Any serious SPS collectors use LED?

[VegasMike]

Might want to rethink that a bit. Having a bit of a legal background, I can justify it either way.

"I run LED's for twelve hours, but supplement with MH to get a more intense midday impact."

or

"I run my lighting for 12 hours, but supplement it during midday for five hours with MH."

or

"I run MH to supplement the spectrum that I feel LED's lack."

There are more ways to say it, but none of the above is wrong. It depends on which side of the argument you want to be on.

SO, do NOT tell me my usage of the word is WRONG until you get a bit more schooling to actually understand what you are saying/writing.

You are definitely being the rude one here.

I am done responding to you. Have a good day.

 

[Wazzel]

I am using LED and am pretty frustrated because I have too many knobs to turn and no clear path to coral happiness. I have bleached, browned, etc. and am still trying to find settings that work after a year now of trying. I now even dream at night about my lighting issues and am seriously considering switching to MH. Heat is my only concern.

What fixture, what settings, how are you acclimating to the changes, what light system are you coming from, tank size, etc. LED takes more attention to detail than MH or T-5. Once you decide on a setting program in a long acclimation time and LEAVE IT ALONE. You are not going to see results in a week unless it is negative. I know it is tempting to turn the knobs but hands off is the best approach for LEDs.

Two things to remember

1. Only bad things happen fast in a reef tank.
2. Stability promotes success.

 

[Fishmommy]

Mitras 6200hv lights. 5 -6 weeks between changes. 135 gallon 1 year old.

 

[MisterP]

Might want to rethink that a bit. Having a bit of a legal background, I can justify it either way.

"I run LED's for twelve hours, but supplement with MH to get a more intense midday impact."

or

"I run my lighting for 12 hours, but supplement it during midday for five hours with MH."

or

"I run MH to supplement the spectrum that I feel LED's lack."

There are more ways to say it, but none of the above is wrong. It depends on which side of the argument you want to be on.

SO, do NOT tell me my usage of the word is WRONG until you get a bit more schooling to actually understand what you are saying/writing.

You are definitely being the rude one here.

I am done responding to you. Have a good day.

Great for your background in law.. I would have never guessed by your responses.

By law do you mean mall security guard?

And no offense to any mall security guards on here.

 

[MisterP]

JK Mike....But seriously you shouldn't mention being a lawyer or whatever because now no one will believe anything you have said in this thread

 

[vette.tech]

Great for your background in law.. I would have never guessed by your responses.

By law do you mean mall security guard?

And no offense to any mall security guards on here.

LOLOL.....I agree with you since apparently no one else likes to in that his responses did seem awfully snippy. Now let's move on

 

[VegasMike]

Not a lawyer, but read enough investment docs, negotiate enough deals and deal with enough lawyers to know that "supplemental" and other things can be interpreted multiple ways. I used to proofread audit reports and legal docs in college almost 30 years ago, so trying to bend words to fit what you want the outcome to be is something I am very familiar with.

I am also old enough that I do not let other people tell me what I meant to say.

When someone calls me "wrong", I will accept it when I am, but will not when I am not.

I took offense above when you tried to tell that user what he meant to say. That is not your place. He knows what his position is and doesn't need someone bending his words/actions to meet his own definition. He was offended by you enough to totally leave the thread, so his further insights are now lost.

BY the way, how is your red dragon frag from Copps doing? If I remember correctly, you received one as well. Mine has been coloring up under my LED's very well and the frag that broke off during shipping has started uncrusting the rock I glued it to. I would call that a high end SPS that is doing well, but certainly not long term yet.

 

[Wazzel]

Mitras 6200hv lights. 5 -6 weeks between changes. 135 gallon 1 year old.

Not near enough information to try to give you advice.

 

[ChrisKirkland]

I don't think it's a matter of time. We can stop saying "LEDs will catch on soon and everyone will use them". I'm a MH purist, but I know for me personally, observing the two nearest reef clubs (Austin reef club, and marsh reef Houston, I see the vast majority of people of all experience levels using LEDs now. That goes for in my small home town with only a dozen or so reefers in it. Seems in these large areas there is about a 3:1 led:all-other-forms-of-lighting ratio from expert down to novice. Can't speak for everyone's area, but here, LEDs claim the lions share of the lighting market for reefs

Ooops forgot to mention those diehards who are married to MH or T5. Which isn't a bad thing, they stick with what has worked best for them and their animals which I am totally cool with. I know several that still swear by VHO. Its Just a matter of if someone wants to change whats not broke (or not working). MH lighting has been the Bread and Butter for reef keeping for a long time. Still LED's are getting better and better, and cheaper too.

 

[ChrisKirkland]

Most of the serious people that I know around here are MH or T5 as a base... maybe 20% LED. The intermediate people are about 10% MH, 40% T5/PC and 40% LED. Lots of the noobs are LED (almost all), but many are abandoning them after a year or two and they aren't into the nightclub look anymore and get around to see more and more tanks with better lightings... the abandon rate is pretty high.

The vast majority of the LED users use AI SOL Blue or Radion. Kessil and Vega are a far-behind third and fourth.

When I left KC, there were WAY more LED users, but a few of my old friends have fired their MH back up, but there were pretty serious SPS guys. I totally can see that region matters - here electricity is cheap at .08 KWH.

EDIT: it could also totally be who I choose to hang out with. I don't really care about people with a bunch of kenya trees, montis, frags that have't encrusted the plugs yet and run-of-the-mill stuff.

