Are LED's all you need?
- Thread starter Fishmas
- Start date
Ron Reefman
Active member
All you need? Yes.
All that your corals need? Pretty much.
All that you can have to make your tank look better to the human eye? No, a t5 can reduce the 'hard' shadows that leds produce due to the lenses.
All that your corals need? Pretty much.
All that you can have to make your tank look better to the human eye? No, a t5 can reduce the 'hard' shadows that leds produce due to the lenses.
Webmanny
Active member
I used to run LEDs only and most corals were fine and growing good, but I have since added 2 T5 bulbs (1 Blue plus and 1 Purple plus) and the colors are darker/deeper and the growth is much better.
Don't get the white bulb he recommends. Go with 1 blue and 1 purple. Your LEDs can give you the white.
Don't get the white bulb he recommends. Go with 1 blue and 1 purple. Your LEDs can give you the white.
davehead86
New member
After reading the threads on this topic until my eyes were bleeding I have come to determine that the cheap LEDS are cheap for a reason but the quality units provide plenty of light and growth for the tank to do well and thrive. Its about dialing in the settings for your tank and NOT under lighting your tank. People have problems when they run 1 AI SOL Blue unit on a 48" wide tank. Well DUH of course your going to be getting shadowing etc.
soulpatch
New member
You need to overdo the lighting from LED to compensate for their design. IE I have a Kessil a360 over a biocube 29. It only needs to cover less then 20x20 and is rated to cover 24x24 yet I have shadowing because of the single source of light.
Even then the LED still lacks something that T5 and MH give for coloring. I have tremendous growth from my corals under my Kessil but I lack some of the vibrance my acans and such had before when under different lighting. The Kessil is not pulling the yellow, green, and purples out like T5 was.
Coelli
New member
This is the same frag under 3 different lighting conditions. From left to right:
1. Under Kessil A360NE for 6 months
2. Exact same day, with a T5 2x39 fixture across the front of the tank and Kessils still centered over the water. The pale/brown tissue and no PE where it was shadowed is very clear
3. 2.5 weeks after the addition of T5 (the 2x39 was replaced with a hanging ATI 4x24) and the Kessils mounted to either side angled in. While there's still some shadowing, you can clearly see it's coloring up and polyps are extended
This story repeats itself all over my tank. SPS with little to no PE are showing polyps like never before. Corals that had little to no growth are beginning to branch. Colors are coming in for the first time. This was not a matter of too little light, changes are occurring even where the Kessils overlapped. I love the Kessils, but seeing is believing!
1. Under Kessil A360NE for 6 months
2. Exact same day, with a T5 2x39 fixture across the front of the tank and Kessils still centered over the water. The pale/brown tissue and no PE where it was shadowed is very clear
3. 2.5 weeks after the addition of T5 (the 2x39 was replaced with a hanging ATI 4x24) and the Kessils mounted to either side angled in. While there's still some shadowing, you can clearly see it's coloring up and polyps are extended
This story repeats itself all over my tank. SPS with little to no PE are showing polyps like never before. Corals that had little to no growth are beginning to branch. Colors are coming in for the first time. This was not a matter of too little light, changes are occurring even where the Kessils overlapped. I love the Kessils, but seeing is believing!
seamonster124
New member
Scorpius
Stick Head
LED's can and will grow coral as good as any other light source. The key to success is correct spectrum, intensity, and shadow reduction. Most people don't have the time or patience to setup their lights correctly, but once you do you're golden.
Most LED's lighting systems allow you to play around with each light color and that's no bueno for coal since you're just guessing what the corals need and making the lights look "good" to your eyes.
LED manufacturers need to follow what Kessil has done and only allow to change the color and intensity, but while you can change the color the spectrum stays in the sweet spot for coral health and growth.
Most LED's lighting systems allow you to play around with each light color and that's no bueno for coal since you're just guessing what the corals need and making the lights look "good" to your eyes.
LED manufacturers need to follow what Kessil has done and only allow to change the color and intensity, but while you can change the color the spectrum stays in the sweet spot for coral health and growth.
soulpatch
New member
I have Kessils and while I agree on them being health and growing I disagree that they are equal to other light forms. The coloring of my corals with my Kessils are lacking.
I have my rocks set up in such a way to have no shadowing and will actually move the tank to frag racks as it converts to be a frag tank. The large tank however has T5 system coupled with Kessils to ensure not only the spectrum the corals need to live and grow but also to produce all of the colors that they have.
Scorpius
Stick Head
That's the key.
wildman926
Active member
This is the same frag under 3 different lighting conditions. From left to right:
1. Under Kessil A360NE for 6 months
2. Exact same day, with a T5 2x39 fixture across the front of the tank and Kessils still centered over the water. The pale/brown tissue and no PE where it was shadowed is very clear
3. 2.5 weeks after the addition of T5 (the 2x39 was replaced with a hanging ATI 4x24) and the Kessils mounted to either side angled in. While there's still some shadowing, you can clearly see it's coloring up and polyps are extended
This story repeats itself all over my tank. SPS with little to no PE are showing polyps like never before. Corals that had little to no growth are beginning to branch. Colors are coming in for the first time. This was not a matter of too little light, changes are occurring even where the Kessils overlapped. I love the Kessils, but seeing is believing!
Very nice. I wish something like this would be used as a sticky. The shadowing created by LED's is just too much to bear by SPS. Even after shadowing has been eliminated, the success stories are much less as compared to other light sources.
Scorpius
Stick Head
Comparing Kessil lighting to T5 is comparing apples to oranges. One is a point source lighting and the other bathes a tank in diffused lighting. Different light, different results.
soulpatch
New member
That's the key.
I think the influx of threads and complaints on LEDs show this is across the board. While they grow corals just fine they can not produce the same coloring that T5 or MH produce from the corals.
And yes comparing the lights is apples to oranges but one typically chooses only one to put over their tank. Those differences are important to know going in. So with the current crop of LEDs you can still get great growth you do miss out slightly on the coloring of the corals that the older technology can achieve. All light fixtures have their pros and cons be it dimming, selection of spectrum, power usage, ongoing bulb costs, heat, ect.
Many of us like the pros of multiple light types and go with hybrid solutions either as a single fixture or as multiple fixtures so we can get the best of all worlds.
gcarroll
Active member
I absolutely disagree. LED can color corals just as good as any other form of lighting. Problem is most hobbyists cheap out on the amount of light they expect to give coral using LED. So then they want to blame their failure on the quality of light. Then they buy supplemental light that gets rid of the shadowing and increases PAR improving the conditions that they caused to begin with.
Over and over I see people trying to light large tanks with just a couple LED units. They set up a 180g and put 3 - 400w MH then try to replace that with 2-3 Radions. Then theyrun them at 50% and next complain about shadowing and coverage. Adding 2 more fixtures would solve their issues. Keep in mind that Sanjay replaced 3 400w MH with 8 Radion Pros. Funny thing is he told me that he would be adding 2 more to reduce shadowing.
soulpatch
New member
I agree with the portion of your post about most not having enough LED fixtures to account for the non diffused nature of LED fixtures completly. Too many people do not buy enough fixtures or angle them properly.
I totally disagree with you on the coloring though. Too many are posting loss of color in switching to LED which is my concern. I have seen it first hand in my tank and enough threads on here have shown it in others.
That all said this thread is turning into what many other threads already are in a discussion on which light type. Are the LEDs all you need supposing you buy enough for complete coverage? Yes. Are they all you want? Doubtful since they are showing to not color like older tech in too many threads and tanks.
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