Yes!!!!!!!!! SPS Success with Leds! Come in and Share your Story!

[tdb320reef]

I am in the middle of building my new tank and these are the RapidLED's. Just figured I would post them here as well since this is the LED thread. It only has 2 of 3 lights mounted, the center is not mounted yet.

This is my second tank, my current 90 gallon grows SPS under ACAN 600 series LED's. Granted I don't have much in the way of SPS.

This new tank is going to be SPS dominant.

Looks like a great start!

 

[S2minute]

Yes!!!!!!!!! SPS Success with Leds! Come in and Share your Story! Reply to Thread

Yes!!!!!!!!! SPS Success with Leds! Come in and Share your Story! Reply to Thread

This is my first DIY LED fixture. It's been up and running for more almost 2 years now. I at first added 2 4' vhos in the front because of the bow part of the DT but soon after removed them. I also re-scaped the entire DT. I have some recent pics of SPS corals that have grown out and came back to life due to the LEDs. Most over a 6 month period. They are on my i-phone and i'll post them asap. I'd like to figure out how put add them as big pics and not thumbnails though. Any input on that please?

 

[007Bond]

Hey S2minute,...I remember following your build long time ago,lol when I was first learning about led.
Here is a good site for pic posting,... I use imgur.com,...I'm not that good on downloading, ripping, ect ect.
This site is really easy. It asks what pics you want to upload from my laptop's saved pics. which creates your photo file. You then click on the picture you want,...it will popup on the screen, then right click the pic.,...click on "copy picture URL" And your good to post on RC or anywhere else. On RC put load it on the insert link,...your good to go.
I really like the enlarge option that comes with the posts. You click on the + anywhere on the pic to enlarge,...pretty cool,---Rick

 

[cugly]

Photobucket is the easiest way to post pic..

 

[S2minute]

Yes!!!!!!!!! SPS Success with Leds! Come in and Share your Story! Reply to Thread

Yes!!!!!!!!! SPS Success with Leds! Come in and Share your Story! Reply to Thread

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/album.php?albumid=8737&pictureid=59610

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/album.php?albumid=8737&pictureid=59605

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/album.php?albumid=8737&pictureid=59606

Eh, i'll figure it out when i have the time and patience You'll see some GHA in these pics, i bought anI2 test kit and the readings were undectable. So i added Lugol's very carefully then observed for just that. I since stopped and the GHA is now mostly brown/white and going. If you care to look, i have other albums that give a description of the fixture in detail and one pic of the old aquascape with PAR readings at different heights.

 

[S2minute]

Yes!!!!!!!!! SPS Success with Leds! Come in and Share your Story!

Yes!!!!!!!!! SPS Success with Leds! Come in and Share your Story!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/album.php?albumid=8737&pictureid=59608

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/album.php?albumid=8737&pictureid=59609

The lastest thing i did. I have a Phosban reactor that i modified with a screen on the bottom. It's T'ed off the return with a ball valve. I used to have ROX 0.8 in it but wanted to try Bio pellets again. I have a 410 gal system and in the reactor all i used was only a small handful of bio pellets. Prob less then 1OZ. This is day 3 and i have noticed greater polyp extension with everything. No bad side effects. The outlet is directly in the DT. The ETSS 1500XR is taking out more When i figure out how to get and post better quality pics i will. The ones i posted are only some of what i have.

 

[007Bond]

See you got it figured out,...nice camera work. You better watch that guy in pic 5, kind of looks like Seymour. lol---Rick

 

[jrpdriver]

Here's where it started almost 2 years ago



and here's a shot from a few days ago…I did move some corals to different locations and swapped out a few for frags that I liked better, but 90% of the originals are there and I never had any health issues



The tank has been under LED lighting the whole time, a Gen 1 Radion in the beginning and then I added TIR lenses and 2 14k Kessils, all 3 LED lights run at 100% intensity for 8.5 hours a day. I am also a big believer that it all come down to water quality, if everything is stable and in-line, than the corals will use as much light as they can get to grow and don't care if it came from an LED or a MH bulb

 

[S2minute]

Yes!!!!!!!!! SPS Success with Leds! Come in and Share your Story! Reply to Thread

Yes!!!!!!!!! SPS Success with Leds! Come in and Share your Story! Reply to Thread

Here's where it started almost 2 years ago



and here's a shot from a few days ago"¦I did move some corals to different locations and swapped out a few for frags that I liked better, but 90% of the originals are there and I never had any health issues



The tank has been under LED lighting the whole time, a Gen 1 Radion in the beginning and then I added TIR lenses and 2 14k Kessils, all 3 LED lights run at 100% intensity for 8.5 hours a day. I am also a big believer that it all come down to water quality, if everything is stable and in-line, than the corals will use as much light as they can get to grow and don't care if it came from an LED or a MH bulb

OMG, that looks like a freaken x-mass tree! Nice job man! :thumbsup:

 

[tannersmith2000]

Nice tank!

