advancebc29
New member
someone who understands something :thumbsup:
Anyone Thinking of Dumping LEDS and going back to Halides
- Thread starter Goldcoastreefs
- Start date
someone who understands something :thumbsup:
MedRed
Active member
advancebc29
New member
To prove what exactly? if this wasnt an attack I apologize now.
To show that I did not make a major change to my system as I did the research and to show that I did not have a major problem?
If you want to see those look around on this site and you can find them.
jfeva0049
Member
i would like to see your led unit and maybe some info on what led mix you used. im thinking about going led. im still trying to figure what leds to put into the unit.
Most people are now of the opinion that a more full spectrum LED is needed, I don't think anyone disagrees with that. The problem is when you hop into just about every LED thread and belittle the people who bought a fixture that doesn't meet the current thinking. If you feel picked on in this thread, even just a little, imagine how all of the people you have ridiculed in other threads feel. The sad thing is many of these people who have AI's have managed to show beautiful tanks even with what is now considered an inferior light, yet you refuse to show yours while claiming superiority.
MedRed
Active member
to see what color and growth look like when LEDs are done right.
Here is the fixture he did in March of this year, it looks nicely done.
Finally getting somewhere after months of not doing much.... More details to come.
18 420nm Violet
16 455nm Royal Blue
4 475nm Blue
8 495nm Turquoise
16 10000k
4 4200k
8 660nm Red
heh. x2.
advancebc29
New member
I dont feel picked on just very confused on how folks make a major change, have an issue and dont accept the fact of that major change and or completly ignore the fact. Then the majority of people pat them on the head and say "Its ok, the big bad LED monster killed everything."
If someone started a thread saying that they decided to change the temperature of their water 10-15 degrees in either direction had terrible results and said they are now going back to what they had it at before they would be crucified as to why they thought that big of a change would have no impact. But yet we have little opinion of spectrum change.
I want to focus on a major spectrum change under any lighting tech. LEDs just happen to be the example as the units folks are buying does not match the spectrum that they had before. Then see a particular lighting tech as a complete failure.
Again never claimed superiority. Just the fact that I spent the time to try and match the spectrum thus not introducing a massive change into my tank.
I guess it is just the way I act / think. If you do something drastic and then complain about the results you should be called out.
I do apologize as I get very worked up. Yes I do realize that some poeple are starting understanding this now. But at the same time I see post every day that continues to say they have no clue.
For example I recently made a change over my DT tank as I had some LED and driver issues. I added 4 more 420nm leds and removed all of my 475nm LEDs. I ended up with some SPS issues including bleaching the crap out of my awesome pink stylo. I accept the fact that I made a spectrum change and paid the price. I am not going to blame the lighting tech for the issue. This is an example of a spectrum change within the same lighting tech causing an issue.
So I dont want to fight with anyone and apologize if I come off a$$ish at times
Last edited:
advancebc29
New member
Yes but never completed sadly. This was somewhat based on what is over my Biocube now.
shred5
Premium Member
I usually stay out of lighting debates. But the problem with most led fixtures is they have two color leds white and blue. This is fine for most lps which come from deeper water but most sps come from shallow water and are subject to more red, green, yellow etc. More led fixtures are now realizing this and changing.
Halides are very wide spectrum bulbs. You just cant look at a bulb and see spectrum for example the old iwaskis appeared more white/yellow but had more blue spectrum than the bluer bulbs.
Also the kelvin of a bulb is made up and never really tested for with most bulbs. Some one looks at the color and goes jeez that looks like 14k lets call it that. allot of the time kelvin is a marketing scheme.
Also there are so many led fixtures out right now and now way to test them all. Some are pure crap and and some are really great. There is also a major difference in the leds them selves.
Halides are very wide spectrum bulbs. You just cant look at a bulb and see spectrum for example the old iwaskis appeared more white/yellow but had more blue spectrum than the bluer bulbs.
Also the kelvin of a bulb is made up and never really tested for with most bulbs. Some one looks at the color and goes jeez that looks like 14k lets call it that. allot of the time kelvin is a marketing scheme.
