Lighting??? Keep my MH or jump ship & go to LED's

[Clint24]

Hello again. First off, just wanna say that macna was a great experience. I'm glad I was able to enjoy it in my own backyard, persay!!!

Ok, down to business. I have had my Hamilton tech light fixture for about 10 years or so now. It has 3-250 watt MH & 2-5' t12vho actinics. Although I really like the light intensity I don't really like the cons to it--high energy bill, high heat, changing bulb every 9 months...etc. I've been debating changing to LED's but there are so many mixed thoughts/advice about them.
My tank is 72"x 24"x 30" high. My current little stock list includes-- plate montiporas (red, green & purple), green birds nest, chalice, couple of acans, some palys, soft colt corals, green toadstool & rainbow bubble tip nem. Going for a mixed reef...eventually!!
While at macna I visited with nick from buildmyled & I really liked his product but was wondering if anyone has used his lights & if they were as good as he makes them sound. I'm worried about penetrating 30" of water. I am considering going with 3 of his strips (front, middle back) & using his tank mounts so they would be right on top not hanging above, & was also going to have them on a fully programmable controller.
Any thoughts/advice or other input would be appreciated. Even if there are other/better LED fixtures that uall would recommend would also be great. I know the good ones are pricey but if I can find one that will work on my setup it would pay for itself in a little over a 2 years ( if my math right)!!!! . Thanks.


CD

 

[Joeys Tank]

I love my LEDs. My tank depth is about 26" and the LEDs doing very well penetrating to the sandbed. Controllers make them very nice along with dimmer switches. The controller allows programmable sunrise, sunset, setting top level of light intensity, etc while dimmer swithces allow me to manually scale back the light while introducing new coral without altering the controller program.

I believe any set up you go with will meet your needs. I definitely love the no heat, low power consumption, no bulb replacement aspects.

 

[Snid]

What are the specs on Nick's LEDs? That would answer your question. Different LEDs have different strength, colors, and spread.

 

[StirCrayzy]

I searched around on his site, and couldn't find specs. Makes me suspicious, but then again, I only searched for 10 minutes
I'm curious tho.

 

[sirrealism]

I would make the jump to LEDs. If you were keeping high end SPS I would say no but with the stock list you have LEDs will do great

 

[Clint24]

I would make the jump to LEDs. If you were keeping high end SPS I would say no but with the stock list you have LEDs will do great

Well I do plan on trying for a mixed reef, so what are some examples of the high end sps corals that won't do good under LED's?






CD

 

[BigAl07]

I've yet to see any coral that "doesn't do good under LED" at least in that broad term. One of the big problems with LED is we are still learning so much about them and how to properly "tune" them. I've seen some simply AMAZING tanks with ultra highend SPS thriving under LED systems. It really comes down to acclimation and user knowledge.

Not all LED are created equal and many times (not always of course) you get what you pay for when it comes to LED.

 

[BigAl07]

I would make the jump to LEDs. If you were keeping high end SPS I would say no but with the stock list you have LEDs will do great

I think what he's saying (and please correct me if I am wrong sirrealism) is that highend SPS are more sensitive and less likely to tolerate less than high quality LED lighting. Just like any other technology in this hobby you can get crap LED or high quality LED. With the right controller/LED system you can grow literally any coral from no/low light up to the highest light demanding coral and everything in between. If you skimp on light quality (or if you simply don't know for sure) then you wouldn't want to invest the time and money in high end SPS.


Is that close to right sirrealism ?

 

[reefer gladness]

Not all LED are created equal and many times (not always of course) you get what you pay for when it comes to LED.

The 'buildmyled' vendor mentioned by OP says it uses a combination of 1-watt and 3-watt LED's but offers very little information specific information. In general you want 3-watt LED's on ALL channels, especially for a tank described by OP with SPS corals and nems. The problem with 1-watt LED's is apparent in the PAR levels reported by the vendor - they simply do not penetrate the water as well as the higher powered 3-watt and 5-watt LED's that have been available for awhile now.

I'm a big believer in LED's and would NOT recommend that vendor to OP. You truly do get what you pay for here.

 

[BigAl07]

Here is an example of a high end tank with amazing coral (and clam) running under a high-end LED (GHL Mitras) fixture.

