LED lights looking for input

Sgt Jonny Cat

Sgt Jonny Cat

Member
So I have decided that I want to run LED lights on my tank. My question is...which ones do I want? I cant break the bank, and I don't have the ability to hang them from my ceiling as I have vaulted ceilings that slope.

Do any of you guys have any suggestions on what ones would work for me? I have a 55 gallon tank, (48 inches wide)

Thanks again....
 
reefbreeders appear to be popular. I got a kit from Rapid LED. As far as an alternative for hanging, you could make a canopy and sit them on top of it.
 
Reefbreeder Photon 48. I have been running eight of their 24" units and two of their 36" units for 18 months now. See:

2014-12-06017_zpsa839d32c.jpg
 
I have several different units across my different systems. The Radion II's are great. I even have some corals thriving under a Marineland strip (Weird, I know). However, I am loving these new Kessil A360W's-E I have. I haven't tried the narrows but, the difference in the two are simply in the coverage area. The shimmer is WOW!! It's seriously like being on a dive. I don't think anyone can argue that their is a lighting system out there that can match the natural appearance of a Kessil light. I wouldn't recommend going bare bottom due to the undersides of SPS bleaching out. The sand acts as a reflector and keeps things underneath in balance. One thing I can't stress enough with these lights is you speak with Kessil and get the right light for your tank! I say this because with a light that's too wide or too powerful, the shimmer can be so strong it literally makes a person nauseous! Also, play around with your surface flow when coming to these lights. It takes some tuning to get the perfect the water flow vs light shimmer. Only light on the market that can create shadows and a 3-D environment.

Hope this helps,

Vince
 
My budget is 400-500 dollars, and like I said I have some issues with hanging them from my ceiling. Can the reef breeders be set up any other way then hanging them? Can they sit on the top of the aquarium? Or is there a different mount such as legs etc??
 
Sgt Jonny Cat said:
My budget is 400-500 dollars, and like I said I have some issues with hanging them from my ceiling. Can the reef breeders be set up any other way then hanging them? Can they sit on the top of the aquarium? Or is there a different mount such as legs etc??
Click to expand...

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...=pla&catargetid=530005150000135588&cadevice=c

i have the 18" on my 20 Gallon Nano. and within 2 weeks i have growth on ALL my LPS. the sucky thing is blue leds and white leds are controllable on the unit itself but not via a controller or timer.

its not a 400$ unit but it can sit on top the tank without hanging., they are rated for 20,000 hours. the blue are 450nmu or whatever and the whites a 6k

you can buy two put them side by side make one for blues and one for whites =P

the LEDS are modular and you can change the lenses and colors i believe.
 
I believe the new reefbreeders Photon 48" will have mounting legs and they are currently having a $50 off on it. Have had my Photon 24" for 9 months now and I'm very satisfied
 
I have a reefbreeder value fixture, love it. Same situation with vaulted ceilings. Built my own fixture out of 80/20 and some optical posts.

http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums/o649/Flemingtb/25g Reef Tank/20141110_171312_zpsdorok3cx.jpg

The lights are really nice, more than enough light, the spectrum is right and the par values are high in deep water. My buddy has the new hot rod reefbreeder photon on his 120g and loves it too. Great growth, no heat, great service after the sale and great price.
 
LED lights looking for input

I think LED lighting is the most complex subject in reefing. I'm still not sure about it, but happy to share my "learning" based on reading a lot and trying different kit out, sometimes not so successfully.

Firstly I learned that 6500k (warming white) LEDs are only good for growing algae and do very little for coral growth. When it comes to warm white, red or green in your LED array, these colors seem to me to be purely for the aesthetic. That said getting a look you like is important.

Leads me on to preference. What lighting color do you find most attractive? We buy these hugely expensive reef systems to look good. Do you want different color at night than in the day? Will two timers (blue / white) be enough or do you want that fading in smoothly? I do think that on timers corals seem to respond well to a gentler wake up call light. (However I could just be pushing my character traits on to them)

The wattage of the system is not everything. Shades of blue are what the corals feed on. Actinics help develop color and are good to get the corals growing on the normal blues. Many Chinese designed LEDs use a lot of 6500k in the mix, so much of that is lost on the corals. You can find all the Chinese designed LEDs on Alibaba dot com. Mostly I'd stick to fish only with these or softies. Factor in the electricity costs too.

