Doing a little 'light' research. If you have LEDs please respond.

[Sk8r]

Curious how they're working for you, re coral color, coral growth, what brand you're using, any useful information. I use metal halides myself, like to be informed on other techs.
Particularly curious whether anybody's started with mh and switched and has commentary on the effects of a change.

 

[hybridazn]

180 gallon mostly sps. I had 2-400 watt and 1-250 watt mh and of course had good color and growth. I switched to 3 radion G1's with TIR lenses and haven't noticed any difference with my sps color and growth wise. My chalices I have noticed a huge difference though. The growth has increased greatly and the eyes have increased in size. I have had the LEDs over my tank since October of last year.

 

[Henry Colf]

I'm running 2 x 119 watt Chineese leds over my 90 gallon. I have had great sucess with them.The only thing I had to do was shade my chalices and of course ramp up the time my lights were on for. Took about 8 weeks or so before I could run the whites at 7 hrs. a day. I have (what I think) are great colors and have had excellent growth. I used to run 2 x 250 watt metal halides and 2 x 55 T's. My electric bill went down around 25.00 a month and I don't have heat issues in the summer anymore. I have been very satified and I don't think I would ever switch back. HTH..

 

[RFLKPTR]

I'm running one AI Sol Super Blue over a forty breeder (36 long). Not enough light for the corners, but I get great growth out of SPS and LPS alike. The only problem I have with blues/ total blues/ cool whites is that could tend to lose their vibrancy. Just saying that with experience. For that reason alone am I switching to a full spectrum ( reef breeders controllable) fixture.

I've used a lower quality halide before, and got much better growth out of the halide, but that was over a different system with slightly different husbandry years ago.

 

[scolley]

I packed up my Radium and actinics a couple of years ago. Replaced them with a mix of DIY Cree XR-Es. Went through a couple rounds of LED lamp swaps to get the color mix right.

Now I'd say the Radiums looked a shade better, except of course the wild colors that the Royal Blues bring out. But when running a daylight like mix, the Radiums still win by a hair. But only a hair.

My SPS growth is slow. But my colors are pretty darn good. Can't say the same for some LPS - like acans that change color. But the SPS look great.

The biggest problem is that it's really, really hard to get white balance right on LEDs for a decent photo. So if I had to prove my colors were great, it would be challenging. But 'tis true...

 

[Bugger]

The people that market them (ecotech Ai etc) are not dummies you'll will pay the same amount no matter which way you go with bulb replacements. I like my radion its a nice lamp I used all methods and Led is the best.

 

[trueblackpercula]

i have a G1 radion with TIR lens and simply love it. i had a 400 watt MH and 150 watt of VHO they worked great but bulbs,electric bill and heat were all getting to be to much. i have no regretes with the radion would do it again...............also my sps are getting some great color and growth and i have had the fixture a month.

 

[Frick]

I am going to throw the Kessil A360Ws in the ring. I have had my two protos for over two months and they are doing an amazing job on growth for my Acropora, montipora, and my Cyphastrea is the best it has ever looked. My Leptasrea has seen the most change, with the polyps so fat and fluffy. I was using a 400w Radium 20K before these on this tank for five years, and it took Kessils to pry it out of my hand.

I have been using the A350 over another 29 Biocube for about nine months now with great success. It is turned down to over half its power tho. There is mostly LPS and SPS in there. The sensitive montis that would not respond well over my Radium halide went in there and did much better. Before that A350 I had a A150W Sky Blue that had decent results with all the corals.

Kessil has come out with three very impressive reef aquarium fixtures, and they get better and better with each new model. Some people do not like them because they have average PAR readings, and those people turn their nose. But the fact is Kessil is the first aquarium LED lighting company to develop their own LED and perform R&R over actual reef tanks before they put it into their fixture.

AIs and Radions are nice also.

 

[semperfi102582]

I'm thinking about switching to led's also.

 

[kb1094]

I will recommend Acans LEDs

 

[karsseboom]

Curious how they're working for you, re coral color, coral growth, what brand you're using, any useful information. I use metal halides myself, like to be informed on other techs.
Particularly curious whether anybody's started with mh and switched and has commentary on the effects of a change.

Its great to see you over here. You are a wonderful asset to the forum.

To answer your question I think LEDS work great. A lot of people are having nice success and if your thinking about making a switch to maybe save some money with a little more control over the spectrum its great.

 

[Mangodude]

Currently using very cheap chinese 120w led panels. 60/40 blue/white

I'm getting decent color, not quite what some people have, but theres only blue leds and none of the fancy pinks/greens that others use.

There has been slight browning on some corals but all colored up with in a month or two. All sps sit in the bottom 12 inches of a 24" tank and the lights are 6" above water

 

[jason angel]

You cannot beat T5 of MH for coral growth and color. Simple as that.
A good example is pink stylopora. You wont get bright pink stylopora under just white and blue LED... period.

