Anyone Thinking of Dumping LEDS and going back to Halides

Problem is that it is still a big ole techie snore fest...channels here and programmable thunderstorms there. Give me one channel, dimmable, give them the same look as todays most popular MH/T5 combos....5 or 6 choices maybe? Something us non techies can easily deal with.

I realize this is a very tech heavy hobby (yes nerd, I am talking to YOU! :) ) but most of us are still in it for the live stock. I just want a MH/T5 look with improved functionality, not something that looks like you could explore Mars with it. A few choices in a broad spectrum with 10 to 20k looks.
 
Agreed, right now it's a big techie snore fest. The ones that like to tinker are leading the way to what you describe. The formula is being written as we speak. 15 and 20K Metal halides have only been availble since the mid nineties. Not that long ago really :)
 
Its a funny thing, I never cared for the look of MH alone no matter what bulb I ran. I always had supplimental lighting (t5) with it to tweak the color. Now that I went to LED, I liked the look better then MH,but since I already had a bunch of T5 lighting laying around I tried that with the LEDs. It looked even better. I personally dont care if LEDs evolve any further then the lights I have now. They do everything they were advertised to do, are far more adjustable then MH, cost less to run and grow coral like crazy. I am one of the few who may be happy with my off the shelf lights the way they are.

Even if I had to take the T5 fixtures down I can still get a better looking tank, at least to my eye, then I did with the halides. Sometimes you reach the point of diminshing returns with things. There is some validity to the argument that if you keep adding stuff things get too complcated to use. I think phones are that way now.

I dont think they should stop trying to improve the LED product though, just dont do it at the cost of making them too hard to program for us technically challenged folks!
 
I am happy with my radions so far. I think there is a large learning curve when it comes to LEDs, especially with the units that you can customize so heavily. Whereas with a MH, you turn it on and you're good to go. I think as LEDs get better and better - and people learn how to use them correctly, they will be in a much better place vs MHs than today.
 
Lots of people saying things like "tried led, didn't like it, switched back". If we could get some more details please.

I see quite a few people in these threads that are almost fanatically for or against led lights. I must assume that the ones that are against had a bad experience so it would be great to know what it was. Unless something radical happens, MH will be history in a few years so it would be good to let the rest of us and the industry know what you like and do not like to get the best possible lights out there.

The cheap Chinese LED thread here on RC is a great example of this. One of the companies especially started working with people in the thread and got a fair bit of business from us....and we got much better lights. They are now selling what was custom orders as standards. A great improvement over the 50/50 they used to sell.

Saying "I hate LED" or "I love LED" isn't going to help anyone though. This is still a technology that is developing fairly fast and I would be surprised if most of the major companies are not watching a thread with LED in it's name in one of the worlds biggest aquarium forums. If we tell them what we like/dislike they will probably pay attention.
 
nynick said:
Lots of people saying things like "tried led, didn't like it, switched back". If we could get some more details please.

I see quite a few people in these threads that are almost fanatically for or against led lights. I must assume that the ones that are against had a bad experience so it would be great to know what it was. Unless something radical happens, MH will be history in a few years so it would be good to let the rest of us and the industry know what you like and do not like to get the best possible lights out there.

The cheap Chinese LED thread here on RC is a great example of this. One of the companies especially started working with people in the thread and got a fair bit of business from us....and we got much better lights. They are now selling what was custom orders as standards. A great improvement over the 50/50 they used to sell.

Saying "I hate LED" or "I love LED" isn't going to help anyone though. This is still a technology that is developing fairly fast and I would be surprised if most of the major companies are not watching a thread with LED in it's name in one of the worlds biggest aquarium forums. If we tell them what we like/dislike they will probably pay attention.
Click to expand...

One of the best post in this thread! Kudos to you!:beer:
 
Setragni said:
Back to T5s here. From AIs
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Why not combine it?

AI doesn't have the color spectrum like Radions , Hyperion and other high end LEDs so supplement it with t5 will be great.LEDs still needs some tweaking to do because of the spread but it you build it right it's very manageable
 
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James77 said:
This ability is pretty new. I did a DIY setup a little over a year ago. There were no 420 LEDs readily available. THE setup to have was CW and RB, as the AI sols have. The Sols were all the rage just a mere year ago, now their spectrum is lacking. I really did not mind the look of the LEDs I tried....they were lacking that "something" but I was actually surprised at the brightness and shimmer. Fill in what I saw with some actinic and a smidge of other colors....
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ReachTheSky said:
I always pondered this. It would be nice to be rid of the long and super thick power cords and massive ballasts for good. Clean up some space and wiring.
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hillscp said:
No, but more and more choices are being offered on the multichip LED's. I am putting together a 60W hybrid 30 chips 10000K + 30 chips 445-447nm Royal Blue right now. One is over the center of my tank with two 150W Phoenix Halides (one on the left and one on the right). The LED's are brighter and the Halides have a blue green tinge in comparison. I'll be adding some 420nm LEDs soon.

There is a group on a San Diego reef forum having a custom chip made like this:

channel 1 have 20 white LEDs at 10 000K, on Channel 2 have 20 RB 445 nm, on channel 3 have 10 Actinic 420 nm + 10 Actinic 430 nm, on Channel 4, we have 20 RB 455 nm, and the channel 5 additional 20 pieces white at 16 000K

All individually controllable
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This stopped? Whaaaaaa?????


What about a few VHO's and a few 50w white whites on a 4' to 6' tank?
 
does a coral being imported straight from the sea under natural light to an aquarium with LED lighting have light acclimatization problems compared to t5/MH lighting. someone mentioned the possible reason of the lack of the 420nm peak in the commercial LED pendants, could this be the reason?
 
shrimphead said:
does a coral being imported straight from the sea under natural light to an aquarium with LED lighting have light acclimatization problems compared to t5/MH lighting. someone mentioned the possible reason of the lack of the 420nm peak in the commercial LED pendants, could this be the reason?
Click to expand...

I've noticed issues with corals coming from the ocean browning out across a variety of lighting. I think it has more to do with nutrients than lighting.
 
MedRed said:
I've noticed issues with corals coming from the ocean browning out across a variety of lighting. I think it has more to do with nutrients than lighting.
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I agree.

Plus there are no set acclimation techniques for a switch to LEDs.

I have had corals brown out between MH bulb color switches too.
 
I'm going to switch over to the Vega color fixtures starting next week, which will replace my two 250 MH 20K units on my 90 gallon mixed reef. I'm still planning on using my Kessil A 150 in the center of my canopy, which my corals in that area have responded very well too. I've been using the A 150 for over a year now and I'm most certain, the Vega's will be just as effective or better then my MH.

As for acclimating my corals, I plan on starting at 30% and and increase every two weeks or so.

Once my Vega's are up and running for awhile, I'll give a honest report on the pros and cons of my upgrade.

Even though I'm no expert even at 18 years of keeping reef tanks, I believe in the kiss theory and it's works for me.

My tank maintenance consists of weekly water changes, add a little calcium and add top off water on a daily basis at 9 pm.

With switching over to full LED, I'm certain I'll see some improvement with my coral growth and I know very well, I may be prematurely adopting to full LED to early, but I'll take the risk.

Thanks,
Randy
 
i was thinking of doing the same and the couple i get corals from said i should stay with the t5.if you get a a zoa or paly thats been under t5 and put them under leds they look real nice then within a week you start seeing them shrink and not grow.
 
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