This is very true because LED's are the "hip" thing to do today, it is modern. I use to light my 125 with 3 250Watt Radiums Mogul Base, with Galaxy ballasts. I am in Innovator and I am always looking for a challenge and LED's were it when I built my 300. So far it has worked in my favor, I have had my challenges though.

 

[Zwickm]

I have a mixed SPS, LPS and soft coral tank under LEDs. Everything continues to do very well. I got the Rapid LED kit with a dimmable driver. 12 hours on with Blues at 68% intensity and white/uv/red/green on at 60% with a two hour sunrise and sunset. I have 12 CREE royal blues, 6 cool white, 4 semi uv, 1red and 1 green LED over my 30 gallon nano. No lenses. Colors are wonderful, corals are happy and growing. The life span, energy savings and dimming feature makes it undoubtedly worth it. You just need the right color ratio and intensity level. Don't by a pre made led fixture, just build yourself from rapid LED kits. It's also more fun.

This is one of the best articles on lighting I've seen recently - www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/10/aafeature

 

[JB NY]

Ooops forgot to mention those diehards who are married to MH or T5. Which isn't a bad thing, they stick with what has worked best for them and their animals which I am totally cool with. I know several that still swear by VHO. Its Just a matter of if someone wants to change whats not broke (or not working). MH lighting has been the Bread and Butter for reef keeping for a long time. Still LED's are getting better and better, and cheaper too.

I don't know if I would call those still keeping SPS under MH diehards. I still use them and it's mostly because, one the cost of LED would be stupid expensive compared to what I currently have, but mostly because I have yet to see an LED tank that, to me, looks better than what I can do with MH.

 

[jda]

Agree. I consider myself a livehard. It isn't like I am using all of this outdated tech when there is a better replacement and just refuse to change. My halides are the only thing that I can live with.

I would also argue, and anybody who has ever used them will know, that VHO is also not replaceable by T5 of LED.

 

[Bpb]

Yeah I don't know that I would throw around diehard like a derogatory term. That's silly. Even in my case when I purchased my MH equipment WHILE LEDs were available...it's not a bad thing to spend $300 on very high quality MH gear on the used market that works fantastic instead of $2000 on something else that works, but maybe not as well, maybe just as well, but certainly not better.

Even WORSE would be to speak negatively of someone with an amazing tank using trusty equipment that will not fail them for years and years long before LEDs were available in a reef setting...just because they DONT pony up thousands on a new product that may or may not work as well as what they have. That's just silly. If someone likes their LEDs great. They are a neat product. But you can't very well expect someone to pay an arm and a leg to replace something that is working well already

 

[shiladitya1991]

I don't know if I would call those still keeping SPS under MH diehards. I still use them and it's mostly because, one the cost of LED would be stupid expensive compared to what I currently have, but mostly because I have yet to see an LED tank that, to me, looks better than what I can do with MH.

That is absolutely true..

 

[Editour2]

Wow !!

MisterP - Who pee'd in your rice krispies this morning?

He gave an honest, direct answer. You appear to want to twist his answer to fit your position. I am not too sure he is the one being rude.

:deadhorse:

+1
Lighten up.....the guy is attempting to answer your questions.

 

[Wazzel]

I would not pull off a working lighting system just for giggles to try something else. This hobby is expensive enough without chasing the latest trend.

 

[ChrisKirkland]

Yeah I don't know that I would throw around diehard like a derogatory term. That's silly. Even in my case when I purchased my MH equipment WHILE LEDs were available...it's not a bad thing to spend $300 on very high quality MH gear on the used market that works fantastic instead of $2000 on something else that works, but maybe not as well, maybe just as well, but certainly not better.

Even WORSE would be to speak negatively of someone with an amazing tank using trusty equipment that will not fail them for years and years long before LEDs were available in a reef setting...just because they DONT pony up thousands on a new product that may or may not work as well as what they have. That's just silly. If someone likes their LEDs great. They are a neat product. But you can't very well expect someone to pay an arm and a leg to replace something that is working well already

For some MH work great. For others like me MH Grew SPS and made to colors look awesome, but it caused me to have to run a chiller 24x7. When it gets 90+ and humid for 4-8 weeks straight it causes some issues with trying to keep a large system cool. Two of my biggest reasons for moving to LEDs were so I could get rid of that power hog of a chiller and make my lighting more energy efficient. I would evaporate 15 gallons every day or two, which made me have to run a 80 pint dehumidifier to remove all that excess moisture in the air so the house humidity wasn't at 70% and feeling like the amazon. My system is still young and growing everyday but it seems to be doing ok so far. Its been in place for a little over a year.

This summer was awesome, my power bill was much lower from the combo of no chiller, LED lights, and my AC unit not running constantly, this summer was fairly warm too. It really just depends on how much time and money you are willing to invest, for me it looked like a really good option due to the lower heat output of radions.

 

[Nhorner]

Man honestly I had a 400 halide and made a move to a Radion gen 3 pro for my sps, some Lps in my 40 gallon. I am getting with the setting on it a couple inches down like 800 to 900 par. About 8 inches is like 300 to 400 in most spots and 100 to 200 near the bottom. In most areas.... Saved money getting great growth. I am happy and so are my corals.

 

[power boat jim]

Man honestly I had a 400 halide and made a move to a Radion gen 3 pro for my sps, some Lps in my 40 gallon. I am getting with the setting on it a couple inches down like 800 to 900 par. About 8 inches is like 300 to 400 in most spots and 100 to 200 near the bottom. In most areas.... Saved money getting great growth. I am happy and so are my corals.

Be interested how things go long term with those lights. I too invested in them. They seem, so far to be a very good choice.