Lets See SPS LED Tanks!

o and i cant get monti caps to grow ether iv had a green one for over 9 months on a plug that has done nothing and these things can grow anywhere.
 
It's been proven that any lighting system available for the hobby today will grow corals. There are different ways to have a successful tank and the guys with lots of knowledge could easily do the same with any of those light technologies.

The key is not the light (MH, LED, T5, VHO, etc), its the reefers understanding of water chemistry and marine husbandry that will get you results that you want:wavehand:
 
Snootch said:
It's been proven that any lighting system available for the hobby today will grow corals. There are different ways to have a successful tank and the guys with lots of knowledge could easily do the same with any of those light technologies.

The key is not the light (MH, LED, T5, VHO, etc), its the reefers understanding of water chemistry and marine husbandry that will get you results that you want:wavehand:
Click to expand...

I totally agree with this statement. In fact twenty years ago i was successful growing acropora in a 60 gallon with 8 standard flurourescent tubes. It's also true that some hobbiest, myself included can have success with one system but not another. Or one season but not the next.

I've shared this a lot lately, but I couldn't get much growth in my tank for 6 months until I discovered my salinity was too high (refractometer not properly calibrated) and I removed the bio-pellets. Once corrected all corals growing much better.
 
Snootch said:
It's been proven that any lighting system available for the hobby today will grow corals. There are different ways to have a successful tank and the guys with lots of knowledge could easily do the same with any of those light technologies.

The key is not the light (MH, LED, T5, VHO, etc), its the reefers understanding of water chemistry and marine husbandry that will get you results that you want:wavehand:
Click to expand...

Hi Snootch,
What you have said is absolutely right and I totally agree.
It's the balance of know-how and understanding the unique requirement of your reef tank and taking care of the specific needs that does the trick and gives success. Each reef tank is unique in its needs, though we all follow the basics the thin line between success and failure is how you manage those unique micro needs specific to your system. The learning :reading: never stops in this great hobby of ours :)

Happy Reefing!!
 
i understand what your saying iv been in this hobby for over 15 years had my share of reef tanks but for some reason this tank completely blows my mind at its lack of growth and health its to the point know its like a challenge to find out what is wrong .
 
I'm only just adding sps to my tank but when I get underway I'm gonna be running 2 Ho t5's 1 cheap t5 guts not great and I've just added one white led strip and gettin another blue one soon the only sps I have is a brown montipora frag but that was already a brown color but it has got lighter and grown about half a centimeter in the 2 weeks u'had it
 
Growth sequence of my tank since adding a Radion when they were released in Early Oct 2011:

Nov:
IMAG0754.jpg


Dec:
IMAG0822.jpg


Jan:
DSC_0388.jpg


Feb:
DSC_0648.jpg


Mar:
DSC_0894.jpg
 
jedidog1 said:
iv had t5 before switching over to led , the leds been on the tank now for over a year with 10 neutral whites and 18 royal blue 2 blue its a 75 gal tank the leds are only on one side cause i wasn't sure about the leds and didn't want to spend the money till i was sure, and im still not sure. i get no grow out of this tank since its been set up over a year ago still dont i had the blue leds running at 550 milliamps and the whites running at around 350 milliamps if i go any higher it seems to bleach my frags , my stawberry shortcake frag has been in the tank over 6 months with no growth and awful color i just bought some frags at a frag swap a week ago red planet, limeade ,fire and ice .ponape birdsnest, forest fire digitta and garf bonsi so far the colors are holding up but time will tell. I have several friends that went to led and they all get good growth and color but not me i see alot of nice tanks on here with great color and growth and i just dont understand why my tank just dosent do anything, im not blaming the leds but it seems like something is missing in my tank is the reason nothing is growing and the colors are not there water always checks out fine nitrates are a little high in the 20 phosphates is at 0.03 on the hanna cal at 450 alk at 10 , hell i cant even get coralline algae to grow in the year and half old tank .
Click to expand...

Something is off. You should be able to run those a bit higher. I have 24 blues running at 700 mA and 12 cool whites/neutral whites running at 1A over a 65 gallon tank with no bleaching (after acclimation) for about 2 years now.

CJ
 

I don't agree with your color loss comment at all. If it looks like it in Mar it's only because the shot is a little overexposed so it looks a little washed out. Color is better now than it ever has been.

Couple examples of topdown color:
DSC_1007.jpg


DSC_1030.jpg


DSC_1018.jpg


DSC_1023.jpg
 
ange062 said:
I don't agree with your color loss comment at all. If it looks like it in Mar it's only because the shot is a little overexposed so it looks a little washed out. Color is better now than it ever has been.

Okay great! Because I just switched over to leds a month ago. I'm hoping that my colors will get better then my old spider reflector 250mh setup. So far it appears to be about the same. But concerned because of reading so many people saying that leds faded the corals colors.
Click to expand...
 
sabbath said:
ange062 said:
I don't agree with your color loss comment at all. If it looks like it in Mar it's only because the shot is a little overexposed so it looks a little washed out. Color is better now than it ever has been.

Okay great! Because I just switched over to leds a month ago. I'm hoping that my colors will get better then my old spider reflector 250mh setup. So far it appears to be about the same. But concerned because of reading so many people saying that leds faded the corals colors.
Click to expand...

I honestly don't know that you will see any increase in color, unless it's related to getting better intensity from the LED's if your MH was a bit underpowered for your setup. What I can guarantee from my personal experience is that you won't LOSE color.

I think a lot of this myth comes from people initially switching to LED from some other light source, increasing intensity too quickly, and passing judgement too quickly. Anyone with experience in this hobby knows that the only bad things that happen quickly in reefing are bad things. Anything good takes time, sometimes lots of it.

I have found livestock is SUPER sensitive to the change. I have had corals come from under MH, T5, and even sunlight and all bleach to some extent when first placed under LED. Bleaching obviously equals color loss, but it's only temporary. Once the coral adjusts and comes back 100%, color is just as good as you can get under any other light source.

The main advantage of LED IMO and IME, isn't that it will get you better color. For me it's about tiny and elegant form factor of the fixtures, increased efficiency, long duration between "bulb" replacement, less heat, and most of all the full blown customization potential of an RGB setup allowing for super-realistic and awesome looking sunrise/sunset/mooncycle/weather simulations for your tank.
Click to expand...
 
bebereef said:
Totally agree with you ange062!
Click to expand...

Yup well said ange062
LEDs are intense... Always it's best to get fixtures with dimmable feature coz acclimatization becomes so easy and you can dial in precise intensity. Very helpful when adding new corals to an established reef.
The effects produced by good quality LED systems are just mind blowing. The corals show fluorescence and colour that a MH lamp cannot bring out. Photographing SPS corals under LEDs is a challenge in itself. One shouldn't judge the colour by the photographs. Seeing it live is believing and almost most of the time the colours you see with your eyes is much more dense and darker, better and beautiful than the photos. If the white balance is not adjusted most corals even though in best colour will look washed out when photographed under LEDs. Something I'm still struggling to master :D
My current tank is LED exclusive and my new build will be only LEDs. Gonna try the Eco lamp KR93 -SP version this time.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PMoGhDF_ScU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Bump to this thread. Been a couple of months so there must be others who can add to the thread. Thanks.
 
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