Greetings,
I'm thinking about replacing my (3) 250W MH 12,000K bulbs, and (2) 72" 165W t-12 VHO Super Actinic Fluorescents w/ LED lighting. It's becoming difficult to find replacement bulbs for VHO's.
I have 150 Gallon all glass aquarium 72" long x18.5" wide x 29.5" deep w/ built in twin overflows . I had tank built into custom cabinets on wall...so cabinets below tank are for storage, PVC plumbing, electrical, etc., and cabinets above tank hiding the lighting and allows access to feed and clean tank, etc. My refugium/sump is located in basement below tank.
Came across this thread and had a few questions:
Looks like (2) S200's will do the job on for my tank
1) Has anyone had problems with heat or moisture build up in closed lighting system like I am describing. I heard this can be detrimental to LED lights. Looks like most of you have the light hanging open above tank. I installed (2) 4" ice cap variable speed fans pulling the air from where the lights are located within the cabinet, and venting it outside...I had to do this so my current lighting didn't bake my tank.
I have mine in a very enclosed space, very close to the water. It's actually one of the reasons I chose the LEDZeal over some more expensive options. - they seem very efficient and either don't generate a huge amount of heat, or disperse it very well. The airflow is pulled from above and vents at either end of the case (all of which is one single piece heat sink). I have tested mine at 100% on all four channels and it didn't melt down.
. Typically I run two channels at 64-70% with the others used to balance the light and it doesn't get hot.
The environment isn't ideal for any light, but the LEDZeal seems to cope very well with the moisture. I have no experience with MH, but would suspect you will see a massive reduction in the amount of heat produced.
2) I'm not familiar with LED degree lighting. I'm seeing some LED's offered at 120, 90 or 60 degree. Not sure if Zeal offers this as an option to choose from. Curious which degree is best for my deeper tank. I'm not certain if the degree I just mentioned is the shape of the LED optic itself or the plastic lens that are installed over the LED's to focus or disperse the light. Can you choose to make some LED's 120 degree's and other LED's 60 degrees...not certain why you would want to do this but asking anyway.
The LEDZeals have lenses on the LED's to help disperse the light. This is a personal choice as some like this and some don't. Personally I think it helps disperse the light but in deep tanks, where LEDs offen struggle, you can use narrower angle lenses to punch te light down to the sandbed. I have a 24" deep tank and the light is powerful on the sandbed at 67%.
I went with LEDZeals recommendation after giving them the dimensions of the tank, however opted for wider angle lenses on the red and green LED in my layout to disperse this colour more as there are less LED's and wanted to avoid any spotlighting. This hasn't been a problem.
You can also get spare lenses from LEDZeal (and spare LEDs) at very reasonable costs with the unit should you want to swap them out at some stage.[/quote]
3) How far to hang the LED above the water
I have mine a few inches above the water as a necessity of having very restricted space. Since you have MH, you probably have a fair bit of room to play with. Obviously being closer gives you slightly more lumens and less spread. Pick your optimum without worrying about heat and the lenses will be specified to give you the spread you require at that height from the water.
4) I currently use heavy duty lamp timers to turn on/off my lighting. Can I use them for the Zeal lights? I see Zeal offers wifi as available option but need a android cell/tablet to take advantage of this option. I don't have android cell but do have several windows based laptops...can I use one of these laptops to program the lights? Does this laptop need to be dedicated to these lights meaning powered on all the time and in contact with lights 24/7 to operate the lights? I have router and wifi thoughout my home
The LEDZeal is fully programmable, variable from 0-100% on any of the 4 channels at any time of the day. You can do this via a dedicated controller (either wired or wireless) or via a wifi connection to an android tablet. Both will work perfectly well, however I upgraded mine to the Plus version (app controlled on a tablet) and am very glad I did.
IMO, this makes the unit standout and allows me to rapidly configure and visualise new programs and switch between them. It also means I only have a power cable going to the light and no other cables. A single tablet will control up to 254 individual lights (if you have a tank that needs this, please send me an invite!).
5) I've been researching another LED light on Ebay....many people selling similar lighting under different names
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=led+lighting&_osacat=20754&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.X165+W+led+lighting.TRS0&_nkw=165+W+led+lighting&_sacat=20754 Anyone familiar with these and why choose Zeal over these LED's on ebay
I have no personal experience of them, but to be honest, the LEDZeal is in a different market to these lower end units. They will grow SPS, but lack the features, customisations etc possible with the LEDZeal. I discounted them when I was looking and often find most users running theirs at 100%, compared to LEDZeal users who are more likely to run at 70-80%.
Add the custom layout, spectrum and app programming etc and I was comparing them more to Radions and Hydras than Mars or IT Pros.
6) One thing I love with MH lighting is the shimmering affect it has in my tank....do the LED's do the same thing.
I appreciate your feedback...Thank you!
Again, not from my personal experience, but this is the one thing which every MH user tends to miss when switching to any non MH light. As previously mentioned, surface movement will provide a lot of the effect and LED's are not fluorescent like tubes, so you wI'll get closer to the look with LED's and the customisation possible on the LEDZeal will get you as close as you probably can using an LED.
I hope this helps? Kevin is extremely helpful and their customer service is excellent, so drop him a mail and ask his advice on sizing, lenses etc and let him know that you've been chatting to other LEDZeal customers.
Lastly, please let us have a photo or two when you have them installed.