Anyone Thinking of Dumping LEDS and going back to Halides
- Thread starter Goldcoastreefs
- Start date
power boat jim
Well-known member
Here's my feeling on LEDs and what people fail to take into account which causes problems. I don't think corals care what light they get as long as they get enough to generate sufficient photosynthesis to stay alive and grow. You can do that with only white LEDs but the corals will look like crap to our eyes.
Most people like their tanks quite blue and turn up their blue LEDs while dialing down the whites. The blue spectrum is at or near the peak of absorption for chlorophyll (and the carotenoids if they are important). The blue light will not look bright to our eyes but will deliver lots of energy to the corals. Thus when a user turns up the blue so it looks good to them they shock the corals and bleach them and blame the LEDs when it's actually user error by not being careful with their settings.
I guess that makes them not plug and play and no good for some. But if you take time to acclimate your corals properly and not shock them suddenly you will do well with LEDs
Most people like their tanks quite blue and turn up their blue LEDs while dialing down the whites. The blue spectrum is at or near the peak of absorption for chlorophyll (and the carotenoids if they are important). The blue light will not look bright to our eyes but will deliver lots of energy to the corals. Thus when a user turns up the blue so it looks good to them they shock the corals and bleach them and blame the LEDs when it's actually user error by not being careful with their settings.
I guess that makes them not plug and play and no good for some. But if you take time to acclimate your corals properly and not shock them suddenly you will do well with LEDs
I just switched from a 400w SE XM 20k halide to an Evergrow D120 led. Overall my anemones and softies appear to be responding well after about a month. The thought occurred to switch back to halides due to the disco ball effect.
Has anyone tried using some sort of diffuser to combine all the individual led colours to give a cohesive colour temperature?
Has anyone tried using some sort of diffuser to combine all the individual led colours to give a cohesive colour temperature?
Its ok long as it wasnt sail boat...
I am certain one of the Admins can change it Sailboat Jim.
I woke up this morning, so it has been a great day.
I just switched from dual Radium 150's to a single 250 Radium, kept the VHO Super Actintics and to keep it on topic, I put back the EcoXotic Panarama Pro 445nm LEDs. The LEDs have virtually no impact on coloration though, but I can say I am hip and cool and running LEDs.
I just switched from dual Radium 150's to a single 250 Radium, kept the VHO Super Actintics and to keep it on topic, I put back the EcoXotic Panarama Pro 445nm LEDs. The LEDs have virtually no impact on coloration though, but I can say I am hip and cool and running LEDs.
meshwheel
New member
Its taken me a long time to try my first LED system out. I really think the Reefbreeders is a fair prices considering the others.
I do however have a Lumenbright w/ 250 watt Radium and a Ice Cap ballast for back up. I hope to sell it to offset the cost.
Maybe wise just to keep it.............
I do however have a Lumenbright w/ 250 watt Radium and a Ice Cap ballast for back up. I hope to sell it to offset the cost.
Maybe wise just to keep it.............
power boat jim
Well-known member
I woke up this morning, so it has been a great day.
I just switched from dual Radium 150's to a single 250 Radium, kept the VHO Super Actintics and to keep it on topic, I put back the EcoXotic Panarama Pro 445nm LEDs. The LEDs have virtually no impact on coloration though, but I can say I am hip and cool and running LEDs.
Jack using LEDs Next thing you know Ill be buying a sail boat.:beer:
The longer you wait to unload it the less it will be worth
I now really wish I had sold my two spare Icecap 660 setups about 5 years ago instead of thinking I'd use them on frag tanks.........umpteen LEDs builds latter I'm never going back to using VHO or MH once I get the last of my bulbs used up and last tank switched to LED.
Aqualund
New member
Yup! agreed zachts, i've just completed the final tweaks on my full spectrum build. Plan to post pictures of the build and before/after pictures of the corals. I can tell you one thing, I have notice 3 specific healthy sps that have been under the rb/cw combo for about 8 months are barely grew an inch...and now in the last 4 weeks they have grown literally an inch in every direction. Coloration is great, but Im waiting for the reds to come around before I post so I don't have the peanut gallery yelling about how dull the reds are lol.
power boat jim
Well-known member
Post the pics, the haters will hate no matter what.
Aqualund
New member
yeah thats true. well here's some crappy pics off my phone from today...but you can see the definite growth on that one frag....its too bad i dont have earlier pics from when i first introduced it to sub-450nm light because it literally only had one spire....and that was in august. it developed all of those other spires since september.
the lights are controlled by an jarduino, so each channel is controllable. I feel its a little too purple in these pictures but in real life it's quite striking.
Now I just need these smaller colonies to grow out a bit...which based on my experience thus far should happen quickly.
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