Lighting opinions...LED, halide, T5

[jtrasap]

I'm trying to decide what to go with over the big tank and am weighing towards going back to Halides. I have tried numerous LED setups over the past few years from DIY to chinese knock-offs to Radions to Kessils and a few others in-between and I had luck them all but haven't had the coral growth that I got with my previous halide/T5 setups. I still have a pile of lighting in my equipment-hoarder room. I have numerous MH reflectors and ballasts, a couple of radion fixtures, some of my old multi-chip DIY setups, a couple black boxes, some D-Suny lights, a couple T5 setups, and a bunch of MH fixtures that I got with the tank and I still have the bug to buy something new....LOL

Any LED lights that you guys have had long-term and seen great coral growth out of?

 

[clevername]

actually it sounds like your the expert, iv tried MH, T-5 and now unto kessils. Im really in love!
Of course the "grass is always greener" and would like to try out some Radions.

There are some main threads out there that try to do coral growth comparisons which overall they are about the same. Nothing is a miracle grower.

With that said, MH destroy your electric bill. 3x 400watt cost alot, PLUS its like a space heater in the summer which also adds to the AC cost.

Even if money wasn't an option, LEDs are easier, last longer and (to me) look better.

 

[Nanook]

On my 470 gallon in the basement den, four 250 watt halides cover the 5ft x5ft x 30" better and more affordably than any four LED fixtures could. It'd probably take 6-7 pricy LED fixtures to accomplish what I'm getting from the four Radium bulbs, then my heaters would have to run more with it being in the basement. I think lighting really depends on your unique situation, what corals you're keeping and what your budget is. I would like the programming ability that high end LED's bring, but my metal halides have been running 10 years without fail, tough to find that reliability on any LED fixture out there.

 

[jtrasap]

actually it sounds like your the expert, iv tried MH, T-5 and now unto kessils. Im really in love!
Of course the "grass is always greener" and would like to try out some Radions.

There are some main threads out there that try to do coral growth comparisons which overall they are about the same. Nothing is a miracle grower.

With that said, MH destroy your electric bill. 3x 400watt cost alot, PLUS its like a space heater in the summer which also adds to the AC cost.

Even if money wasn't an option, LEDs are easier, last longer and (to me) look better.

I do enjoy the little bit of cost savings but I just can't get past the slow growth that I've had. I haven't researched lighting in quite a while and I guess I was just hoping for that miracle cure LED....lol

On my 470 gallon in the basement den, four 250 watt halides cover the 5ft x5ft x 30" better and more affordably than any four LED fixtures could. It'd probably take 6-7 pricy LED fixtures to accomplish what I'm getting from the four Radium bulbs, then my heaters would have to run more with it being in the basement. I think lighting really depends on your unique situation, what corals you're keeping and what your budget is. I would like the programming ability that high end LED's bring, but my metal halides have been running 10 years without fail, tough to find that reliability on any LED fixture out there.

I'm thinking the same. There are some advantages to LED's but as with your setup, mine is in the basement which will kind of make things a wash with the heaters running less and that's even before factoring in the crazy up-front cost of some of these new LED fixtures and the number of them it would take to get coverage due to a lack in spread would drive that through the roof. I'm thinking MH make the most sense.

 

[Nanook]

250 watt Radiums are the gold standard, IME/IMO.

 

[jtrasap]

250 watt Radiums are the gold standard, IME/IMO.

I agree. I ran radiums with my last se halide setup and I loved them. I probably still have some here somewhere.

 

[M3P]

I am a big fan of Radions. Currently running for gen 4 pros over a 200 deep dimension and getting great color. I think the key is to treat them like any non-adjustable light and find a setting you like and leave it there instead of tinkering with it all the time.

 

[SBV]

Just ditched my leds and put my 250 watt Radiums back in. I feel like I’ve lost 4 years of potential growth messing with leds. Within 2 weeks my lps are twice as big. Radium bulbs are amazing.

 

[jtrasap]

I am a big fan of Radions. Currently running for gen 4 pros over a 200 deep dimension and getting great color. I think the key is to treat them like any non-adjustable light and find a setting you like and leave it there instead of tinkering with it all the time.

What kind of growth are you getting with the gen 4's? I have 4 gen 2's but just never could get the growth out of them that I was getting with my halides. This tank would take 8 of them which is really more than I want to spend at the moment.

Just ditched my leds and put my 250 watt Radiums back in. I feel like I've lost 4 years of potential growth messing with leds. Within 2 weeks my lps are twice as big. Radium bulbs are amazing.

I'm really thinking this is the route that I will end up going. I'm going to run 250w de phoenixes to start out with because my se ballasts ended up in a damp dark corner of my machine shed and became the targets of whatever demon birds decided to hang out on the ledge above them so they are now on the scrap pile.

 

[ComforablyNumb]

IF you are unhappy with your growth rate, the problem is much more likely to be water parameters than lighting.

 

[Cal1089]

I'm not sure if you have seen any of the brs series on youtube but through their experiments they have found a Led T5 combo to be the "œbest" possible setup. I currently am going to be integrating my setup into the t5 combo. I just won some kessil 160s and I just added 2 t5s was running 2 ocean revives. My setup after this weekend will most likely be

"œ48"Blue +
"œ160" "œOcean Revive" "œ160"
"œ48" Coral +
Now this isn't ideal most likely but I'm working with what I got and I think it will do alright


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jtrasap]

I'm not sure if you have seen any of the brs series on youtube but through their experiments they have found a Led T5 combo to be the "œbest" possible setup. I currently am going to be integrating my setup into the t5 combo. I just won some kessil 160s and I just added 2 t5s was running 2 ocean revives. My setup after this weekend will most likely be

"œ48"Blue +
"œ160" "œOcean Revive" "œ160"
"œ48" Coral +
Now this isn't ideal most likely but I'm working with what I got and I think it will do alright


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I was actually considering doing this at one end of the tank just as a test run.

 

[Pife]

Use your current LEDs for Dusk to Dawn Lighting if you like it and to just add par and fill in the dead areas. With your tank if you have it I would run 400 watt radiums if you can.

 

[jtrasap]

Use your current LEDs for Dusk to Dawn Lighting if you like it and to just add par and fill in the dead areas. With your tank if you have it I would run 400 watt radiums if you can.

I have to get some new se ballasts. I left my old ones in a corner of my machine shed and they were used for target practice by some evil birds. I still have some reflectors and some 250w and 400w radiums bulbs. I'll probably use some 250w de fixtures in the meantime until I can afford to grab some new ballasts.