Anyone Thinking of Dumping LEDS and going back to Halides

The Ecotech paper is perfect for them. They people buying their lights in general seem to miss the point that some coral do fine and that not all coral is equal. ...so of course they can pick and choose the coral that do well for their presentation. They compare birdsnets, montis, etc. and the typical Ecotech buyer is going to assume that this means all SPS since they are likely not to know better. They are targeting the inexperienced.

Many have grown porites, birdsnet and stylo under 100W incandescent light in a fuge with no issues. ...but the people who know this are not likely Ecotech customers.
 
jda said:
The Ecotech paper is perfect for them. They people buying their lights in general seem to miss the point that some coral do fine and that not all coral is equal. ...so of course they can pick and choose the coral that do well for their presentation. They compare birdsnets, montis, etc. and the typical Ecotech buyer is going to assume that this means all SPS since they are likely not to know better. They are targeting the inexperienced.

Many have grown porites, birdsnet and stylo under 100W incandescent light in a fuge with no issues. ...but the people who know this are not likely Ecotech customers.
Click to expand...

you know with a "little" more effort you could get even more "elitist"... ;)
 
Cyberdude said:
One year of growth under hydra 52

April 20, 2015
View attachment 343420

Today
View attachment 343421

Leds grow coral. My water has been a mess so not much sps yet. It's possible that some do better than others. But I've seen sps from the Great Barrier Reef spawn under hydra52s. Granted it was marine biologists in the equation and water pumped in daily from the ocean.
Click to expand...

Looks great...but to be fair, seriataporas grow like weeds, and the fact that yours only got that big after a year is another indication of reduced growth rates.

I have the same coral under a T5/combo that started the same size and it is now twice the size of yours in six months.

The mother colony I had of this coral I had under LED's only for two years and it would grow slowly, then RTN every 6 months for something and I'd keep trimming back and keeping the good parts. I moved it to my coral farm under t5's and I have a colony the size of a serving platter that just keeps growing with no losses.

To me it seems like very strong evidence. But I understand that its not for others.

Also, these spawning corals under hydras...Im pretty sure I saw that video too, and I think they used the LED's as supplementation, but not the primary light source. I could be wrong though. can you provide a link to this video?
 
I have yet to run into anything I can not grow. There have been some that took a real long time to get acclimated, but one they started all was good.
 
The week 1 results are in. I just weighed the frags for my little test and the results are not too surprising. Both frags have grown in the week that they have been in the tank, however, the MH frag grew more. The colors still look virtually the same, but we will see if that continues with time. The weights are:

LED frag -
2/20/16 - 11.2g
2/27/16 - 12.0g
Total Growth = 0.8g

MH frag -
2/20/16 - 13.5g
2/27/16 - 14.8g
Total Growth = 1.3g

After 1 week the MH is out front as the best grower (for my tank). Also, we have noticed color returning to our purple bonzai and red hot chili pepper, that long ago turned tan under the LED's. If we continue to see results like these, we will likely be switching everything over to MH/T5 or MH/LED in the next month or so.
 
lpsouth1978 said:
The week 1 results are in. I just weighed the frags for my little test and the results are not too surprising. Both frags have grown in the week that they have been in the tank, however, the MH frag grew more. The colors still look virtually the same, but we will see if that continues with time. The weights are:

LED frag -
2/20/16 - 11.2g
2/27/16 - 12.0g
Total Growth = 0.8g

MH frag -
2/20/16 - 13.5g
2/27/16 - 14.8g
Total Growth = 1.3g

After 1 week the MH is out front as the best grower (for my tank). Also, we have noticed color returning to our purple bonzai and red hot chili pepper, that long ago turned tan under the LED's. If we continue to see results like these, we will likely be switching everything over to MH/T5 or MH/LED in the next month or so.
Click to expand...

Thank you for taking the time to do this. Great info!
 
lpsouth1978 said:
The week 1 results are in. I just weighed the frags for my little test and the results are not too surprising. Both frags have grown in the week that they have been in the tank, however, the MH frag grew more. The colors still look virtually the same, but we will see if that continues with time. The weights are:

LED frag -
2/20/16 - 11.2g
2/27/16 - 12.0g
Total Growth = 0.8g

MH frag -
2/20/16 - 13.5g
2/27/16 - 14.8g
Total Growth = 1.3g

After 1 week the MH is out front as the best grower (for my tank). Also, we have noticed color returning to our purple bonzai and red hot chili pepper, that long ago turned tan under the LED's. If we continue to see results like these, we will likely be switching everything over to MH/T5 or MH/LED in the next month or so.
Click to expand...

awesome you are doing this.....beyond "hobby" stuff!!!
 
