SPS and LED lights?

[Snaphook]

Is anybody using only LED lighting with their SPS? If so, please post some pics. I live in Florida and I am trying to eliminate some heat issues.

Thanks

 

[Radioheadx14]

following! I think I'm going to switch to evil's PAR38s for my 30x30x24

 

[marinelife]

I will be in a few weeks, I am getting ready to build them now. I will post pictures once completed.

 

[therman]

I'm just waiting for them to arrive and all my tanks will be LED. Biggest array will be 156 Crees over a 36x36x18.

 

[HomeSlizzice]

My friend uses the Ecoxotic Panorama Fixture over his tank, and is getting great growth and color on his SPS.

 

[jnbrex]

From what I have heard, sps grows great and has great color under led lights.

 

[terahz]

I think they grow just fine under LEDs. My tank is mostly SPS and LED lit and I can't complain.
Feb 2nd:

Mar: 2nd:

Mar 27nd:

 

[reefsafe]

I use AI modules and am getting good growth. Will try to post pics later.

 

[mikedelgado]

considering taking the plunge myself

 

[reefsahoy]

any fts? could you post how long you've been running the LED's also?

 

[Haksar]

This is my tank with my LED lights - 2 pcs of 3 w x 80 14,000k and 1 w x 40 460nm lights.

 

[Haksar]

This is my tank with my LED lights - 2 pcs of 3 w x 80 14,000k and 1 w x 40 460nm lights.

 

[terahz]

any fts? could you post how long you've been running the LED's also?

If that is for me, I've been running them for almost 5 months now. Here is a FTS, however with LEDs it is basically impossible to take a photo that looks like the real tank.

 

[lotusstar]

Wow great looking tanks. I have a 400w mh and the heat is crazy so will be watching this thread closely. My brother is going to build a canopy and was debating on going T5, LED or combo. It's a 92g corner tank so traditional fixtures don't work well for me.

 

[LooseHip]

I use AI modules and am getting good growth. Will try to post pics later.

I have seen this tank several times. He has been running LED's for a few months now. I will say I have noticed better growth of the pink lemonade coral he has in the short time the LED's have been over his tank, vs his previous lighting setup which was MH. Once I can afford it I am switching too. This tank has wiped any doubts I had about LED's being able to support SPS and keep them colorful.

 

[DeathWish302]

Planning on fragging a couple corals and judging my current MH lighting to my new 12gal Aquapod clown tank with LED lighting. I just started cycling the new tank and will keep everyone posted on the progress in the upcoming months.

 

[dangerrrr]

I've been using LED's on my tank for the last 5 months and have had some huge growth.

The tanks only 6 months old and the frags are still very small. I'll post up some growth shots later today.

 

[CleveYank]

Friend of mine and I are going to be converting some of our respective SPS tank's supplimental lighting to LED's. The PAR numbers to get what we have running in the 14K bulbs is not effective or should I say hard to reach with LED's for a main light source. Read the numbers, seen the actual tests and it's not going to happen. But supplimental or for softies or nem and fish only should be fine. I believe there are other limitations in spectrum where the LED's cannot hit across the board portions of the spectrums. A trend which leads me to believe they are for making the blue colors we like, but you still need full spectrum coverage that only halides, T5's and VHO's can deliever for main light sources. It will be a long time coming before I try that experiment on 5 years of SPS growth. Unless they can come up with an LED with 10 watts of output for 5 watts of power consumption? Otherwise for main lighting the LED's required to get where I would need would equal the consumption of my Halides. The PAR just isn't there. But my power reduction for replacing my supplimental lighting with LED's would give me a savings on electrical operating expense of about 700 watts less than I'm running now. It's a good start.

 

[wfournier]

Otherwise for main lighting the LED's required to get where I would need would equal the consumption of my Halides. The PAR just isn't there. But my power reduction for replacing my supplimental lighting with LED's would give me a savings on electrical operating expense of about 700 watts less than I'm running now. It's a good start.

Really? what halides are you running? I have a small fixture using 16 XR-E LEDs with 80 degree optics and I'm getting about 1200 PAR at the surface (about 8" from the fixture). That is with 60w of power.

 

[Muddy35]

Really? what halides are you running? I have a small fixture using 16 XR-E LEDs with 80 degree optics and I'm getting about 1200 PAR at the surface (about 8" from the fixture). That is with 60w of power.

1200 par with 80 degree optics.. Really?? I'm impressed.
Here are my stats using 24~ 12CWs and 12RBs on meanwels.
The results are without optics .. I know the par value may go up with lenses but shoot I have 60 degree optics and visually see only little difference with and without the lenses. If 16 leds with 80 optics is giving 1200 par then my 60 degree lenses should add another 1/3rd to that??? So 1800 par roughy?
Don't get me wrong but I doubt it. What are you using to measure the par readings?? How did you measure it? In water or out? All mine were taken in a 34gallon tank at 10 and 13 " of depth with a milwaukee LUX meter .. Ohh and at 3" I only measured 390 par.

PAR AND TEMPS

Measurements taken 10" an 13" of depth Fixtture is 3" above the waterline.
Voltage given for each measurement of input into the ballasts.

Voltage 13" ~ 10" temp on heatsink
9.9 120 ~ 181 159degrees
8.0 106 ~ 157
7.0 99 ~ 148 139degrees
6.0 86 ~ 132
5.0 74 ~ 113 121degrees
4.0 61 ~ 100
3.0 47 ~ 80
2.0 34 ~ 48
1.0 15 ~ 22

And the results of each individual color at the same settings and depth.
RB= royal blue and CW= Cool Whites measured at only 13" depth

Voltage 13" RB ~ CW
9.9 64 ~ 57
8.0 56 ~ 52
7.0 50 ~ 49
6.0 45 ~ 44
5.0 39 ~ 39
4.0 32 ~ 32
3.0 24 ~ 26
2.0 14 ~ 17
1.0 6 ~ 8

Interesting results.