For the "too deep", look here:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1985714
it's a side by side comparison of LEDs and T5. That is on 6 feet deep tank.
Skeptics, here's the proof that LED grows colorful SPS's
- Thread starter Acrotrdco
- Start date
For the "too deep", look here:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1985714
it's a side by side comparison of LEDs and T5. That is on 6 feet deep tank.
Very much possible. Some fixtures drawing less than 200wats are being compared to 250MH and some suggested should be compared with 400MH. Seen maany threads about people getting LEDs, underestimating them leading to bleaching and dies off.
PAR meter helps, ability to dim helps too.
PAR meter helps, ability to dim helps too.
If you do the math he has 336 watts of LEDs over a 55 gallon tank. Wouldnt of been much easier and cheaper to just use 2 150 watt metal halides. This LED build is very good, Im not trying to take away from that. One of the arguements for LEDs are the power savings. In this build the power savings has been thrown out the window. Also the cost of this fixture probably been equal to 3 or 4 years of replacement lamps.
That being said it is a very nice build and looks very good.
That being said it is a very nice build and looks very good.
Acrotrdco
New member
For SPS dominated tanks, the normal height of the tank is around 20-24", with 17-21" of water, that way using either 60 or 90 degrees optics you'll be able to provide sufficient PAR for the entire tank.
It's not really that difficult, more and more people are using LEDs these days and I think it's in fact easier than MH, with MH there're only two options, 250w or 400w, whereas in LED there's a very wide ranges of different wattage to choose from (and with different spread of optics).
For deeper tanks like the 6' tank you've shown in your thread, although you'll still get very visiable light at the bottom of the tank (visible to human eyes), but in terms of PAR (photosynthetically active radiation), there's just not enough light for photosynthesis to carry out.
It might be bright enough for a FOTWL but really not enough for a RT.
I'm using ONLY LED, no T5 at all. It's a 65g tank (including water from sump)
The reference to T5 is that I want to mix the color of LED bulbs on my fixtures to make it gives the T5 appearance.
With the PAR I've recorded, it's comparable to using 2x 400w MH on my tank.
I could have use just one single 230w model instead of 2x 160w, the reason is, I already own a 160w from my older 20g nano-tank, and I've two options when I upgraded my tank.
Either get a 230w and get rid of the 160w, or get another 160w so I could have a total of 320w. I opted for the latter because I could always reduce the photoperiod using the 320w to get the optimal results, but I cannot push the 230w beyond its capacity in the future.
150w MH would NEVER be able to produce the amount of PAR I need on my tank, perhaps 2x 250w, but like I said, the PAR I've been getting is comparable to 2x 400w now.
Read my previous comment and see why I've opted for 2x 160w LED fixtures instead of 1x 230w. :twitch:
Also I'm not using all 320w of LED for the entire photoperiod. With LED I can choose to turn on groups of LED at different time, so on average I'm only running approx. 200w-250w of LED.
Here's my photoperiod:
Blue only: 13 hours (12:00 noon - 1:00am) approx. 96w
Blue + white (3ws): 9 hours (2:00pm - 11:00pm) approx. 216w
All on: 5 hours (4:00pm - 9:00pm) approx. 336w
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yes growth is phenomenal
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reeferdale
New member
very nice - I am starting my LED build in May - going to use it on my new 270 gal upgrade
REEF SMAC
New member
First off great thread. Beautiful pics!
I wanted to chime in to share with you that I have also had amazing sucess growing sps under LEDs. I jumped on the LED wagon pretty early on with an early 20k Solaris fixture. I was so amazed at how well my corals grew under this fixture that I preorderd and waited months to recieve the I-IV model when it first came out. In fact, I bought two of them for my tank upgrade I was working on at the time. The I-IV was even more amazing. I ran it side by side with 400w MHs. I think my acros grew better under the LEDs than under the MH. My tank is 34" deep and my clams at the bottom did fine also. The colors of my corals were awesome. The fact that these fixtures hardly put off any heat made them even better. I can tell you from experience that LEDs can grow sps and grow them well.
That being said, I have to sadly say that I am no longer running them on my tank. Even though these LEDs started out as being equal to and maybe even better that MH, they just did not last. Somewhere about the time they were about 1 1/2 to 2 years old, it became very obvious that they were suddenly not doing so well. At first I thought it was an issue wth params or nutrients but the acros under the MHs were still doing just fine. I was sold on the fact that they would last 50,000 hours. It might be true that they will be still on, and maybe appear to be bright to look at, but what I have noticed is that they just won't grow anything. I changed out many LED bulbs that started dying after about a year, changed out fans that died, and power sources that died. I spent a ton of money on these fixtures so believe me I tried everything to keep them running. Working on them constantly got old really fast.
