120 Evolution Led User Results

[spsutopia]

I have poured over all kinds of sites and threads looking for objective information about the 120w Evo Leds with very little success in terms of finding good quantitative RESULTS about how these lights influence SPS dominated reefs. People have reported sps coral bleaching and pastel colors and seem to attribute this to leds being an insufficient way to light a reef system ect. Now I cant say that i have not seen this in my own tank, however I would like to shed some light..lol...on whats happening in my tank and why. My tank was converted from a 75 gallon with 250w 14k halides to the new 125 with three 120watt Evos mounted 6in from the water line. Within 4-6 weeks I noticed a few sps bleaching slowly (green monti cap, red monti cap., plating chalice and almost all deep purple coralline bleaching). These lights are rediculously strong and without prior led experience its very easy to look at the tank and assume that they will not throw crazy par at your corals, wrong. Most of my sps colors have been been positively augmented by the switch,( Jedi Mind Trick, poker star, rainbow monti, green tenuis, and various acros). After moving negatively affected corals to shaded areas they have recovered beautifully.Coralline is a different story, all coralline is not created equally, that deep purple coralline that we have all come to know and love is not as tolerant to intense light as the green and gray varieties and will not fare well in most intensely lit systems. These leds will most likely replace your vibrant purple coralline with a duller grayish variety. I would recommend hanging these lights at least 10 inches from the water surface in a 24" deep tank and start with an 8hr blue photoperiod and 4hrs of whites for a while, maybe a couple of weeks. Most of the led post Ive read report users of other brands only utilizing around 80% of the whites at peak, after acclimation. Growth has been outstanding in all of my sps, its the colors on some of the tricky ones that seems to be the rub. All in all i am very happy with the lights but honestly i would prefer a dimmable version. Hope this helps.

 

[Saulsa]

I hated these lights, they weren't nearly as bright as my t5's or metal halides. Their also really cheaply made....buy the AI's and you'll be much happier.

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