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

[scolley]

Still haven't seen one single blue acropora grown from frag to colony under LEDs. Lots of every other color, especially purples and greens and all sorts of millis, but no Cali Torts, Blue Matrixes, or Oregon Torts grown frag to colony and with deep blue solid color under LEDs. (and pale blues don't count)

IMO that is an astute observation. :thumbsup:

I don't know if it's entirely true, but I suspect you are onto something...

My little SPS dominant nano looks like a purple and green paradise. But deep solid blue? Nope, none of that. Got some nice light blue in a Tyree Bali Tricolor. And an FHI Limited Edition California Tort that is a solid medium blue (except the green polyps). And a Blue Monster Tort that is a beautiful light blue with purple tips. And while - IMO - these are gorgeous corals now, there is not a bit of solid, deep blue to be found in them.

 

[sirreal63]

Steve it has been observed in a few places. A really good example is in Santoki's thread. Of course there are always numerous things that can influence color but with some very experienced people noticing it, there may be something to it. It remains to be seen if a more full spectrum changes that, I am hoping it does.

 

[scolley]

Steve it has been observed in a few places. A really good example is in Santoki's thread. Of course there are always numerous things that can influence color but with some very experienced people noticing it, there may be something to it. It remains to be seen if a more full spectrum changes that, I am hoping it does.

Thanks. I was not aware of this point. As someone that would like to see more full spectrum LED's succeed, I'm disappointed to hear it. But it does help explain why I've not seen an LED tank that is as good as that best MH w/T5s. And I've been looking for one...

 

[sirreal63]

I am giving up my LED supplements to go back in time, VHO SuperActintics will be installed very soon. I was going to go with 420nm led's but I have never seen anything as nice as VHO actintics so I am sticking with what I know is a winning combination, Radiums and VHO.

 

[Henry Colf]

I'm just wondering how many folks would look at this photo and say "Wow, I want to copy that lighting" when they have examples like this T5 tank to compare with . . .


Still haven't seen one single blue acropora grown from frag to colony under LEDs. Lots of every other color, especially purples and greens and all sorts of millis, but no Cali Torts, Blue Matrixes, or Oregon Torts grown frag to colony and with deep blue solid color under LEDs. (and pale blues don't count) Maybe that's ok for most 'cuz LEDs are so efficient and adjustable, but I'm still watching this thread for folks to show up with blue corals and nice progression shots of 2 years and no T5 supplements.

I'm not really sure how to take what your saying about my tank. I think looks pretty good. As far as blue corals go, I'm gonna run out and buy one just for you. I will start a thread with progression shots, I hope you will follow it!!!

 

[JPMagyar]

I'm not really sure how to take what your saying about my tank. I think looks pretty good. As far as blue corals go, I'm gonna run out and buy one just for you. I will start a thread with progression shots, I hope you will follow it!!!

Henry,

Reefs are products of our beloved hobby and by all means we should all pursue what we enjoy. I know my comparison is a bit overdone and I hope you will accept my apologies for being so harsh. It's so hard to sound humorous and lite on the internet whilst still making ones point. Your reef is outstanding and clear evidence of hard work, it's just that I feel a need to show new reefers that might be following this thread the differences between LED grown tanks and T5 or MH grown tanks.


As for growing a deep blue coral, I absolutely wish you the best of success. Honestly and truly I hope you are able to grow a deep blue frag into a large colony because I will immediately offer you a hearty apology and run out and buy the same lights as you, but I think you will find that growing deep blue acros under today's LEDs is all but impossible, and I think the answer lies in UV. The 3 bulbs that create deep blue corals are UVL Super Actinics, Radium 20000ks, and ATI Blue Plus. All 3 of those bulbs produce light in the 420 nm range so when someone makes an LED fixture that mixes 420 with other wavelengths and finds a way to spread the coverage evenly across the tank then I think LEDs will have come into their own.


Joe :beer:

 

[scolley]

Joe - LEDs with 420mn UV lamps (actually violet, but commonly referred to as UV) are out there now, and being incorporated into some fixtures. Or more accurately, you see lamps in the 405 to 430 range. Not all are labeled as '420' nm, though some are. But the reality is that LEDs shift wavelength with the amount of current driven thru them. So some lamps marketed as 420 may be only 'approximately' 420 nm.

Bottom line though... If 420 nm light is the determining factor on growing deep blue acros, we all should expect proof of newer LED fixtures doing that soon.

 

[fishguy597]

Then why not supplement T5's with LEDs just like mh? There are a few fixtures with them built into them already. I was at a reefers house last weekend and he had some nice blues with LEDs . He started with mh and switched to LEDs a year ago. He does have a progression thread on here.

