Evil's PAR 38 LED bulb's a total bust?

hypnoj

Member
I have 5 x Evils' PAR 38 20k LED bulbs over my 80 gallon 30x30x20h rimless cube. The bulbs have 40 degree optics and sit about 9 inches off the water. My water parameters are good. Nitrates are a little high (between 5 and 10), but otherwise everything else is right on the money. This is a complete BTA tank and my BTA's seem to be losing color with these bulbs. I know they put out the PAR numbers, but I'm feeling that they don't have the color spectrum for BTA's. I've only been using them for a few weeks, but I've seen a noticable color loss. Do you think they were a complete waste of $500? Anyone else finding good results with these bulbs and anemone's? Any suggestions/help/advice would be much appreciated.
 
Have you had a chance to check this thread out?
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1746535&page=38&highlight=par38+led

Also, look for posts by beeker. Here's a pic of his tank running PAR38
Freedom025.jpg


I'd also have a couple more questions.

A few weeks = ?
Did you have the lights higher in the beginning for acclimation?

Possibly the LEDs are bleaching them out.

I personally do not have LEDs but have some inbound and have been doing as much reading as possible.

Some people with deeper tanks are running their lights much hight than 9". Although the brands may be different. If you have access to a PAR meter you approximate how much light the corals are getting.

Last but not least, can you post pics?
 
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What lighting did you have before? How are they losing color? More pale or just not as vibrant?

All anemone's came from under MH's, before going into my tank. I started with the lights being around 24 inches off the water and i noticed one of my gbta's started to bleach, so i lowered the lights to about 16 inches off the water for two weeks, didn't think it helped much. Called nanotuners and was told 9 inches was rcommended so lowered them again. (nanotuners has been awesome btw) I've taken pictures to make sure, but i think my litle green is gaining back color now. Anyways, I added 5 rbtas recently and it appears that i've seen them change color daily as compared to when they first entered my tank, they started out a deep red color with green bases and now they are all mostly green with orange bulbs, neither color is very deep. Honestly, if I enhanced the photos a little bit, they'd all sell like crazy due to the orange color change, but i know that the change isn't their correct color.
 
I don't have access to a par meter, but someone just posted these exact same bulbs on RC from a distance of 6 inches or so from the water. The par 2 inches below the surface was around 1000, but quickly dropped after that and ended up being 150 at 18 inches.
 
What are the actual water parameters -- "on the money" doesn't tell much.

The E. Quadricolors could actually be bleaching -- from too much light -- have you tried acclimating them to your lights?
 
40* optics will have powerful focused light. I think that they are affecting your BTAs because they are stronger than your old halides. You will get color change anytime you change bulbs. I had the same issue when I changed from 15K Iwasakis to 20K XMs.
 
What are the actual water parameters -- "on the money" doesn't tell much.

The E. Quadricolors could actually be bleaching -- from too much light -- have you tried acclimating them to your lights?

I haven't tried acclimating the quadricolors yet, just a little gun shy after the gbta bleaching. I figured they would just move if they didn't like the amount of light.
I don't suppliment any thing, just water changes.

My parameters are:

Temperature: pretty constant 79 degrees
Salinity:1.024ish (float tester)
Ph: 8.4
Ca: 460
Alk: 9
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 5-10
Mag: didn't test
Phosphates: 0.03 (hanna)
Ammonia: <0.25

Bubble magus nac7 skimmer
Brs biopellet reactor
Only other things in the tank are the, live rock, clean up crew and 7 chromis
I'll try to get some pics up, but i don't have any before pics, so nothing to compare color too
 
Par 38's are doing very well over my tank. I'm very satisfied with them. I've had a few anemone's bleach out at first, and they hid for awhile and then came back out and colored up. I'm very happy with these bulbs. I feel the only draw back is that they are not dimmable. The color is fantastic and my growth is very noticeable. (Course, I'm feeding these guys 2 to 3 times a week). Check out my build thread to see pics. I'll post some new ones up with a video (hopefully) very soon.
 
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