Time to make the change to led?
- Thread starter tent boy
- Start date
chrisfont23
Reef Monster
I made the switch from t5s to ecoxotic LEDs with my 90g build and couldn't be happier. They put out little to no heat. And even with these 90 degree plus days here in NY my tank stays at 81 degrees with the help of an 8 inch fan in my sump. Growth of my tank is superb. Very happy w lighting choice.
briangsxr1000
New member
2 radions! I just happen to be selling some soon... 
Eastamherstbias
New member
I have two radions and am very happy with them. Good growth on everything. I do get some algae if I crank up the red/green but otherwise I never need to change a bulb and electric went down.
Eastamherstbias
New member
I would agree with this but A.I's are notorious for SPS problems. My evolution 120 and par 38's kill SPS but my radion grows an array of SPS well. I think it is a spectrum and intensity issue.
Anytime, I buy a SPS frag now. I make sure it is big enough for me to split it into a few pieces and I put them in a couple spots.
That is pretty much what I did. My tek bulbs were nearing their life expectancy so I decided to make the switch. I like being able to control the spectrum easily. I would make the switch again.
ReefBoarder made the switch from MH to a DIY LED as well. His SPS all seem to be doing well I think.
ReefBoarder made the switch from MH to a DIY LED as well. His SPS all seem to be doing well I think.
Eastamherstbias
New member
What fixture did you have before?
cardiffgiant
Active member
I'm interested to see what peoples experience with the new AI vega and SPS will be. The vega has less green & red and more blue than the radion, but I don't think that the vega is out yet.
I've got a couple of LED color combinations for a rapid LED build. One modeled after the AI vega and the other after the radion. I really want to wait until the options are a bit more mature before I make a change with my display, but I may do something a bit sooner with my frag tank since the par38's limit what I can grow.
Ellery
Member
I'm in the same boat as well- I have been running 5 x 250W HQI fixtures on my 90+125 combo tank system and looking to switch over. I've heard some good things about the Maxspect P series but I will need the quad pack for my 125 at least. I won't do anything for the 90 yet though. I've also looked into building a multichip LED per the swedish guy's youtube video but it will still cost a pretty penny for what I would need but it won't look as nice with the copper heatsink coils above the tank
Jstn
Member
TEk 4 bulb with ati bulbs. My tricolor has almost completely died, and my red planet looks brown.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
to date
to date
the Acropora I've seen grown under LED's are not impressive. Softies, LPS and certain stony corals under LED's seem to be a great combo.
Sticking with halides and SPS here.
PS: got impressive Acros growing under LED's? Invite me over.
to date
the Acropora I've seen grown under LED's are not impressive. Softies, LPS and certain stony corals under LED's seem to be a great combo.
Sticking with halides and SPS here.
PS: got impressive Acros growing under LED's? Invite me over.
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
I DID have some impressive SPS, including acros, under LEDs until I accidentally destroyed the drivers for most of the royal blues and temporarily replaced them with (not enough, as it turns out) actinic VHOs. I'm still waiting on some of the replacement parts and things aren't looking that hot in the meantime.
IME we are still somewhat early in the development of standards for LEDs and we're seeing the same thing that happened when other lighting technologies first came to the hobby. Back before most of the current MH lamps were on the market, it was fairly common to see MH-lit tanks with really poor SPS coloration, for instance. The same is true right now for LEDs, though perhaps to a greater extent. If I look back at my own 3 - 4 years using LEDs, I can definitely see a progression. At first I struggled to keep most SPS alive even though the intensity was more or less high enough. Then there was a phase where I could keep most of them alive, but many didn't grow at all. Now I'm pretty much at a phase where I can keep most of them alive and happy, but there are still some weird coloration results. For instance, I have a red planet that's adopted a sort of really neat lime green color. I'm sure if I continued to tune, I could get whatever specific pigments to come out that I wanted and really play with the specific results for specific corals, but I'm honestly not that motivated right now.
At any rate, I don't think we can fault the technology, just the application - and I'm sure we'll get better and better at that over time. As with pretty much anything else new in the hobby, the decision might be partly based on price, features, wattage consumed, cool factor, etc - but it should also be partly based on how much tolerance you have for adopting something that's still being figured out.
IME we are still somewhat early in the development of standards for LEDs and we're seeing the same thing that happened when other lighting technologies first came to the hobby. Back before most of the current MH lamps were on the market, it was fairly common to see MH-lit tanks with really poor SPS coloration, for instance. The same is true right now for LEDs, though perhaps to a greater extent. If I look back at my own 3 - 4 years using LEDs, I can definitely see a progression. At first I struggled to keep most SPS alive even though the intensity was more or less high enough. Then there was a phase where I could keep most of them alive, but many didn't grow at all. Now I'm pretty much at a phase where I can keep most of them alive and happy, but there are still some weird coloration results. For instance, I have a red planet that's adopted a sort of really neat lime green color. I'm sure if I continued to tune, I could get whatever specific pigments to come out that I wanted and really play with the specific results for specific corals, but I'm honestly not that motivated right now.
