Steve's LEDs

Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
Kman237 said:
Awesome! You make me feel 100% more confident I can do this. I'm going to read through the instruction now. Make a back up plan and then probably place my order.

Thank you so much for the detailed reply. I really appreciate it. Again thank you! I will let you know when I start my installation. I've been reading through this thread a few times now. Making sure to gather all the tips yall have provided.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear. I'm happy to help once you start your install as well.

Personally, I found pre-reading instructions only helps so much. I just couldn't tell what they meant until I got the lights and opened the hood and could see what was happening. So, don't be too intimidated if you don't know what the instructions mean prior to starting. It makes more sense as you go and can see what they mean.
 
StevesLEDs

StevesLEDs

RS Sponsor
Just a quick update to this thread. Steve's LEDs is constantly taking feedback from all of our customers, and improving our products whenever necessary.

A special thanks to Pat for the feedback, and we greatly appreciate your effort and feedback.

Here at Steve's LEDs, we are make aquarium enthusiasts first, not just some company looking to get rich. I personally have given up a great paying job to work here, making less than half what I was making 6 years ago. But now I am literally than 5 times happier working here at Steve's, serving customers just like you guys, that is my favorite thing.

You would be hard pressed to find a company that cares more than Steve's. Steve is constantly reminding us (employees) things like : how would you want the issue to be addressed if you were the customer, - pack the orders like they are a gift for a close family member, - build that order like it is your final masterpiece, - how can you treat today's customers like they are our best friends, etc, ect, etc you get the idea.

Feel free to call me or text me at 985-789-6604 and I will be glad to personally assist you.

Thanks guys, you are the best!
Jeff
 
Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
Thanks, Jeff!

As you can see many on this forum have been a huge supporter of Steve's for a while. This forum is why I got them and I'm sure many others.

Clearly the installations have had their bumps here and there and this thread has been one way for us the help sort through it.

I know you were of great help to me giving me advice when I bought mine. Your expertise and competence was quite clear. (I didn't need help on the install itself so we didn't work together on that). And, I'm sure we will benefit from your help on these threads.

It isn't an easy thing to set up instructions for those of us who aren't DIY and anxious about something as critical as our lighting, but I'm sure you will do your best. :)
 
IanReefer

IanReefer

Member
I had a question about the best way to set the Typhon to account for my odd work schedule. After hunting around for 5 minutes online getting frustrated since few other people probably have this issue, I thought I'd give Jeff from Steve's a call. Lets just say I'm impressed how much this guy knows, and he is friendly to talk with.

My work shifts are hetic, and sometimes I go into work at noon and work till 10P. That said, I normally drive home and unwind for a few hours like most other people, and I unwind best in front of my aquariums. Well, my lights are normally off at that time, so whats the point of an aquarium if you can't sit in front of it and relax amirite? Well, Jeff said that he had the same issue a few years back, and to set the aquarium's schedule to match my own - Fish don't care what time of day it is outside, they only care about the time of day inside the aquarium. So long as it is consistent from day to day, scheduling doesn't make much difference. Makes sense right? This past Wed, after talking with Jeff, I set my typhoon sunrise to start at 11am, and now sunset is at 1:00Pm.

Its been a couple days now and I would like to confirm, my corals appear to be perfectly happy staying up "late" with me, and I get to enjoy them more. Now if I get home at a decent hour, like 6pm, my lights are on, and when I get home late, my lights are on - win win. Maybe this seems obvious to most folks, I was definitely concerned about switching up the schedule like this since my chalice and acan are more nocturnal and didn't want to mess up the feeding schedule with it. I have a very personable Starry Blenny (despite being not the most colorful fish, he is great. It's on the inside what counts right?). Starry usually finds his hidy hole for sleeping moments before the lights go out, so the sally crab won't get him (likes to eat fish fins). The first night, Starry seemed to get caught off guard, and let the lights go out while he was still kissing the algae off the glass (thats what the kids call it). He seemed to panic since there are no moonlights in that tank. I put the lights back on a 1% for 5 min so he could get situated, then put them back off, no biggie. Well, the next night (last Thurs), he was already in his favorite hole when the lights went out. He learned in 1 day folks!

Just wanted to confirm this works 100% in case anyone else had a similar issue and could not find a good answer without risking their own aquarium. Set your ligthing schedule around your work schedule and enjoy your aquarium.
 
Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
IanReefer said:
I had a question about the best way to set the Typhon to account for my odd work schedule. After hunting around for 5 minutes online getting frustrated since few other people probably have this issue, I thought I'd give Jeff from Steve's a call. Lets just say I'm impressed how much this guy knows, and he is friendly to talk with.

My work shifts are hetic, and sometimes I go into work at noon and work till 10P. That said, I normally drive home and unwind for a few hours like most other people, and I unwind best in front of my aquariums. Well, my lights are normally off at that time, so whats the point of an aquarium if you can't sit in front of it and relax amirite? Well, Jeff said that he had the same issue a few years back, and to set the aquarium's schedule to match my own - Fish don't care what time of day it is outside, they only care about the time of day inside the aquarium. So long as it is consistent from day to day, scheduling doesn't make much difference. Makes sense right? This past Wed, after talking with Jeff, I set my typhoon sunrise to start at 11am, and now sunset is at 1:00Pm.

Its been a couple days now and I would like to confirm, my corals appear to be perfectly happy staying up "late" with me, and I get to enjoy them more. Now if I get home at a decent hour, like 6pm, my lights are on, and when I get home late, my lights are on - win win. Maybe this seems obvious to most folks, I was definitely concerned about switching up the schedule like this since my chalice and acan are more nocturnal and didn't want to mess up the feeding schedule with it. I have a very personable Starry Blenny (despite being not the most colorful fish, he is great. It's on the inside what counts right?). Starry usually finds his hidy hole for sleeping moments before the lights go out, so the sally crab won't get him (likes to eat fish fins). The first night, Starry seemed to get caught off guard, and let the lights go out while he was still kissing the algae off the glass (thats what the kids call it). He seemed to panic since there are no moonlights in that tank. I put the lights back on a 1% for 5 min so he could get situated, then put them back off, no biggie. Well, the next night (last Thurs), he was already in his favorite hole when the lights went out. He learned in 1 day folks!

Just wanted to confirm this works 100% in case anyone else had a similar issue and could not find a good answer without risking their own aquarium. Set your ligthing schedule around your work schedule and enjoy your aquarium.
Click to expand...


Great feedback!

BTW, what I am doing for "moonlights" is just using my LEDs. I set the "min" setting on channels 1 and 3 (my blues..) to 5%. I got that advice here and it seems to work well. I played around with 1, 5, and 10% and settled on 5, but even 1 was fine.

I'm not aware that there is any problem doing this and it is visually much better then the moonlights that came with the aquarium.

Someone tell me if this is a bad idea. :). Seems to work. Looks fantastic!
 
StevesLEDs

StevesLEDs

RS Sponsor
Pat,
Thanks for your comments on the moonlighting. Having moonlights too bright actually can create a problem. If they are too bright, then your diurnal corals won't go to sleep, and your nocturnal corals won't wake up at night to feed. This causes undue stress on many types of corals. The key to know the exact amount is to first - error on the "too little light" side, then always pay attention to the coral polyp size. If something seems off, such as polyps not coming out or partially open, etc it is a sign that they are likely confused about the circadian cycle and didn't properly rest at night. If that's the case, just back off the intensity.

I have all my personal aquariums (those without dedicated moonlight systems) set at 0% on the whites and 1% on the blues for moonlights.

It is a personal belief of mine that we are going to "borrow" animals from the wild, we must do our best to give them what they need first, and meet our needs second. That said, I leave daytime for coral viewing, and night time for not viewing, but giving just enough light for my fish to be comfortable and not in total darkness.

Jeff
 
Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
Jeff,

Thanks for the feedback. I was running it at 0% whites and 1% blues for a while and that seemed to work fine. 10% blues felt too bright so that lasted about 10 minutes. 5% blues doesn't feel bad, doesn't appear to be brighter than a moonlight strip I used to have in there, and my corals seem to be acting normal, but maybe I'll crank it back down to 1% just to be safe based on your post.

1% blues still looked better than the moonlights that come with the tank. I was totally fine with it. It really isn't visually all that different than 5%.
 
dgilbert2

dgilbert2

Well-Known Member
I've now read through all this thread over the last couple of evenings, a really good source of information, both good and not so good :):(

I've been considering upgrading my own C130 and as I have an engineering background the technical side does not phase me. But I'm left well and truly on the fence, there seems to be a lot of technical issues reported but support from stevesleds always gets things sorted in the end it seems (Time the instructions got improved though based on all this feedback!). Then I'm left wondering will I go to all this trouble and expense, finding the optimum % lighting levels, just to get back to where my T5's left off today? (Ignoring lamp replacement costs and heat issues)

I want the upgrade primariy because I've been blown away how good corals look under LED's when at my LFS and wanted the same at home. If the corals then flourish and grow then a massive positive factor too. Whist some have commented on the latter, I'm not sure how widely this benefit is seen. I want a thriving beautiful tank with "wow factor", not worrying about % levels all the time?