I finally gave up on them and replaced them with different lighting and my corals that were under these 2 year old LEDs now look alot better.
I definately know that LEDs have amazing potential but it will be a while before I will be brave enough to spend any more money on them.
FWIW I still have one I-IV LED fixture over a frag tank that's plumbed into my main system. I been able to cannibalize enough parts from three fixtures to make one work. It's going on 3+ years running now. It still appears bright but any acro I place in this tank turns brown and many won't even stay alive very long.(chalices still grow though) Acros sharing the same water, identical flow, but different lighting do just fine. It's like trying to grow sps under MH bulbs that haven't been change in two years.
I definately don't want to hijack your thread but is there anyone out there still having sucess groing sps with LEDs that are more that two years old?
I wanted to chime in to share with you that I have also had amazing sucess growing sps under LEDs. I jumped on the LED wagon pretty early on with an early 20k Solaris fixture. I was so amazed at how well my corals grew under this fixture that I preorderd and waited months to recieve the I-IV model when it first came out. In fact, I bought two of them for my tank upgrade I was working on at the time. The I-IV was even more amazing. I ran it side by side with 400w MHs. I think my acros grew better under the LEDs than under the MH. My tank is 34" deep and my clams at the bottom did fine also. The colors of my corals were awesome. The fact that these fixtures hardly put off any heat made them even better. I can tell you from experience that LEDs can grow sps and grow them well.
That being said, I have to sadly say that I am no longer running them on my tank. Even though these LEDs started out as being equal to and maybe even better that MH, they just did not last. Somewhere about the time they were about 1 1/2 to 2 years old, it became very obvious that they were suddenly not doing so well. At first I thought it was an issue wth params or nutrients but the acros under the MHs were still doing just fine. I was sold on the fact that they would last 50,000 hours. It might be true that they will be still on, and maybe appear to be bright to look at, but what I have noticed is that they just won't grow anything. I changed out many LED bulbs that started dying after about a year, changed out fans that died, and power sources that died. I spent a ton of money on these fixtures so believe me I tried everything to keep them running. Working on them constantly got old really fast.
I finally gave up on them and replaced them with different lighting and my corals that were under these 2 year old LEDs now look alot better.
I definately know that LEDs have amazing potential but it will be a while before I will be brave enough to spend any more money on them.
FWIW I still have one I-IV LED fixture over a frag tank that's plumbed into my main system. I been able to cannibalize enough parts from three fixtures to make one work. It's going on 3+ years running now. It still appears bright but any acro I place in this tank turns brown and many won't even stay alive very long.(chalices still grow though) Acros sharing the same water, identical flow, but different lighting do just fine. It's like trying to grow sps under MH bulbs that haven't been change in two years.
I definately don't want to hijack your thread but is there anyone out there still having sucess groing sps with LEDs that are more that two years old?
First off great thread. Beautiful pics!
I wanted to chime in to share with you that I have also had amazing success growing sps under LEDs. I jumped on the LED wagon pretty early on with an early 20k Solaris fixture. I was so amazed at how well my corals grew under this fixture that I preorderd and waited months to recieve the I-IV model when it first came out. In fact, I bought two of them for my tank upgrade I was working on at the time. The I-IV was even more amazing. I ran it side by side with 400w MHs. I think my acros grew better under the LEDs than under the MH. My tank is 34" deep and my clams at the bottom did fine also. The colors of my corals were awesome. The fact that these fixtures hardly put off any heat made them even better. I can tell you from experience that LEDs can grow sps and grow them well.
That being said, I have to sadly say that I am no longer running them on my tank. Even though these LEDs started out as being equal to and maybe even better that MH, they just did not last. Somewhere about the time they were about 1 1/2 to 2 years old, it became very obvious that they were suddenly not doing so well. At first I thought it was an issue wth params or nutrients but the acros under the MHs were still doing just fine. I was sold on the fact that they would last 50,000 hours. It might be true that they will be still on, and maybe appear to be bright to look at, but what I have noticed is that they just won't grow anything. I changed out many LED bulbs that started dying after about a year, changed out fans that died, and power sources that died. I spent a ton of money on these fixtures so believe me I tried everything to keep them running. Working on them constantly got old really fast.
I finally gave up on them and replaced them with different lighting and my corals that were under these 2 year old LEDs now look alot better.
I definately know that LEDs have amazing potential but it will be a while before I will be brave enough to spend any more money on them.