It's so awesome to see frags turn into beautiful colonies!

 

[tdb320reef]

Here's where it started almost 2 years ago



and here's a shot from a few days ago"¦I did move some corals to different locations and swapped out a few for frags that I liked better, but 90% of the originals are there and I never had any health issues



The tank has been under LED lighting the whole time, a Gen 1 Radion in the beginning and then I added TIR lenses and 2 14k Kessils, all 3 LED lights run at 100% intensity for 8.5 hours a day. I am also a big believer that it all come down to water quality, if everything is stable and in-line, than the corals will use as much light as they can get to grow and don't care if it came from an LED or a MH bulb

Great progression shot awesome tank!

 

[lumbeejerk]

Any one use reef radiance fixtures? Good with sps ? 27 " deep tank

 

[blackthunda77]

Anyone have any issues with spotlighting from the evergrow (or the like...chinese...) fixtures. One thing that really threw me off was the horrible spotlighting im getting from the red and green leds. I took of the 90 degree optics from the colored LEDs and it helped some. Im only running one fixture at the moment as im still on the fence with switching from MH. my tank is 30 inches front to back and 24 inches high so i dont want to remove too many optics since its not a really shallow tank.

The tank is 60" long and like i said, i only have 1 fixture on right now testing the waters. If i add another 1-2 fixtures would the spotlighting go away? Would the colors blend more?

I also was wondering, since LEDs are so powerful, has anyone considered placing a light diffuser on like this, https://www.inventables.com/categories/electrical-lighting/light-diffusers to help with the blending of the lights?

 

[tdb320reef]

Any one use reef radiance fixtures? Good with sps ? 27 " deep tank

Id Imagine y'd have them 6" or more off of the water so I would look at adding 60 degree optics. This will narrow the light so make sure you have enough coverage.

 

[tdb320reef]

Anyone have any issues with spotlighting from the evergrow (or the like...chinese...) fixtures. One thing that really threw me off was the horrible spotlighting im getting from the red and green leds. I took of the 90 degree optics from the colored LEDs and it helped some. Im only running one fixture at the moment as im still on the fence with switching from MH. my tank is 30 inches front to back and 24 inches high so i dont want to remove too many optics since its not a really shallow tank.

The tank is 60" long and like i said, i only have 1 fixture on right now testing the waters. If i add another 1-2 fixtures would the spotlighting go away? Would the colors blend more?

I also was wondering, since LEDs are so powerful, has anyone considered placing a light diffuser on like this, https://www.inventables.com/categories/electrical-lighting/light-diffusers to help with the blending of the lights?

No issues with spotlighting but I do run my Whites/multicolored very low at abut 10%. But even with them higher I did not notice spotlighting with D120's.

 

[blackthunda77]

Maybe i shouldnt have said "spotlighting" more of like a distinctive red color visible on the rockwork. Like the lights are not COMPLETELY blended together.

 

[blackthunda77]

Another question i have. If i have a fixture that is rated at 165 watts, but i only run the whites at like 40% and blues at 50% am i essentially consuming less electricity? say roughly 80-100 watts?

 

[tdb320reef]

Maybe i shouldnt have said "spotlighting" more of like a distinctive red color visible on the rockwork. Like the lights are not COMPLETELY blended together.

IMO Leds do have a pinkish color to the whites vs MH.

 

[tdb320reef]

Another question i have. If i have a fixture that is rated at 165 watts, but i only run the whites at like 40% and blues at 50% am i essentially consuming less electricity? say roughly 80-100 watts?

Correct- the fixture has an upgraded driver that runs each led at 3W. My past fixtures that would run the bridgelux at 3 W significantly decreased the life of the LED some burning out as soon as a year. I recommend the 120 W fixtures that have a less MA driver running the Leds at 2 W each which is more than enough light per 24 X 16 space.

 

[blackthunda77]

Correct- the fixture has an upgraded driver that runs each led at 3W. My past fixtures that would run the bridgelux at 3 W significantly decreased the life of the LED some burning out as soon as a year. I recommend the 120 W fixtures that have a less MA driver running the Leds at 2 W each which is more than enough light per 24 X 16 space.

I believe thats actually what i do have. I have to double check. I believe its 55x3 leds but running at 2 watts each. Ill have to double check. Thanks for the input.