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

[sahin]

As I said above, spectrum range was an issue. Newer LED products addressed it. In my experience, the next issue is the unidirectional nature of LED's. They are essentially a bunch of tiny point-source lights. There isn't a lot of refraction at play. This causes a lot of hard shadows, which is a serious problem with branching corals. Plating corals don't see to mind. This was also an issue with Metal Halides till we started using smarter reflectors. I actually switched back to metal halides for a while until I started looking at ways to solve it with LED's. Santoki's thread led to some clues, as did some conclusions of my own. I'm starting to figure this LED thing out. That said, LED's grow corals just fine. You just have to be a little smarter with them.

The ice fire echinata was grown out from a single polyp. Yup, a single polyp! We're talking about starting with millimeters. I have to keep an eye on that fast growing pink millipora and make sure he doesn't overshadow the ice fire. Bad placement is my fault.

My tank is no TOTM material.

Finally I come across someone who thinks the same way about LED's! :eek1:

IMO you are absolutely correct in your assertions regarding the point source nature of LED's and a lack of refraction.

Take a look at the angle spread of most LED's and you will find that probably close to 60% of the light is concentrated within the 30 degree range.

Even though halides are a point source, the use of specific designed reflectors ensure the light is spread over not only a larger area, but the light is bouncing off in all different angles and directions.

I believe the future of LED's to come must address this issue and be able to radiate light onto the corals in the same pattern as either T5 or halides do.

IMO the GHL Mitras is quite good in this respect; no optics with 6 clusters of LEDs.

Mark, it appears from the reflections you are using several clusters of LED's. I would like to know more about your thoughts and ideas and exactly what you have employed to counter the lack of refraction.

I wonder if any of the LED light manufacturers will be utilising metal halide or even T5 like reflectors to illuminate the aquarium evenly.

PS, your corals look VERY nice; I will looking at your tank thread :thumbsup:

 

[marc49127]

There is always one of these guys that have to pop up on a good thread!!!:headwally:

Pefect example of a LED lit tank. Leggy growth. Not fully saturated colors. Mosty millis, stags, montis and LPS. No deep blue acropora, no ice fire echinata, no solid purples, no acans grown from frag to colony. LEDs work but have limits and if you are a new reefer reading this thread you need to be reminded of the overwhelming zeal that LED users seem to have. LEDs work but have limitations.



Most of your corals are newly purchased as evidenced by their cement bases. Show us your tank in 2 years.




Take a look at this video. I don't agree totally, but the point is another major reefer who thinks LEDs are not perfected . . .


AA and Mike on LEDs

 

[Chicago]

THAT looks like good growth and colors to me.. i would gladly take those colors and say good bye to a chiller, ballasts and bulbs.

just my two cents..

 

[TarheelReefer22]

Went from 250 w mh to leds about a month ago never looked back and don't plan to! Growth rates increased color more vibrant don't have to qorry about bulbs fading or replacing (which with halides its expensive) oh and best off all since I switched my power bill got cut in half !!!

 

[Zstriker]

Went from 250 w mh to leds about a month ago never looked back and don't plan to! Growth rates increased color more vibrant don't have to qorry about bulbs fading or replacing (which with halides its expensive) oh and best off all since I switched my power bill got cut in half !!!

Can u post a pic to show your success?

 

[tmantaylor18]

Fast forward to 29.12 and listen to the expert in lighting whom is by the way running Radions. Mike is all over the place and point in case not being able to keep euphillia under led is surprising. I have my entire tank lined in euphillia and never had issues other than slight bleaching. I agree with SanJay, that it is not the lighting and that he needs to move to full spectrum but ultimately something else is going on. I am very surprised he is running an experiment with yesterdays technology(non-full spectrum). Both points here dismissed and IMO prove nothing! One glowing point is that SanJay whom is the expert in lighting is also having SPS success under LEDS!

BTW whom said LEDS or anything is the hobby were perfect?

BTW he just turned his skimmer on. Remember he is a proponent of not skimming and using/(cough sponsoring) Miracle Mud. Perhaps the Mold remediation spray and the Miracle Mud had a negative chemical reaction... LOL

Lost respect for Mike after watching this. Sanjay seems a little embarrassed to be there with him lol

 

[biggles]

There's no doubt that successful LED only SPS tanks are quite achievable and you guys have posted pics of some beautiful and very colorful displays. I run halide/T5 over my display but have a 120W Chinese blue/white LED unit over the sump frag tank and it keeps everything alive but not as colorful which i put down to the lack of fuller spectrum lighting and poor circulation. The one acro that lost all pink was the SCC under the LED, do any of you have it growing with the classic pink coloration under full spectrum LED's as i don't think i've seen it grown under LED only lighting. I'm thinking about upgrading my LED unit to a better one spectrum wise and just want to know if i can expect the SCC to keep color basically - that's my LED pass/fail test lol.

