Anyone Thinking of Dumping LEDS and going back to Halides

I was surprised to see that the brightness looked so close, but the colors really pop with the XM20k's on the one tank. I have some of the same corals in each tank and they look quite a bit different with respect to depth and brightness of color. The pink birdnest looks almost fucia under the MH while it looks a flat pink under the LED's alone.

The look of the tank with the MH just "pops". The LED tank looks fine and the corals look OK. It's just that, side by side, there is no comparison.

It's too early to say how the corals will react, as I just changedboth tanks this past weekend, but it will be interesting to see hat happens over time.

The two MH pendants for the other tank are on backorder and it is going to be awhile before I get them. I am really looking to see the colors intensify after raising the LED's on the one tank and heal up where one of them got bleached on the top of its' branches.
 
How did this 14" above the waterline concept come to light? Is there data or a lot of anecdotal evidence of this?

Thanks!
John
 
How did this 14" above the waterline concept come to light? Is there data or a lot of anecdotal evidence of this?

What happens if you go above 14"?

Thanks!
John
 
Sazerac81 said:
How did this 14" above the waterline concept come to light? Is there data or a lot of anecdotal evidence of this?

Thanks!
John
Click to expand...

I did it by trial and error. I dont know who else besides myself and now vegas mike who have put the LEDs at 14 in.If others have its probably becuase they have figured out also that the seperate colors spread and mix from the pucks better at this height and the intensity drops off enough to stop bleaching corals.

I know of no true scientific data that exists yet, just evidence from what has been tried and seems to work in practice.
 
I just a week ago went back to my MH. My tank is SPS/LPS and the coral did not care for the LED's at all. It was a steady decline from day one. I left them on for approx a month. The LED's hung about 6 inches above my tank. To the eye it was very pleasing but all inhabitants were not happy. A week of my MH and all is happy again. I am sure some have good luck with LED but i did not.
 
plasma327 said:
I just a week ago went back to my MH. My tank is SPS/LPS and the coral did not care for the LED's at all. It was a steady decline from day one. I left them on for approx a month. The LED's hung about 6 inches above my tank. To the eye it was very pleasing but all inhabitants were not happy. A week of my MH and all is happy again. I am sure some have good luck with LED but i did not.
Click to expand...

What fixture was it?
 
Anyone tried the Kessil a350? I am setting up a 180 SPS tank and planned on 3 250w Radium pendants but just purchased an a350 for my 60 cube which is an LPS tank and all I can say is WOW. These things are crazy. I may run three of these over the 180 instead of the radiums
 
After spending a couple thousands on the latest(at the time) LED fixtures. I went back to my MH/T5 set up.

I might be crazy, but I just picked up a 72" spectra(3x250W MH with 4x80W T5) for my near future tank.
 
I'm doing my best to ignore all these posts. I have always been sceptical of The benifits of LED but as the unhappy users pile up its the few succesful tanks that intrigue me. Maybe I'm bored but I am exited for the challenge and will be able to compare the same corals under t5 and LED.

I ordered a Razor for my maroon clown tank, that will house LPS, SPS and Bubble Tip anemones. I have a sunpower on my other tank, i am very happy with it. if the razor doesn't work for me I will just use one of the 250w pheonix setups I have in the garage or get another sunpower.

I am going to start with frags from my other tank, both tanks are bare bottom and heavily skimmed. I use the same water for both, feed about the same, and change water at the same time. The only difference is the temperatures I keep the maroon clown tank at 82 and my SPS tank at 78. Should be interesting.
 
I'm doing my best to ignore all these posts. I have always been sceptical of The benifits of LED but as the unhappy users pile up its the few succesful tanks that intrigue me. Maybe I'm bored but I am exited for the challenge and will be able to compare the same corals under t5 and LED.

I ordered a Razor for my maroon clown tank, that will house LPS, SPS and Bubble Tip anemones. I have a sunpower on my other tank, i am very happy with it. if the razor doesn't work for me I will just use one of the 250w pheonix setups I have in the garage or get another sunpower.

