How long does a transition from MH to LED take for SPS?

[Nburg's Reef]

My frags out grew my frag rack so I decided to free up a section of my sump to run a frag setup. My DT has a 250w Radium and 4 T5 bulbs, but running a MH bulb in the cabinet didn't sound like a good idea (I could throw a 150w MH on it, but I am worried about excess heat and excess power consumption on the outlet that runs the tank.

Anyways, so the frags are in the same system, only thing that really changed is lighting. i set up the LEDs (MarsAqua) to out put just a tad lower PAR than the DT using a Seneye meter. The frags have paled and lightened and look a little washed out. Especially some Montis. The single Acro frag apears to be encrusting and possibly growing but it browned out. I think they have been down there around 6-8 weeks, but I was curious how long it typically takes for corals to color back up after a light change like this? Corals I have down there are a Leng Sy looking cap (not sure if its a real one or not, but does look like it), monti setosa, Tricolor Acropora valadia, and a pink Poc

illopora.

Here is a pic of the setup (the frag rack in the DT is for new BC corals, Frag section in sump is for outgoing frags.)

 

[mtraylor]

Well from the looks of it. The LED fixture in the bottom seems a bit more white than the display and more direct light. When I changed from MH to LED I didn't see any immediate change in the corals. The light in the sump doesn't seem as diffused. You may want to change the fixture to more blue and reduce intensity.

 

[29bonsaireef]

I don't think color spectrum has much to do with it. Looks like a black box LED? From my experience with those they are really powerful. I wouldn't run the blues over 50% and I'd keep the whites around 10% intensity being that close to the corals. Could take a few weeks or a few months for coral to adjust to new lighting.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I don't think color spectrum has much to do with it. Looks like a black box LED? From my experience with those they are really powerful. I wouldn't run the blues over 50% and I'd keep the whites around 10% intensity being that close to the corals. Could take a few weeks or a few months for coral to adjust to new lighting.

I used a PAR meter to set the LED to a level a tad less than the PAR they were at in the DT. So I don't think the box is set too powerful since I adjusted based on PAR and not by visual brightness.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Well from the looks of it. The LED fixture in the bottom seems a bit more white than the display and more direct light. When I changed from MH to LED I didn't see any immediate change in the corals. The light in the sump doesn't seem as diffused. You may want to change the fixture to more blue and reduce intensity.

I think the white is at the lowest setting and the blue is just a tad past its lowest setting on the dial, it looks more blue in person and both lights look pretty similar. PAR is between 200 and 250. DT has PAR from 200 to 550 depending on location.

 

[mtraylor]

If you get the LED's dialed in correctly, you will not have an issue.

 

[mtraylor]

You could also get you a nice kessel to hang under there. No settings.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

You could also get you a nice kessel to hang under there. No settings.

I was thinking about a Kessil, as I have used them in the past and like them, but I had this fixture (free) and figured it should work without having to shell out a couple hundred for a frag tank that may or may not be permanent.

 

[mtraylor]

I'm with you there. Free is better to work with. YOu need to figure out how to scale it back. I think it will help. I think its more direct light you are getting and its too much for the corals.

 

[jda]

PAR is not going to help you much with these two lights. It will not get any of the UV and IR in the MH and it will also value the harmful peaks in some of the diodes - LEDs have much less real, usable output than your MH even when the PAR numbers are the same. However, you can be be blasting the corals with too much bad output from the diodes - this is not a problem for your MH.

I would turn the LED down to half of where you have it and see if that helps.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I know I have heard that some coral vendors growout with only the blues... is there any harm in just having the blue channels on?

 

[jda]

Some vendors also only use 6.5K lights. For the most part, they are really good at what they do and could make just about anything work that others would fail with. I would use some white - I am a firm believer that SPS need spectrum above 500nm.

 

[BoomCorals]

PAR is not going to help you much with these two lights. It will not get any of the UV and IR in the MH and it will also value the harmful peaks in some of the diodes - LEDs have much less real, usable output than your MH even when the PAR numbers are the same. However, you can be be blasting the corals with too much bad output from the diodes - this is not a problem for your MH.

I would turn the LED down to half of where you have it and see if that helps.

I agree with this. It’s about PUR change and the undesirable spectrum.