Anyone Thinking of Dumping LEDS and going back to Halides

ALL LAMPS HAVE BEEN ADAPTED TO AQUARIUM LIGHTING. Not just LED. Metal Halide, Power Compact, T5 and led have all been adapted. It's simply a matter of changing spectral output.
I own the Reefbreeders and love it. Worth every penny and after the 12 month mark it will have paid for itself and then some.
I would agree some leds dont hit the mark as far as spectral output. However, some metal halide bulbs, T5's etc. are junk and do not produce ample light for Zoozanthellae as well.
Led's give you a range of colors that cannot be matched by any other source of light out at the moment. And do it so much more efficiently there is no comparison.
 
meshwheel said:
I would agree some leds dont hit the mark as far as spectral output. However, some metal halide bulbs, T5's etc. are junk and do not produce ample light for Zoozanthellae as well.
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Curious exactly which aquarium related MH bulb you think does not produce that spectrum? FWIW I grew SPS just fine for a short time with a 4200k 250 watt bulb. Other than having to adjust height to prevent bleaching from the ridiculously high PAR, no observed issues with that bulb, which was intended for a street lamp use.
 
sirreal63 said:
Curious exactly which aquarium related MH bulb you think does not produce that spectrum? FWIW I grew SPS just fine for a short time with a 4200k 250 watt bulb. Other than having to adjust height to prevent bleaching from the ridiculously high PAR, no observed issues with that bulb, which was intended for a street lamp use.
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What was the colour of your corals like under the 4200K bulb?
 
Unchanged except for the more yellow look to everything in the tank. They suffered no damage, no real loss of color and once the 10K's went up you would have never known they had spent time under 4200k's. I would not try and keep them under it long term, the color was not really pleasing to my eye but it worked just fine for a few weeks.

It is true that our lighting came from other uses, however I have seen fantastic SPS under cool white T12 40 watt bulbs, and one of the people who got me started with SPS used a Lights of America compact fluorescent in cool white for his tank. My first frag came from him, and it had a nice long life, and I am sure it is still alive after 10 years having been passed around the Saint Louis area to many other reefers.
 
That's interesting. I started with an Iwasaki 6500k and found it too yellow. Had to tear the tank down before I had a chance to try Actinic supplementation.
 
It was certainly yellow, I went from 250 watt Phoenix 14k to the 250 watt 4200k to 150 watt 10k's, and through it all the corals did not suffer or lose color and actually grew the best under the 150 watr 10k's. The tank itself was very yellow wi the 4200k bulb. The point is, the corals suffered no damage.

The Iwasaki's has a huge amount of blue, it is just overpowered by the rest of the spectrum.
 
vpaul79 said:
ATI Sirius X is based on a reflectors and not optics or lenses. This is a very new fixture and not many people here have it yet. But I've seen some videos and the spread is very even and does not have any hot spots other lense based LED fixtures have. This is perhaps the only LED fixture I would consider if I were to replace my MH setup.
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Funny thing about that fixture is that they built unibodies (which I prefer to a hodgepodge of hanging pieces) but only up to the T8 which is rated for up to a 60" tank. Yet all the reviews show a picture of the light hanging over a 72" tank. Like most that make one piece LED fixtures they ignored the 6ft tank crowd.

I love my MH/T5 and getting excellent growth and color but I would certainly like to be able to replace it with a cooler operating, more energy efficient unit sometime near future. It seems like ATI is going in the right direction but not sure they are there yet (maybe V2). BTW I checked prices at SS... for ATI not too bad considering the T8 costs about what three Hydra 52's with mounts would have cost me.
 
Jack,
I highly doubt you experimented long enough with the bulbs to see the difference. A Spectrometer would be needed to make quick work of this.
However, this reminds me of why people used actinics with 5K, 5500K and even 10K for many years. It always provided better growth and coloration for me as well!
Now, it's 20K bulbs that is favored among many. I had junk Coralife bulbs years ago. As well as the Iwasaki's which I did not care for either. Did they grow corals??? Yep!!!
As good as the newer 10K's??? NOPE!!! Not even close.
The term "PUR" I dont even think existed back then. And it did not even get "coined" until they figured out the optimum spectral window or range.
Those old bulbs where a lot of guessing. So there where "JUNK" bulbs out there. And probably still some out today.
You want some names of current "JUNK" T5 bulbs of today???
 
