MHs, LEDs and Zoanthids.

[lhm nole]

I started by reef tank adding small colonies of purple deaths captain americas unobtainables rastas and vdm's all have doubled in colony size with the exception of the vdms.. I loved my halides in the past fro growth and color but imo leds are pretty darn close. T5's never had great success with zoas they lived but did not thrive

 

[megadeth72]

I have been using LEDs for the past 10 months or so. My setup is a DIY with 3:1 (RB:CW). I would love to tell you I'm really happy with my zoas/palys. My observations have been some of the zoas/palys seem to be okay with the light, while others don't seem to like the LEDs. Additionally, the colors appear to be better under T5 an MHs. Now with that said, I really like my LEDs, and everything remains healthy (especially my SPS).

I really believe it is all about spectrum. When I started my research, everything centered around white and blue LEDs. However, for zoas/palys I think there would be a great benefit from more color spectrum. Additional, the LEDs are very bright and slow acclimation is necessary.

My new tank will be up and running by the end of next month, and plan to test this theory. The new LEDs will have a much wider spectrum. Guess I'll find out soon.

I agree, white/rb is not enough spectrum

my current light has 420/violet and that really helped my red acro, now it's red instead of green, the change took 2 weeks and is still going.

if I were you I would swap leds for some violet/420, blue, and warm white, but not much the warm white is pretty green/red

 

[Biocubehqi]

thats interesting, i think all corals just need to ajust....slowly. those to kinds are in my reef 3inchs from the waterline right under a 250wushio.

It's crazy the different results are, I'm intrigued on how you did that lol. M wife hates I have them buried.but I'm a "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" kinda guy. They seem to be repopulating quickly in their little caves. Wondering if only seeing half their potential. Only had them for a couple of months and tried in size.

How long did it take for you to acclimate to lights? Mine did great on the sandbed for about a week, the refused to open, moved them to shade and wallah...

 

[RiddleEagle18]

LED Update

So far happy with the results.

Leds seem to fool you a bit with how bright they are. I started them off at 35% and have slowly ramped them to 50%. They seem as bright as my MH was but my zoas are still reaching for light. It seems LED's initially put out bright light but lack the punch at lower settings then the brightness levels off and the punch is delivered at the higher settings. When I test them at 100% it is only marginally brighter but seems more vivid.(does that make sense?)

No loss in colors on the coral. In fact it seems the corals are starting to display deeper and more vibrant colors. The florescence is starting to come back in some of the zoas and my superman monti which was always very red is starting to show the blue undertone again. Im hoping my spiderman zoas get the nice blue center and bright red skirt back.

Admittedly I ran the MH for about 5 months without knowing how old the bulb was. I bought the setup used and never put a new bulb in because I knew I was going to LEDs.

Still Im happy with the results so far.

 

[eg8r210]

Vivid has a side by side MH/Led side by side display at their store here in CA. The growth looks about equal, there's no denying that. The corals under the MH's have much more rich coloring though IMO. If you're ever out here pay them a visit.

Does Vivid make any adjustments to the different LEDs to try and manipulate the coloration of the corals? Maybe they can fine the right mix of color and intensity (not sure if that is the correct word) to mimic the coloration in corals that they see under the MH.

 

[Joshporksandwic]

I looked for the article but it was not found. I have 250w mh with vho actinic and led on my main tank and have a 10g frag tank (3 months old) attached to my main with leds only.
Par on my main is 350 top 180 middle 80 sand. On frag tank is 250 under light 125 on the sides.
Honestly everything in my frag tank is growing faster and colors on my zoos are nicer.
the units I have are called apollo 4. I don't know if its because in my main the zoas are at different height and are not flat getting perfect forward light. But i'm 1 month away from changing to all leds.

 

[slin1977]

Has anyone ever noticed that glow on your coral when you get a really fresh SPS frag or colony? I have received a few Stags and Birdsnests that almost glow under normal room lights. I don't know if it's because of perfect water conditions or from sunlight when collected. Or are they kept under really strong MH or LED at the holding collectors tanks.
If I could get my SPS to do that again I feel I might have things right in my tank.

