings to use, so I asked Dennis.

Red 83
Green 75
Blue 50
UV 100

Currently at 70% power.

Im not sure of the PAR at 70%, but at 80% there's 130 PAR at sub, 90% is 165, and 100% is 210.
Tested with the latest apogee.

My lights are hung 30cm above tank rim, tank is 60cm deep.

The lights have a white channel, but I don't use it.

 

[Pepere]

With my Chihiros WRGB2 pro, I have settled on

Red 95
Green 70
Blue 110
White 0

I had everything higher for a bit but algae was starting to appear on the tiger lotus leaves and a few wisps of hair algae. Knocking the light down seems to have helped…



I will try raising it back up again next week and see how it does.

 

[ElleDee]

I didn't realize so many people power their blue over their red! I have a couple of good excuses to retool my spectrum anyway (my plants are much different colors than they were a year ago, plus a new hanging kit just got here today), so I will experiment with a blue-forward mix. We'll see where I end up.

 

[rzn7z7]

I didn't realize so many people power their blue over their red! I have a couple of good excuses to retool my spectrum anyway (my plants are much different colors than they were a year ago, plus a new hanging kit just got here today), so I will experiment with a blue-forward mix. We'll see where I end up.

I started out by selecting one of the settings built into the app (I think it was the shrimp setting), found red to be over-satuarated (think lava lamp), turned down the red, added some white, tweaked green and blue and voila

Even with blue channel values higher than red, the reds on this light are powerful....much more powerful than my previous light

 

[RickyV]

Even with blue channel values higher than red, the reds on this light are powerful....much more powerful than my previous light

Yeah after trying out the netlea AT6 pro lights I can see how powerful the red on the chihiros is. The green is also very strong. On the netleas I can have red, green and blue the same and it looks very balanced.

 

[RickyV]

I didn't realize so many people power their blue over their red!

Yeah a hint of blue I feel makes the tank look really clean. It's hard to explain but it makes things look more sharp/crisp. Too much red for me makes the tank look yellow like tannins built up in it. I like the crystal clear blue look.

 

[Pepere]

Yeah a hint of blue I feel makes the tank look really clean. It's hard to explain but it makes things look more sharp/crisp.

Maybe along the same linesof reason that laundry bluing made whites look whiter back when I was a child. It offset the slight yellowing that bleach caused from oxidizing white fibers…

 

[ElleDee]

Yeah a hint of blue I feel makes the tank look really clean. It's hard to explain but it makes things look more sharp/crisp. Too much red for me makes the tank look yellow like tannins built up in it. I like the crystal clear blue look.

So much about how we perceive colors is context dependent. Obviously there's physics at play, but there's a psychological component too. When I picked my current spectrum I was coming from a cheaper light with weak reds and I was just starting to grow colored plants. I was predisposed to go wild with the red because it felt like a magic trick. Now that it's been a while and my plants are actually colored up I'm missing the green, and I'm tired of my wood paneling looking so orange. (@Art asked about regrets earlier, and I should have put a background on the tank! It wasn't an issue with the original light, but the Chihiros is strong.)