LEDs are they the future?

T

tlo25

New member
Hello,

I've been out of the game about 4 years and looking to get back into the hobby. I have started to read about LEDs and I'm wondering do they make corals pop like fluorescents? They must have really small coverage areas too from what I have seen of other LED lighting.

Thanks
 
They can hav pop, although some actinics like the 420 VHOs are hard to beat. The coverage areas can vary....depending on if they are used with no optics or optics. Some optics con focus into a very small area and punch them deeper into the water.

Are they the future of lighting? Yes. Are they 100% there now, not really, but they are more than functional and will work well over ant type reef. Enough so that even I am about to ditch halides to get them. All their pros stomp over other lighting...energy usage, shimmer, dimmability/color slection, savings in bulb use and electric use.
 
No leds are not the future. They are the now. I cant imagine what the future of reef lighting holds. As far as coverage it all depends on the optics. Coral growth is great and the best part is that if you dont have the color you want all you have to do is adjust the intensity of eather spectrum. Only problem with them is the price but that is coming down.
 
I recently switched to LEDs and I love them. The tank "pops" and I have much better control over color/intensity. I also like the lower electrical costs.
 
If you check out used equipment for sale forum, you'd see T5's and MH's are not hot items anymore. That says something about LED's
 
Time will tell. LED's are nice, the question is will the drivers and lamps last 10 years as advertised. Hopefully they will because so far they are doing a bang up job both in color and growth.
 
They are here to stay and they will be the only way to go In the near future! I already have them and you cannot beat them in Cost reduction, Heat Issues and overall ease of use.
As they get more mainstream the price will come down some also, But in reality they are not bad now if you can DIY!
JMHO
Bill
 
b_s_c1 said:
No leds are not the future. They are the now. I cant imagine what the future of reef lighting holds. As far as coverage it all depends on the optics. Coral growth is great and the best part is that if you dont have the color you want all you have to do is adjust the intensity of eather spectrum. Only problem with them is the price but that is coming down.
Click to expand...

Are you saying you can adjust the color temp on these bulbs on the fly?
 
imo led's are not proven over the long haul. Every led tank ive seen that was set up two years or more, has lost color or browned out.
 
Sunlight is the future...:) since you know, everyone is going green lol

I believe led will be unless they came out with something more efficient.
 
tlo25 said:
Are you saying you can adjust the color temp on these bulbs on the fly?
Click to expand...

Yep, most people run the blues and whites on separate dimmers. So you can make the color temperature anywhere, infinitely from 100% blue to 100% white with the simple turn of a couple nobs.
 
myaerica said:
imo led's are not proven over the long haul. Every led tank ive seen that was set up two years or more, has lost color or browned out.
Click to expand...

Corals do not care what source the light comes from: leds, mhs, t5s, pcs, the sun, etc. The tanks you have seen either were not using the correct leds or they had other problems.
 
Now that is sweet. What are the hot led fixtures out there right now with those capabilities? Or is it mostly DIY? I will have to check it out before I buy some new lights.
 
I spent a long time figuring out what I was going to ultimately do about lighting on my 90gal deep (30") tank. I've spent the last 3+ years under PC and have had decent results with LPS, softies, etc. I just installed 4 AI Sol Blues. The intensity is more than plenty, shimmer lovely, color rendition excellent, color control amazing and natural ramping up-and-down of the lighting very pleasing. Expensive, yes but I'd do it again tomorrow.
 
After debating and doing a ton of research I decided to go with the AI SOL Blues. Yeah, you're paying a premium but some of the features are just simply not found on any of the other commercial LEDs.
 
jtma508 said:
I spent a long time figuring out what I was going to ultimately do about lighting on my 90gal deep (30") tank. I've spent the last 3+ years under PC and have had decent results with LPS, softies, etc. I just installed 4 AI Sol Blues. The intensity is more than plenty, shimmer lovely, color rendition excellent, color control amazing and natural ramping up-and-down of the lighting very pleasing. Expensive, yes but I'd do it again tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Shimmer lovely... so they also shimmer like halides? If so they sound too good to be true.
 
tlo25 said:
Shimmer lovely... so they also shimmer like halides? If so they sound too good to be true.
Click to expand...

As good if not better. I just switched from a pair of 400 watt 20K halides to LED's and I couldnt be happier. The shimmer is every bit as good. The color control is unmatched, the led's are brighter and the power savings amazed me. I went from 6.7amps on my halides to 2.5amp on my LED's. If you want to see more including video, check out my build thread in the large tank section here. The last 2 pages of the thread has several LA Fishguys videos of the LED install.
 
Wow Slief that second LED video answered every question I had thanks! I am really interested in LEDs now.
 
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