I recently added more Royal Blue , Violet and Cyan to my LED lighting.
In two weeks of this extra supplementation I have noticed my SPS getting a little colour boost. My zoas are responding very well too.
I have run LED on this tank for nearly two years.

 

[IdahoGuy]

I'll never go back to LED's personally. Some love em and swear by em, but I don't like the growth on SPS nor the color. T5's have given me the best color and growth.

 

[MUCHO REEF]

My hubby bought me a radion for my bday last year n my zoas hav tripled in that time

Do you directly attribute that growth to the Radions only, or did you change any other variables in your tank?

MUCHO REEF

 

[MUCHO REEF]

Wow the diverse opinions here, I guess it's personal preference. Glad everyone weighed in.


Mooch

 

[gagesw1]

i am super happy with my LED's. Zoas seem to like them too

 

[popebosephus]

I'm still not sold on the LEDS. It's going to take a lot of convincing to get me away from mh/t5 combo.

 

[accordsirh22]

i have been getting explosive growth out of my zoas with my leds. diy 108w (with 26w supplemental 50/50 t8s) over a 40cube

 

[650-IS350]

My Mohawks love the blue tuna's it's starting to over grow all my rocks....

 

[MUCHO REEF]

I'm still not sold on the LEDS. It's going to take a lot of convincing to get me away from mh/t5 combo.

I have heard both sides, pro an con. I have not discounted their claims as of yet, but like yourself, I'm still on the fence. Would love to hear more from you on this though. What are your thoughts on not being sold on them totally yet? Thanks.

Mucho Reef

 

[lhm nole]

Going on 4 months with kessils and all my zoa colonies have at least doubled in size very happy with mine

 

[19jeffro83]

I've only really run halides but from what I've seen all the zoas I have traded or purchased coming from led systems gain a good amount of color when placing them into my tanks. For now and in the near future I'm sticking with what has worked out for me for the past 5 years. LEDs may end up on a tank of mine in the future once they become more affordable and have the bugs worked out.

 

[Chrisjbarry]

I only used LEDs and have been for the past 3 years. My sps grows at a crazy rate where Im having to break small colonies off to sell every couple months. Zoas are out of control and stared growing on the side glass. Ive had to use aptisa x to kill/keep them off of my sps. More recently I have started helping a local coral farmer by setting up his system like mine and selling small colonies to him as they start shading lower parts of the tank. My tank is a 90 gallon and I am using 42 mixed whites (none of the 10k whites), 42 mixed blues, 6 reds, 8 cyans, 8 mixed uvs, 6 greens. On a side note to this my parameters are not the normal range that most people shoot for.

Nitrate/nitrite/ammonia all 0
Phosphates run about .25-.5 I keep it here for faster growth. When I ran 0 growth slowed a lot.
Mag keep around 1400-1500
Alk around 10dkh
Cal I try to keep around 500
I also dose once a week 2 cap fulls of strontium, iodine, and daily dose a cap full of marine snow.
Fish in the tank are 1 foxface, 2 bangis, 2 pajama, 3 chromis. I feed all the types of salt water cubes they make, like 8 different ones. Buy them when I get low. Take and open them up mix in a blender add 100 drops of garlic to make them love the food more, also add in one small bottle of reef chili to feed corals an pods. Feed once a day about what would be a cube. Then daily put a clip of algae in the tank for the fox-face to snack on.

Back to the main issue. We have about half the tanks at the coral farm growing with LEDs and other half growing with MHs. All tanks are plumed into two systems in case one crashes. But again half and half of each system is MH and LEDs. Leds seem grow just a little faster. That being said MHs do have better looking color to the eye. Also, for electrical cost alone we are switching to 100% leds. It is the better bang for the buck. The lights seem to pay for themselves after 1 year, with bulb replacements, electricity, cooling.


Sent from inside the shark tank!

