on the fence

[Ben_1313]

C'mon fellow reefers. Someone is kind enough to share their extraordinary tank, you need to show courtesy. Beautiful tank, beautiful pictures. Colonies that pretty and that big require a great deal of time and a great deal of diligence. 500 gallons is extraordinary as well. Few if any are able to handle that level of commitment, all the equipment, water changes, maintenance,cleaning, reactors, dosers, pumps, controllers, a gizzilion wire outlets, plumbing like nobodies business, a big room to place the tank, water changes that are humongous( think abiout 10% water changes weekly=50 gallons), the list goes on and on and includes an equal amount of financial commitment to make it all come together. So thank you for sharing. Thank you for your pictures. Thank you for gracing us with your experience and knowledge.

To those of you that criticize, do you have any idea of the heat that mh would put out for a 500 gallon tank and what that would require in chilling not only the tank but the room itself. ATI powermodules cost is astronomical as well, for those t5/led aficionados. And choosing what one thinks is the absolute best choice irregardless of cost is a personal choice. If I could afford a Chagall, Picasso, or Rivera , I would own them all, but in the meantime posters cover the walls, but art is art. I'm happy with posters on the walls and they look good, still wish I had a couple of masters work nonetheless. And I still visit galleries and museums because talent and inspiration are always worthy of the visit to sit in the presence of beauty

Kudos to you, great colonies, big and beautiful.

I am a metal halide/t5 guy but always checking out what is developing with alternative lighting. Thanks for the thread

+1000 awesome tank!

 

[meshwheel]

eyesinthedrk,
Beautiful red planet there! Obviously very happy! I just purchased one ReefBreeders Photon32 over a 36 inch long tank and love it! It will be mainly SPS up towards the top with some Acans, Zoos, lps, etc. on the very bottom in the front.
You are correct about the led's being very directional. Mine are already angled 15 degrees towards the back of the tank. And I run 90 degree optics on mine. They are hung 9 inches above the top of the tank.
My tank has a 1/2" acrylic top with 1/2" covers that I leave on. Even with all that, I am getting 250 PAR 14" down into the tank!!!! And my lights run at 50% blues and 45% whites!!!!!! And these to percentages are only on 4 hours a day. Then it's ramping up to that then back down.
No SPS in the tank yet, still getting numbers dialed in for them. It's been a week and a half and I am getting closer now. I do have some older corals in the bottom of the tank that are doing fine.
My point is: lumens per watt, led's are much much more efficient. I was going to run 500 watts of metal halides over this system.
If I can go 120-150 watts and grow SPS i will be amazed. And all indicators are pointing to.......................YES WE CAN.

 

[meshwheel]

Whoops. That 250 par down 14" should have been 350 par. Sorry for the typo

 

[Drae]

I have nothing but respect to your obvious skills as a reefer and your tank. Like I said, "hats off". You obviously have a blue thumb. I'm just still "on the fence" but your tank is a great example of great growth from led's for sure.

 

[eyesinthedrk]

Thank you very much. As all I wanted to do is show that LED lighting can grow and color up sps coral.
I am working with Acans right now as I heard a lot of reefers at MACNA say that LED light will not color up Acans. I will do a follow up post on this in a year or so.

That isn't true either. One of my major disappointments with this hobby is the bs claims of opinion worded as fact. For every person pioneering something new, there are 100 people rejecting it before they have witnessed anything. Those that have been around long enough will remember when t5 was the new thing, the same arguments were made about t5 as are being made today about LED. Even after a TOTM came out with acros being grown at the sand bed, we were being told that t5 can't grow or color up sps.

Yes it's different. Some things do look better under mh. But some things look better under led. I have seen this first hand as I share coral with one of my employees who has an HQI bio cube in the office. His crusader zoos look much better in my tank. The superman zoos look better in his. The cheap eagle eye/ dragon eye zoos have an electric neon green skirt in my tank. Frags from my colony have a deep dark skirt in his. There are many examples I could share.

The point is you may prefer the way something colors up under mh, t5, LED, or whatever combo you like. You may even decide that led tech is developing to rapidly to commit to it now. All fair points. But the claim that LED can't anything is flat out false.

 

[david00061]

Thank you very much. As all I wanted to do is show that LED lighting can grow and color up sps coral.
I am working with Acans right now as I heard a lot of reefers at MACNA say that LED light will not color up Acans. I will do a follow up post on this in a year or so.

That isn't true either. One of my major disappointments with this hobby is the bs claims of opinion worded as fact. For every person pioneering something new, there are 100 people rejecting it before they have witnessed anything. Those that have been around long enough will remember when t5 was the new thing, the same arguments were made about t5 as are being made today about LED. Even after a TOTM came out with acros being grown at the sand bed, we were being told that t5 can't grow or color up sps.

Yes it's different. Some things do look better under mh. But some things look better under led. I have seen this first hand as I share coral with one of my employees who has an HQI bio cube in the office. His crusader zoos look much better in my tank. The superman zoos look better in his. The cheap eagle eye/ dragon eye zoos have an electric neon green skirt in my tank. Frags from my colony have a deep dark skirt in his. There are many examples I could share.

The point is you may prefer the way something colors up under mh, t5, LED, or whatever combo you like. You may even decide that led tech is developing to rapidly to commit to it now. All fair points. But the claim that LED can't anything is flat out false.

Not to sure what isn't true. When i see my tank and when magazines post pictures looks to me like they color and grow

 

[eyesinthedrk]

Sorry, I should have clarified. I was saying the statement that acans can't color up under LED isn't true.

 

[david00061]

Sorry, I should have clarified. I was saying the statement that acans can't color up under LED isn't true.

Yeah I kinda figured that out after it was too late to edit.
It's hard to read feelings in a text

 

[rsaha]

I'm still on the fence re: LED but this tank is clearly proof that in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing works very, very well. Thank you for sharing your success.

 

[tdb320reef]

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Hi I read your article on Reef Hobbyist Mag. Your tank looks amazing and well done indeed. I have a 320 with 10 120W value fixtures and added 4 MH pendants and love the combo.

While the results of the color has improved I am still not sure it is worth the added cost to run the MH but like someone mentioned cost is not everything.