 

[lovelia_renatha]

my sps under LED 96 G include sump

very color full

good job

 

[Chicago]

Well I thought my new leds were causing some issues with my corals.. I just bumped up my alk...over the past few days.. i covered the holding area in the sump where i put the frags in first to recover and later glue in the DT. they are responding well. color is coming back.

getting happy..

 

[Zstriker]

my sps under LED 96 G include sump

very color full

Do you have any growth shots? These corals look like they were very recently glued into place, hence the lack of encrusting, large frag mounts everywhere, and equal colony sizes for corals that have different growth speeds.

Before I could agree with others that you are having great growth, I would need to see progression shots as I cannot assess growth with a single still image.

I would be thrilled if you could post growth shots, as I am thinking of moving to led.

Thx!

 

[Henry Colf]

I run 2x119 watt Chinese fixtures over my 90 gal. I have been running them for over 2 years now. They are the 20k version and the bulb ratio is 3 blues to 1 white. When I first got them I really thought I made a huge mistake as the corals started to get very light and didn't look good at all. I had to suck it up because I had already sold my other lights and my wife would have killed me if I told her I needed to buy the same set up I had just sold. So I basically ran the whites for only 4 hours a day and the blues for 10 hours a day for about a month and slowly over many weeks. Even after this the corals still looked like crap, but after about 4-6 months something happened and they started coloring up again. I believe that they just need more time to acclimate to the LEDS than they would under MH/T-5's. This is just my opinion. I an extremely happy with the growth and colors and will never go back. So here are some pictures of my success....










As far as my opinion goes the 3 basic fundamentals of reef keeping still apply and that is to have good water quality, lighting and flow...

 

[DON NOLAN]

Your have very good color under leds Henry. How far above the water are you keeping the lights?

 

[Henry Colf]

Your have very good color under leds Henry. How far above the water are you keeping the lights?

Thanks Don, They are 12 inches off the top of the tank. I now run the blues for 12 hrs and the whites for 8. The only additives to the tank are BRS 2 part and I drip kalk 24/7 at the rate of about 10 drops per min. I also run ROX carbon passively in a bag in the sump.

 

[tdb320reef]

June Update

June Update

Morning All- I know it is 4AM but my Central Air went out and I am running the lights overnight (while it is cool). I need to completely replace the CA unit which is not going to happen until sometime this week.
This summer I had a couple of setbacks with the switch to Rox .08 carb and running too much which removed too much dissolved organics which is not good in a nitrate/phosphate absent ULNS. Simultaneously I had some low alk issues Kalk stirrer jammed up for a week with the incredible demand my tanks requires the margin of error need to be minimal, it dropped to 5ish. Both of these issues resulted in some Basel recession and coral bleaching. Unfortunately I had to break up a few large colonies like my red dragon.
On a better note I standardized on the evergrow lights and love the color. Below are some pictures of the recovery in progress and the incredible color these lights are providing. Another interesting fact is that these new lights are running much more efficient from 13 amps down to 8 for 12 fixtures at the usual par measurements.

 

[tdb320reef]

Pictures Continued

Pictures Continued

 

[sahin]

Well, I dont think anyone can argue with those photos! White balance is quite good, and there isnt overuse of BLUE, which can accentuate the greens and blues, but leaves reds and orange looking lacking; so well done with this LED setup.

I am sure the colours are even better in person. :thumbsup:

 

[Chicago]

tdb... wow.. nice... what percentages are you now running the white channel and the blue channel..

thanks

 

[tdb320reef]

Well, I dont think anyone can argue with those photos! White balance is quite good, and there isnt overuse of BLUE, which can accentuate the greens and blues, but leaves reds and orange looking lacking; so well done with this LED setup.

I am sure the colours are even better in person. :thumbsup:

Thank You for the kind words. I think I finally got the DSlR figured out. Getting rid of my magenta stunner strips also help with more natural pics. I recently changed my biopellet reactor from full flow to recirculating type so hopefully a trace of trates will help boost the color of some of the corals.

 

[tdb320reef]

tdb... wow.. nice... what percentages are you now running the white channel and the blue channel..

thanks

Thanks! The value fixtures only have a resistance based dimmers. I have the Blues exactly at the half point and the Whites/Multicolor slighty higher than a quarter. The 4 Apollo's in the back that I control with the apex are 65% Blue and 45% Whites. The color reminds me of my 6 Blue +, Blue Special and Purple Plus T5 combo that I use to run.

 

[Chicago]

nicee.... no room for the fish to sleepppppl.... oooch.. very very nice color.