Anyone Thinking of Dumping LEDS and going back to Halides

[Wazzel]

So true. I will add that most think that their digis, slimers and caps are the same as the higher end acros that other people have. What would really be helpful is if those new-to-the-scene experts stuck around after they figured stuff out and switched to better lights. A few do and have some nice threads. Most don't however, and the cycle starts again...

What do you consider high end acros?

 

[Bpb]

^^+1

I'm on the halide/t5ho team if I had to pick, but one gripe I'm having is that this thread has now moved from MH grows corals better, to "MH grows only ultra expensive branded limited edition aquaculture acropora better". Show anyone anything other than the latest RR or BC offering, and everyone is quick to say "yeah but that doesn't count. ANYONE can grow montipora/green slimer/random non-named stag/valida/or any other well established sps coral that is easy to come by". The rules seem to have changed just to favor the original argument. That is irritating.

I have to disagree with the above sentiment. I don't think many people argue that the major benefit to LED lighting is its set and forget nature. Quite the opposite. That's the biggest selling point to bulb style lighting. Set. Forget. The technology has worked out what grows best and offers it in a nearly impossible to screw up selection. That's my reason for getting rid of LEDs and going back to t5ho. I want my lights to come on and off reliably and grow corals without question or adjustment. That's the definition of set and forget. To those who have figured out how to tune their LEDs, kudos, but the fact that you have to tune them at all (not saying it's BAD, just a fact) kind of makes them NOT a set and forget light choice. There is a learning curve, research, and trial and error.


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[Zacktosterone]

Different color temp mh lamps make corals look different, different t-5 lamp combination make corals look different. Why rag on LED for looking different?

Disagree, LED is more than adequate for replacing the other systems. If I would feel that LED is lacking I would have ditched them or not planned on using them on my upgrade. Even tho they are not for everyone, they do work well.

I have to disagree. Theres a difference between simulated colour and real colour. In my experience, when growing corals woith both, after shutting the lights of and flashing a flashlight at the coral, one is brown, the one grown under halide holds its colour.

 

[Wazzel]

^^+1

I'm on the halide/t5ho team if I had to pick, but one gripe I'm having is that this thread has now moved from MH grows corals better, to "MH grows only ultra expensive branded limited edition aquaculture acropora better". Show anyone anything other than the latest RR or BC offering, and everyone is quick to say "yeah but that doesn't count. ANYONE can grow montipora/green slimer/random non-named stag/valida/or any other well established sps coral that is easy to come by". The rules seem to have changed just to favor the original argument. That is irritating.

I have to disagree with the above sentiment. I don't think many people argue that the major benefit to LED lighting is its set and forget nature. Quite the opposite. That's the biggest selling point to bulb style lighting. Set. Forget. The technology has worked out what grows best and offers it in a nearly impossible to screw up selection. That's my reason for getting rid of LEDs and going back to t5ho. I want my lights to come on and off reliably and grow corals without question or adjustment. That's the definition of set and forget. To those who have figured out how to tune their LEDs, kudos, but the fact that you have to tune them at all (not saying it's BAD, just a fact) kind of makes them NOT a set and forget light choice. There is a learning curve, research, and trial and error.


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I am not just growing the run of the mill pieces. I got some nice BC, JF and RR pieces.

I do agree that the adjustability of LED is a disadvantage. I have actually made that point quite a few time. Lots of control/variables is not always a good thing.

 

[Bpb]

I don't doubt it. I've seen your tank on here and it looks very nice. I was moreso getting at people looking for every excuse to discredit success with a light source other than their own, down to nit-picking what species are allowed in the discussion. I, myself, was chastised earlier in the thread (many pages back) for SUPPORTING mh growth by mh users because the species I was keeping are too common to have any place in the discussion. Moreso what I was getting at. I've seen plenty of LED tanks in person with spectacular growth and color out of all manner of acros both common and rare. I just think, as it's been mentioned hundreds of times, you need more panels than you think for adequate coverage (not just spread), and it takes a lot of knowledge in tuning them and making sure every other aspect of the tank is on point. They're just more difficult to use to get the same results


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[alton]

Well this my first summer month since I went with full LEDs, my savings are $0. You see during the last two summers I would run 2 - 90w BML's, Actinic VHO 160 watts 9 Hours and my MH 750 watts only 3 hours. Now I run my 360 watts of LEDs 9 to 10 hours, replacing my MH and VHO. Corals still look great, growing fine, nothing died, but the only savings I am seeing are from having to top my tank off with 3 gallons of water everyday since I am now able to use glass tops with the LEDs. We too many times blame our tanks for high electricity bills when we should turn to our families and see what they are doing that waste electricity? Or maybe my utility company fudged my bill? We shall see next month I hope.

