Anyone Thinking of Dumping LEDS and going back to Halides

[reefkeeper2]

Being a long time reefer, I have run every type of light there is. I don't believe one type is "better" than the other. You have to find the right application for your particular setup and taste. If for some reason I had to pick a different setup than the AI Hydras and Vegas I have now, I would go with a t5 and LED combo. T5 gives beautiful color and the LED would provide the shimmer and pop. I would never go back to halide. Not because they don't grow coral well or the color isn't good. It's because they are hot, use a lot of electricity, and the fixtures are super ugly and have to be hidden.

 

[greaps]

Great thread. As a newer hobbyist with about two years experience Halides were not on my radar with all the excitement over newer Led's. Definitely considering halides now. After reading everything I am...

Split between Arctic T247, and a 250 watt radium and a big reflector, on off function is all I'm interested in. My tank's destination is the kitchen / den so it doesn't need to be viewable for much longer than necessary. Even if I did want it viewable I'm sure a small moon light / blue led strip is easy enough to attach or angle down into tank on a timer.

 

[Bilk]

Having really good results with all LED. Great color and growth. Took a little while to dial them in, but couldn't be happier. I find that people use much too much intensity with LED and the corals suffer. My sig has the details.

 

[mad dog 777]

mad dog 777

mad dog 777

Howdy reefer fans I AM in the right forum, the one about reefer right?:dance:
No but seriously, sort of, a little advice, someone? . I have a very unfunny question about lighting for marine aquaria. My friend Rick has about a 65 gallon marine tank with 2 banks of LEDs overhead. Lots of a rank-looking weed I can't remember the name of is all that really grows in the tank, which also grows well in the filter tank down below. Also, a couple of the stinging corals clownfish like and another small coral-thing, but little else. Rick wants big beautiful carpets of blue, green, orange etc. coral mats growing luxuriously but it ain't happened yet after 2 yrs, so gotta be something wrong, right?

Am I right? Or am I right? He pays close attention to the chemistry, ph balance etc etc., but still a no-go for the big mats of colorful corals, though he has tried setting the little coral plugs in several times.

An he won't listen when I try to hint that the failure to grow big coral mats must be in the lighting . . .

Somewhere I heard that LEDs do not promote healthy coral or plant growth, so deduce that the solution should be good old full-spectrum grow lights, right?

Right? Am I right or am I uh Wha?
anyway, thanks

 

[albano]

Howdy reefer fans I AM in the right forum, the one about reefer right?:dance:
No but seriously, sort of, a little advice, someone? . I have a very unfunny question about lighting for marine aquaria. My friend Rick has about a 65 gallon marine tank with 2 banks of LEDs overhead. Lots of a rank-looking weed I can't remember the name of is all that really grows in the tank, which also grows well in the filter tank down below. Also, a couple of the stinging corals clownfish like and another small coral-thing, but little else. Rick wants big beautiful carpets of blue, green, orange etc. coral mats growing luxuriously but it ain't happened yet after 2 yrs, so gotta be something wrong, right?

Am I right? Or am I right? He pays close attention to the chemistry, ph balance etc etc., but still a no-go for the big mats of colorful corals, though he has tried setting the little coral plugs in several times.

An he won't listen when I try to hint that the failure to grow big coral mats must be in the lighting . . .

Somewhere I heard that LEDs do not promote healthy coral or plant growth, so deduce that the solution should be good old full-spectrum grow lights, right?

Right? Am I right or am I uh Wha?
anyway, thanks

Rick will deny knowing you!...am I right?

 

[Johnseye]

Howdy reefer fans I AM in the right forum, the one about reefer right?:dance:
No but seriously, sort of, a little advice, someone? . I have a very unfunny question about lighting for marine aquaria. My friend Rick has about a 65 gallon marine tank with 2 banks of LEDs overhead. Lots of a rank-looking weed I can't remember the name of is all that really grows in the tank, which also grows well in the filter tank down below. Also, a couple of the stinging corals clownfish like and another small coral-thing, but little else. Rick wants big beautiful carpets of blue, green, orange etc. coral mats growing luxuriously but it ain't happened yet after 2 yrs, so gotta be something wrong, right?

Am I right? Or am I right? He pays close attention to the chemistry, ph balance etc etc., but still a no-go for the big mats of colorful corals, though he has tried setting the little coral plugs in several times.

An he won't listen when I try to hint that the failure to grow big coral mats must be in the lighting . . .

Somewhere I heard that LEDs do not promote healthy coral or plant growth, so deduce that the solution should be good old full-spectrum grow lights, right?

Right? Am I right or am I uh Wha?
anyway, thanks

:smokin:

There needs to be a troll smiley

 

[Steveb]

Howdy reefer fans I AM in the right forum, the one about reefer right?:dance:
No but seriously, sort of, a little advice, someone? . I have a very unfunny question about lighting for marine aquaria. My friend Rick has about a 65 gallon marine tank with 2 banks of LEDs overhead. Lots of a rank-looking weed I can't remember the name of is all that really grows in the tank, which also grows well in the filter tank down below. Also, a couple of the stinging corals clownfish like and another small coral-thing, but little else. Rick wants big beautiful carpets of blue, green, orange etc. coral mats growing luxuriously but it ain't happened yet after 2 yrs, so gotta be something wrong, right?

Am I right? Or am I right? He pays close attention to the chemistry, ph balance etc etc., but still a no-go for the big mats of colorful corals, though he has tried setting the little coral plugs in several times.