Also there are so many led fixtures out right now and now way to test them all. Some are pure crap and and some are really great. There is also a major difference in the leds them selves.
advancebc29
New member
I respect that and I am no stranger to voicing my opinion. How we choose to voice it makes a difference.
Dave, I have faith that this thread will not become one of "those threads". I think and hope everyone has made their points clear.
Back to the topic, while I agree a more robust spectrum is helpful, there is no denying that the current and previous LED's worked at growing corals. I an mostly convinced that the issues come from not only spectrum, but intensities of spectrum. SPS are very adaptable, not only to light but water parameters, but they don't like a rapid change. IMO, the change in intensity has more to do with issues than the actual spectrum. a 10K MH has a sampling of most of the spectrum and the corals are adapted to the intensities in each, but when you change that to just a few samplings of the spectrum and change the intensity the corals have to adapt to that change, which explains why people have less bleaching by lowering the intensity of the light down to less than 50% and slowly raising it. The change in overall spectrum can influence the coloration, but it is the increase in intensity in a more narrow range that causes the bleaching. The corals need time to adapt to that intensity change in a narrow range that they did not experience before.
Just my observation.
advancebc29
New member
I saw this by increasing the number of 420nm LEDs in my tank. I fatally bleached my pink stylo as I wasnt home for a few days to see it go down hill and stop it.
Spectrum adjustment and intensity changes can be much more difficult with LEDs as they have narrow spectrum outputs like you said.
The biggest difference though between nice halide / T5 setups and earlier LED units was a complete removal of certain major spectrums. This is what I get so worked up about :ape:
power boat jim
Well-known member
If someone knows how to post pics from a zip file in Windows photo gallery to the RC photo album send me a PM,I keep getting an invalid image code when I try to put them in my album here. I have some pics of my tank thats had LEds for 1.5 yrs that I would put up if I could.
reefgeezer
Active member
I was under the impression that when photons in all frequencies of the visible spectrum were emitted, that light would appear "white". Further, I thought that when more of the photons were in the lower end of the spectrum the "white" light was referred to as "cool" and when more of the photons emitted were in the upper end we identified them as "warm". I didn't think LEDs worked any different. Thinking this, I used white LED's in my DIY set-up.
Additionally, I thought that corals only used light in roughly the 400 to 480 nm (violet to blue) range AND the 600 to 650 (red) nm range for photosynthesis. Thinking this, I used Royal Blue (and later added a few violet and blue) LED's to get more photons in the 420-485 nm range, and more warm white than cool white LEDs hoping to take advantage of the 600 nm peaks in the warm white emitters.
I like my DIY LED's and have had them for about 10 months. The corals seem to be doing about the same as when I ran halides, and save for a few emitters they are basically blue and white. I wouldn't go back to halide.
I can't accept the argument of this thread that if you don't like your LED's, you have to go back to halide or T5. There are other, I think better, options. IMO... if I had a First Gen commercial LED system I wasn't happy with, I wouldn't go back to Halide or T5. I would replace it with a Third Gen system or upgrade the old one.
Additionally, I thought that corals only used light in roughly the 400 to 480 nm (violet to blue) range AND the 600 to 650 (red) nm range for photosynthesis. Thinking this, I used Royal Blue (and later added a few violet and blue) LED's to get more photons in the 420-485 nm range, and more warm white than cool white LEDs hoping to take advantage of the 600 nm peaks in the warm white emitters.
I like my DIY LED's and have had them for about 10 months. The corals seem to be doing about the same as when I ran halides, and save for a few emitters they are basically blue and white. I wouldn't go back to halide.
I can't accept the argument of this thread that if you don't like your LED's, you have to go back to halide or T5. There are other, I think better, options. IMO... if I had a First Gen commercial LED system I wasn't happy with, I wouldn't go back to Halide or T5. I would replace it with a Third Gen system or upgrade the old one.
psusocr
Active member
i think my corals look just like they do under some of the nicest halide tanks ive seen..i run just blue and white leds from china with 6 foot VHO super actinics..IMO best combo out there and works wonders on my corals! hopefully another year( that will be close to 2 1/2-3 years of LEDS all of my frags will be large colonies) and then people may beleive..
power boat jim
Well-known member
Links wont work.
Last edited:
Similar threads
