kissman
New member
Thanks, I was looking at the spreadsheet they suggest for running the lights and it only runs peak for two hours. Thats what I was running mine and I am thinking of going to 4 hours at peak.
LED's are bad for our Hobby
- Thread starter b7fig
- Start date
Thanks, I was looking at the spreadsheet they suggest for running the lights and it only runs peak for two hours. Thats what I was running mine and I am thinking of going to 4 hours at peak.
USAFReefer
Premium Member
sushistevek4
New member
Some of you guys are making me want to switch to MH/T5 lol
d2mini
Premium Member
But to the op's point, you CAN just throw a MH over the tank and get positive results. Assuming everything else is doing well. Other than the time your lights are on, there is nothing to think about, making it a much better choice for a newbie. They should be focusing on water parameter stability.
And as an experienced reefer who has long term experience with both systems, I'm no longer willing to run led either. Been there. Done that. Eff that. At least until led fixtures mimic mh in every way except power consumption and heat generation, which will be a looooong time from now.
jackson6745
Yeah Yeah
sahin
Ultimate Reefer
God uses 1000w radiums, blue led reefbrites, and a load of t5s
:lol:
And thats the best lighting combo out there.
Wazzel
New member
Plasma, 5780k color temp.
I just switched to an ATI dimmable t5 fixture because I never could get the two AI Prime HDs dialed in on my 32x16x14" deep tank. I had great success with an SPS tank 12 years ago with power compacts and I'm using the same "formula" with my latest tank and just can't get decent growth. Good protein skimmer, proper water changes, b-ionic, don't overfeed. I know primes are on the small side but my tank is only 14" deep. They did give good color and had nice features but I don't think the preset spectrums are accurate. Hopefully the new light will be an improvement, so far it has covered the tank much more consistently and was a snap to set up and coral colors are great. I would have needed 4 primes to get the coverage and still had hotspots, and would have spent over $1000. I don't think LEDs are terrible, but they certainly require a lot of money and time to get right.
rovster
New member
brad65ford
New member
Looks like Orphek's, where all these corals grown under these lights?
Hi
It's orphek at the front and radion at the back and there is still not enough light evenly over the whole tank.My answer is yes you can get results but because led's are directional you need them to fully cover the full area off the tank and not relying on lenses as the par levels are not evenly distributed also led lights do not reflect back from the water and sand bed etc so you only get growth and colour were the lights hitting , with T5 and halides you get corals growing fuller .This tank needs at least £3 to 4k to of lighting to be equivalent to the T5 and halides in my opinion, I started out with 20k radium and T5 which was the best lighting rig I have used but wanted more control if all the other elements are in place they both can work with different degrees of success.
Bill
Ps just my opinion
It's orphek at the front and radion at the back and there is still not enough light evenly over the whole tank.My answer is yes you can get results but because led's are directional you need them to fully cover the full area off the tank and not relying on lenses as the par levels are not evenly distributed also led lights do not reflect back from the water and sand bed etc so you only get growth and colour were the lights hitting , with T5 and halides you get corals growing fuller .This tank needs at least £3 to 4k to of lighting to be equivalent to the T5 and halides in my opinion, I started out with 20k radium and T5 which was the best lighting rig I have used but wanted more control if all the other elements are in place they both can work with different degrees of success.
Bill
Ps just my opinion
brad65ford
New member
Straight up honest answer and i whole heartily agree with you. So how long has your system been running with MH / T5 then Orphek's (I do have Orphek's v3's)? Looks like you have some huge colonies.
Hi
The halides were only on for the first 2 months whilst I closed down my old system which had 1 orphek and a radion on. I transferred over the leds and added a vertex sr until I sorted another Orphek .I had loads of issues with the Orphek once sorted I went and purchased another unit (V2.1B ) . I had further issues with one of the Orpheks and it was a choice of either upgrading them to V3's or go with an ATI hybrid but as I liked the orphek functionality I went with upgrading the leds to V3,s and the radions at the back .Still not happy so it looks like I am going to end up with another V3 all of which supports the posters comments regarding leds and the costs of not getting it right the first time.So on cost wise if I had stuck with the halides and T5's approx. wattage of 600W running cost and 4 x say 150w leds = 600W I would have saved myself £4K and the loses due to lost lighting to fund replacement bulbs and tubes for the next decade lol. enough of the sob story.
