LEDs, discussion.

[Wicked Color]

I have yet to see a system established under LED that looks jaw dropping.
I have seen many systems that were established under halide or T5, then switched to LED with some very mixed results.
Many/most of the tanks look phenomenal at first, and some corals seem to be unaffected long term. Much of this seems to depend on the light acclimation precautions taken.
However...I have seen many corals, sometimes entire systems that just go downhill after the switch to LED, and at a much higher rate than a switch to/from any other lighting type.
I have seen MANY cases of clams, birdnests, some acros and montis just not doing well under LED, at all. (perhaps singular wavelength isn't enough?)
Thoughts? Experiences? What have you killed with LED? What looks better than ever?

 

[jgonzz]

I went from led back to t5 on my frag tanks. I still use reefbrite strips for the pop on there

I am also getting ready to fire up a 250watt mh, maybe I'm old school lol

 

[dv3]

I went from led back to t5 on my frag tanks. I still use reefbrite strips for the pop on there

I am also getting ready to fire up a 250watt mh, maybe I'm old school lol

didnt you just get radions? ...are you selling the leds?

 

[KhensuRa]

Well for me I have had great results switching over to LED's, yet I had PC lights on my bio-cube before. So far my tank is not jaw dropping, but I really think in a few months once my SPS take off it will be.

Was talking to Ki the other day with Lance and we all chatted over the pro's and cons of LED's. Ki of course switched many of his customer tanks over to LED's and has seen mostly ill effects. Such as coloration loss and death and he is not getting the growth he once did on his maintenance accounts. So Aaron I think you may be right on the wavelength part and we really won't know unless someone does a spectrum analysis on all the different LED manufactures and then compare them to MH and t5's. One thing that I would like to see is a led tank with all the new led colors on it for a few months to see if they help at all.

 

[jgonzz]

didnt you just get radions? ...are you selling the leds?

Still have the radions, but the tank they were on is no more

 

[Metalsniper]

I can't find the link anymore but I seem to recall there was a pretty good spread on led lighting in it a while back.

 

[68sting]

People forget there's no shortage of sub par T5 and halide tanks out there. You can find the same story of people that switched to T5 and didn't like the results. Locally Zoalander, Chris Capp, Murphman ect have great LED tanks and there's a ton on the internet. Some tanks like certain light and its a mystery why.

 

[Haddonisreef]

My 180 is jaw dropping IMO! and doing fine w Chinese 120 watt! And reefbrights! Also all nems are doing fine under radion but has only been 2 weeks!

 

[djkms]

I have been running LEDs exclusively on my current build for over a year now. I have grown SPS, LPS, softies, zoas, etc under them. Coloration is something I have struggled with but I believe this to be mainly due to the couple of nutrient and alk spikes I had over the year. I hope to have my system fine tuned now where I shouldn't see spikes this year and hope to see some coloration improvements soon. I don't believe my lighting to be the issue of my tank not looking "stunning" but more so me depending on macros alone to remove nutrients in a heavily stocked tank. I now vodka/vinegar dose and am seeing improvements already.

A lot of old schoolers are not convinced of LED's yet but if they truly do not work then why are so many hobbyists and companies investing their time and money into the technology?

 

[Cake_Boss]

I can't find the link anymore but I seem to recall there was a pretty good spread on led lighting in it a while back.

It's it the one with Sanjay in it?

People forget there's no shortage of sub par T5 and halide tanks out there. You can find the same story of people that switched to T5 and didn't like the results. Locally Zoalander, Chris Capp, Murphman ect have great LED tanks and there's a ton on the internet. Some tanks like certain light and its a mystery why.

Yours was pretty good also, why did you take it down?

 

[Metalsniper]

I think it was the one with Sanjay, though I don't really remember anymore.

 

[SAZAMA]

trusty old MH and T5 combo here, I still dont trust the leds yet.

