Who has really colorful acros under leds?

[jda]

I have a Red Planet mini colony up high under a HQI and it is solid red (which I prefer, actually) with the slightly blueish white tips. In the same tank 20" deep it has a green base and lower branches and it looks like a different coral. IME, the light is the only difference in my tank. This is not an LED thing.

It is because they are stupid. This has nothing to do with what kind of light they use, just the question that they asked. Photography in high K situations is very hard and it takes very nice glass and an even better camera to get it right without serious editing which is even hard to not look artificial. Then, you mix in that humans are human and even without any ill intent post pictures that look "exactly like the tank does in real life" that look nothing like the tank does in real life that my own eyes saw in person. There is no getting away from looking at a lot of tanks in person and forming your own opinions.

 

[Editour2]

Hi Frank,

I think your doing a good job increasing the flow. On my 320 96 X 30WX 26 Tall I have 2 Tunze 6105's , 2 6215 Waveboxes, 2 mp40'S AND 2 mp60'S with complex programming to provide optimal random flow throughout the day. So yes First Id increase the flow.

As for the lights those % may be too low. 3 Fixtures over a 215 Id image you might be having a coverage issue. When you say fried your coral what happened? I have a hot pink birdsnest 2 inches below a 400 - 500 par 120 watt fixture with glass in between (look at the top right corner). While it is slightly bleached on the top it has never looked better. I put it there as I am out of room and didn't care if it died and it has responded well.

Have you investigated nutrition in your reef?

I wouldn't make too many changes at once. Id hold on adding the light.

Slow ramp up your lights and monitor your corals. Investigate the optimal nutrition program for your reef. Find a friend or fellow reefer that has a par meter or buy one and then sell when your done they have a good residual value and you could consider that you are leasing it to justify the cost. The par meter will answer all of your questions.

Tom,
I forgot to mention that my 3 180 watt fixtures do NOT utilize focal lenses. I don't really feel that there is a coverage issue because there is absolutely NO spot-light effect. The light appears to be dispersed seamlessly throughout the tank (in other words you cannot detect where 1 fixture ends and the other begins). In fact I feel I can use these same 3 fixtures for a 84"L x 36" deep tank. Each fixture is approximately 14" long with 8" space between them (another 6" spacing at each end of the tank). When I had the white LED's up to 50% the corals began to turn brown/black/burn at the tips and then die off (STN and/or RTN)...even now @ 40% white I have some pocillapora up high and the tips seem to be a bit inhibited though not exhibiting browning. I believe I had better visible growth when the white was set at 30%. I don't seem to have this problem with the intensity of the blue/royal blue......I am actually higher now in intensity then I started. I don't know how you have par values of 2000 at the surface with no issues. As far as nutrition....I don't currently feed my corals....I have occasionally used powdered supplements but I do not do this on a regular basis....what products do you use and in what regimen? My club has a PAR meter however the probe is attached to a long acrylic rod which prohibited me from getting accurate readings, (my tank is built into the wall and I only have about 12 to 14" clearance to the ceiling above the tank. I attached a link to my fish room build...in post #46 you can see my lighting. I haven't given up on LED's I just feel that it's a work in progress.
Frank


http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/s...14&page=2&highlight=progress+on+the+fish+room

 

[jerpa]

Spectrum is just a measure of the varying intensities of light at varying wavelengths. There is no "quality" beyond intensity Y at wavelength X. It all behaves the same regardless of the method used to generate it. Light is light. How that light is projected into the aquarium is where LEDs differ from standard lighting.

 

[tdb320reef]

Par Ratings

Par Ratings

Eye just below the water surface with a very nice wave about 10" slopped

Eye a few inches below the cheap Chinese fixture

 

[tdb320reef]

Tom,
I forgot to mention that my 3 180 watt fixtures do NOT utilize focal lenses. I don't really feel that there is a coverage issue because there is absolutely NO spot-light effect. The light appears to be dispersed seamlessly throughout the tank (in other words you cannot detect where 1 fixture ends and the other begins). In fact I feel I can use these same 3 fixtures for a 84"L x 36" deep tank. Each fixture is approximately 14" long with 8" space between them (another 6" spacing at each end of the tank). When I had the white LED's up to 50% the corals began to turn brown/black/burn at the tips and then die off (STN and/or RTN)...even now @ 40% white I have some pocillapora up high and the tips seem to be a bit inhibited though not exhibiting browning. I believe I had better visible growth when the white was set at 30%. I don't seem to have this problem with the intensity of the blue/royal blue......I am actually higher now in intensity then I started. I don't know how you have par values of 2000 at the surface with no issues. As far as nutrition....I don't currently feed my corals....I have occasionally used powdered supplements but I do not do this on a regular basis....what products do you use and in what regimen? My club has a PAR meter however the probe is attached to a long acrylic rod which prohibited me from getting accurate readings, (my tank is built into the wall and I only have about 12 to 14" clearance to the ceiling above the tank. I attached a link to my fish room build...in post #46 you can see my lighting. I haven't given up on LED's I just feel that it's a work in progress.
Frank


http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/s...14&page=2&highlight=progress+on+the+fish+room

I am surprised how much light these corals can take whey they are properly fed. Not saying to turn you fixtures all of the way up but just understand that if they are feed properly than can take high par and thrive.

