Anyone Thinking of Dumping LEDS and going back to Halides

[mhucasey]

When I started my first reef in 1991, I was advised to keep my temperature at 72. With MHs, that required a chiller running quite often. At the time I was a full time student and I eventually couldn't afford to pay the electric bills for the tank. At that time the idea of running a tank at 80+ was considered insane. Lots of misinformation in this hobby unfortunately.

I'm thrilled that I don't have to keep the tank that cold any longer, but now I have the opposite issue in the winter - the heaters have to run all the time to keep the tank up to temperature. I lowered my tank temp to 77.8 to get the temp closer to ambient now(and will probably drop it further) and will let it drift up closer to 80 once it warms up.

 

[mos90]

I'm running my temp at 76.3 now

 

[TropTrea]

i have not figured out how to take a good picture with the leds. everything turns out much to blue.

Yes this is because the LED;s are so richer in blue than what the eye even sees. I' have the same issue but with my camera I can increase the color tempoerature and the higher the CT is set on the camera the less this is true. But even at max the blue is richer than the eye sees it.

imo it is very difficult to improve on the color of a 400 radium. that said i am happy with the colors of my corals for the most part. here is what ive noticed. greens seem to have better pop under the leds. growth is about the same. purples appear dull and washed out. my purple nana is blah looking and wasnt before. i have 4 large red/green bubble anemones, the red is not as rich, they look good but just not that deep red. they do love the leds, one just split.

This is where all LED's are not the same especially in commercial fixtures. What it sounds like is happening in your situations is that there is a lack of Red light to bring out those red colors. The old rule what LED's was to use cool whites and royal blue LED's. This was good for growth and florescence but not for the reflective color balance. Some individuals had similar complaints to yours on these fixtures and started either using neutral white ir supplementing with RED leds. I have even heard of people using a few warm whites in the LED mix to bring out the reds. I prefer using 4,500K neutral whites with various wave length blue LED's to add the red. The ration of whites to blues can then be in the range of 1 white to 3 or 4 blue leds.

However with the power of LED's you have to watch that you do not overdo the red spectrum. Excessive red can cause the corals to shut down and even a few of them to bleach out. Besides that red also encourages cyno bacteria especially in the 680nm range.

 

[mos90]

i am actually running a mix of 4500k and 7500k whites. it should be a good balance. i did remove the reds. i felt they were not needed with the 4500k's

 

[albano]

i have 4 large red/green bubble anemones, the red is not as rich, they look good but just not that deep red. they do love the leds, one just split.

I've always heard that they split when they are unhappy or stressed!

 

[rtparty]

i forgot to mention that my blue/red and purple acans look great. the purples are lighter then before but look great

That's because acans fluoresce color and SPS tend to reflect color.

 

[Uncle Salty 05]

Where did you hear that?
Mine have split many times over the years and stress was never the cause.

 

[mos90]

I have not heard that either. Mine are 100% healthy and not stressed. I have 1 large tomato clown that takes care of all of them.

 

[sirreal63]

I just bought the Hamilton Technology Cebu MH/T5 light- (2) 250w Radium and (4) Geismann T5. Anyone else have this light fixture? I'm pretty excited about this light after running an old fixture that had 250w DE Phoenix and PC bulbs.

That is a competent fixture, not as efficient as separate pendants but it works pretty well. What size tank is it over?

 

[FastUno]

I will do more reading on temps as time goes on, but it is hard to contradict the successes of previous TOTM's. I usually tend to do with what has already been experimented & toyed with by others.

I think I will continue the 77-78 in winter & 80-82 in summer. Maybe I will get a burst of growth in the summer, we will see?

The best looking tank I ever laid eyes on was kept at 74 degrees.
It had a batch de-nitrator and had not had a WC in 10 years.
The center piece was a geen carpet nem that was like 30" across.

I would love to see this tank, anything you can link us with?

 

[Uncle Salty 05]

I have not heard that either. Mine are 100% healthy and not stressed. I have 1 large tomato clown that takes care of all of them.

Does your tomato attack you?
Mine always did.
Especially when I got near HER nems.

 

[mos90]

Sometimes. She is very mean. Will not let any fish near them at all. She will even chase my 6" triggers away.

 

[sirreal63]

The 77-78 winter and 80-82 summer perfectly fine.

 

[albano]

I've had 'happy' rbta, not split for many years, grow to almost 24" diameter, but split within 3 days of being moved to a new tank.
I recently removed 10 small rbta that were in my grandson's tank, that had split from his original 1, in about a year, and never grew to over a few inches... Now in my holding tank, they have not split in months, and are doubled in size!
The 1 that I left with him has already split again!

 

[m3lacoste]

125 gallon

 

[d2mini]

Stress can definitely cause a split, but it's not the only cause.

 

[Uncle Salty 05]

I would love to see this tank, anything you can link us with?

I wish I could. It was in a shop in the corner of a strip mall at 441 and Prospect Road in Pompano Beach called Coral Seas Pets. (maybe somebody else remebers the place too)
The owner at the time, Adolph (I can't remember his last name) invented the batch de-nitrator.
This guy new his stuff better than anyone I have ever met (including Moe and Sprung), but I don't think I ever saw him smile.
Anyway he sold the place when he retired and the couple that bought it had financial woes or something (very nice knowledgeable people) and the place finally closed.
Sorry, after doing a search it was actually in Ft. Lauderdale.

 

[sirreal63]

125 gallon

It will be fine, I would avoid putting it in a canopy as this limits airflow unless designed for it.

 

[jmg416]

So from what I'm reading in this thread is I would be better off with a MH pendant than an LED one for the frag tank I'm working on?

 

[pixie4484]

I've been running 3 radions w/ 2 250DE halides and have noticed a difference in the growth of several corals. I have the same coral under both types of lights in a tank that is long enough to have good separation but the same water parameters. MH's are superior to even the radions for sps growth.