48" LED SPS reef

[jciotti]

I'd like to introduce to you my 48" SPS (soon to be) dominated aquarium.

This thread will be one way of documenting its progress.

Feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Tank @ 2 weeks after coral introduction.

I have already seen an increase in coral coloration and the growth seems to be steady.

 

[purplereef]

Very nice tank. I cannot wait to see how your SPS grow under LED's.

 

[belgian_waffleman]

What kind of LED system is that?

Waffleman

 

[jciotti]

The tank is lit by two 24" Ecoxotic Panorama LED fixtures and four blue Stunner strips, two of the Stunners came with the fixtures.

 

[Rodrigo_BG]

i cannot wait to see how your sps grow under led's.

+1

 

[reefsahoy]

how many watt total of light is that? do you get shimmer? have you noticed and color changes to your sps since adding them to your tank?

thanks

 

[jciotti]

how many watt total of light is that? do you get shimmer? have you noticed and color changes to your sps since adding them to your tank?

thanks

144 watts without the Stunner strips (72 watts per fixture), those aren't really for growing coral though. I use the Stunner strips for supplemental lighting and moon light.

The shimmer is WAY more intense then any MH aquarium I've seen and I've seen a ton.

The colors have gotten better and a lot of what was brown is now starting to gain purples/blues.

The funny thing with the LED lighting is that it seems as if you don't need the same level of PAR you would with halides. I think halides throw off a huge amount of light that isn't being used for growth that people are measuring and throwing number around with no real focus.

I'm not 100% sure what I'm getting right now but last I checked (water still not clear) I was only at 130-160 PAR on the sand bed and corals are still coloring up.

 

[vbsaltydog]

Impressive lighting effects.

 

[Sardaukar]

Those puppies certainly arn't cheap, but they look fantastic and the energy/heat savings must be crazy.

 

[jciotti]

Those puppies certainly arn't cheap, but they look fantastic and the energy/heat savings must be crazy.

No heat!!!

 

[Sardaukar]

No heat!!!

Especially in CA where energy is so high - could really see some long term savings if they are replacing 500 watts of MH and the chiller needed to keep the tank cool.

 

[reefsahoy]

what's the dimensions, depth especially of your tank? i agree with you about par and about people throwing around numbers without fully understanding what the actual effect is. Before T5's were the craze, people here in the US were sure they didn't work. I went to Europe back then and saw some T5's, came home and bought some and ran a sps tank successfully, hopefully your tank can prove the same success because i can see myself changing over to LED's but have too much stock and would have to be absolutly sure they work because too much $ to risk losing.

 

[saltygeek]

Looks great! Love to see how these fixtures work out.
Also, how long have you been running them?

 

[5h3rW1N]

what are the par readings of those lights? btw it looks good!

 

[jciotti]

what are the par readings of those lights? btw it looks good!

The funny thing with the LED lighting is that it seems as if you don't need the same level of PAR you would with halides. I think halides throw off a huge amount of light that isn't being used for growth that people are measuring and throwing number around with no real focus.

I'm not 100% sure what I'm getting right now but last I checked (water still not clear) I was only at 130-160 PAR on the sand bed and corals are still coloring up.

I really want to try and stay away from a how much PAR thread as possible. I really don't think PAR numbers are an accurate way of telling how much light a coral needs to grow because we can't measure what they are using.

 

[jciotti]

what's the dimensions, depth especially of your tank? i agree with you about par and about people throwing around numbers without fully understanding what the actual effect is. Before T5's were the craze, people here in the US were sure they didn't work. I went to Europe back then and saw some T5's, came home and bought some and ran a sps tank successfully, hopefully your tank can prove the same success because i can see myself changing over to LED's but have too much stock and would have to be absolutly sure they work because too much $ to risk losing.

The fixtures had been in use for about a year before the switch to SPS, so 2 weeks dedicated towards an SPS system. They grew everything else wonderfully so why not SPS. We will find out soon enough.

I have another smaller reef tank light with the same lights and a few FW planted aquariums lit with LED lighting as well. I'm pretty comfortable with the technology and believe it is here to stay.

 

[kentrob11]

Neat!

 

[HomeSlizzice]

Nice tank jciotti! I saw the ecoxotic LEDs at reef-a-palooza and I was really impressed. They looked like great lights, plus the owner was a really nice guy.

David

 

[sfexplicit]

Very interested to see how everything turns out. Please keep us posted.

 

[beeker]

I really want to try and stay away from a how much PAR thread as possible. I really don't think PAR numbers are an accurate way of telling how much light a coral needs to grow because we can't measure what they are using.

PAR is the only number that matters to me when it comes to lighting so PAR is really the only number that matters other than water params

Think about it like this, without PAR numbers you have no idea if the setup is a good setup or a crap setup, so PAR numbers are nesscessary if you want to know if you have Crap lighting or Good quality lighting and to me it is the only number that matters

a 1w led has less par than a 3w led so therefore 1w leds are crap compared to 3w leds, a 150w mh has less PAR than a 250w mh thus a 250w MH is better than a 150w MH

granted you have to take tank size into account but don't say PAR numbers don't matter because they are truley the only number that does matter in this hobbie other than calc/alk and mag