:seahorse:
 
Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
Aesthetics are so personal I can't possibly tell you if you will be happy with it or not.

I will say that the WOW factor is definitely one of the things I really like about them. The LEDs really make the colors pop and are easily adjustable to your personal preference. I also really like the shimmering effect.

The coolness factor is one of the biggest pluses about LEDs in my mind.

That said, that's all personal taste. So, will you be happy? I dunno.

There is also no good way I've found to capture what it really looks like in pictures. The blues come out horrible in photos.

On installation, it really isn't bad at all (most of the time). Almost all the things that are problems are super simple where a lack of knowledge makes them hard. My installation didn't go bad, it just took time to figure stuff out...just like any new project. With the improved instructions and improved support, hopefully that would be better.
 
dgilbert2

dgilbert2

Well-Known Member
I'm getting closer to ordering stevesleds, which LED option would be recommnded for coral growth and to bring out their colours?

12,000K Super Full Spectrum - Balance of Growth and Aesthetics, would seem to fit the bill but is that what you would go for in your experience of these LEDs?
 
Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
dgilbert2 said:
I'm getting closer to ordering stevesleds, which LED option would be recommnded for coral growth and to bring out their colours?

12,000K Super Full Spectrum - Balance of Growth and Aesthetics, would seem to fit the bill but is that what you would go for in your experience of these LEDs?
Click to expand...

I went for 14,000k Super Full Spectrum. Unfortunately, this is basically an aesthetic issue and it's a matter of which you prefer...which there is no good way to tell online because you can't actually see it. Jeff told me most experienced aquarists go for the choice I did.

I'm very happy with my choice.

I'd say most people on these forums have either the 12k or 14k super full spectrum (probably more 12 than 14? but I don't know that) and everyone seems happy with whatever they have. 12k is a bit yellower naturally and 14k a bit bluer.

Do you have any idea how "blue" you like your tank?

BTW, this is an issue you can spin around on forever and I think basically they are all good choices you'd be happy with. So, don't sweat it too much.

I imagine Jeff will chime in. See what he says.
 
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dgilbert2

dgilbert2

Well-Known Member
Well I'm now all ordered, thanks to the confidence I have now seen on here, even though in the UK :)

I went for;
  • Red Sea Max 130/130D/C130 - LED retrofit.
  • 99% Completed System: Build my LED System for me.
  • Stock Timer/Moonlight: No prewire cable, I will be using a digital light controller.
  • Digital Lighting Controller Typhon + Laser Enclosure + 6 foot extension.
  • Custom LED Combination: 14,000K Super Full Spectrum - More Growth Than Aesthetics.

Just got to wait for it to arrive now :toothbrush:
 
StevesLEDs

StevesLEDs

RS Sponsor
Very nice selection! Thanks for the order Dgilert2! Looks like we'll have your order in queue and ready to ship in just a couple days.

Also, in our history of selling just over 6,000 LED retrofit systems, we have never had a single return from a customer because they said they favored the original lighting whatever it was - T5, MH, etc. All we hear is about how much more amazing everything looks and how much better it grows coral.

I'm not supposed to say exactly how many LED systems we sell a month, but I can tell you we do sell a lot, and we usually are provided with some feedback regards to issues experienced about once per month, which is just a small fraction of our total LED systems sold. That said, we have found that when the LED systems are performed as designed, we rarely hear back from our customers - likely because they are off enjoying their aquariums. We have a much higher reliability rate than industry standards than other manufacturing companies, and a return rate on the order of hundredths of a percent. Customer satisfaction is our goal since we are aquarists first, and businessmen second.

Jeff
 
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StevesLEDs

StevesLEDs

RS Sponsor
I forgot to comment on the original post - we are considering reducing the number of LED combinations offered for 2 reasons. 1) its confusing as heck and it shouldn't be 2) 9.6 out of 10 customers select the 14,000K Super Full Spectrum anyway - and for good reason. It truly is the best way to get show quality aesthetics as well as amazing growth rates. Any other combination will result in a trade-off, trading good looks for growth or growth for good looks. Turns out most want a balance, including myself.

Jeff
 
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