Hello, I have a 34 gallon solano that I am using as an sps frag tank. I recently purchased a rapid led diy solderless 29 biocube retro fit kit . Two reasons the disco 150 watt hqi reflects light in a very narrow cone which I verified with par meter and trying to reduce heat in my fish tank room. Whole tank looked bright but very deceptive par was poor and sps showed this; bulb was brand new. The tank is only 21 " deep and I got over 200 at the bottom with led's; couldn't even get 100 with disco ball. I am hoping this will work as I would like to gradually acclimate my 300 gallon over to LED's due to heat and electricity from halides and chiller. I just have not found any consistent infomation of people being successful with LED's and sps; I am kinda doing this frag tank led as a test run before I decide to do with main tank. Any shared experiences would be appreciated. It seems like more people switch back to the halides than stick with the led's? Thanks Jeff
SPS To LED or not to LED?
- Thread starter jeffberg
- Start date
cutegecko3
Member
Although, the LEDs are putting out twice the par value, 200 is still very low for SPS. You'll need to place them higher in the tank. Try 12 inches under the light and see if you get 400 or better.
I had to turn my LED's down to less than 250 PAR until my birdsnest and stylos recover from the burn.... It has been 3 months and they are just starting to recover... At 75% I am over 500 PAR so I should have plenty. But no mater what you do, start out lower in PAR or you will cook them as I did.
The led setup is about 1 year old, and this tank has always been LED, and is my 1st reef tank. The corals have come from various sources, most not LED.
Stolireef
Active member
This is interesting. I've had similar experience. I always thought of stylo's as slow growers but under my Radions, they are among the fastest growers in my tank. I agree in the digis and birdsnest and I only have one cap in my tank that is doing OK. I have a really shaggy milli that is growing rapidly but some of my acros seem to have slower growth. There doesn't appear to be a color or placement issue since they are thoughout the tank. I have a couple of supposedly fast growing acros that, while healthy and with good color, appear to be growing very slowly.
My color breakdown is this, and all leds are 3 w Cree xpe and xpg series (been awhile since I build hope those models are correct). 65 Total leds on a 120g 4 foot tank.
13 Cool white
13 Neutral white
39 Royal Blue
4 Blue
Maybe not a typical mix, but it is what I did. The whites are set at 1000 mA, and the blues at 750 mA. All on dimmers, with the blue currently at about 95% full power and the whites at about 75% power.
My biggest dissapointment is "blue" corals tend to become more purple to bluish purple in the tank, but non of my corals appear brown or pale.
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