Last MH pics maybe? Going to LEDS

[Dog boy Dave]

So the first rack of 50 LEDs was put on line last Sat week. That makes 9 days. Although I would have placed them over the front of the tank, I had two substandard reflectors in the back corner of the system so i had to replace those two first. This meant the new LED fixtures were placed over the most light starved portion of the system. Due to the growth over the last 6 months this section of the tank was experienceng some tissue recession in the lower light areas that were getting shaded. The first day I ran them about 6 hours. I could tell right off the corals loved the light. For the first couple of days the corals would exhibit a lil distress when the lights first came on. Sliming and some mesenterial filaments extension would stop after 5 minutes or so. After the first three days this stopped. As far as color development, the initial response to the lights was positive. I saw the edges and highlights begin to darken and richen in color within the first three days. After three days I started the lights around noon and around 9 at night would turn down the whites and run the blues since my wife likes the room to darken later at night. Around 10 or 11 the lights were turned off. After nine days, all the changes i see on this section of the tank are positive. Right before i hung the new fixture, I cut up a pice of ORA miami orchid and placed pieces of it around the tank. This corals tends to lighten up and takes a while to recover when i frag it. The pieces under the led are noticebly darker than the pieces under my 14 K and 10 K Halides. The max rtank temp at the end of the day has already decreased from 83 .7 or so down to 81.7. I have two more fixtures ready to bring on line. I hope to test them today and hang them before the end of the day. So far i love the leds. The color is great, intensity is adjustable and the temperature is noticable lower in my system. I cant wait to see the other two fixtures hung . I hope to take some images soon but been spending every waking moment working on these fixtures.

 

[Dog boy Dave]

Weds night I got ambitious. I managed to test the last set of strings around 1:00 Am and I started taking halides apart. I removed all the old mechanical ballasts and the last 4 halide fixtures. Around 5 Am I had the third sink hung up and i powered up the lighting. Wow. Still not complete, need to add a string of blues to one fixture and build one more complete fixture to complete the coverage but Wow. First day the temp in the tank never got over 78. Ussually 81 by 2 PM and sometimes 83 or 84 by ten at night. This is with a large chiller. Today the room was noticable kooler and the tank is at 77.
The corals look great so far. Will take some images this weekend.

 

[defchild84]

:worried:

 

[tdp22]

Come on PICS man!! Hope it works well for you! might inspire me to make the switch, Phoenix summers are killers!

 

[sahin]

Yeah dude, start taking some photos.:spin2: Your corals have great colour, so there is no waiting period to see if they colour. Then take photos in 3 months time and compare. This is a good test...don't sell of the halides just yet maybe...

 

[Dog boy Dave]

Base lines 2 days after adding leds

Base lines 2 days after adding leds

Well here we go.
Full tank shot from the front. The fixture in the front left corner is missing a string of 1000 ma cree Royal Blues. Hense the pop from the UV isnt as pronounced. After seeing both ways I will add the string to this fixture soon.

Full tank from the rear...

I havent finished the fixture yet for the left rear eaither. I have a small comercial unit over that corner. Still a work in progress but I am allready sold just based onthe temp drop alone......

Some close ups....

 

[hypnoj]

Holy cow! I hope you have good success with the LEDs! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you

 

[Jaysreefworld]

Looks good to me

 

[Mangodude]

Looking pretty good

maybe a little on the dark side but that could be the camera.. can we get a pic of whats under the canopy?

 

[sponger0]

Yeah good luck. Alot of people have switched to LEDs and the first thing that happened is everything bleached out. Thats also been my main concern and why I havent.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

easier to say a prayer for you than look for thread subscription tab

 

[Dog boy Dave]

"Bleaching" is the least of my concerns. I may get some fading in places where the light is not intense enough but there is no way that these lights are going to "bleach" these corals. The big stag in the middle sticks out of the water 6 inches from a metal halide that used to run 12 hours a day. I am running these LEDS at between 75 and 100 percent of their rated amp load. I allready have the photo period around ten hours and so far, there is no evidence that any of the corals are getting too much light. I will be adding several more strings of LEDS to the display within the next couple of weeks to fill in the areas that I dont think are getting adequate light but this system is used to lots of lights for 12 hours plus per day. These corals wont have any problem adapting to these lights if i can get the intensity up to the levels they have all been used to in the past.
The soli pictured on the pump output is also very cloes to the halides and is now a couple of inches from the leds. About a year ago i had a problem with a ballast and had to cycle a lamp on and off about 4 times. When i was done i noticed that I had burnt this coral very bad on all the exposed places. After the event it imediately began to recover. No flesh was lost in the shaded portions and as you can see recovery is almost complete. That is one of the only true "bleaching " events I have ever seen. Usually what i see described as "bleaching" in this forum s an entirely different type of reponse.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

I commend you for making the switch. I made the switch about 4 months ago and haven't had any problems. the only thing I noticed is that some of the corals have a different color to them, almost a pastel color of its previous self.

im pretty confident that your corals are going to be fine with the change. and it seems you're doing it in steps, which is even better.

the one thing that I noticed after going led is that cyano bacteria reared its little head.

please continent to post progress, good or bad.

 

[kylebeano]

Woooo! Dave, you clipped in and rode those LEDs through, congrats. The temperature drops seem to be pheonominal, and I bet it's the first time in years you're excited for the electric bill to come. Keep up the progress!

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

^^^ haha a cycling reference.

Dave do you have an account with reeftronics?

 

[maddog2002]

subscribed

 

[Dynamic_Reef]

dave!

tank looks good man I still cant pull the trigger on LEDs yet though even though the wife would be glad for the drop in power everyone I personally know that has made the switch has come running back to the dark side of the power bill :strooper: good luck though keep us posted!

 

[greystreet55]

Subscribed!

 

[mayjong]

that soli on the output is brillliant.
i gotta do that.

 

[Dog boy Dave]

I am starting to see some color shifts. Most of the corals are acclimating well and getting deeper and richer in color. A few of the pieces that were stressed before show color loss and severe whitening in the areas that were least "robust" This is happening regardless of the depth the piece is located and the effect is only localized in the areas that were showing stress before the light switch. Will try to get some images tomorrow.
Temperature Temperature Temperature...Oh wow, The tank starts out at around 77 in the moring and never gets above 78. The chiller goes off before the bluelights do. It used to run all night and the tank would get up to 83 or 84 every night. I have had a bit of ich in the tank since I added the Regal in December. I have been injecting ozone but it had persisted. After a couple of weeks of lower and more stable temperature thre is no sighn of any ich in the tank. Nice.
My initial reaction to these lights is they will be able to provide adequate par for my corals. Shimmer is more intense than with halides. Some of the colors may not be as intense as under a 400 watt halide but all of the colors are looking pretty good so far. The energy savings and temperature stability are huge positives. My wife loves them. So far , no regrets, pictures to follow.