tdb320reef
Active member
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+1 Very well said and analogous to my experience even though I took different measures and still working on improvement. thx for sharing and Love the tank. Can you please PM with build link? I looked for it a while one time.
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I am a long term SPS guy. Ran my halides for years and loved them. 6 times 400 watts over my main tank. Switched to some homemade LEds about a year ago. Corals did Ok but the color was not near as intense or deep as with halides. I was not happy with the results I was getting. I loved the 200 dollar cheaper electric bill though. About 6 months ago I had a couple of the homemade fixtures fail so I picked up a couple of the Chinese 9 band lights off of EBay for 179 each. With the extra bands of color beyond the standard whites and blues that i used on my homemade units I am getting much better color, at least as good as I got under halides and better for some corals. I have one coral that is about three feet in diameter. It is large enough so it is under both my DIY and in other places it only sees the chinese lights. Not only is the color better under the multispec lights, they also have better growth and a lot more branches. My system has four boxes with water, all have corals. The main SPS /fish section is aprox 425 gallons and has a mix of 4 DIY fixtures and 4 Chinese all LED. One of my 75 gallon sumps has a 250 watt halide. Another 50 gallon sump has a small older commercial LED fixture. My large LPS section is currently lit by a single 400 watt Halide. I see the same corals under all these lights all in the same water. Search my name and I have several threads showing the corals under halides and LEds as well as the Chinese LEDs.
There is no doubt that you can grow good healthy corals with great colors using multi spectrum LEDS. The corals are more sensitive and harder to keep under the LEDS but they will do well if you are diligent. They did not so as well for me under the blue/white LEDS. The Halides are awesome . They are also very hot and very expensive. I will eventually go to 100 percent LEDS.
As I said earlier, I have lotsa of pics of the system on this site but here is one I took the other night. Sorry its hand held and the color balance is a little off as I had it set for my old halides. However, I think its clear, the corals are thriving under the LEDS.
In the pic you see above the left side of the big stag is directly under one of the Chinese Lights. You can see the extra branches forming on the branch that is getting blasted by the multi spectrum LED. I love these lights. I plan on buying more as soon as I can.
+1 Very well said and analogous to my experience even though I took different measures and still working on improvement. thx for sharing and Love the tank. Can you please PM with build link? I looked for it a while one time.