Then you have the shimmer effect (more powerful LEDs but less of them) versus not (more less powerful LEDs). Think of that lighting effect when you look down at the floor in the shallow end of the pool. Some live it, others find it stressful to look at. Personal taste. Of the cheaper LEDs I find the non-shimmer ones produce truer colors, maybe because the smaller LEDs have been out longer and they can source the right spectrum. Over my softies I run no-brand lights like these. Just blue / white. The blue is very dark and the white is very pure white (no yellow). Growth is good, also with frogspawn and hammer corals that are not soft.

By contrast I ran two 120 watt Chinese e.shine Aqua Sun lamps with six 12 watt British Aquarays (blue) above my hard tank. The e.shines have "broad spectrum", sun rise and set, built in timers and look awesome. When I bought them I was thrilled, and probably would have recommended them. I paid in dollars roughly $300 each, but saw them elsewhere for sale up to $600 each. However, now I suspect the Aquarays are causing the growth. I've actually moved them center of tank and taken the e.shines out. Even on a paltry 72 watts everything is opening up. Looks too blue, but if I suspicion is right I'm selling the e.shines on flea bay and getting something to bring more white to the tank in the day. I'm going for a 90w American Kessil (350s are cheap since they launched the 360) with the Aquarays in that case. That will be 100w less energy.

On smaller tanks I also ran German Econlux LEDs, they were great and could even go under a hood.

So, in summary:

* work out what you want: aesthetic color, same or varied during the day, shimmer or not
* don't just look at watts or PAR (measures more than blue). Have a strong spread of blue and whiten it with cold white LEDs.
* take care with "cheaper" Chinese LEDs, they could be money burned.
* think about looking at the tank for a long time (especially going too actinic or with shimmer)
* if you go cheaper Chinese maybe think about non-shimmer. These often don't need a fan either. Try and see them turned on.
 
Last edited:
If you plan to keep your tank a FOWLR I would say look into the Current Orbit Marine. They can sit on top of your tank with the mounting arms and have a built in ramp up/down timer. I have one of these on my 50gal FOWLR and they give a little shimmer. Get the 48" for your tank though. If you plan to get into corals, then you should look into investing a little more money and getting some Kessil's. They have a gooseneck arm that you can mount onto your tank/canopy.
 
david.faik said:
Firstly I learned that 6500k (warming white) LEDs are only good for growing algae and do very little for coral growth. When it comes to warm white, red or green in your LED array, these colors seem to me to be purely for the aesthetic. That said getting a look you like is important.

5000K-8300K is considered Cool White, 3700K-5000K Neutral White, 2600K-3700K Warm white.

So, in summary:

* work out what you want: aesthetic color, same or varied during the day, shimmer or not
* don't just look at watts or PAR (measures more than blue). Have a strong spread of blue and whiten it with cold white LEDs.
* take care with "cheaper" Chinese LEDs, they could be money burned.
* think about looking at the tank for a long time (especially going too actinic or with shimmer)
* if you go cheaper Chinese maybe think about non-shimmer. These often don't need a fan either. Try and see them turned on.

What? The difference between shimmer and non shimmer is going to based upon LED wattage/drive current and degree of optics. A fixture without fans using 3 watt LEDs is most likely going to be expensive due to proper passive cooling and lower drive currents.
Click to expand...



The cheap Chinese fixtures use junk 12000K whites that have extremely poor color rendering (CRI). This is where the unfortunate fad of adding a pointless red and green LED spawned from. High quality fixtures and those who DIY have found that by using higher CRI neutral and or warm whites actually greatly increase coral color rendition. The old RB and frigid cold 12000K white LED fixtures turned a lot of people off from LEDs that came from tanks with T5 and halides that had superior color. Unfortunately companies have to market their product and when they are selling to a market that (with all due respect) is ignorant to LEDs they can be very convincing for a less than stellar product. If you want high quality its going to cost you or you can build your own to make it exactly as you want. All 3 watt LED fixtures currently on the market will grow corals, now color rendition, Spotlighting, Technicolor disco effects, etc are all going to be improved with the quality/cost of a fixture.
 
Current pro strips, they have a bracket that lets them sit on the tank, I have a hood though. This is 2 24" on a 125 one white and one mix blue and white. Crappy cell phone pic, I plan to add some more but I was impressed.


0d3240a0f925b74a1e1b049a0477f6af.jpg
 
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