convince me that LED are as good as old school

[Santoki]

There are at least a handful of tanks here on RC where LEDs were used from the start...
I don't want to convince you, but I think LEDs worked well for me.
Documentation started a little over two years ago. Nothing new except the anemone was added since the start of documentation.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2136083
-Robert

 

[reefmutt]

I'm seeing quite a few tanks with led and t5 supplementation..
it seems to me that only very recently are the LED tanks starting to really look like mh/t5 tanks in terms of coloration and thriving robustness.
but I'm not sure why, the biggest change in led fixtures seems, to me, to be increased intensity, but the nature of the light from led seems to require less intensity- as shown in santoki's very interesting thread..
just wondering out loud..
when sps corals hit the scene about a decade, or so ago, mh was the way to go. mh was one of the things that made it possible to keep sps (not to mention skimming, po4 removal and flow) when vho and t5 came along, people were successful pretty much right away, but many generations of led lights have not been so successful at keeping sps really happy. Now (in the last year) I'm starting to see some tanks the look really great..
there is still a far greater percentage of amazing sps tanks running mh and/or t5 than led..
I'm just wondering what's changing in the leds, aside from intensity..
is it husbandry? do led systems require ultra low nutrient systems to keep the corals from browning out, because of their intensity?
Donkeykong and tnyr5 mention red/violet as an important aspect missing in some led fixtures..
are the lights really as secondary as santoki mentions in his thread in relation to water chemistry?
I've seen two (off the top of my head - there are plenty more) exceptional led driven systems, stuginsky who is using vodka, i think and i saw a tube video of an amazing zeovit tank..
just wondering if there is a relationship between low nutrient systems and led light in terms of vibrant, thriving sps..

 

[psteeleb]

I run high nutrients to feed gorgs and most of my sps only see LED light, yet I get great colors. I also get good growth but I can't say it is as good as I use to get with MH's, but I'll sacrifice that for just the energy consuptions and dealing with the heat. I do think some SPS don't do as well under only LEDs and it could be the narrow spectrum that they provide or something else. On the flip side I can say I have some corals that see LEDs on one side and T5s on the other and the LED side does better as far as color and skin health.

 

[NatureNerd]

I'm old school too. My tank is running with most of the same equipment it had when I started it 16 years ago, except for its LED lighting. I won't try to convince anyone that LED's are better than MH's for coral health and growth.

For me they are as good and the other factors make me a true-believer. I have far less heating of my tank, I was sick of constantly buying new bulbs, I use to occasionally burn myself bumping the MH bulb, and my energy bills dropped by $30 - $40 per month. The best reason to switch for me was the ability to view my tank with different light levels and spectra throughout the day. I love that my tank looks like it is lit with 10k bulbs midday, 14k early afternoon, and 20k's later in the evening. The flexibility and programmability is great.

So, my tank is not the awesome SPS filled gem you were asking for but it is an example of one year of growth with all SPS's started as single branch 1-1.5" frags. Every one of them. That Hoek stag is now 11.5' across. Every other coral is a small colony at this point. Pretty good growth in one year.

No dosing other than kalk, fairly low bio-load but definitely not low nutrient, no additives besides fish food and RODI water. Simple is best in my book.

 

[franklypre]

I'm running a 400w DE Icecap halide setup w/14k hamilton bulb and have 4 PAR38s and have noticed that the LEDs definately make the coral look a little more colorful but the halides are where the growth is heading. Mix that with the fact that I can barely stand to look at the tank without the halide on it is going to take ALOT of different color DIY LED training or for the A350 to be what I hear it is for me to give up my halide. I may just get a window AC for the fish room this summer. Stuginski that is an amazing tank, yours as well NatureNerd.

 

[daveonbass]

Just remember that when mh lights first came out they had a slow start as well. They didn't work at keeping amazing color from the start, they basically just grew brown corals.

Vho light had a similar evolution time for kepping (surviving) corals, and then finally growing them. They evolved to better light like CFs and finally now T5s. So T5s and current MH bulbs are the end product of a growing evolution of a single technology. I think LEDs are at roughly the second of three major stages.

MH150w 10K --> MH250w 14K --> MH400w+ 20K
VHO --> CFs --> T5
LED 1W --> LED 3W --> ? (KESSIL pendant, 10W+, who knows?)

 

[Stuginski]

Thank you reefmutt and frankly...

I really don´t beleive that i´m in ULNS side of reefing...my test are 0 but there is many folks with 0 in tests and a small patch of algae ...i´m one of this guys! Yes I dose 2 cc of vodka daily but I feed very heavy... :uzi:

About red or green leds...To my knowledge: they are 100% aesthetic there is no other function in my opinion, greens can´t promote photosynthesis and reds can´t complete the process of coral photosynthesis because some reactions...so if you want a less blue visiual is a option..but I can´t see nothing beyond this.

Thank´s again...hails from Brazil

D.

 

[franklypre]

Honestly if I went DIY with the LEDs there woudl probably be a few T5s involved just for a good 10k and purple plus. If the Kessil does what is rumored the switch will be easy for everyone as from what I can tell they give a halide like shimmer and point source light, so long as they put out the intensity for SPS and clams. I honestly hope they will make an even bigger version for those of us who prefer 400w halides, maybe even set these things up on controllers, who knows.

 

[gasman059]

IME after pretty much trying every single lighting spectrum there is, there' still no substitute fro MH/ and good old fashion vho's

And yes I did experiment with LED's for over a year( high end LED's maker with some success)

But colors and spectrum ar ejust not there.

Been there done that , my only reason for experimenting was heat and electrical consumption due to my tank location. CUrrently running a t5 system thats also IMO less than what can be produced by MH's,

 

[reefmutt]

Naturenerd, im definitely seeing some very nice coloration in your sps!

dave, i guess you are right that each emerging tech has an adjustment period, but i think leds seem to be taking longer and the adjustment seems to be different.
i think that when the mh bulbs first started coming out, many husbandry techniques were developing around reducing nutrients at the same time and i think that part of the developing success of mh back then (way back in ancient times, 15years ago..) was due to husbandry. since then it seems to me that husbandry ideology hasn't really changed-its has progressed, but based on the same tenets of low nutrients, better flow, better nutrition. i think that if today you put an Iwasaki bulb over a successful reef, the colours would be there (maybe with a little help from some blue supplementation)...
what do you think is next stage, plasma?
gasman, i lean in your direction, but there are some pretty amazing examples of perfect looking sps under leds. stuginski, naturenerd and psteeleb are 3 examples on this thread, alone.. when was the last time you played with leds?
I'm still torn..
I've only just heard about the kessil, but know little about it..
can anyone fill me in?

 

[franklypre]

no, it has not been "officially released" we are having to bite at the bit for any info, there is a thread here that has the first pics of a tank with 2 of them on it.