LED lighting

[Acolin]

I am excited about the future of Light Emitting Diode lighting for reef aquaria. It looks as if there are serious benefits to a automatically controlled array of small LEDs:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/8/review2

Payback period for automated LED array:
http://www.solarisled.com/FAQTechnical/SolarisCostSavings/tabid/65/Default.aspx

Especially if the costs begin to come down dramatically. Any thoughts or experience?

 

[mflamb]

I could see that as a great upgrade/retrofit i a couble years.

 

[Acolin]

I overdrive normal output tubes with electronic ballasts for my soft coral display. With fees, my electricity averages about $.14 per KW hour. I ran the cost comparison against my set-up. Since I can use some inexpensive normal spectrum tubes, the payback takes years. But it sure makes sense for somebody going to metal halides...

 

[mflamb]

My payback would be about 16 months.

 

[ryan115]

it figured ~144 months for me over my T5s

 

[alizarin]

People are making DIY LED setups on nano-reef.com and if I recall correctly they were saying that although LEDs last a long time they lose intensity and shift color like anything.

 

[Tampa Aquarium Service]

I saw this new light system a few weeks ago at the pet distributors trade show. I was pretty impressed. It was set up about 4 feet away from a similar sized system lighted with a 250watt DE 20K system from the same manufacturer. By messing with the controller I was able to change color temp and intensity. One light array can go completely from moon to dawn to mid-day to dusk to moon. color temp at 20K actually looked a bit brighter than the halide. Color rendition through the spectrum went from natural to almost acid trip dayglow on some of the corals in the tank. We even moved a stony coral from one tank to the other, to see the difference in color at 20K. Under the Solaris the coral looked a much nicer shade of beige and blue.

I was completely amazed at the fact that the unit was only a few degrees higher than room temp. With a remote ballast that was also very cool to the touch.

Price is for the high end, I gotta have the most expensive and bestest stuff kind of reefer. Might be a hard sell to a newbie or even an up-grader, even with the power /$ savings in the long run.

 

[mflamb]

Tampa Aquarium Service,
How long will the prices stay up???

 

[Tampa Aquarium Service]

Got me on that. That's up to the manufacturer.

 

[adnup]

Sounds like a DIY project!

I bought 1000 leds from China for moonlights all for under $20.

 

[mflamb]

Hmmm....(his DIY mind begins to spin up to speed)...I'll have to think about that one.