Led lights

A friend of mine has been running LED's for 7 months now (since he started his tank) and has had good coral growth (encrusting as well as overall size). That's about as long term as I've seen so far. It's definitely a positive. I'm running the same fixtures over my new aquarium. However, I just started my cycle.
 
I did a RapidLED retro on my Biocube 14 and the growth has taken off. I have a monticap and a pocillipora that are getting too big, LOL! Zoas are multiplying, I have a brain that has grown so big its killed some ricordia by growing over them. I would definitely say they grow coral. Not sure how it compares to T5 and halides, but they work. I've had them for 5 months or so (I think)......
 
If you guys ever make it up to the Weston area I can show you a tank that's been running from LED only for almost a year and a half and has everything from sps, lps, and zoas to a rbta.
 
I have been running LEDS for over a year, and have since moved to a predominant SPS tank with great growth.

Pink Millies, Green millies, Ponape Birdsnest, so on and so forth. All of them are doing great. I have an Acro Plana that was brown and is finally starting to color up.

I will say this having the right color spectrum of LEDS makes a HUGE difference. Highly recommend UV Leds.
 
Zobp. Can you share with us what you mean by the right color spectrum? What is working for you?
 
My first LED setup was RB/NW/CW/Red

Had mixed results with the red in the mix and didn't see any positive coral growth as a result. I.E. Increased Coloration. This was 60 LEDs for a 125 gallon system.

Second Setup

RB/UV/420nm/4500k/6500K 120 Leds 2 Drivers running in parallel.

40/10/10/30/30

Since running the new led setup on my 180 I am seeing a much better response from my coral coloration. My greens are more vibrant and I am seeing hard to color corals responding much better to the new spectrum compared to my previous setup. I also have one colony that has been growing between both setups. In the old setup it did amazing, had great PE, encrusted and went vertical I couldn't be more happy.

However under the new setup I noticed the tips turning purple which I had never seen before and PE was even more intense. So in turn I attribute the UV LEDS to the success for this particular SPS piece in its recent accelerated growth compared to the previous setup.

Wish I had an ID on this SPS, but it looks like and grows like red planet except it is white with a green glow under the lighting and now with purple tips.
 
Well, I ordered my emitters tonight. Was due for new halides, and for the cost of building, I will be paid back on my investment in just three years considering halide/t5 lamp replacement and the more than 50% power savings. I was getting really tired of buying expensive lamps, not being happy with the color, being stuck with them for a year, and dealing with the heat all the time.

I went with cool white/neutral white/royal blue/blue/cyan/purple 8/8/12/6/6/8 = 48 over a 75g. I went with cree, but for the purple which is unknown, and the cyan is phillips.

Unfortunately I couldn't find the drivers I wanted and had to special order them, wont have them all until possibly September. The wait is gonna kill me, lol.
 
Im using meanwell drivers, but not the kind rapidled sells. They are more like buck pucks, and are powered by a separate dc power supply.
 
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Using 7 ballast to control 750w 5 colors all fully dimmable

Sent from me using tapatalk
 
matt is just trying to make me jealous lol.
Brice, that is a great spectrum of color do you have pics?
 
mrx, you are using the multichips from china right? Ever put a kill-a-watt to your setup?

I was interested in those. I actually would like to see LED lighting in the reefing world move away from small watt arrays and treat them more like halides: strong point sources. I work for an LED lighting manufacturer, and we use extremely powerful and extremely efficient (better than cree) multichip leds and target the halide replacement industry (high bay lighting, etc.)

My original plan was to use these chips, but the available spectra didn't make practical sense, which is why those multi-chips intrigued me. The reason I didn't use them was two fold: first, the manufacturer provided very little in the way of technical specification, their spec sheets kinda sucked. Second, was efficiency. Part of the appeal of LED is the reduced power consumption and heat production. If I was going to spend all this money, I was going to build the most efficient light possible.
 
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