It was just a couple of weeks, but long enough to do damage. So which bulbs were you referring to as bad for zooxanthellae? MH or T5.
 
meshwheel-

I own the Reefbreeders and love it. Worth every penny and after the 12 month mark it will have paid for itself and then some.
Click to expand...

Do you have a tank thread or any pictures of your tank after 12 months...........some progression pictures?
 
So it begins..
6ede9uny.jpg

pesygyvy.jpg
 
meshwheel said:
ALL LAMPS HAVE BEEN ADAPTED TO AQUARIUM LIGHTING. Not just LED. Metal Halide, Power Compact, T5 and led have all been adapted. It's simply a matter of changing spectral output.
I own the Reefbreeders and love it. Worth every penny and after the 12 month mark it will have paid for itself and then some.
I would agree some leds dont hit the mark as far as spectral output. However, some metal halide bulbs, T5's etc. are junk and do not produce ample light for Zoozanthellae as well.
Led's give you a range of colors that cannot be matched by any other source of light out at the moment. And do it so much more efficiently there is no comparison.
Click to expand...

Big E said:
meshwheel-



Do you have a tank thread or any pictures of your tank after 12 months...........some progression pictures?
Click to expand...

HaroldT said:
+1
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Meshwheel can you post pics of your tank please. I also had reef breeders and while I had every color pop in the book for corals there was little growth. I lied to my self for a long time that the photon fixture was growing coral like MH fixtures..


Anyway please post pics
 
Go to page 70 of this thread, I believe it is the last pic Mesh has posted. I am sure it has grown a lot since then. I would enjoy an update on the tank too, the RB unit he chose should be an excellent choice for the tank dimensions.
 
Thanks Palehorse and Jack!
I will post some pics this weekend. Yep have grown out some nice small frags. Really small. And lost a few along the way too.
My tank is maturing nicely now and really starting to stabilize after 9-10 months. SPS are a whole nother animal and I know you guys know that.
I have no shortage of coralline growing rampant everywhere and my frags are growing nicely now. I have two Garf Purple Bonsai's that are growing really well as well as a A. Valida that has just exploded in growth.
I am pretty happy with the Reefbreeders LED. I can say my water chemistry has been my most demanding aspect of this tank. Not the LED's.
Keeping my water "Dirty" enough to register nitrates has been my challange, and I feel I am finally getting it now. Feeding 3-4 times a day!!
I did not want to post a full tank shot, but I will post some pics. Just wanting it to really grow in first.
I have said this before and I see it time and again: Let the tank mature at least 6 months before adding SPS corals. It's just too hard, very much so with a ULNS set up.
Just my experiences.
 
Great design, looks very professional Frank, did you use it on your tank now?:bounce1:




frank2902 said:
Here are some pictures.

I removed the actagon piece in the middle of the luminarc reflector and replaced that with a piece of acrylic. That way the leds will be protected against the heat radiation that comes from the MH. Btw the acrylic sheet does not melt and stays transparant with the 250w singel ended MH, I don't know what the effect will be with a 400w MH.

To attach the reflector to the heatsink I used absolutly no metal items as that can conduct heat!! Because you want to prevent that the heat of the MH/Reflector is transfering in any way to the heatsink (then you need more fans to cool the heatsink with leds down). Therefore I used nylon screws. You do need to tap some screwthread in the heatsink.

I also used nylon O-rings to create some space between the heatsink and the reflector, about 0,2 inch (0.5cm), 3 nylon O-rings stacked on each other. I done this because I needed to create more space between the leds and the acrylic plate on top of the reflector. But also so that the heat from the leds it self can escape.

On the heatsink I glued a piece of acrylic mirror, this is done to maximize the effect of light reflection. But also to prevent some infrared heat radiation from the reflector to the heatsink (insulator).

Both the O-rings for free space and the acrylic mirror plate on the heatsink will prevent heat radiation (infrared) from the reflector to the heatsink.

On the heatsink I attached two fans. These fans are being controlled by a temperature controller. I bought the temperature controller via ebay for just 5 or 6$, shipment was included.

The 30w led plate in the middle is just Cree Blue led. The two led plates on the outside are both 30w mixed Cree led, 5x Royal Blue & 5x Blue Cree. So in total I have 60w Blue led, and 30w Royal Blue. I didn't want to much Royal Blue led light because this would cause the tank to get a purplish or pinkish glow if you know what I mean. I think that is ugly and unnatural looking, this is something you see with 90% of the led lit tanks.

Please excuse me if my english gramma is not that good... But I hope you understand.
Click to expand...
 
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