 

[Mangodude]

You cannot beat T5 of MH for coral growth and color. Simple as that.
A good example is pink stylopora. You wont get bright pink stylopora under just white and blue LED... period.

I agree with the t5 statement. Almost all of the crazy pretty tanks on here are t5s. The Reef in the Sky is still running t5's if I'm not mistaken.. Not sure bout halides.

T5's are a pain to constantly be changing out though..

 

[turtlespd]

I originally had 14 cree RB and 10 cree Nw or Cw I forget but after three months I couldn't get much intensity out if the corals but they encrusted very fast after I got the led's up to 75%. Much wasn't happening before the 75% intensity mark but then I wasn't getting an explosion I'm accustomed to with halides. I knew my water was where I wanted it, so I could or felt I could blame the LED's and almost went to t5, even visited a few shops to look at the color but overall i didnt like t5. So I did more research and went to try full spectrum, might as well!

A week after I swapped to a full spectrum set up my red acan actually looks intense red and not brown dull red. Certain corals such as a Cali tort that was more on the green and purple shifted to solid purple and I can begin to see the blues I love. I have had the full spectrum only a month now and everything that I purchased from t5 tanks are slowly retuning to what they would look like under halides. I had this same experience with all of my frags not just a couple. I can tell they like the addition. I can get blues, greens, reds, yellows, but intense purple on my garf bonsai is just not the same, yet.

I still think halides kick arse when it comes to giving corals what they need but there is a lot of wasted light also. LEDs are just plain efficient but I don't think anyone can pop them over a tank and get amazing results however good results, I seen plenty of times. I'm almost to the point where I can run my set up at max since it took me about 4-5 months to acclimate my frags. Hopefully in the next few months I can get some answers. I did notice since going full spectrum my corals consumption have gone up. When I started my tank consumed 40ml/day alk/ca and it stayed that way for the most part and I slowly increased it to 50ml after 5 months. I noticed as soon as I added the full spectrum, omg I thought my test kits expired. I double checked and even went to have a Lfs test and my ca went from 450-480 to 380, my alk from 10-11 to 6.5dkh. I immediately increased my dosage to an extra 10ml each week and I'm up to 80/ml per day now and my levels still slowly drop. I haven't changed anything but the lights.

I am convinced LEDs work and I will continue to run them. The procedure and or combination I feel needs work. I forgot to add I have addition to the 14 cree RB at 1000ma, 12 cree Cw at 1000ma, 4 cyan, 4 red, 4 CB 4, 2 420nm violet all run at 600-700ma from Steve's, Crees from rapid led, all packed into a 6x8 heatsink to cover a 24x24 without optics and 7" above the water. I hope to add more violets but after a few months to see how this combo works out, so far I'm happy but if I get growth ill be very happy.

 

[epicurus84]

I got pacific sun tritron LED's ( two)

in this threat i posted a pic of a birthsnest coral with 2 weeks growth

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2274721

Other corals also grow, but i never got decent enough matching photo's.

 

[trueblackpercula]

You cannot beat T5 of MH for coral growth and color. Simple as that.
A good example is pink stylopora. You wont get bright pink stylopora under just white and blue LED... period.

I would like to know what you are basing this on? I have had both and I can tell you that statement may apply to the low end LED fixtures. But for the higher end ones its the complet opposite. I am not turning this into a debate just stating facts. LEDS supply more par less heat and are fully controllerable. I am mean you can even control the amount of intensity and color with out spend so much money on electric or the replacment of bulbs.

 

[jerpa]

I had good results with Kessil's, both the A150 and A350. I replaced a 150w MH with the smaller Kessil and the corals didn't seem to notice. It didn't light the tank as fully as the MH but illuminated areas did fine. I upgraded the tank to a 120 and had good results with 2 A350's. I have since switched back to MH. The larger Kessil performed much like the smaller one. The illuminated areas showed good growth and color but overall there were too many dark areas for my liking. I also couldn't adjust them to get a color I like without sacrificing intensity. My reasons for switching back to MH where mostly aesthetic however they do provide more intense light to more areas of the tank than the Kessil did.

 

[sirreal63]

For a different perspective...
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2203067

 

[scolley]

...A good example is pink stylopora. You wont get bright pink stylopora under just white and blue LED... period.

Well don't tell that to my pink stylo.

Been growing like that in my tank for about a year now, my blue and white Cree's. No other colors, no other lights.

I don't doubt for a minute that this coral could look better under the right T5's (or the right LEDs for that matter). But to say it can't grow, or can't be bright pink seems to be a questionable statement.

Further, to knock what corals do under blue and white LEDs is like referencing model T's as proof that cars are slow and uncomfortable. No decent LED manufacturer limit's their colors to blue and white anymore. The state-of-the-art is thankfully far past that now.