Do LED lights eventually need to change?

[Solo McReefer]

I remember reading somewhere that any LED after it's initial "burn in" maintains roughly 85%-90% of its brightness until it eventually fails

Some companies sell either upgrade pucks

Or replacement pucks

If you buy an old light with well used LEDs

Needs research though, been a long time since I did that

Just saw a recent video on Dalua lights, and that was one of their features. Replaceable pucks

If I had an old Ecotech, I would check with them to see if they had replacement pucks. For example. Even Gen 1 Radions grew corals

 

[ZoWhat]

It's all based on the number of hours it's rated for over its life span

Most reefers use their LEDs about 3,000 hours a year

So after 3-4 years the % of output starts to fall off when you've crossed over that 10,000 hour threshold

I'd say a 5-6 yr old light is still around 60% of its original brightness

I'd say an 7-10yr old LED is at 50% or less of its original brightness

Longterm invested reefers IMO should start buying new LED lights about every 6 years

PROTIP: most LFS have a PAR meter they will loan out to you. Good idea to test your PAR levels every OTHER year until you see a big dropoff

 

[VintageReefer]

It's all based on the number of hours it's rated for over its life span

Pretty high output until it reaches 10,000 hours

Most reefers use their LEDs about 3,000 hours a year

This is drastically affected by the output of the leds. A lot of lights limit the led, meaning if it’s a 3w led then even at 100% they are only feeding 2w.

A led fixture being run at 35-40% power for a few years will have much less degradation than a fixture being run at 90 or 100%.

 

[VintageReefer]

@tmccaff
The suspense is killing me. Did you try that other power supply ?

 

[tmccaff]

@tmccaff
The suspense is killing me. Did you try that other power supply ?

it's coming today from Amazon, lol

 

[tmccaff]

I think will get a new light though. Would one XR15 be good? Mounting options? Red Sea did come with an arm but I doubt would work with Radion. I have a red Sea maxE170 basically the reefer 170 the same.

 

[ca1ore]

Really? I had some of my a360s for over 4 years then sold them off, they ran great the entire time. I had over 6 of them at one point, and none ever failed. Maybe a quality control issue?

I have to say I’ve owned kessils, ecotechs, AIs, reefbrites, and orpheks, and ironically the only nes that have failed on me so far were the Orpheks. I’ve purchased over 7 Orphek or3 bars over the last 3 years, and had two crap out on me after a year.

Who knows. I have had close to a dozen, so it’s a decent enough sample size. I’m not great at cleaning them regularly, but I also had a bunch of the 160s and none of them failed.

FWIW, i have been much better at cleaning dust out of the 360x, and they have lasted a bit longer, but around the 5 year mark those have started crapping out as well. Caveat emptor.

 

[ca1ore]

When considering light longevity, it’s not just the actual diode to consider. Most of the issues I have had with various lights were with the supporting electronics. Some were repairable, others not.

 

[Solo McReefer]

Would one XR15 be good

No for me

Not in terms of PAR

But for coverage and shadowing. At least one XR30 for my 170, most likely 2

Which is a question I am considering myself. Currently have a 24" Vertex Illumina, and it is not enough coverage for the purposes of the tank

 

[tmccaff]

you're saying 2 XR30? or you mean 2 XR15? I am thinking of getting XR30

 

[tmccaff]

How long will corals survive without light?

 

[Solo McReefer]

you're saying 2 XR30? or you mean 2 XR15? I am thinking of getting XR30

For me

Seriously thinking about 2 XR30 Gen 3s, diffused, for my Red Sea Reefer 170. I had 6 Radion pucks I needed to use, bought when I used to DIY LEDs. New old stock pucks

The dilemma is that I have a 50 gallon custom cube in the garage, and thinking of starting that along side the 170 as pure acro growout. And they will probably be better suited for that

If I don't set up the 50 cube, I'm putting 2 XR30s on my 170

I have way too many LEDs laying around though

The Gen 6s have way better diffusion than the previous generations. Try one XR30 and see how that grows your corals

I put XR15s on a Red Sea Reefer Nano, 20 gallon. But Mobius and connection to the light was all borked up, bought 2, sent two back. That was when the Gen6s first came out. I suppose that Ecotech has figured that problem out by now. I would use an XR15 on a 20 gallon tank

 

[tmccaff]

I pulled the trigger on a XR30..

 

[tmccaff]

UPDATE!!! got. new power supply and same thing. The unit must be bad. I am guess can get something for it the way it is. I would think can be serviced... thoughts?

 

[VintageReefer]

You could probably get it serviced but I doubt anyone would buy it as is

Use the xr30 and contact AI for a repair quote and see if it’s worth fixing for resale or backup use

 

[tmccaff]

Yea, thats what I thought as well.

 

[exnisstech]

A photon 24 is tight but it will fit on a reefer 170. Personally I wouldn't spend the money on radions. I have some gen 4 xr15s that were supposed to be strong compared to the newer ones but my noopsyche k7 pros smoke the radions in a par test.

Photon on my 170. I'm no longer running the t5s with it, that was a bit overkill but I had the fixture laying around.

 

[tmccaff]

I got the XR30 blue G6 just purchased.

 

[VintageReefer]

A photon 24 is tight but it will fit on a reefer 170. Personally I wouldn't spend the money on radions. I have some gen 4 xr15s that were supposed to be strong compared to the newer ones but my noopsyche k7 pros smoke the radions in a par test.

Photon on my 170. I'm no longer running the t5s with it, that was a bit overkill but I had the fixture laying around.

Oh I was gonna suggest the photon 24. It I checked the tank and led websites and it was so close I didn’t feel comfortable recommending incase one of the companies specs was slightly off

I would be canceling the radion in a heartbeat, buying the photon, and pocketing a few hundred bucks

 

[tmccaff]

I got the XR 30 blue for $649.00 open box thought was a good deal.