 

[MUCHO REEF]

I only used LEDs and have been for the past 3 years. My sps grows at a crazy rate where Im having to break small colonies off to sell every couple months. Zoas are out of control and stared growing on the side glass. Ive had to use aptisa x to kill/keep them off of my sps. More recently I have started helping a local coral farmer by setting up his system like mine and selling small colonies to him as they start shading lower parts of the tank. My tank is a 90 gallon and I am using 42 mixed whites (none of the 10k whites), 42 mixed blues, 6 reds, 8 cyans, 8 mixed uvs, 6 greens. On a side note to this my parameters are not the normal range that most people shoot for.

Nitrate/nitrite/ammonia all 0
Phosphates run about .25-.5 I keep it here for faster growth. When I ran 0 growth slowed a lot.
Mag keep around 1400-1500
Alk around 10dkh
Cal I try to keep around 500
I also dose once a week 2 cap fulls of strontium, iodine, and daily dose a cap full of marine snow.
Fish in the tank are 1 foxface, 2 bangis, 2 pajama, 3 chromis. I feed all the types of salt water cubes they make, like 8 different ones. Buy them when I get low. Take and open them up mix in a blender add 100 drops of garlic to make them love the food more, also add in one small bottle of reef chili to feed corals an pods. Feed once a day about what would be a cube. Then daily put a clip of algae in the tank for the fox-face to snack on.

Back to the main issue. We have about half the tanks at the coral farm growing with LEDs and other half growing with MHs. All tanks are plumed into two systems in case one crashes. But again half and half of each system is MH and LEDs. Leds seem grow just a little faster. That being said MHs do have better looking color to the eye. Also, for electrical cost alone we are switching to 100% leds. It is the better bang for the buck. The lights seem to pay for themselves after 1 year, with bulb replacements, electricity, cooling.


Sent from inside the shark tank!

Thank you Chris, that was an awesome reply and exactly the type of reply I was solicting. I always like to engage the topic or the reply with more than just a sentence as your type of reply can help many in need of the very information we are speaking of as well as your reply to it.

1. What was your lighting/type source before the LEDs, k values, watts etc?

2. You mentioned your zoas were growing and out of control. Well, that is not a bad thing as you obviously have the blue thumb. They are simply doing what they are suppose to do. They are flourishing for one reason only, and that's because you're meeting their exact needs :thumbsup::thumbsup:. You're doing something right here my friend. For that reason alone I would love to give you a small piece of advice and I mean absolutely no disrespect at all in saying this. Just to possibly help to avoid a colony crash. Instead of using Ap X to kill off those polyps which are encroaching upon your SPS, would you consider moving/relocating one or the other? Why? I have seen perfectly healthy polyps/frags/colonies of zoas react to this method of polyp control and have seen innocent polyps killed unintentionally beyond the intentions of the owner. I would hate to see that happen to you my friend. Have you ever considered moving one or the other in hopes of saving more polyps thereby maybe helping someone else out with freebies? Not telling you what to do, just suggesting as I would hate to see any issues arise in your awesome tank.

3. How did you settle upon the mixture/color scheme you described above? Wall it trial and error, suggested by someone else, etc?

4. Dual plumbing is a great idea, I've utilized it myself.

5. What method are you employing to maintain your PH, KH, Mag and Cal?

6. If your polyps are growing onto your glass, that's great as well. If you want to, you can use a dedicated Exacto knife to excise them from the glass and give them away, reseed them onto new rocks etc.

Thanks again for the reply and sorry for all the questions and much continued success my friend. I meant no harm or disrespect with my questions or suggestions. Just making conversation is all.


Mucho Reef

 

[NyReefNoob]

any of the above can grow zoa's, ive used mh with pc, mh with t5, t5's with several color combo's, and several led unit's. i honestly cant say one grew then better then the other
i think alot of time people want to attribute lighting higher up then what ive found personally to get best growth, which is the basic, water quality, and flow.

i know mucho has been looking for answer's on growth for years but there is so many variable's, type and condition of water where they origanally came from, whether it was someone else's tank or the ocean. do you spot feed your zoa's ? do you use any additives ? if i had the space i would love to do a side by side comparison with 1 colony of zoa's break into 5 pieces and stick each piece in a different 10g tank, just run a hob filter and use 5 types of lighting, so that it is all equal except the light