 

[Wazzel]

I don't doubt it. I've seen your tank on here and it looks very nice. I was moreso getting at people looking for every excuse to discredit success with a light source other than their own, down to nit-picking what species are allowed in the discussion. I, myself, was chastised earlier in the thread (many pages back) for SUPPORTING mh growth by mh users because the species I was keeping are too common to have any place in the discussion. Moreso what I was getting at. I've seen plenty of LED tanks in person with spectacular growth and color out of all manner of acros both common and rare. I just think, as it's been mentioned hundreds of times, you need more panels than you think for adequate coverage (not just spread), and it takes a lot of knowledge in tuning them and making sure every other aspect of the tank is on point. They're just more difficult to use to get the same results


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I agree with the sentiment and all those points.

 

[Wazzel]

I have to disagree. Theres a difference between simulated colour and real colour. In my experience, when growing corals woith both, after shutting the lights of and flashing a flashlight at the coral, one is brown, the one grown under halide holds its colour.

So now I have to see if I have nice corals when the lights are off too? How many more hurdles are going to get tossed out there for LED users to jump over?

 

[CrayolaViolence]

This isn't much to add to the discussion, but I think it has some application here. They use fluorescing Zooxanthellae found in coral and other marine life, to mark certain genes so they can follow them as they are inherited and connect them to different types of genetic disease.
Why does this have anything to do with coral? Because when exposed to certain light spectrums some of the Zooxanthellae would die off, leaving others alive, thus changing the color of the coral. There were of course, other ways to alter the zooxanthellae, resulting in color changes. On a side note, biologists recently found some of the brightest corals ever in the deepest part of the red sea where almost no light penetrates. Hardly any light yet, the corals were brightly colored.

 

[Zacktosterone]

So now I have to see if I have nice corals when the lights are off too? How many more hurdles are going to get tossed out there for LED users to jump over?

Haha, I'm just talking about production of xoanthailie vs floresence

 

[Scorpius]

Most corals are brown in nature and not the hyped up colors we get in our glass boxes. Guess the sun is the wrong spectrum too.

 

[karimwassef]

Most corals are brown in nature and not the hyped up colors we get in our glass boxes. Guess the sun is the wrong spectrum too.

so.... no

corals vary in color by region and location. Some zones are predominately brown and yellow, but the red sea and the great barrier reef are characterized by incredible colors...

the Caribbean has many "boring zones" of brown coral (I still love it though), but let's not generalize to the whole world reefs

 

[karimwassef]

check out these guys with an aquafarm in australia

WARNING - THAT THREAD WILL MAKE YOU HURT!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2500838&highlight=australia&page=1

 

[Bpb]

Sunlit raceway tanks. Man I loved that thread early on. Didn't he get nailed by some form of acro eating nudibranch or black bugs or something?


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[karimwassef]

and as for the PAR of sunlight...

Par regularly hits 2400 and even higher, natural sunlight..

 

[karimwassef]

in contrast, here is my PAR map for my MH 400Ws

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/LED%20experiments/Capture_zpsqflx1soi.png.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/LED%20experiments/Capture_zpsqflx1soi.png" border="0" alt=" photo Capture_zpsqflx1soi.png"/></a>

new bulbs top, old bulbs bottom.

I peak around 1700... I would have to drop from 12" up to 8" to break 2400

 

[karimwassef]

Sunlit raceway tanks. Man I loved that thread early on. Didn't he get nailed by some form of acro eating nudibranch or black bugs or something?


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he did but he recovered... the heat bleaching is wrecking the GB reef though now

:sad1:

 

[karimwassef]

since others have shared their tanks... here's mine with 3 x MH 400W @ 14000K

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/41usuLeiNbE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[jda]

I could get 1200 to 1600 PAR (apogee meters, so who really knows...) in Missouri in the summer months from about 10 AM (1200) to peak about 1-4 (1600) and then until about 6 PM. The acros thrived outside under the sunlight - I had a frag of PM go from about 3/4 of an inch to just smaller than a tennis ball size in 4 months under that light and had to drive a Korallin reactor as hard as I could to keep the corals fed. Amazes me that people think that the 300-400 PAR that their fixtures put out is "too much" light.

 

[karimwassef]

well.. I am running at 2 x 5 gal buckets of kalkwasser a year... so it's like a factory.