2 question:
1. What does everyone think about the IceCap ballast upgrade? I'd like to be able to cut the amount of power used, and maybe just save a little space.
2. What do people think about the LED hood? Is it enough light? Do you get the nice "shimmer" like you get with halides? Is it good enough for the corals?
Whilst I cannot answer your questions directly, I have modded my ballast and canopy into exactly what you are asking about. I changed out the inerds of the JBJ ballast and put an E-Ballast inside it, didnt have to cut any wires and retained the internal power supply for the 4 fans. I also incorporated 16 Cree Royal Blue LED's and 1 UV LED to run around the perimter of the halide glass.
With the Phoenix 14K, the power output is the same when using either ballast. Looking at Sanjays work into halide bulbs, I know that if I were to use the Radium bulb, I would get less light when using the E-Ballast.
In terms of light I have plenty in there now. Running 700mA, the LED's put out so much light that some corals initially bleached slightly.
When the halide goes off the Royal Blue LED's give an awesome floursence to all the corals, both LPS and SPS.
With the combined lighting, I am certain it is as good as or better than any previous 250w halide setups I had. Also, as the LED's run the perimeter of the halide, I can grow SPS right next to the glass and they have deep colour, instead of being brown etc.
