Anyone Thinking of Dumping LEDS and going back to Halides

Breadman03 said:
I bet there is a healthy amount of overlap. A company must provide a marketable product, and must stay in touch with market demands in order to remain profitable. As such, it's logical that these companies study the market to determine current and future demand.
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Of course this will be the case, people put together LED/T5 hybrids and now Giesemann and ATI start releasing fixtures to satisfy this demand.
My argument is that it can not be the case that all innovations and improvements are down to DIY units being built in peoples front rooms at home. Companies like AI, Ecotech etc have the money and facilities for testing and research, which is why I can't believe that they solely rely on what people are doing in their homes for their latest improvements.
 
sirreal63 said:
Consider that even though you cannot believe it, that does not keep it from being reality. The majority of these early mfg's did not have much for R&D, AI is a prime example. Not knocking the light, or the company, but if you go back and look at when the DIY crowd was innovating and how long it was before the mfg's caught up, the story is very telling. Fortunately with a little time invested on your part, that story can be read right here on RC.
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Have you got a link to the information? I'd like to read it. All I've heard so far is that DIY users started using Royal blue, red, green, UV diodes and so did major manufactures. I'd be interested to know what other innovations the major companies have got from DIY users, maybe bluetooth technology, wireless linked lighting, advanced fan control, use of clusters to mitigate the 'disco effect', different optical angles.....
 
Go to the DIY section here, go back to about 2005 and start reading. Unfortunately there isn't an easier way. You can't go to the AI section, it doesn't exist any longer. It will take a lot of time investment on your part, but I do not know of any other way for you to intake 8-10 years of information spread out over hundreds of threads.
 
sirreal63 said:
Go to the DIY section here, go back to about 2005 and start reading. Unfortunately there isn't an easier way. You can't go to the AI section, it doesn't exist any longer. It will take a lot of time investment on your part, but I do not know of any other way for you to intake 8-10 years of information spread out over hundreds of threads.
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Lol, yeah....ok not sure I'm that interested in reading about it!!
 
I fully believe that products like Radion and AI fixtures are the result of DIY projects catching the eye of major manufacturers. This is the way it works. Rarely do companies produce a product with the HOPE that the consumer will be interested in it. These companies ABSOLUTELY participate in boards like these, watching what we are doing and researching what we want. They then implement their own designs, make changes, test, and research, to bring us a product that meets the current demand.

I would bet you there is someone from AI, Ecotech, ATI, etc... reading this thread, and many others, with great interest. They are reading all of the praise, and especially criticism about LED's and using that info to create better products that meet the demands of the industry. After all, the best research, is FREE research.
 
lpsouth1978 said:
I fully believe that products like Radion and AI fixtures are the result of DIY projects catching the eye of major manufacturers. This is the way it works. Rarely do companies produce a product with the HOPE that the consumer will be interested in it. These companies ABSOLUTELY participate in boards like these, watching what we are doing and researching what we want. They then implement their own designs, make changes, test, and research, to bring us a product that meets the current demand.

I would bet you there is someone from AI, Ecotech, ATI, etc... reading this thread, and many others, with great interest. They are reading all of the praise, and especially criticism about LED's and using that info to create better products that meet the demands of the industry. After all, the best research, is FREE research.
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IIRC both ETM and AI were started by hobbyist. I think the original Vortec was Tim Marks' senior design project. Yes, all companies that produce any product keep an eye on the users if they can. We provide them with lots of information on how their products work over time. If they spent years testing nothing would ever get to market. They couple that with the in house research and testing they do to improve the product. Sometimes they are limited by tooling cost and production runs that only make since to do after a certain amount of time. Compromises have to made at times to not bankrupt a company. I suspect that is why the last couple of AI lights have the same form factor.
 