My tank has been slowly coming back to its previous peak some of the hardy corals have grown massive and I have some of the harder corals doing well more details are in a bit of a tank thread under Maxwells video
Bill
The halides were only on for the first 2 months whilst I closed down my old system which had 1 orphek and a radion on. I transferred over the leds and added a vertex sr until I sorted another Orphek .I had loads of issues with the Orphek once sorted I went and purchased another unit (V2.1B ) . I had further issues with one of the Orpheks and it was a choice of either upgrading them to V3's or go with an ATI hybrid but as I liked the orphek functionality I went with upgrading the leds to V3,s and the radions at the back .Still not happy so it looks like I am going to end up with another V3 all of which supports the posters comments regarding leds and the costs of not getting it right the first time.So on cost wise if I had stuck with the halides and T5's approx. wattage of 600W running cost and 4 x say 150w leds = 600W I would have saved myself £4K and the loses due to lost lighting to fund replacement bulbs and tubes for the next decade lol. enough of the sob story.
My tank has been slowly coming back to its previous peak some of the hardy corals have grown massive and I have some of the harder corals doing well more details are in a bit of a tank thread under Maxwells video
Bill
brad65ford
New member
Hi Bill,
I too noticed areas that where not seeing as much light with even running 2 full size Orphek v3's over a reefer 525xl (135g). Ended up running to kessils a160 on the sides to help which it actually did. Noticed your running your fixtures pretty low which i was in the beginning but wanted more light spread. What is your fixture height above the water surface also I'm assuming your running 100 percent on all channels?
Best regards,
Brad
I too noticed areas that where not seeing as much light with even running 2 full size Orphek v3's over a reefer 525xl (135g). Ended up running to kessils a160 on the sides to help which it actually did. Noticed your running your fixtures pretty low which i was in the beginning but wanted more light spread. What is your fixture height above the water surface also I'm assuming your running 100 percent on all channels?
Best regards,
Brad
Brad
I also tried a kessel 350 and wasn't impressed.lights approx. 6-8'' and the lights are running at 70% I have the large colonies and things like red dragons don't like it any higher. I go off par numbers I have 2 SSC some 4-6 inches off the sand and 5 more at various levels all doing well the largest colony some 9'' plus is in the centre.I have tried tabling acro's on the bottom left and right plates which have grown out and had to be removed . The left plate with the red goni on has a group of frags and an echinata the left side I have had to raise up and put a couple of spaths on .I also raised the back with reef bone and place 3 brown frags on that have just come in from OZ. There is a 12'' milka at the back growing up from the sandbed and also a green plate similar size that I just stuck them there from my last tank I was going to remove them but they have doubled in size. I will do an update pic in my thread as i don't want to touch anything unless it goes T*** up.People don't realise how fierce leds are and go off what they can see instead of using a par meter that's the main reason they go back to what they know.
Bill
I also tried a kessel 350 and wasn't impressed.lights approx. 6-8'' and the lights are running at 70% I have the large colonies and things like red dragons don't like it any higher. I go off par numbers I have 2 SSC some 4-6 inches off the sand and 5 more at various levels all doing well the largest colony some 9'' plus is in the centre.I have tried tabling acro's on the bottom left and right plates which have grown out and had to be removed . The left plate with the red goni on has a group of frags and an echinata the left side I have had to raise up and put a couple of spaths on .I also raised the back with reef bone and place 3 brown frags on that have just come in from OZ. There is a 12'' milka at the back growing up from the sandbed and also a green plate similar size that I just stuck them there from my last tank I was going to remove them but they have doubled in size. I will do an update pic in my thread as i don't want to touch anything unless it goes T*** up.People don't realise how fierce leds are and go off what they can see instead of using a par meter that's the main reason they go back to what they know.
Bill
brad65ford
New member
Thanks you for that information. My Orphek's have been running at 100 percent though i'm at 15 1/2" from the water. Center of the tank is seeing 380 par. Will be interesting, today my Mattrix II 8 bulb 80w came in