 

[Tetra84]

Henry,

Reefs are products of our beloved hobby and by all means we should all pursue what we enjoy. I know my comparison is a bit overdone and I hope you will accept my apologies for being so harsh. It's so hard to sound humorous and lite on the internet whilst still making ones point. Your reef is outstanding and clear evidence of hard work, it's just that I feel a need to show new reefers that might be following this thread the differences between LED grown tanks and T5 or MH grown tanks.


As for growing a deep blue coral, I absolutely wish you the best of success. Honestly and truly I hope you are able to grow a deep blue frag into a large colony because I will immediately offer you a hearty apology and run out and buy the same lights as you, but I think you will find that growing deep blue acros under today's LEDs is all but impossible, and I think the answer lies in UV. The 3 bulbs that create deep blue corals are UVL Super Actinics, Radium 20000ks, and ATI Blue Plus. All 3 of those bulbs produce light in the 420 nm range so when someone makes an LED fixture that mixes 420 with other wavelengths and finds a way to spread the coverage evenly across the tank then I think LEDs will have come into their own.


Joe :beer:

the Radion Pro incorporated 405 and 415 nm leds..

 

[ros_sco]

Still haven't seen one single blue acropora grown from frag to colony under LEDs. Lots of every other color, especially purples and greens and all sorts of millis, but no Cali Torts, Blue Matrixes, or Oregon Torts grown frag to colony and with deep blue solid color under LEDs. (and pale blues don't count) Maybe that's ok for most 'cuz LEDs are so efficient and adjustable, but I'm still watching this thread for folks to show up with blue corals and nice progression shots of 2 years and no T5 supplements.

From a frag. Sunbrite LEDs. This one is not mine, I took this picture yesterday at my friends house. (Scoly here on RC) Looks like A. Austera, was a frag taken from a wild colony.

 

[stangchris]

well after tearing down my buddys tank(led powered) that had frags from my mh/t5 powered tank i decided to buy his fixture. all the coral looked great still in color and growth was nice. he had a lot of sps he got from me, red planet, Oregon blue, cali tort, pink birdnest. i was running 2x250w and 4xt5, i bought his vertex illumina 260. only been running a week under led but colors looked the same, only time will tell if color holds. i will be posting pics as time goes in my build thread here on rc. ill put some pics here of mh and led on my tank jst some fts.

mh

led

 

[phenom5]

Just received my shipping notice from UPS for my new lights...and this thread does not have me feeling warm & fuzzy. Hope I don't regret this.

 

[acroholicreefer]

I have been running MH lights since 2006 with great results. I sold my 120g this past fall and set up a 40b with Maxspect Razor LED lights a few months ago. The color is great on the corals. Acros and Montis are growing as expected.

 

[stangchris]

Just received my shipping notice from UPS for my new lights...and this thread does not have me feeling warm & fuzzy. Hope I don't regret this.

I just came back from 3 day trip and everything looks great still, been led for 6 days now on my 150(pics in above post) . so far I'm very happy with my choice. as long as you get a good quality fixture you should be fine. I ran a good Chinese black box on my g/f 20l and all her Zoanthids and acans looked great she now has 27g cube with a radion gen 1 and it's great.

 

[trueblackpercula]

The blue theory may be more true them I would like believe. As I have had this all blue stag under radion G1 for over a month now and it's turning purple blue. It's still a nice stag but its no longer blue.

 

[JPMagyar]

That is a gorgeous coral, but here's a few pictures of my blues. It's so hard to tell from photos, but it does seem to me that I am getting much more intense blues under T5/MH then the pictures from LED tanks, and even my purple corals seem to me to be more "saturated" and deeper in color whereas it seems that LED tanks tend towards paler less saturated versions of the same. Not that that is bad just different and something folks should be aware of when switching to LEDs.

 

[trueblackpercula]

Amazing work

 

[scoly]

Tagging along with a smile!

 

[Pederreefnerd]

Beutifull coral u have there - wow. Very nice job

I myself have 6 Maxspect Razor over my 140x120x75 cm tank, and they work wonders.
Before that i had Radion G1, and beore that 400wats Radium 14000 k and T5.

I have more growth now than ever before, but do admit T5 is perfect in a shallow tank.

I disagree with some saying u cant keep colors on a S. hystrix perfect pink, because its like that in my tank.

I agree that this intense PAR can give change of color on many Acos, but i love this part of reefkeeping.

The blue tort I dont have, so cant compare there.

Nice thread, love it

Peder

 

[scoly]

I think a lot has to do with taking pics also, the blue on the piece ros_sco posted is a lot more vibrant in person