An he won't listen when I try to hint that the failure to grow big coral mats must be in the lighting . . .

Somewhere I heard that LEDs do not promote healthy coral or plant growth, so deduce that the solution should be good old full-spectrum grow lights, right?

Right? Am I right or am I uh Wha?
anyway, thanks

 

[JPMagyar]

+1

 

[reefwiser]

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/watchdog-earth/2014/09/29/ford-invests-in-led-lighting-technology-at-its-manufacturing-plants/16433455/

Story on LED replacing MH in factories.

 

[SPotter]

Anyone Thinking of Dumping LEDS and going back to Halides

Great article but not sure how it's relevant to this? I can understand huge companies with huge facilities making the switch.

 

[alton]

What the article left out was the Ford will probably be getting a large rebate from the someone to help pay for this. Most utility companies offer great incentives to go to energy efficient lighting. Plus some lighting manufactures are offering up to ten year warranties on there light fixtures, which is unheard of here in the hobby. Pay $750 and you get a one year warranty, really!

 

[SPotter]

And a bunch of excuses why your issue isn't covered under the warranty!

 

[JPMagyar]

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/watchdog-earth/2014/09/29/ford-invests-in-led-lighting-technology-at-its-manufacturing-plants/16433455/

Story on LED replacing MH in factories.

Agree with above. Not sure how this is relevant? I have converted most of the lighting in my house to LED because I have a whole house generator for when we lose power and it makes an enormous difference, but the cost of the bulbs is as much as 10x the cost of a similar incandescent bulb and the number of failed LED bulbs I have had far out weighs any gain I will get in the coming decade. I know I could send them back and ask for money, but being it's not worth my time. Point is LEDs are awesome technology, but that doesn't mean they are the best light source for growing colorful coral.

 

[reefwiser]

Problem is as MH are phased out in major industry's the technology will stop being available. This is the start of the new green standards on lighting.
http://www.facilitiesnet.com/lighting/article/Lamp-and-Ballast-Phaseout-Dates--12012

 

[zangmann]

I know I could send them back and ask for money, but being it's not worth my time.

OT. Where do you buy your bulbs? I've returned 3 different bulbs 3 separate times to HD down the street, no questions asked. For $20 a bulb, that's definitely worth my time.

 

[Johnseye]

Agree with above. Not sure how this is relevant? I have converted most of the lighting in my house to LED because I have a whole house generator for when we lose power and it makes an enormous difference, but the cost of the bulbs is as much as 10x the cost of a similar incandescent bulb and the number of failed LED bulbs I have had far out weighs any gain I will get in the coming decade. I know I could send them back and ask for money, but being it's not worth my time. Point is LEDs are awesome technology, but that doesn't mean they are the best light source for growing colorful coral.

It's been debated in this post how prevalent MH is and as you just alluded to, LED has a higher up front cost. I don't think there's a question that for many applications LED has a better ROI than MH. What this post has flushed out is that LED for coral growth still lags behind MH. Not to say that in time LED can't be dialed in, it's just not dialed in yet.

On a side note, why'd you change all your home lights to LED because you have a home generator? Wouldn't you change your home lights to LED because of the long term ROI? Unless your generator isn't sufficient to power your home devices with CFL or incandescent. Unless you're lighting up your whole house at the same time in a power outage I wouldn't see this as being a determining factor for moving to LED in the home.

 

[Johnseye]

OT. Where do you buy your bulbs? I've returned 3 different bulbs 3 separate times to HD down the street, no questions asked. For $20 a bulb, that's definitely worth my time.

I've had to return CFLs but never had an LED go out yet and 99% of my house is using LED. Either way HD and Lowes have returned my CFLs which died much earlier than advertised. You can get an LED bulb for about $7 now, higher lumens up to about $16.

 

[d2mini]

I've had to return CFLs but never had an LED go out yet and 99% of my house is using LED. Either way HD and Lowes have returned my CFLs which died much earlier than advertised. You can get an LED bulb for about $7 now, higher lumens up to about $16.

I've had one incandescent style LED bulb go out on me within about 6 months, but 1000bulbs.com refunded me no questions asked. That's where I've gotten all my LED bulbs for the house so far.
No issues with the ceiling cans... yet.

 

[jda]

Why do people think continue to think that general purpose agendas, phaseout plans or regulations have anything to do with a hobby? Nobody is using XM, Radium, Phoneix, Hamilton or Ushio bulbs anywhere but the aquarium industry and there is enough demand to make them. Same with the T5 bulbs. It won't matter what a factory does as long as the demand for MH is there from the hobbies that want them... and don't discount hydroponics that still use tons of HPS and MH. There are no rules, regulations or phaseout dates for specialty bulb use.

 

[sirreal63]

On a side note, why'd you change all your home lights to LED because you have a home generator? Wouldn't you change your home lights to LED because of the long term ROI? Unless your generator isn't sufficient to power your home devices with CFL or incandescent. Unless you're lighting up your whole house at the same time in a power outage I wouldn't see this as being a determining factor for moving to LED in the home.

It seems that you do not understand that a generator is more efficient and uses less fuel as the electrical demand on it decreases, this is true for even an appropriately sized generator. Reducing the load with more efficient lighting not only saves fuel but will allow more consistent electricity from the generator as the generator doesn't have to work as hard.

Though it is off topic, it is something people should know.