 

[sirrealism]

BigAl is right on. I run LEDs on all of my tanks but the tuning is diffacult. Where MH or T5 is more forgiving and the corals you have listed are more forgiving to LED lighting. With MH the spectrum is wide and covers what the corals need. T5s you know to mix a couple colors so you get the spectrum you need. When you have LEDs you have so many options its not simple to know if your getting enough of one color or another. Seems the color missing in most LEDs is the low 400sNM. When you have just 2 channels its super hard to get color right. Since you make a change SPS take a long time to show you it likes that color or amount of that color that it can take months to years to get it right.

 

[Mayja]

Hey! I wish I knew you were at MACNA! I would have said hi and invited you to join us at the banquet table.

I would also consider checking out our sponsor, Reef Radiance, for LED options as well.

 

[Snid]

Wattage on LEDs isn't a true indicator on PAR (or PUR) strength or penetration. I am trying to find a link to a discussion about that from the past, If I can find it, I'll link it.

 

[Clint24]

I searched around on his site, and couldn't find specs. Makes me suspicious, but then again, I only searched for 10 minutes
I'm curious tho.

Yeah I checked out his site for a while & couldn't really find specs either. All I found was he uses Phillips LEDs in his unit so then I checked out their site but that doesn't really explain a whole lot either. Guess I will keep researching.....


CD

 

[Clint24]

Thank u all for the info. I will keep doing some research on LEDs & will also check out the reef radiance site. Penetration on a big tank is my biggest concern. Would uall recommend a strip led fixture or more of a pendulum?


CD

 

[Snid]

I would recommend going with a strip whenever possible, but again it all depends on the lights used and how they are mounted. Logically speaking, if a pendant and a strip had the same LEDs installed on them, the strip would have more spread and more effectiveness than the pendant.

 

[Choff]

Anytime you switch lights (or any other major component) you risk having some issues. When I first went from t5 to led some things that were doing well were not and others reversed fortune. Overall I would say things were slightly worse. I have since added back in a couple of t5s and now I'm very happy with the solution. I think hybrid is the way to go.

Results may vary...

...stupid auto correct

 

[PSU4ME]

All great info here and you're tank definitely seems like a good candidate to switch over to LEDs. I won't rehash the points already made but i'll offer this. Not all "quality" LED units have to be expensive. It first starts with the components, then controlability, then look, then fancy things then company name. Some people are DIY people and then there are the rest of us that rely on the name of a company to provide a tried and tested product with support behind it. Find out where you stand on that spectrum and that should help you in your research.

Personally, I went with the radions and while I like the LEDs, I would probably go with a different kind next time because I i'm not a fan of the LEDs being concentrated in just two pucks on the fixture, I'd prefer more spread.

While manufacturers "tune" the LEDs like Allen said, I as a consumer "tune" my wants too.......fun little game

Good luck!

 

[StirCrayzy]

Quality LEDs are crucial, if Nick isn't advertising the guts of his product, send an email politely requesting the specifics and see what the response is.

Snid, I think I remember the thread about LED wattage, but I can't remember where that was.
The key to LED penetration is a combo the LUMENs output (at designed amperage) combined with the lenses focus angle.
Currently I've not seen any good comparison chart or standard to compare with our prior standards of wattage which can be fairly universal when dealing with MH and even T5HO.

I jumped ship and haven't looked back. Though I did leave room to supplement with T5s , because I'm on the Hybrid bandwagon too
Honestly I haven't run the T5s very much because I didn't want too much light spurring on my algae growth.

 

[Crazyeyes]

I would make the jump to LEDs. If you were keeping high end SPS I would say no but with the stock list you have LEDs will do great

We're gonna have a serious talk man when I see you lol. On another note, I say make the plunge to LED. I've expressed this on several occasions, I believe light is light. I don't care if it comes from LED, MH, T5, PC whatever, the fact is aslong as the spectrum is correct and it's intense enough it is going to grow coral, and even SPS. I truly believe that where a lot of people may have fumbled in the past is the lack of the lower 400nm i.e the 405nm and 430nm which chlorophyll a and b absorb so much of. Now I'm not saying MH isn't a great option, to be honest with you, if I have unlimited funds and didn't have to worry about power bills, bulb replacement and heat I'd probably run MH. With that said, I don't have unlimited funds and I am 100% confidant that LEDs will grow and color up SPS. I know there is the startup cost of LEDs, so I have about $550-$600 in my lights and it is way overbuilt for my tank and guess what, it's done, no bulb replacement etc.