Skeptics, here's the proof that LED grows colorful SPS's

[ItsNotJustFish]

that is awesome to see
i was skeptical on sps growth as well but like you said, pictures speak for themselves!

 

[tqpolo]

You have a FTS?

 

[XSharkboyX]

Great thread. I believed it all along... Nice to see the proof.

 

[gasman059]

look mom u can also keep clams! lol

[/IMG]
And some ugly SPS too.

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[BowieReefer84]

A+ Great stuff!

 

[Acrotrdco]

Absolutley Fabulous!!!! :thumbsup:

Thanks!

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm considering buying some reef brites for my new tank....

FYI, if your tank is SPS, I'd strongly recommend you to look elsewhere, LED can grow SPS alright, but only if you pick the right fixture with enough PAR and color combination/temperature.

If I may... I'm am seriously thinking about switching to LED's. I don't know much about them (just what I've read in various posts). I read it everywhere and there's no doubt that LED's have been proven to grow SPS. My question would be: I know the actual LED will last a long time illuminating the tank but realistically, how long will they effectively grow SPS before the color shifts? What are the claims so far? A couple years? A couple decades?

And when the LED's are determined to have a better effect growing algae than growing coral, how do you replace the fixtures?

Thanks

Some of them claimed some 50k hours, others claimed 30k hours, given your photoperiod is 10 hours a day, that'll be over 3000 days or 8 years.

In reality, I don't think I'm going to use the same LED bulb for anything more than 2 years, simply because in 2 years time (hack even 1 year) there'll be much better bulbs with greater luminous output and better energy efficiency (i.e. higher lm/w rating), more color (wavelength) to choose from, etc.

Answering your question, I'm now using 2 LED fixtures, one is over 11 months old and the other is only 3 months old, when I used a PAR meter to measure the reading, I didn't see any discrepancy in PAR reading from either fixture, which are 9 months apart.

I'm pretty sure if you've 2 MH bulbs that're 9 months apart, you'll definitely record at least 20-30% discrepancy between the 2 bulbs.

PAR reading here:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1965294

I don't know the answer to all your questions but I do know that it costs $200/module for the AI units if you ever need to replace ALL of the LEDs them.

I know maxspect sp? users have the ability to replace individual LEDs. CREEs being 10 each and semi's being 5 each.

Hopefully they last at least 3-4 years and someones whos owned them for 3-4 years now can chime in.

CREE states that we'd have up to 50,000 hours of usable light. Do LEDs shift in color after awhile? I really don't know. To be safe I cut the amount of hours of usable light in half. assuming everyone uses a 10 hour photoperiod for 365 days a year, math comes out to be 6.8 years.

LED bulb pricing is coming down rapidly, and with the newer bulbs like the Cree XM-L which is rated at 140lm/w at 1.5A (comparing to Cree XP-G at ~70lm/w at 750mA), you only need to use fewer bulbs to produce the same luminous output.

In other words, if you're using 160w of LED fixture today, you may only need to use 80w next year, and even just 40w the year after (with the newest 200lm/w bulb).

that is awesome to see
i was skeptical on sps growth as well but like you said, pictures speak for themselves!

Thanks!

You have a FTS?

Here you go:

Or my tank thread:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums//showthread.php?t=1929512&page=7

Great thread. I believed it all along... Nice to see the proof.

A+ Great stuff!

Cheers!

look mom u can also keep clams! lol

Yeah I've a clam, acans, rics / yuma's, some zoa's and an orange disc LPS too! :beachbum:

 

[moo0o]

Hopefully my AIs will be able to upgrade to the more efficient LEDs as they come out. I'm sure I'm lacking a few wavelengths but so far so good.

 

[Acrotrdco]

Hopefully my AIs will be able to upgrade to the more efficient LEDs as they come out. I'm sure I'm lacking a few wavelengths but so far so good.

Unfortunately I don't think the current design of AI Sol are compatible with the newest Cree XM-L.

In order to take advantage of the 140-180lm/w luminous output from the Cree XM-L bulbs, you need to drive the bulb at about 5w with 1500mA (1.5A) current.

