convince me that LED are as good as old school

reefmutt

reefmutt

Active member
i don't mean to be confrontational, i am simply an old fart with old ideas and would love to see some frickin' amazing shots of some LED driven sps tanks.
i've always been an acro addict and always used mh and t5 or vho-in older set ups.
I'm hoping to be convinced that LED will give me everything in an sps that good ol' mh and fluorescents gave me: fantastic, rich coloration, great, consistent growth and longevity. (assuming the corals are getting all the other things they need like flow, nutrition and a stable chemical environment)
i know that LED will deliver the two areas of the spectrum that corals need for photosynthesis: 420-450 nm and in the 500 to 600ish nm, i believe (correct me if I'm wrong..)
but i still feel old school in that i think full spectrum light sources are somehow more natural and.... well.... better..... I KNOW!! old school, but i can't help it..
can somebody drag me kicking and screaming into the new era of reef lighting.... please
I'm sure I'm not the first one here to post a similar thread, but LEDs are changing all the time...
thanks!
 
I'm with you, I want badly to be completely sold on LED. However, after A LOT of research I just couldn't pull the trigger on an LED set up. Instead I'm upgrading my current lighting to 2x's 250w mh (overkill, I know)....radiums, lumateks, and lumenarc mini's :). If it ain't broke....
 
glen, thats good old good lighting!
but man, just take a look at Stuginski's Gamma Reef thread..... that alone just about convinces me!
its pretty amazing..
but is that the norm or an exception?
 
I am on the fence as well. It's hard to invest in led's that cost so much with even hint of uncertainty. I love the idea of slow ramp dimming, but the halides are tried and true. I have read a number of threads with differing views. Remember if you read it one the web it must be true.LOL
 
patzig, thanks for the link, i will look through it!
stuginski, yes i noticed your thread! beautiful and hard to deny..
jason, the encyclopedia britannica is gone...... all we have is the internet......
may God help us all!! :)
 
Really what I want to see is a full sps packed tank grown on solely LEDs. Not some guy who threw an LEDs fixture over his already mature tank.
 
I believe I had seen a few before I don't remember the guys name but I do remember the threads. I'm sure LEDs work well I've seen and heard a lot of great things I'm just in no hurry to change, by the time I am I wouldn't be surprised if leds were that much better and cheaper.
 
Hi Karsseboom

I never use another lighting system in my current reef and most of my corals came to me as frags or small colonies. I use leds since day one of my reef (1.5 years old reef). I like my colors...I like my grow....and many frags that came to me with very poor coloration from other reefs with t5 or halides has best colors now of course opinions are opinions...and what I consider a very good result you could consider a ridiculous result....so it´s really a matter os "taste"...:-)

I must confess..I don´t saw many reefs with good colors and led lighting...but I saw many brown reefs with t5 ou halides to. In my opinion lights could help with somethung like 30% of the equation (nutrients, stability and circulation has a huge impact to)...some folks are searching for a magic pill...leds aren´t magic...but works. There isn´t many old reefers using leds...but the same thing happened when t5 arised in market....could take a little time but I´m pretty sure that sucess in led reefs will increas as the moxt more reefers start to use this technology :-)

Hails from Brazil

D.
 
seeing a tank that was started from LEDs, and grown out is the real test in my opinion too. I'm not saying I'm not a believer...cause I am...I'm just agreeing that many people cry "fake" when they see a fully grown out tank with tons of color and it's lit by LEDs. They immediately say that the person is lying and that it was obviously grown under MH and just shown with the LEDs on it after it was already grown.

I think that's lame becasue a simply look through the current threads has a few SPS tanks...mostly nanos...that are LED from the start and they look great now. The Radion seems to be doing well...as are the AI tanks...

this comes to mind...
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2102745
 
My experience with growing out corals from scratch with LED's ( I'm using two orphek-style fixtures that have extra purple bulbs) is that most corals color up just fine, but grow slower than they would with halides. I can only comment on the particular brand I'm using though, and I'm looking into adding extra red to the spectrum.
 
Mine...started with leds (1.5 years ago)

6752562991_3f040d5497_z.jpg


http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2083948

Hails from Brazil

D.
 
I have LED's I am a firm believer in them, but with that said if you are looking for done system that will work on whatever tank you throw it on...we aren't there yet. There are several top notch systems that will work great on specific tanks. Radions work great but only on tanks 24" deep and shorter, AI's will punch down very deep but there spread isn't as good so you need more units and they do lack in the red/violet range. If you are a true old timer wanting to buy a light and just plug it in maybe LED's arent your best option, but if you are willing to play around and work with a system till it is dialed in then by all means LED's are a cool new toy to play with.
 
I dont have any pictures (currently trying to learn how to use a Nikon D3000), but my tank is 100% SPS and has been 100% LED (DIY Crees) since day one. All corals were grown from frags; no colonies. The tank is a 210 (30" deep) and I am growing a variety of SPS all over the tank. Stags, montis, echinatas, stylos, poccis, you name it, as low as 3" from the sand bed to within 12" from the waters surface.

While Ive never had a metal halide fixture, I am pleased with the coloration and growth I am getting. All the other reefers in the club comment on how good my growth is, as well.

I recently picked up a 250W Radium/Sunlight electronic ballast for cheap. Its over a frag/bubbletip tank in my office (shares the same water as the big tank) and I can say the growth/coloration is no better or worse than the LED tank.
 
I plan to use t5s and leds. I have a 92 corner so it really hard to light.

t5s will cover 3/4 of the tank and i plan to place leds on the front where the sps coral will be placed.
 
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