How do I know my LED's are good enough?

[dirtyfrank]

I have a 10 gallon standard, for the last month I have been using 3x Compact Florescent 14w 6500k. My LED's arrived 2 days ago so I removed the CFL's and put these in my canopy: http://www.ebay.com/itm/27124498704...eName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

I want to know if they are any good? I know they aren't top of the line, I do like the color but what I like doesn't translate to what I need to house corals.

What I plan to house: zoas, palys, frogspawn, hammer, torch, brain coral. I'm not educated enough on the husbandry differences so I may not be able to keep most of these.

Can someone please clarify what I can do with the LEDs I have? Should I retrofit the CFL's back into the canopy for daytime use?

Regards,

 

[Soundwave]

I think you went a little too cheap. It wouldn't take very many of the higher wattage LEDs to get your tank to do well. All those strips are doing is making color. Nothing that corals want. They need power. Better yet, if you can get a PAR from a local club, you will see what I mean. It would take a ton of these strips to do anything for coral. At that, the spectrum they emit is probably useless to coral. If you want to stay on the cheap, get 3 of the 10 watt LEDs off ebay and some heatsinks and drivers. 2 royal blue and a white or 3 of the ones labeled as "hybrid".

That or build something with Crees or something else.

Does that help?

 

[Soundwave]

I didn't see what the cost was until I looked a second time. I hate to say this but you were taken on an expensive ride, my friend.

 

[Eastamherstbias]

Yeah you went a tad cheap. If you can find a Par meter that would be the best way to tell.

 

[dirtyfrank]

I spoke to the seller, I asked him if I could return my lights and I explained to him that they were too under-powered. He asked me if he could send me one of these to supplement my light kit: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aquarium-LE...t=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item41766822fb

Would this work? Or do I just send it back and take my 50 bucks and find something better (Odyssea Quad T5 HO), or maybe even a cheap 120W LED box from China on eBay?

I'm taking my lights to the shop to get the numbers under a par meter.

 

[Eastamherstbias]

Yes, I would just return it and move on. My view is to do it right from the start. I learned it the hard way when I first started. You are only lighting a 10 gallon so you probably could get away with keeping it. But there is good stuff out there.

 

[Soundwave]

Agreed. I'd send it back and look elsewhere. Please post your par results when you get them. I gotta say, I'm curious.

 

[Eastamherstbias]

yeah I want par results too.

 

[dirtyfrank]

At water level it was 290-310 (lights 2" above tank), at sand level 190-200 (14" under lights). I left them with the LFS and they put them over their 14 gallon nano cube and the guy said everything opened up fine today. He wasn't able to run an hour of blue then the whites so he complained about that.. The ebay vendor is sending me an extra 9x LED 9watt strip that is on a heat sink because of my worries 620 Lumens @ 12000k. I'm still not very happy because the center LED on the Blue strip died - not sure of the LFS did something or if it just burnt out and it will continue to happen or not. Also the power adapter lost a plug, I had to pop it back in place. To put dimmers on this (the only way to control colors) costs me $5 a dimmer - 5x = $25. So $40+$25 = $65 what it would have cost me to buy an Aquatraders Odyssea Quad T5 HO (run it for a year, and swap the bulbs to quality ones). I plan to use this LED rig for a year, I *hope*.

I met this guy today who wholesales corals, he can pull 5 head frags from his acans and zoas almost monthly, to him growth is still best under MH & T5's - he uses LED's for color and wow factor mostly. He says sure LED's work, but even power-compacts grow his corals faster.. I wish I would have taken pictures of this guys livestock, it looks like ebay user cornbreads pictures - insane!

In summary (my opinions), these lights lack quality seen in pricier LED setups for nanos. They will get the job done but they won't out perform 20" T5's for even a 75w MH though they will provide better color (for us humans). If I was doing it over, I'd jump on the Odyssea Quad T5 and order a foot of blue leds.

I sent another email to the vendor informing him of dead led and cheap-o adapter, not sure what will come of that since the guy is already sending me this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aquarium-LE...t=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item41766822fb because I complained about intensity on the first item I linked.

 

[dirtyfrank]

I look over at my last night and it's a freaking light show. I unplug, flip the canopy, plug it back in and 2 of the blue led's are now burned out. Ebay vendor won't respond, so I went through pay pal asking for a refund.

Lo barrato sale caro.

 

[Soundwave]

Cheap items are more expensive, you're right. Honestly, I'm surprised to see PAR levels that high. With the LEDs blowing out, it sounds like they are being overdriven.