Right now the Cree XP-G are running at 3w with 750mA current, and the fact that Cree AI utilize 8 groups of 3 bulbs all burnt onto the same PCB, meaning they'll need to redesign the PCB, LED driver and power supply in order to use XM-L bulbs.

 

[Bello]

Hi Acro,

I have 2x160w G2 and 2x180w G1 Maxspects without Optics on a 250g, and I thought they were too bright.

You've shown otherwise!! Awesome!

 

[Acrotrdco]

Hi Acro,

I have 2x160w G2 and 2x180w G1 Maxspects without Optics on a 250g, and I thought they were too bright.

You've shown otherwise!! Awesome!

Thanks

I think it's just a matter of acclimating your corals to the light, some SPS's do grow and color up better when they're getting 800-900 PAR.

 

[organism]

Out of curiosity, are you using optics or just leaving the bulbs as is? Did you notice much improvement with the red and 15w LED's? I'm using just royal blues and whites and it's going well, but haven't tried SPS in there...

 

[Acrotrdco]

Out of curiosity, are you using optics or just leaving the bulbs as is? Did you notice much improvement with the red and 15w LED's? I'm using just royal blues and whites and it's going well, but haven't tried SPS in there...

I'm using optics, I'm using red to simply improve aesthetics, but the 15w's are the heart of the system, because I needed those to simulate the amount of light received by the corals during the peak (10am-3pm) noon hours.

See my tank thread for more info on the build.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums//showthread.php?t=1929512

 

[MItank]

Very nice and detailed thread, this makes me want to make the switch

 

[stephane]

Maxspect 160 stock collor semie LED with honeycomb lens kit

 

[Acrotrdco]

Nice corals Stephane! Did you also record the growth of your corals with photos?

 

[schriss]

LEDs especially Cree's or Semi-LEDs (like Maxspect) are very good. I find it strange some people still don't believe, even after seeing so many beautiful tanks run on LEDs on youtube.
You only need to workout proper size/power, as with any light unit.
For example for my 20G tank, 12" deep, my two LED tiles were good for soft corals, but SPS are turning brown. I know this might be two reasons: nutritiens or too little light.
So got myself Quantum Meter, measured, found out PAR at the bottom to be barely 80-120 range, and decided to go for Pacific Sun Black Python 110W Cree powered. I know I will have to run it dimmed a bit, but that's great, future proof.

 

[Acrotrdco]

LEDs especially Cree's or Semi-LEDs (like Maxspect) are very good. I find it strange some people still don't believe, even after seeing so many beautiful tanks run on LEDs on youtube.
You only need to workout proper size/power, as with any light unit.
For example for my 20G tank, 12" deep, my two LED tiles were good for soft corals, but SPS are turning brown. I know this might be two reasons: nutritiens or too little light.
So got myself Quantum Meter, measured, found out PAR at the bottom to be barely 80-120 range, and decided to go for Pacific Sun Black Python 110W Cree powered. I know I will have to run it dimmed a bit, but that's great, future proof.

Absolutely, if you want to know more about the PAR I've got in my tank, you can check here:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1965294

 

[808Rob]

incredibly beautiful tank and frags. job well done..
I am planning on replacing my T5s with LED for my 120g but am unsure how much watts/gallon would be suitable. I am looking into the Cree DIY units and planning on putting 2x 36(3watt) units on a 24X8.5 heatsink with 6 drivers. Or should I go with the 2x 48(3 watt) Cree DIY? Still learning about LEDs

 

[SERVO]

Thanks for taking the time to post your results. There is no way any light will accomidate for a tank with poor parameters. The question that I want to know isn't can LED's grow SPS, but what are the optimal optics (45, 60, 90, 120 degrees), and is there a tank depth that is "too deep" for adequate pentration.

 

[schriss]

I think it depends on LEDs and I would measure PAR before trying any optics or would adjust power accordingly.
It's difficult with LEDs to get advice because it's relatively new and keeps evolving, where with MH you usually get advice quickly.