Growth is virtually identical if you go by percentage, with MH still having a slight edge

8.9% increase vs 9.2% increase, LED vs MH respectively.

You have slightly higher par on the MH side too so I'm not surprised on that. I'll have to look back though as I'm curious as to what your LED fixture consists of. Wondering if you were ever full spectrum or mainly RB and whites?
 
Aqualund said:
Looks great...but to be fair, seriataporas grow like weeds, and the fact that yours only got that big after a year is another indication of reduced growth rates.

I have the same coral under a T5/combo that started the same size and it is now twice the size of yours in six months.

The mother colony I had of this coral I had under LED's only for two years and it would grow slowly, then RTN every 6 months for something and I'd keep trimming back and keeping the good parts. I moved it to my coral farm under t5's and I have a colony the size of a serving platter that just keeps growing with no losses.

To me it seems like very strong evidence. But I understand that its not for others.

Also, these spawning corals under hydras...Im pretty sure I saw that video too, and I think they used the LED's as supplementation, but not the primary light source. I could be wrong though. can you provide a link to this video?
Click to expand...


It was actually fragged a few times. Perspective might not do I justice but it's at the size of a large cantaloupe which started as a 2" frag 12 months ago. It's never seen any loss either.
 
Maybe this will answer your questions about the height.

We tested PAR tonight for both the LED's and the new MH. Here are the results:

LED side -

Top (3" below water surface) ~540
Middle (13" below surface) ~325
Bottom (27" below surface) ~230

MH side -

Top (3" below water surface) ~800
Middle (13" below surface) ~520
Bottom (27" below surface) ~360
Click to expand...

I did some digging back through his olds posts. Just trying to keep things all here together as I'm interested in this too.

Visually speaking he said there is a return of color to some pieces. I haven't seen full LED spec's on what he's using, but I did see green/red/uv in his mix, but couldn't find which ones.
 
dread240 said:
Growth is virtually identical if you go by percentage, with MH still having a slight edge

8.9% increase vs 9.2% increase, LED vs MH respectively.

You have slightly higher par on the MH side too so I'm not surprised on that. I'll have to look back though as I'm curious as to what your LED fixture consists of. Wondering if you were ever full spectrum or mainly RB and whites?
Click to expand...


So mh is 0.3% better than Led at growing coral. I think this post proves that water quality trumps lighting on growth.
 
Cyberdude said:
So mh is 0.3% better than Led at growing coral. I think this post proves that water quality trumps lighting on growth.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say just that, but for the piece he's running this experiment on I don't see any noticeable growth changes. That's with a much higher par reading on the MH side too.

I hate to try and make MORE work for you, but the pieces with coloration coming back, I wonder if you could use some of your led's to supplement the other 2/3rd of the tank to get it to equal par levels. You definitely have more intense lighting from the MH right now, part of me wonders if you needed more intensity to begin with on those other corals that didn't color up like you expected. As you're sitting right now, you have roughly 50% more intensity in par readings on your MH side compared to the LED side. That's fairly significant and just one more variable in a test that we're trying to remove as many variables as possible.
 
karimwassef said:
Guys... It's one week of data...
Click to expand...

I'm just trying to get as much useable info from this as possible. I'd throw any growth readings or anything like that out the window so far lol, but if we could get rid of even more variables at this point I think it'd be perfect.

Imagine same tank, same par levels, same flow, coral comparison. The only difference would be this user's spectrum compared to a metal halides spectrum, that's it.
 
It would be cool if led manufactures offer pur / par calculators based on waterline heights and coral depth. I'd bet you would see a lot more success. Quicker.
 
It would be cool. Because he has almost 300 more par on the mh side. It would be nice of the builders of LEDs to provide us with some insight. I still think having all the controllability is a downside to a degree. We can change them to our likening and maybe not what's best for the coral. I think that is one area where kessil really made a stand and separated themselves from the pack.

Corey
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
Seeking Help with AquaticLife Pulse LED Fixture - Need Universal Controller/Timer Advice
Replies
5
Views
179
Vinny Kreyling
Vinny Kreyling
reefing102
New Reef Beeeders Pico LED
Replies
10
Views
306
reefing102
reefing102
B
Hood mounting LEDs
Replies
3
Views
92
Bakeman
B
V
Need advice please!
Replies
2
Views
123
vetteguy03
V
5
Alternative to BioCube 29
Replies
3
Views
92
5881
5
Back
Top