Wide Spectral Range

 Proper lighting is one of  the key aspects when maintaining a marine aquarium with corals and reef fish. The corals need the correct light intensity and spectral content to grow efficiently, but reefers also demand a good color rendering so they can enjoy the brilliantly vivid colors of the corals.

The new Gen2 design features 68 state-of-the-art LEDs, smartly grouped over two distinct user-controlled channels. This offers you control over a wide range of color points (from natural white to saturated blue), without ever worrying about harming your corals with the wrong spectral content.

The CoralCare LED engine is designed to create an ideal balance between coral growth and natural reef appearance. The design is based on various publications, our own knowledge of lighting design and scientific studies carried out with the University of Wageningen and Coral Publications.

Philips expertise, extensive user tests and spectrum simulation tools were used to find this balance between appearance (reefers’ color perception) and growth (ensuring coral health and good colorization).

The first CoralCare generation was welcomed by the reefing community and proved to be supplying the correct light for healthy coral growth. In 2018, based on user feedback, the spectrum was refined to highlight the fluorescence of the corals when bluish color tones are selected. With the second generation, the spectrum is again refined resulting in an ideal balance of growth, natural reef appearance and natural light patterns, including fluorescence during evening settings.

The CoralCare LED fixture uses 68 high-power LEDs and 6 different wavelengths. Due to the combination of 6 LED types, the typical flux and color point spread of the LED’s could affect lamp-to-lamp color and performance consistency. A detailed spread analysis was carried out to define the corner points and the potential need for LED binning. For the CoralCare Gen2 LED engine, a custom LED selection scheme directly performed after LED manufacturing (waver-die selection) guarantees that the lamp-to-lamp color consistency stays within 6 SDCM (a standardized color deviation parameter). This enables the use of a wider spread of color wavelengths while ensuring that the total color point difference is indiscernible to the human eye.