 

[SteveT]

The Dec/Jan Issue of Coral Magazine has a very in depth write up about LED's and I think Sanjay was involved

 

[reef dummy]

Check out Craigar's thread here on MASC, he has a 300g mixed reef that looks incredible. He switched to 3 ai sols months ago and has had great success. I've seen it in person, it has convinced me to switch to led's when money permits.

 

[dv3]

love my EVO's ...cant go wrong for the price

nothing beats VHO actinics for color IMO

 

[subpotentjoe]

We are just scratching the surface of LED technology. I do think you are going to see more colored LEDs come into the mix in the future. MH can cover a broad spectrum and t5s are mixed and matched to cover a broader spectrum. I think it was a mistake from the beginning to have such a narrow view on which LEDs to use when we already knew that the other successful light sources covered broad spectrums. I think there is a much bigger part of the equation than 450-460 and cool white for success. I also think the problem most people have when they first switch over is that alot of our corals have been growing under t5 and MH for a long time and they have a tough time adjusting to LED. Just like wild colonies can have a tough time adjusting to MH or T5. According to Apogee and how their meter works we also really do not know exactly how much PAR the Blue LEDs are putting out so we may be using too much light especially the more Blue biased LED setups. I went from an ATI t5 fixture to diy LED and lost every single one of my SPS colonies (near the top of the tank) within 3 weeks. Two five gallon buckets full of bleached colonies. The only change to my tank were the LEDs. I also think that LEDs look much dimmer than t5 and MH to the naked eye but with more PAR output. Most of my LPS and Zoas/Palys on or near the bottom are doing awesome. Also in my experience Montis hate LED. Lost all of my original colonies within a week and have not been able to keep any frags since. I do not want to go completely away from LED becuase I love the look and the lack of heat but I think an LED/T5 combo is the way to go for the next couple of years. My advice to anyone doing a diy setup is to combo retro t5s and LED because imho the corals will adjust better and you can move corals under the LEDs closer to the t5s at the first sign of distress. Maybe 70% LED and 30% T5 to light the tank (untapped market). I do think that there are some very successful LED tanks out there but for some reason corals are more difficult to photograph well under LED. Most of the amazing tanks we see are in pictures or video and not in person. The big tank in Cris' place is pretty amazing and LED lit. If I was a coral retailer using LED I would have a MH or T5 fixture just for pictures. My statements are based on opinion and experience except for Apogee realeasing a statement that their meter does not measure Blue LED correctly. Its time to start thinking outside the box with LED. My plan in the near future is to use less LEDs, more brands (cree, phillips, bridgelux, epistar), more colors (Royal Blue, Blue, Warm White, Cool White, a few Red, a few Green, some UV) and a couple of retro t5s.

 

[that0neguy1126]

My 180 is jaw dropping IMO! and doing fine w Chinese 120 watt! And reefbrights! Also all nems are doing fine under radion but has only been 2 weeks!

I will agree. Charlies tank was supper nice under the LEDs.

My new tank is under LED's also, I am having great growth on my SPS and Zoa's. I love the option to dial in whatever color temp I want with my LEDs. There are also a lot of options like sunrise/sunset that emulate nature better than you can with T5 or MH.
The article you guys are talking about was in Coral Online edition from about 3 months ago. Lots of wonderful data comparing LED to other technologies.

Go look at the RC TOTM pictures (i know you hate that place), but there are more than enough jaw dropping tanks running LEDs there.

 

[lpsouth1978@msn.com]

I have had LED's over my tank for about 8 months now and have had great success. Of course, I also have a mix of blue, royal blue, cool white, neutral white, red, and UV. everything has been growing well and has great color. Here is a current, though not great, pic of the tank taken with my phone.

 

[that0neguy1126]

That is also one of the challenges. Taking a picture from something lit by LEDs is much much much more difficult to get right than MH or T5s

 

[bigsittingrock]

Hey Joe want to try out a sunset and superwomen monti? I have good frags taking up valuable space. They have done well under my evo.