I am going to start with frags from my other tank, both tanks are bare bottom and heavily skimmed. I use the same water for both, feed about the same, and change water at the same time. The only difference is the temperatures I keep the maroon clown tank at 82 and my SPS tank at 78. Should be interesting.
 
This is a bad thread to read for someone looking to switch from MH to LED. I hated the heat put off from MH, and was hoping the LED would run a bit cooler and a lower electric bill.
 
JEEEZ.....here I am all excited about the tank I am setting up with two AI units on it and then I come across this thread. Gotta say I am not happy about it. I am doing a rimless tank in the living room with no canopy obviously, so LED's are the only option for a clean look.

This sucks if I have these issues. My local fish shop has 4 AI units on their main display and everything in there looks way better under them since they have switched from the Metal Halides, so maybe I will get lucky.
 
Moosetache said:
JEEEZ.....here I am all excited about the tank I am setting up with two AI units on it and then I come across this thread. Gotta say I am not happy about it. I am doing a rimless tank in the living room with no canopy obviously, so LED's are the only option for a clean look.

This sucks if I have these issues. My local fish shop has 4 AI units on their main display and everything in there looks way better under them since they have switched from the Metal Halides, so maybe I will get lucky.
Click to expand...

Most fish stores dont keep up on bulb replacements
 
Well, this thread kept me from going led for a long time. A) The good ones were just too darn expensive. B) I didn't like having just white or white and blue leds. I had 4 250w MH (2 10K and 2 14K) along with t5 actinics and some led blue stunner strips (they worked just fine for adding color).

Then I traded an older MH fixture to a friend for a 6 mth old EcoTech Radion and I put it over my frag tank. The corals were happy (so was the new algae growth) and the room was MUCH cooler. But at $750 each (1st gen) I'd spend $3000 for my DT... WAY too much for not enough advantage.

Then EverGrow came out with their IT series. You get to lay out 99 leds in any color arrangement you want, as many of each color as you want. They have 2 channels and both are on a controller that allows you to set either or both channels independantly at any power setting you want between 0 and 100%. And you can change the settings every 30 minutes 24/7. Just 2 IT2080 lights (at $340 ea) and my DT looks way better than it did before. No more heat. Better PAR at the sand (yes, I have a PAR meter).

I can't say that everything is going great as I haven't had them long enough yet. But my tank is loaded with sps and lps and they are doing OK so far. I do have a small frag of birdsnest hanging from a short piece of monofilament attached to the center brace of the tank. It was doing OK under the MH and now it is doing just as well... maybe even a bit better (but being honest, that's probably just my wishful thinking).

I just want to say thank you to everybody here who held me back from going led too early and for all the experience you guys delt with by using leds that were not good enough or too darn expensive. Now you'd be crazy to build a diy led unless you are going for the ultimate light. Good quality, full spectrum, dimmable, controller included, reasonably priced led fixtures are here at last! I see the used MH market going thru a serious price collapse.
 
I picked up the Radion Pro last night, and ran it side by side with the IT light (pics in the chinese thread). If my only led option was a Radion Pro, I would still be running MH. The 14k and 20k setting on the Radion Pro look nothing like and nowhere near as good as a Phoenix 14k or Radium 20k with T5s. Why would you pay a huge premium for a lesser look, only to need to upgrade leds in a year or two?

Meanwhile, not only does the IT/Reefbreeders light side look nicer visually, cost much less, and look similar to my old MH setup, it also happens to have similar PAR numbers. Both fixtures hit ~300+ at the sandbed dead center. The extra features and channels do not justify the price premium to me at all.

It would be nice to run similar frags and keep the tank half and half for 3 months and track growth/color, but I wouldn't have the patience.

If the RB light comes out with a 6 channel model in the future with a similar price, there would be no reason to own a Radion over it. None.
 
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