Anyone Thinking of Dumping LEDS and going back to Halides

[sirreal63]

Maybe, maybe not. Price two MH ballasts and two T5 ballasts, proper T5 reflectors (which may not fit) and it becomes much less of a bargain. It is also possible that the poorly manufactured ballasts burn while you are not home. If you want to play around with switching, get a used unit as a base to play with.

 

[karimwassef]

I'd give my endorsement to the Hamilton Cayman Sun. If you get this conbo fixture, please consider mapping out the PAR map under it?

 

[Bent]

I'd give my endorsement to the Hamilton Cayman Sun. If you get this conbo fixture, please consider mapping out the PAR map under it?

Sure, be glad to. My LFS rents one out for 10 beans.

 

[Bent]

Maybe, maybe not. Price two MH ballasts and two T5 ballasts, proper T5 reflectors (which may not fit) and it becomes much less of a bargain. It is also possible that the poorly manufactured ballasts burn while you are not home. If you want to play around with switching, get a used unit as a base to play with.

I wonder why no one makes a triple light fixture with leds, t5s and halides?

It would be pretty sweet to be able to program a cool sunrise/sunset mode with the LEDs as well as storm, cloud cover, lunar cycles etc. Then the halides could handle the max intensity/high noon/full sun aspect with the t5s to supplement and decrease shadowing.

Combining all 3 technologies, with a wifi controller/controller compatibility with detailed programming, would be the ultimate light.

 

[sirreal63]

Probably because of heat and LED'd dislike for it. It can be done, I made my floating canopy with LED, MH but with VHO instead of T5.

 

[karimwassef]

I'm supplementing my MH with red, blue and UV LEDs...

I plan on reversing the artificial blue morning and nights with red to simulate what really happens on the reefs...

red/yellow dawn and dusk... blue morning and afternoon... blue and UV midday... then UV for moonlight

 

[Bent]

I'm supplementing my MH with red, blue and UV LEDs...

I plan on reversing the artificial blue morning and nights with red to simulate what really happens on the reefs...

red/yellow dawn and dusk... blue morning and afternoon... blue and UV midday... then UV for moonlight

Dude you need to make a time lapse vid of that.

 

[ken1977]

I'm going T5 I had LED on my last tank and always lost SPS after like five months. I had a bone yard in my sump.

 

[karimwassef]

something like...

dark
red
red and yellow
yellow
yellow and blue
blue
blue and UV
blue
blue and yellow
yellow
yellow and red
red
dark
UV
dark

I might skip yellow since the MHs will do that fine.

 

[Telkiira]

I haven't had a tank set up for a while. Last time I was set up was with T-5's. I was planning on going with LED's, but, from what I am reading I may go with T-5's or a combination with MH. Guess that depends on what I plan on going in the tank eventually.

 

[jestronix]

A nice example of led use http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=20147169

 

[trueperc]

A nice example of led use http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=20147169

Very nice set up, but again kind of proves the point some people are making about leds though, as you need complete coverage and wattage equal to or more than a decent metal halide set up.

 

[Bpb]

T5HO and MH seem to mainly be more forgiving of mistakes and perhaps a lesser skill level of reef keeping. I now know several long time MH loyalists that did the LED switch about a year ago and have not missed a step in growth and color, but these people make no mistakes and have every other aspect of sps growing basically perfected. With bulbs you have a little more margin of error. I have anyway.


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[CHSUB]

T5HO and MH seem to mainly be more forgiving of mistakes and perhaps a lesser skill level of reef keeping. I now know several long time MH loyalists that did the LED switch about a year ago and have not missed a step in growth and color, but these people make no mistakes and have every other aspect of sps growing basically perfected. With bulbs you have a little more margin of error. I have anyway.


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I will disagree...many LED users seem new to the hobby. They buy a LED light and a few sps and come on RC and tell everyone how great everything is in their tank. A few months pass and a whole new group of "LED SPS experts" spew the same crap again!

 

[Bpb]

I'm not necessarily talking about newcomer armchair forum reefers on here. Talking about people I personally know who have seen their tanks in person over the years


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[dz6t]

I thought I'd bump this. I'm also thinking about ditching my reefbreeders.

I've really been eyeing this fixture hard:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/111318726343

If you buy this fixture, you will be very disappointed.
These fixture only belong to trash piles.
First of all, their ballasts are very dim compare to any name brand fixture.
Second, they rust quickly.




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[dz6t]

I'm supplementing my MH with red, blue and UV LEDs...

I plan on reversing the artificial blue morning and nights with red to simulate what really happens on the reefs...

red/yellow dawn and dusk... blue morning and afternoon... blue and UV midday... then UV for moonlight

You are simulate what you see on the beach, that is not what coral sees under water. Lol


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[dz6t]

This ones gone quiet

I came across the Phillips coralcare LED fixture recently, a light with scientific backing. A light which is tempting me to try LED again

What I can say is it has a lot of LEDs in the 420nm

40x 6500k
32 x RB
16 x 420
8 x PC-Amber
8x cyan

They found growth and color to be the same as T5, which is promising.

The lights give no shimmer and look more like T5 due to their frosted glass cover.

Anyone running these ?

Finally they eliminated the red led which can be harmful and useless.
Great to see them ditch the green led which is also useless.




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[karimwassef]

You are simulate what you see on the beach, that is not what coral sees under water. Lol


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Really?? Interesting because I snorkel at dawn, midday and dusk and I see that on the reef.

Nice to know your find other people's experiences funny... Lol

 

[dz6t]

Really?? Interesting because I snorkel at dawn, midday and dusk and I see that on the reef.

Nice to know your find other people's experiences funny... Lol

How deep do you snorkel?