This kind of makes me sad

[wvned]

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Yes I have LEDs. Are they better, no. They are very difficult to use correctly and very expensive.
The old lights, you put them on a timer and they worked. On/Off was all you needed to know.

 

[griss]

When I started in this hobby, we were just using regular T8 or T12 bulbs. Then, MH was introduced followed by VHO. Then PC lights hit the scene. Then came T5.

My all time favorite lighting combo was (3) 250w Iwasaki 6500K, (2) 400w Radion 20000K and (2) 6' VHO actinics powered by an IceCap ballast over my 200 Oceanic. The Iwasakis grew SPS like crazy and the Radions/actinics added the color. It was the perfect combo for SPS in my opinion.

 

[kfisc]

I had a pair of Ushio 175 10k's over an old 40g shallow breeder. Complete with glass panel siliconed over a crack in the bottom. I hand wired the Advance ballasts and tin-snipped through some old grow light reflectors and built a wooden hood I painted with marine-grade latex. Nothing I ever did equalled that tank, around 30 years ago, for fun or successful growth.

 

[griss]

I had a pair of Ushio 175 10k's over an old 40g shallow breeder. Complete with glass panel siliconed over a crack in the bottom. I hand wired the Advance ballasts and tin-snipped through some old grow light reflectors and built a wooden hood I painted with marine-grade latex. Nothing I ever did equalled that tank, around 30 years ago, for fun or successful growth.

lol too funny you mention that. I helped friends build MH systems early on using those Advance Ballasts.

 

[Timfish]

Yeah, all the options they build into fixtures and redesighning to "improve" led fixtures for marketing has definitely hurt the hobby and killed a lot of corals. Hobbyests who don't understand the role spectrum plays in coral photobiology use way to much blue to make corals "pop" and corals struggle to deal with it. But I have found some LED fixtures to be more economical than T5s or metal halide. Light bars like Populargrow last years longer than fluorescent bulbs so replacement costs is significantly less. I have Kessils and Ecotech X30s running a decade (but I'm replacing them with cheaper PopBlooms RL90 & RL180). Amortized I gotta think their cost is less than replacing fluorescent and/or MH bulbs every year. I do much prefer just setting them to specific levels and using old school timers to run them though.

 

[wvned]

The LEDs paid for themselves in 2 years with a reduction in our power bill. But they go wonky in both time and spectrum if the power flickers. They go out of sync frequently too. None have failed though. I just have to connect to them with my phone and they all get back with the program.
I tend to use a flat power output and let the lights ramp up and down per their capabilities after I set them to the color I want. It makes them about as easy to use as they can be.

I think most people including me go for high power instead of more cheaper lower power ones.
So many power cords to deal with now.
I am considering removing some lights and spreading the remaining ones a little farther apart. The tanks seem to be happy at around the 50% power level.
I went with 1 light per 2 feet of tank plus 1. I think 1 per 2 feet is totally sufficient if spaced properly.
I had 1600w of metal halide/T5 before on the 240. When I set up the 180 that wasn't really a simple option unless I scrounged stuff from various places. The failure rate of replacement bulbs and cost got so large I replaced them with LEDs.

Phones suck. I have a condition where I shake a lot sometimes. The phone touch screen cant tell what I am intending. I get the wrong thing or stuff snaps in from the sides. Very frustrating to do something simple. Trying to hit exact values on a light spectrum is a giant pain.
Smart people have computers, several in fact. Nothing is made to use them anymore.

edit OMG payed. Help me, when the brain goes. I spell phonetically now and less from memory