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

[jdamon]

I realize that my tank is no where near mature or as sweet as some of the above, but I wanted to share my experience thus far with LED. I have a Pac sun "hybrid" S pannel fixture, and have had the tank going for 5 months so far. Got a bunch of high quality frags in April, and have been adding more slowly along the way. The frags were from mother colonies lit by MH (radiums to be exact), and some of them are not particularly hardy. So, I was a bit concerned about the transition to LED/T5 (for the coral), and was not convinced that LED would support the SPS corals that I desired in general. Long story short, everything has been going well, only lost one coral (knock on wood) and it was the very first night it was in the tank. They are all growing and looking pretty good color wise. I didn't have very good color until more recently, and I was worried it was the LED's, but low and behold it my over use of GFO. I turned that down a bit, and wah la, beautiful colors. Obviously the tank needs to grow out a lot, but I am confident that the LED/T5 lights are fine for SPS.


Lime in the sky, turquoise hoek, LA lakers monti

Green eflo

blue tort

 

[jdamon]

Red dragon is growing like crazy, that one really surprised me! And all the montis are growing very fast as well, but that seems pretty standard.

 

[OrionN]

Red Dragon

Wild Caught Teal Acro

Minh"s Tricolor
This coral I had for 15 years

Australia Acro I got From Glenn at Coral Gardens Aquaculture

Another from Coral Gardens Aquaculture

And another

And another

And another

 

[OrionN]

And another from Coral Gardens Aquaculture

My Mariculture Teal and Blue Acro

Another from Coral Gardens Aquaculture

Not an SPS but nice nevertheless

 

[am.gee]

Hi,
i am also a successful user of leds in my tank. I decided to build my own led, because of poor features and high costs of current fixtures on the market. My previous lighting was a MH/T8/T5 combi which was fine nevertheless. I am absolutely happy with my new lighting (running since march this year) and i can say some of the corals are doing better under led. I have to say that i build my led so that its light intensity is comparable to the old lighting. I could even do better and the tank is now brighter than before with MH/T5

some more info about the lighting here:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2418979

 

[007Bond]

Wow Michael,....beautiful! I really like how you have your rockwork set up. Do you have it glued together?---Rick

 

[am.gee]

Wow Michael,....beautiful! I really like how you have your rockwork set up. Do you have it glued together?---Rick

Hi Rick,
thanks

most of the rockwork in the tank was built by the corals itself. Only on the left side some rocks are glued together, yes. The tank is now 5 years old.

 

[Dummyforclownfi]

Holy poop!

 

[007Bond]

Very cool :thumbsup: I watched your youtube video on your light and controller.
My multichip fixture with a Jarduino controller is a work in progress. I'm going to read your thread...see if I can learn something new.---Rick

 

[Dummyforclownfi]

Oooo definitely post links!

 

[bdsage]

what about real time water temp...

 

[am.gee]

what about real time water temp...

the weather station sends no data for that, afaik it would need chiller and heater (too much technical equipment which could fail, for me).
I even thought about to let in rain in the tank for auto top off Of course only when it rains on Caymans....

 

[007Bond]

Let it rain for ato, :lol:,....first time I have came across that idea. Did you write all your coding.---Rick

 

[am.gee]

Let it rain for ato, :lol:,....first time I have came across that idea. Did you write all your coding.---Rick

yes, absolutely everything coded by myself. most fun and sometimes most difficult was the arduino code.

 

[007Bond]

I'm just trying to get my mind around arduino coding,...nothing like you have done, but simple on/off timing controlling relay shields,...kind of fun.---Rick

 

[am.gee]

I'm just trying to get my mind around arduino coding,...nothing like you have done, but simple on/off timing controlling relay shields,...kind of fun.---Rick

oh relay shields... inductive loads, that was pain in the ***... theoretically everything works, then you connect things to the shield, ldd's for example, then you turn all on and the arduino goes crazy :hmm5:
i de-installed my 8 channel relay board after that... i must say that i am not an electronics expert, it was my first project with arduino and electronic stuff.

 

[Fredfish]

I'm surprised nobody has linked to the August TOTM yet. Its a beautiful tank using only cool white and royal blue LEDs.

 

[007Bond]

oh relay shields... inductive loads, that was pain in the ***... theoretically everything works, then you connect things to the shield, ldd's for example, then you turn all on and the arduino goes crazy :hmm5:
i de-installed my 8 channel relay board after that... i must say that i am not an electronics expert, it was my first project with arduino and electronic stuff.

I use the relays to get rid of 110v power supplies ie. if my WP60 requires 24vDC, I feed the relay with 24v so when the arduino calls for the pump to come on,... the output pin from the arduino turns on the relay.
I guess were getting little off topic for the thread.---Rick

 

[jdm1114]

I'm surprised nobody has linked to the August TOTM yet. Its a beautiful tank using only cool white and royal blue LEDs.

I agree, this tank is one of the nicest tanks I've seen! And it was accomplished with LEDs. More white LEDS than blue!

 

[DavidinGA]

For those having success with ONLY leds how do you over come the shadowing die off issues?

I've had reef breeders leds for a year or so and have decent growth but the bases always tend to die off as you can see in the pic.