Anyone Thinking of Dumping LEDS and going back to Halides
- Thread starter Goldcoastreefs
- Start date
markalot
...
If you search YouTube for
Sanjay 500 Gallon Mega Reef
You can find a recent video of his tank, all LED, beautiful acros.
He uses 8 Radion G4 pros rated max wattage at 190w.
1520 watts total all at full power.
Someone needs to make an LED fixture that can also use reflectors to get more of the wattage into the tank.
Sanjay 500 Gallon Mega Reef
You can find a recent video of his tank, all LED, beautiful acros.
He uses 8 Radion G4 pros rated max wattage at 190w.
1520 watts total all at full power.
Someone needs to make an LED fixture that can also use reflectors to get more of the wattage into the tank.
Tripod1404
Active member
Yeah that tank is epic. It always surprised me how close he keeps his light to the surface of the water. I always had better growth by keeping them higher above the tank. Although his tank is so large, the scale might cause the light to look close when they are not that much.
For the reflectors. I think it would be kinda unnecessary for LEDs. Light LEDs produce is already directional. So there is not much of a light loss due to diffusion to the sides or back towards the chip. Some manufactures do add individual reflectors around the optics (mainly lenses) as it might cause some light to diffuse sideways or backwards and a reflector directs them back.
If results can be got as good as this with black boxes, who needs anything else?
Sure you may get better results, but this is good enough for most.
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oreo57
Well-known member
$110/ 2 years.. Certainly not horrible.
Per box of course. just consider each box a 150W MH fixture..
Double that and buy new boxes every 2 years..
want to save labor? $70
https://sbreeflights.com/sbox-upgrade-retro-kits/6-sbox-replacement-pcb-board.html
No I never consider labor costs of a "hobby" .. silly concept..
anyone ever caculate the "cost" of changing water or maintenance.. or even feeding for that matter..
Per box of course. just consider each box a 150W MH fixture..
Double that and buy new boxes every 2 years..
want to save labor? $70
https://sbreeflights.com/sbox-upgrade-retro-kits/6-sbox-replacement-pcb-board.html
No I never consider labor costs of a "hobby" .. silly concept..
anyone ever caculate the "cost" of changing water or maintenance.. or even feeding for that matter..
Bpb
New member
I wasn't trying to quantify a dollar amount for the effort spent in replacing every diode. Simply that it is a job to be done, and not everyone is fast and efficient at it. I'm not arguing which is better or worse. Use what you like. Swapping every diode out over 3-4 fixtures just seems like a giant pain unless you simply enjoy doing that kind of stuff. I'd rather keep a tank as absolutely hands off as possible. Even pruning a refugium is an annoying chore so I don't use them. I guess single people or retirees with an empty nest wouldn't mind the extra labor as much. To each their own. Everyone is in a different season of life
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oreo57
Well-known member
I totally agree w/ you.. Was just putting some real numbers and options..
@ $70 you can replace the board or in some cases entire units every 2 years.
$140/ yr for 4 lights..
Prob could do 3yr.. or not..Under $100/yr
Yea can be a "wash" or not..
Try not to talk "savings" w/ any light.. more about features.
TCO is important though.
Is it just cheap diodes or the same goes for Cree ? I mean how many people are running their G4s at full power ? Would they dim after two years too ? 80% of people are probably out of the hobby before they notice their leds dimming from use. I don't think anyone will have the same lights for 12 years to get their 50000 hours either.
Personally I think the black boxes have terrible heat sinks and thermal compound, I think this maybe the reason for high degradation. Both the black boxes I had the power supplies died after a year.
Personally I think the black boxes have terrible heat sinks and thermal compound, I think this maybe the reason for high degradation. Both the black boxes I had the power supplies died after a year.
sfsuphysics
Active member
His old lighting setup was 3 - 400 watt MH bulbs in Lumenarc reflectors. Which on the surface is less power, but the reality is with the LEDs you very rarely have full power (although I'm not sure his specific setup).
The downside is switching over, 8 Radions x $800 per = $6400, that's a LOT of cheddar to swallow for many people, yeah even if you do have a huge tank. Of course we don't know if his influence in the hobby got him a "favorable price" directly from Ecotech either
You don't need to, the internal lens and external lens do that, or reflectors for some brands (Maxspect come to mind as they don't use secondary lenses and instead use reflectors). The "waste" from LEDs is heat, and that's not going to light your tank.
alton
Well-known member
Not sure why you posted the last info on CFL's and Halogen Lamps since we do not use either on aquariums? CFL's have always been liars, the lamp says 26 watts but it actually draws 52 because of its poor design built in ballast. Halogen lamps get super hot for the size of lamp wasting energy. As Trump continues to protect American companies and profits, imported materials will continue to rise. Our steel conduit is up 50% just this year. I thought the part of health care causing the increase was so true knowing how it has caused crazy price increases in our company since something was implemented.
oreo57
Well-known member
CFL's were/are used.. halogens, just for fun..
https://www.marineandreef.com/65W_A...MI8LH9toSh2wIVwTaBCh3BPQMdEAQYASABEgLVq_D_BwE
A CF is a CF.. pretty much..
alton
Well-known member
http://luxreview.com/article/2018/04/halogen-and-cfls-to-be-banned-in-europe
This article shows the self ballasted CFL's, The CFL you posted is a U bent T5 also called a CFL which requires the same ballast as a T5. Although I am still not sure why these are still made? And if they are banned I don't think anyone here would care since they have always been more expensive than T5 lamps and loose there effectiveness in 8 months.
This article shows the self ballasted CFL's, The CFL you posted is a U bent T5 also called a CFL which requires the same ballast as a T5. Although I am still not sure why these are still made? And if they are banned I don't think anyone here would care since they have always been more expensive than T5 lamps and loose there effectiveness in 8 months.
oreo57
Well-known member
so more like CFL's thna t5's..
Obviuosly the "tech" is closer related to cfl than T5's which don't
straight bent tube or squiggly one.. seems more similar than different. And stats do prove the ones above are less effective par wise than a straight t5.. pointing to efficiency differences (some prob due to geometry, some to circuit design, some ??..)
ALL tubes require ballasts.. Technically they should all be as efficient.. but they are not..
Guess as soon as you bend a tube it loses efficiency (speculation).
If you know why they should be different I'm all ears..
guess one can push to 100l/w
https://assets2.sylvania.com/media/img/asset-2234714
Again, just started this for reference..
Crappy t5 ballasts woudn't get 100l/watt either..
but you are correct, mostly referring to self ballasted lamps..
https://assets2.sylvania.com/media/img/asset-2062200
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alton
Well-known member
You do realize we are two led users arguing about lamps on a MH versus LED thread? Have a great and enjoyable weekend. It is going to be 100 Degrees in South Texas this weekend and next week. I will probably turn my LEDS down from 10 hours to 8, because summer is here.
