Lets See SPS LED Tanks!

Bumpety bump......

Updates please :) Gasman..., etc :)

Had to do some major re arranging and basically started from scratch.On a 2 year old tank that takes it toll on the sps, but slowly they are on the mend.
No particular reason for the change except for marine velvet getting into my tank and causing some havoc in my fish livestock.

Decided to go barebootm and took 60% of my live rock out as we speak the tank is taking shape again.

The lighting system is excellent IMO. My new arrangement includes some new LED's plus my aquaillumination, I'll snap some new pics of the light pendant.
 
Can I play? :)

Lit by two KR-93S and (F-B) ATI Blue+, KZ Fiji Purple, LEDs, ATI Blue+, ATI Aquablue

Corals are all wild caught so they all almost lost their coloration the first month or two then slowly coloring up after then.

FTS
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Some Closeups
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im still hoping for more coloration so im constantly tweaking my light intensities (KR93s are controllable as far as how intense blues and whites are). hope you liked me livestocks! :)
 
Well well well...for those who bash LED's (claiming LED's cant colour SPS corals as good as other lighting technologies) these photos clearly demonstrate that the newer LED units such as those from Acan Lighting (AKA EcoLamps KR92+KR93) and others are very capable of SPS growth and providing very good coral colouration.

Many thanks to those whp have posted thier tank photos. The hobby needs more of you with successful LED reef setups to come forward and showcase your reef. This will most certainly progress the reefkeeping world.

I believe in under 2 years time we will have LED units whose capability will be as good as current T5 and Metal halide combined.

I myself have fitted 24 Cree High Power LED's into an ATI Sunpower 6x24watt unit to run almost 60 watts of LED and 120watts of T5.

Here is my build thread for my tank: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=18068168#post18068168

Although it is a hybrid of T5 + LED, I am seeing very good results already. I have used all the available reef lighting technologies over the past 10 years and decided on T5+LED as the current best.

Keep on showing off your LED run reef tanks! :celeb1:
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by sahin
I believe in under 2 years time we will have LED units whose capability will be as good as current T5 and Metal halide combined.


For DIY units, it's not 2 years time, it's now.

I'd actually go beyond that with my experience by saying high power LED's are BETTER than both right now. I used to have 8 good T5's in a tek over my sps tank. I've had more than double the growth in half the time with LED's at 1/3rd the power (meaning dimmed through drivers, not just the great power consumption) of what they can do over the last 4 months. I had corals that were just spreading blobs that are now branching beauties. The growth and light customization is really pleasing.
 
These colors are looking good, but how is the growth? Meaning, for those of you that have had them on there for at least 6 months or more, how does the growth compare to T5's and HQI at this point? Are they about the same, more or less to the traditional lighting systems? Of course water quality and other major factors need to be considered, but with all other things being equal, how do they compare? Do you have any before and after pictures to gauge the growth accurately over time under the LEDs?
 
These colors are looking good, but how is the growth? Meaning, for those of you that have had them on there for at least 6 months or more, how does the growth compare to T5's and HQI at this point? Are they about the same, more or less to the traditional lighting systems? Of course water quality and other major factors need to be considered, but with all other things being equal, how do they compare? Do you have any before and after pictures to gauge the growth accurately over time under the LEDs?

Wesley,

Answering your question, please read here, I've posted tons of growth photos there:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1968168
 
I'd actually go beyond that with my experience by saying high power LED's are BETTER than both right now. I used to have 8 good T5's in a tek over my sps tank. I've had more than double the growth in half the time with LED's at 1/3rd the power (meaning dimmed through drivers, not just the great power consumption) of what they can do over the last 4 months. I had corals that were just spreading blobs that are now branching beauties. The growth and light customization is really pleasing.

And even cooler, you can dim them from 0 to 100%, and back down again to simulate natural lighting patterns over the reef - try doing that with MH or T5.

When T5s came out so many people with MH asked these same questions and had these same doubts - and T5s turned out fine. Some people are resistant to change, others are justifying their choice of lighting type - like people that own a Jaguar love Jaguar, people that own BMW think that is the best, etc.
 
Greg - oh ya I love that feature. I control my lights through an apex system. The lights come on gradually and go off gradually. The lack of light shock on the fish and corals seems to create a more easy transition and less stress between periods of the day. My lights have 8 stages of brightness that they go through. I do have 2 T5's in my system that simulate a "high noon" blast with a fiji purp and a blue+ for about 3 hours. I like how the purp fills out the spectrums in the tank, but if I had to redo my fixture I'd probably leave them out and just throw in a few red and yellow LED's.

As for growth. I have numerous corals that barely grew at all under 8 T5's with tek reflectors (yes good ATI / G-Man bulbs). Now they're all growing very well. Tried halide, tried T5. I'll never go back. The pro's of LED system is worth the little extra cost, and little extra work if it's a DIY. imo. I'll try to post some pics and/or video's this weekend :)
 
Is it just me or do most of the SPS in these photo's look drab colored compared to pics of Acro's grown under MH and/or T5? The best looking one I seen was supplemented with T5's. Great looking tanks over all though! I love all the different auqascapes!
 
Is it just me or do most of the SPS in these photo's look drab colored compared to pics of Acro's grown under MH and/or T5? The best looking one I seen was supplemented with T5's. Great looking tanks over all though! I love all the different auqascapes!

Its just you. Really? REALLY? reeeaaaallly? If I had the inclination id post multiple links of drab, brown, white, ugly MH/T5 tanks that somehow get raving comments.. Not everyone has great sps with LED, same goes for MH/T5, but there are CLEARY great looking tanks with just led, as with mh/t5.


Really?
 
These colors are looking good, but how is the growth? Meaning, for those of you that have had them on there for at least 6 months or more, how does the growth compare to T5's and HQI at this point? Are they about the same, more or less to the traditional lighting systems? Of course water quality and other major factors need to be considered, but with all other things being equal, how do they compare? Do you have any before and after pictures to gauge the growth accurately over time under the LEDs?

Considering my tank has been up for about 5-6 months now, I would say growth is awesome! Same, if not better, than my ATI powermodule. Seems as though every morning I look at my tank, I see new white/growth tips. All sps started out as browned out frags in my tank. Im glad I took a chance on the led lighting.
 
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