Pacific Sun was far ahead of most other LED companies and DIYers, i see new LED lamps that are similar to ones released by Pac Sun in 2011. i, however, dumped them and when back to MH/t5 and i'm happy again!!!!:bounce3:
 
CHSUB said:
Pacific Sun was far ahead of most other LED companies and DIYers, i see new LED lamps that are similar to ones released by Pac Sun in 2011. i, however, dumped them and when back to MH/t5 and i'm happy again!!!!:bounce3:
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Been there done that right with you!!!!! Wasted a boat load of money on the fixture and in the end felt like a guinea pig for the fixture but thats what I get for buying the latest and greatest before anyone has had a chance to try it out.
 
so I bought this coral with radions awhile ago it was a nice purple color. under the radions you can see it browned out badly and really didn't grow at all. I switched to MH a couple months ago and wanted to share the new growth on the coral and obvious difference.

 
jminick2 said:
so I bought this coral with radions awhile ago it was a nice purple color. under the radions you can see it browned out badly and really didn't grow at all. I switched to MH a couple months ago and wanted to share the new growth on the coral and obvious difference.
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It's great to see comparison pics, however it's good to know how many Radions you ran and at what settings, what your PAR was/is now etc.
The thing with this LED v MH argument is someone can put one Radion over a 4ft tank at 15" above the water and run settings that simply aren't going to grow corals; so then they switch to MH which is plug and play and will obviously get results. There are a lot of variables with LEDs and unless we know all information then it's not really a fair comparison.
 
it's funny, ten years ago people told me I couldn't grow sps under VHO. Well that was a mistake, I managed to grow a few frags into colonies. A little later T5 were getting popular and there was the debate whether or not T5 cold grow SPS, we all know they can. The DIY LED RB/CW craze was on, I jumped on board. Same story, you can't grow SPS under LED, which was totally wrong again. You can grow SPS under LED.

However, I dumped my LED, and went MH this time, instead of T5. I am still running LED on the tank but not as a primary light source. Wish I would have saved the room to put T5 or VHO instead
 
falconut said:
It's been close to 2-1/2 years since I switched from (2) magnetic 250W MHs over to (2) Ocean Revive S026 LEDs and I still couldn't be happier I made the switch. I'm running them around 65%/50% and corals have been growing like weeds and look great, minimal algae, no bulb changes and no heat. I still have my MH fixtures, just encase. But doubt I'll be switching back.
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How 'bout some pics . . .



100 and 89 pages in folks can't produce pictures of tanks grown from frag to full TOTM quality under LEDs. Yes, I know y'all throw up some pics for me, but I'll tell you right now I won't agree they match T5/LED pics because first and foremost photographs under LED light are terrible, but more importantly because no one makes LEDs that match the growth and color ability of T5 or MH. I'll post before and after pictures of my tank soon, and they will be a mere year apart and will blow any LED tank out of the water.

I love the fact that LED folks continue to flood this thread, but none have TOTM worthy pics.

Go look at Lunar's tank, and read his comments on LED's. He's the best coral grower on RC hands down, and he won't touch LEDs. Does that tell you something? If not then you are simply stubborn. It's been said over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over. . . well you get the point . . .

yes, LEDs can make a "nice" tank, but they do not AS YET match the color and growth of T5/MH tanks.
 
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reef bloke said:
I'm a little bemused by the above post, lots of great pics in this thread.

I've won TOTM on a large UK forum so although not Reef central it was TOTM worthy

Couple of growth shots







Not sure if the link below will be blocked by reef central but contains more pictures

http://www.ultimatereef.net/TOTM/2014_may/
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I guess I'm confused because the article says you switched to LED in early 2014, and the video of your tank is from early 2014. In this video, this coral you have posted is nearly the same size as your grow out picture above.

Does this mean that this growth was under another light source besides LED? Or am I looking at the wrong coral?
 
Hi

No , in 2014 I switched to Hydra 52. Before this I ran Hydra, before that Vega and Sol back in 2012. You can find my tank thread on the forum I linked to if you wish to prove it.
That tank has only ever been LED and the Cube tank before it.
 
No problem, the only reason I am posting is not to stir of try and debunk, it's just I have been running LED in one form or another for around 3-4 years and have been happy so thought my appraisal may be worth it.

Don't be me wrong I used to also love Halide and T5 but times change and there is more than one way to skin a cat . I think LED just confuse hobbyists sometimes and constant fiddling or water quality issues that are missed or can't be tested for kind of muddy the waters in what is a very useable light source.
 
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