 

[Bello]

Firstly......THANKS!!! Was very confused about my LED's, but this tank proves that there's plenty of hope

Could you elaborate more on your actions from post #166, where the corals were really pale? You say that you reduced the whites to 50%, and improved nutrition. So may I know what you fed your corals?

Thanks!!!

 

[tdb320reef]

All

All

It looks like I did a good job hijacking this thread. With that said come and join me at the SPS LED Success thread linked below. I plan on in great detail sharing everything that I learned about growing beautiful ACROS under a LED lit tank while enjoying all of the cost shavings. Come and share stores and post your pictures... Any format.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=21464773#post21464773

 

[mayjong]

hey tbd-
since you have a par meter, can you go outside on a nice sunny day and measure the par in the sun?
just curious as to what it shows....
i know it should be higher as the sun position changes in the sky (ie: summer -v-spring)
i wonder what the difference between now, and say, july is...
thanks!

 

[stangchris]

im runing a vertex sr260 with no add on pucks.... leds have been up 5 weeks in this pic. previously this tank had 2x 250w mh anf 4x t5, tank looks exactly the same as it did with mh. im really liking this fixture and less heat.

 

[clowndude]

Eye just below the water surface with a very nice wave about 10" slopped

Eye a few inches below the cheap Chinese fixture

Those are some good readings. Curious what your tank looks like with just these fixtures on? Got any of this pictures by chance.

 

[clowndude]

im runing a vertex sr260 with no add on pucks.... leds have been up 5 weeks in this pic. previously this tank had 2x 250w mh anf 4x t5, tank looks exactly the same as it did with mh. im really liking this fixture and less heat.

Looks good Chris. Can't wait to see it in another year.

 

[joseluisrdec]

Tagging along

 

[worm5406]

I think it is just they can not produce the same color and it is hard to tell what it looks like as a comparison.

 

[Prochef176]

 

[Decadence]

There was a lot of talk early on about the coverage offered by LEDs vs metal halide or T5. LEDs are an extremely directional light source. I have found that I get the best results in coloration throughout the entire corals by not just running lights above the tank facing down, but to also add additional lights pointing down and out at angles from the front and from the sides. I build custom PAR38 LED lights to add color accents coming in from the sides of the tank and then mount addition fixtures pointed down and back to achieve this and get color throughout the entire coral.

All of my demanding SPS are on the right side of the tank under 240w of LED with a very full spectrum. The left side has lesser demanding SPS and some LPS under 120w of LED.

I'm working on a new lightings system to combat this issue all in one fixture by curving it around the rock structure so that LEDs are pointing at the corals from all sides.

I just started building this one a few days ago and am waiting on some components but it uses 240 3w LEDs and 12 60w meanwell drivers and is going over top of my 150g SPS display tank.

 

[rogergolf66]

Interesting

 

[MHG]

Some top down pics under DIY LED's

 

[rovster]

Nice pics. What are those acros called? Need to get me some!

 

[trueblackpercula]

There was a lot of talk early on about the coverage offered by LEDs vs metal halide or T5. LEDs are an extremely directional light source. I have found that I get the best results in coloration throughout the entire corals by not just running lights above the tank facing down, but to also add additional lights pointing down and out at angles from the front and from the sides. I build custom PAR38 LED lights to add color accents coming in from the sides of the tank and then mount addition fixtures pointed down and back to achieve this and get color throughout the entire coral.

All of my demanding SPS are on the right side of the tank under 240w of LED with a very full spectrum. The left side has lesser demanding SPS and some LPS under 120w of LED.

I'm working on a new lightings system to combat this issue all in one fixture by curving it around the rock structure so that LEDs are pointing at the corals from all sides.

I just started building this one a few days ago and am waiting on some components but it uses 240 3w LEDs and 12 60w meanwell drivers and is going over top of my 150g SPS display tank.

Any updates on this?

 

[MHG]

Nice pics. What are those acros called? Need to get me some!

If you click on each one the file name is the corals commercial name...