At any rate, I don't think we can fault the technology, just the application - and I'm sure we'll get better and better at that over time. As with pretty much anything else new in the hobby, the decision might be partly based on price, features, wattage consumed, cool factor, etc - but it should also be partly based on how much tolerance you have for adopting something that's still being figured out.
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
I DID have some impressive SPS, including acros, under LEDs until I accidentally destroyed the drivers for most of the royal blues and temporarily replaced them with (not enough, as it turns out) actinic VHOs. I'm still waiting on some of the replacement parts and things aren't looking that hot in the meantime.
IME we are still somewhat early in the development of standards for LEDs and we're seeing the same thing that happened when other lighting technologies first came to the hobby. Back before most of the current MH lamps were on the market, it was fairly common to see MH-lit tanks with really poor SPS coloration, for instance. The same is true right now for LEDs, though perhaps to a greater extent. If I look back at my own 3 - 4 years using LEDs, I can definitely see a progression. At first I struggled to keep most SPS alive even though the intensity was more or less high enough. Then there was a phase where I could keep most of them alive, but many didn't grow at all. Now I'm pretty much at a phase where I can keep most of them alive and happy, but there are still some weird coloration results. For instance, I have a red planet that's adopted a sort of really neat lime green color. I'm sure if I continued to tune, I could get whatever specific pigments to come out that I wanted and really play with the specific results for specific corals, but I'm honestly not that motivated right now.
At any rate, I don't think we can fault the technology, just the application - and I'm sure we'll get better and better at that over time. As with pretty much anything else new in the hobby, the decision might be partly based on price, features, wattage consumed, cool factor, etc - but it should also be partly based on how much tolerance you have for adopting something that's still being figured out.
IME we are still somewhat early in the development of standards for LEDs and we're seeing the same thing that happened when other lighting technologies first came to the hobby. Back before most of the current MH lamps were on the market, it was fairly common to see MH-lit tanks with really poor SPS coloration, for instance. The same is true right now for LEDs, though perhaps to a greater extent. If I look back at my own 3 - 4 years using LEDs, I can definitely see a progression. At first I struggled to keep most SPS alive even though the intensity was more or less high enough. Then there was a phase where I could keep most of them alive, but many didn't grow at all. Now I'm pretty much at a phase where I can keep most of them alive and happy, but there are still some weird coloration results. For instance, I have a red planet that's adopted a sort of really neat lime green color. I'm sure if I continued to tune, I could get whatever specific pigments to come out that I wanted and really play with the specific results for specific corals, but I'm honestly not that motivated right now.
At any rate, I don't think we can fault the technology, just the application - and I'm sure we'll get better and better at that over time. As with pretty much anything else new in the hobby, the decision might be partly based on price, features, wattage consumed, cool factor, etc - but it should also be partly based on how much tolerance you have for adopting something that's still being figured out.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
interesting. Red Planet turns green(er) under less intense 20k (blue) halides.
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
While I have not measured PAR in this specific spot under this specific rig, I am assuming overall intensity is not an issue - it's probably related more to spectrum, or at least intensity of specific spectra. My rig is heavily skewed towards blue, and has very little in the way of spectra that typically trigger red pigments, so that would probably explain why I'm getting the green pigment that you'd expect under 20kk MH lamps AND less of the red pigment.
Again, I think this ties into the hobby's overall learning curve. An obvious difference between MH and LED is that with MH, you have a fixed and relatively small number of spectral profiles (basically, combine each off the shelf lamp with each off the shelf ballast). With LEDs, you more or less have an infinitely variable spectral distribution (add/remove specific monochromatic or wide spectrum LEDs and/or change their drive currents). This is a blessing AND a curse.
Again, I think this ties into the hobby's overall learning curve. An obvious difference between MH and LED is that with MH, you have a fixed and relatively small number of spectral profiles (basically, combine each off the shelf lamp with each off the shelf ballast). With LEDs, you more or less have an infinitely variable spectral distribution (add/remove specific monochromatic or wide spectrum LEDs and/or change their drive currents). This is a blessing AND a curse.
Eastamherstbias
New member
I have measured the par on an array of LED devices. It is a spectrum issue and not a par. The radion addresses it, the next version of AI will as well. Pacific Sun has went crazy with colors of Leds (orange etc).
BigAl2007
Active member
My Red Planet is also "liming up" more than most and I am running my DIY LED in the 15K - 20K realm. A recent article in CORAL magazine went into great detail to explain how and why coral change their color combination according to the spectrum of light they are bombarded with. It's very likely that we're running too much BLUE in our spectrum and not enough "something else".
The new GHL Mitras coming out should be taken into consideration for a top of the line unit. The spec sheet can be seen at http://reefbytes.com/mitras.html
The new GHL Mitras coming out should be taken into consideration for a top of the line unit. The spec sheet can be seen at http://reefbytes.com/mitras.html
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