Anyone Thinking of Dumping LEDS and going back to Halides

[nynick]

i was thinking of doing the same and the couple i get corals from said i should stay with the t5.if you get a a zoa or paly thats been under t5 and put them under leds they look real nice then within a week you start seeing them shrink and not grow.

This will happen when you increase the amount of light substantially. Most corals will adjust over time, some you will have to move and some move by them selves. A few of my shrooms where hanging from long threads dangling slowly downwards when I got my leds, they have all found new places and are ding well. I had to move some zoas and a ricordea that was on a very large rock actually died from what I am guessing to be sunburn.

The nice part is that stuff is growing in places I would never have expected a coral to grow in. A few shrooms are flourishing in a small cave that to the naked eye looks much too dark to have anything grow in it. Guessing they get enough light bouncing off the glass.

Never in my life did I expect to start running out of shady spots in my tank I am now actively looking for corals that will create shade so I can get more zoas in.

 

[Rovuma]

back to (adding) T5s

back to (adding) T5s

I got Radions almost a year ago.

SPS tank, 3 y.o. system: 150 g total.

All stylophora, pocillopora, and seriatopora colonies went from pink to brown or white in spite of acclimation and modest intensity.

After 10 months of struggle and disappointment, I added back T5s: ATI dimmable sunpower, which I used to supplement LEDs with purple and blue light.

Seriatopora and some of the pocilloporas back to pink.

I, personally, wouldn't do it again (buying the Radions or any other LED as my only light system). IME, it simply doesn't work.

 

[James77]

I got Radions almost a year ago.

SPS tank, 3 y.o. system: 150 g total.

All stylophora, pocillopora, and seriatopora colonies went from pink to brown or white in spite of acclimation and modest intensity.

After 10 months of struggle and disappointment, I added back T5s: ATI dimmable sunpower, which I used to supplement LEDs with purple and blue light.

Seriatopora and some of the pocilloporas back to pink.

I, personally, wouldn't do it again (buying the Radions or any other LED as my only light system). IME, it simply doesn't work.

How has the coral responded after teh switch back to T5? Any other changes that occured at the same time?

 

[rtparty]

I got Radions almost a year ago.

SPS tank, 3 y.o. system: 150 g total.

All stylophora, pocillopora, and seriatopora colonies went from pink to brown or white in spite of acclimation and modest intensity.

After 10 months of struggle and disappointment, I added back T5s: ATI dimmable sunpower, which I used to supplement LEDs with purple and blue light.

Seriatopora and some of the pocilloporas back to pink.

I, personally, wouldn't do it again (buying the Radions or any other LED as my only light system). IME, it simply doesn't work.

How many radions and what are your dimensions on the tank?

 

[deepseadan]

Last year I dropped $1400 on ai sol blues. Biggest mistake of my life. All my SPS looked really good for a couple days. Then they all lost color and growth slowed. Eventually went back to halides, and everything recovered (except my wallet and pride).

 

[BfishLpond78]

I don't have any direct experience with LED's but a fellow reefer runs many AI sol blues throughout his many tanks...but I can say I haven't seen more beautiful corals. He's had them for a few years. Hope he doesnt mind me sharing a photo of his 70 gal frag tank which has 2 AI sol blues

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2

 

[mike_cmu04]

I just dumped 40 led's out of my display to be replaced with a 250 mh. I am already noticing alot more color in my sps. The led's gave decent growth but terrible color everything browned. I ran led's about a year and a half.

 

[bhazard451]

Lots of people saying things like "tried led, didn't like it, switched back". If we could get some more details please.

I see quite a few people in these threads that are almost fanatically for or against led lights. I must assume that the ones that are against had a bad experience so it would be great to know what it was.

I just dumped 40 led's out of my display to be replaced with a 250 mh. I am already noticing alot more color in my sps. The led's gave decent growth but terrible color everything browned. I ran led's about a year and a half.

Posts like this are exactly why those switching back are sort of misleading everyone. Care to mention what types of leds the 40 removed were, and what colors? I wouldn't be surprised if they were cool white/royal blues.

 

[grigsy]

yes metal halides r still the best for sps corals!

+1

That's been my experience as well

 

[MedRed]

I don't have any direct experience with LED's but a fellow reefer runs many AI sol blues throughout his many tanks...but I can say I haven't seen more beautiful corals. He's had them for a few years. Hope he doesnt mind me sharing a photo of his 70 gal frag tank which has 2 AI sol blues

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2

Looks like fluorescence from running the leds very blue. I don't think that's a really good indicator of color imo

 

[deepseadan]

Looks like fluorescence from running the leds very blue. I don't think that's a really good indicator of color imo

That's exactly what I was thinking. I see fluorescence from my corals under my moon lights.

 

[BfishLpond78]

It is a picture from my cell phone. So if the corals brown out like a lot of people are saying, would they still flow under moonlights.

Make no mistake from the picture...the corals have very very good color

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2

 

[saliva911]

its good that it worked out for you. but i have a nano cube not a lot of places to move things around .why put my high end zoas and palys at risk.you said it your self some things died from the lights

 

[ReefUrchin]

Well, it looks like I am going to try to work on MH system and either do VHO actinics to t5-ho actinics.

Does the T5-ho have a better punch to them than VHO? If I was doing only 1 bulb, which bulb should I use?

 

[nynick]

its good that it worked out for you. but i have a nano cube not a lot of places to move things around .why put my high end zoas and palys at risk.you said it your self some things died from the lights

Then you can simply get one with a dimmer and adjust the amount. Light is light, led or otherwise, you just get a LOT of it easily with led. It isn't like it is pumping out gamma radiation even though I have a feeling some people think so. The only difference with led other than that it has the possibility of giving you huge amounts of light is that you need to put a little time in figuring out what colors you want....that is it.

 

[otterinaround]

Read the entire thread... It's been quite heated! Just wanted to tag along and keep up with all of the developments.

 

[audacious1]

have 2 radions on my 90(sps) and couldn't be happier. got my mh in my garage if anyones interested

 

[PAnanoguy]

audacious1 what temp and % do you run your Radions at?

 

[audacious1]

audacious1 what temp and % do you run your Radions at?

I have it 20k @ 60%. Man my corals love it.
what about yours?

 

[tekjunkie28]

Anyone here tried the Apollo led units? I have heard great things.

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