Wrong hobby if your worried about saving money...
ATI Powermodule Hybrid Club
- Thread starter rodneyri
- Start date
Wrong hobby if your worried about saving money...
karsseboom
New member
Yeah, if your spending almost 2000 dollars on a light fixture your not worried about a bulb replacement cost. I think it's funny when some guy spends 3500 on LEDs and says its because of bulb replacements or electricity. That's just the way they justify there purchase to the wife.
stan zemanek
New member
In a few years It will be fun to watch all the LED guys and gals talk about what kinds of issues they are having with their corals. I can see it now they will be buying new skimmers, throwing all kinds of snake oils in their tanks only to come and realize that their corals have died because the LED's have in fact worn out. Of course by then that will be the last thing they will have thought of because everybody has bought into the "LED's last forever mentality".
psykobowler
New member
Plus one man. Exactly what I am thinking. People should be in the hobby to provide the best scenarios to keep their sps healthy most importantly. I've had bad experiences in my past trying to cut the wrong cost. I feel the same way with LED. I think it would be better with either metal halide with LED supplementation or T5 with LED in the middle. There is no risk of losing corals from lack of light spectrum with these 2 options.
Cost of bulbs isnt a concern, damn if I counted the costs in the past 3 years ive gone from giesemann infinitiy > Vertex Illumina > GHL Mitras > ATI LED Hybrid, and all this time I have a ATI Powermodule sitting under the bed as a backup light.
Hopefully no one adds up the cost of just lights there for my tank lol
Hopefully no one adds up the cost of just lights there for my tank lol
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
Agreed.
That's why I am sticking with my ATI Sunpower. I do not mind tube replacements either. I get replenished PAR readings every nine to ten months.
Michigan Mike
Freedom costs a buckofive
Why does it say too poor for straphire in your sig? :hammer:
ReachTheSky
Active member
I don't mean to derail the thread but a few things need to be clarified here. Where did you hear about the "LED's last forever" mentality? I thought it was pretty common knowledge that LED's are rated for up to 50,000 hours. Assuming the fixture itself doesn't malfunction (at which point you hopefully kept that warranty card), that's roughly 8-12 years of usage, depending of course on how long the diodes are on during the day. Most people don't even keep reef tanks for that long, let alone lighting fixtures! I think by "forever", you really mean "until I upgrade" or "until my wife makes me take the tank down".
All lights lose output over time and LED's are no exception. How quickly they drop off depends mostly on their build quality, how efficiently they disperse heat and if they are overdriven. Most aquarium LED fixtures use high quality Cree/Luxeon LED's that are NOT overdriven and cool them down with fans and heatsinks. They will experience losses within the next few years but it will be miniscule and largely negligible because most people don't run their LED's anywhere near 100% so any drop off can be easily compensated for by a boost in intensity.
Took some spectrum readings of the light last night, interesting to find these results. In both tests the benchmark line is 8x54w T5 tubes (B,W,B,A,B,P,W,B)
First chart shows all T5 and all LED - the addition of the LEDs give a massive kick in the blue
This chart shows just 4 T5 tubes on and LED - interesting to see how intense the light is with half the tubes running, apart from coverage potentially only need to run this setup and save power on the full 8 tubes running
First chart shows all T5 and all LED - the addition of the LEDs give a massive kick in the blue
This chart shows just 4 T5 tubes on and LED - interesting to see how intense the light is with half the tubes running, apart from coverage potentially only need to run this setup and save power on the full 8 tubes running
Michigan Mike
Freedom costs a buckofive
Bumpidy bump...
I need my fix!
Rod, anyone? More pics & opinions on this please!
I see you changed your sig Rodney, hehe...I hope I don't have to wait 6 months for your experience so far, you don't have to say its awesome...yet. J/k
I need my fix!
Rod, anyone? More pics & opinions on this please!
I see you changed your sig Rodney, hehe...I hope I don't have to wait 6 months for your experience so far, you don't have to say its awesome...yet. J/k
GroktheCube
New member
Wow, looks fantastic!
I'm adding a 4x54w Sunpower to my two 76W buildmyled.com LED strips, I hope my results are half that good!
I'm adding a 4x54w Sunpower to my two 76W buildmyled.com LED strips, I hope my results are half that good!
Lol Mike, my sig is a joke for a mate who always gets something new and gives it a 200% rating then changes it weeks down the line when his tank doesnt magically improve by the same 200% rating
Light is going well so far, im really liking the look of the light output, kinda hard to explain but its got the really bright look of T5 but the clarity of LED...not the typical flat type look in a normal T5 fixture.
Light is going well so far, im really liking the look of the light output, kinda hard to explain but its got the really bright look of T5 but the clarity of LED...not the typical flat type look in a normal T5 fixture.
blakeorme
New member
Just got the 48in 4xbulb on Thursday! Craftsmanship is excellent. What bulb configuration is everyone recommending? My previous tank was halide, and this will be my first experience with both LED and T5s.
Tech specs aside, the controllability of the LEDs is incredible. Aesthetics are a big part of the hobby for me, and the potential for some really "cool" sunrise/set effects is very exciting.
Tech specs aside, the controllability of the LEDs is incredible. Aesthetics are a big part of the hobby for me, and the potential for some really "cool" sunrise/set effects is very exciting.
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