FWIW I still have one I-IV LED fixture over a frag tank that's plumbed into my main system. I been able to cannibalize enough parts from three fixtures to make one work. It's going on 3+ years running now. It still appears bright but any acro I place in this tank turns brown and many won't even stay alive very long.(chalices still grow though) Acros sharing the same water, identical flow, but different lighting do just fine. It's like trying to grow sps under MH bulbs that haven't been change in two years.
I definately don't want to hijack your thread but is there anyone out there still having sucess groing sps with LEDs that are more that two years old?
After looking into LEDs and doing allot of reading, I was ready to go on and order led fixtures for my tank, I'm convinced by now that LEDs do work, but you just brought up a point that seems not to be covered enough yet about LEDs and their long term performance, even though it seems todays LEDs are much more advanced than the ones used by solaris, but I definitely would like to hear from people with a longer experience before I invest thousands of $ in new fixtures.
reefjunkie42
Wrasse junkie
if anyone who is thinking about LEDS hasn't heard the argument that most manufacturers LED's lose "brightness" and par hasn't really researched LEDS, just LED fixtures which is not the same thing. With LEDS you need to buy reputable ones, cree for example, not lumienx or any chinese ones that have no proven record. CREE leds have been proven not to lose their brightness after a year or so. The fixture you buy/build is only as good as the LEDS in it. The solaris was the 1st of its kind and no wonder they have died already, that said I have 2 AI sol blue units on my 90 gal and it is more than enough light 12 inches off the water to keep anything alive-Clams, acros, ricordias all thriving and splitting showing noticeable growth. Just my 2 cents.
n0rk
More is better-er!
Kind of goes back to what I say anytime anyone asks me about LEDs, reefjunkie. Over here in Australia you constantly hear that LED is "not ready" or "can't grow coral", and that because our access to fixtures is limited, LED must be crap. People can't get their head around that the technology is fine, but unless it's applied effectively it's a wasted gesture.
Strange how people equate implementation to the core technology itself eh?
Strange how people equate implementation to the core technology itself eh?
I would be very happy if you could direct me to any long term (1.5-2 years at least) cree user who could give me documentation of par measurements along the way, it would help me allot on my decision.
Here is a look of the overall 500 gallon 4 side view SPS side is 3x160 maxspect stock color semie led honeycomb lens and reflector. LPS side is 3x 110 semi LED stock color no reflector no lense. Left side there is no light cause I try to do this section non photonsintes coral. Right side is now a marinland LED reef ready it is a softy section but I plan to remove it cause color is way to yellow for my taste. I am bad photographer but it give an id
LED will not last forever but the maxspect I could replace bulb for cheap when they fade and I still save tons of heat and electricity and bulb replacement $$$$. For me it's a no brainer....
Maxspect are cheap compare to 5000$ solaris so the $$$ is on my side.....even if I have to change bulb in 3 years I would still be 100% happy and they will save me tons of $$$$$. if a 6 foot fixture was costing 5000$ it is another story but the maxspect are well invest $$$ I keep coral for more than 15 years with all kind of light PC T5 MH.....and LED don't just save me money they gave me result in color and grow no other light have ever come close
This one 6 month old, I begin play with LED more than 2 years ago and they where not ready and cost effective for me until maxpsect get here
this picture is 5 month old
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REEF SMAC
New member
I can't speek as to which LEDs are the most reputable. I just know that Solaris LEDs were sold with the same promise, that they would last 50k hours. IME that was not the case. I truly hope this is not the case with all LEDs. As soon as someone proves to me that "theirs" truly does last more than two years I would definitely consider trying them again. I loved everything about LEDs except their usable lifespan.
Please keep us posted when yours are still going strong after 2-3 years. Looking forward to seeing it.
Would like to see the same thing.
stephane first I just want to say your tank is beautiful.:thumbsup:
If LED lighting manufacturers made their fixtures so that you could easily and cheaply replace the bulbs that would be a great thing. If you could just change out your LED bulbs once a year as easily and for the same price as changing your MH or T5 bulbs it would be a definite no brainer.
If LED lighting manufacturers made their fixtures so that you could easily and cheaply replace the bulbs that would be a great thing. If you could just change out your LED bulbs once a year as easily and for the same price as changing your MH or T5 bulbs it would be a definite no brainer.
But there are, Pacific Sun LEDs is one example: "all parts of the Metis XM are changeable by plug & play connectors - no wiring or soldering modules (Micro-Molex plugs)" - I believe this is the case for all their lamps. Source
Problem is, by the time you will want to replace something, thre will probably be totally different models, not backwards compatible.
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