LED Question

jordan3548 · Jan 13, 2012

I bought a new LED fixture its made by Atlantic Sun Lite they are out of orlando and these are specifically made for reefs. My tank is a 93 gallon Marineland cube 30x30x24h the fixture has 119 1 watt leds and is a 2:1 ratio blue to white for a 20k look. Do you think one of these is enough for this tank? I keep softies on the bottom along with some acans and chalices. On the top of my rock work is where I keep my sps everything seems happy but want to get opinions from others.

jordan3548 · Jan 13, 2012

Dang no one?

Reefing8EZ · Jan 13, 2012

I would say you need 2 of those.

foxhuntr · Jan 13, 2012

it really depends on the fixture......all led fixtures are different...depends on the correct spectrum and par and spread of the light.....so it is ready hard to say unless you can find another reefer that already has that fixture

CJO · Jan 16, 2012

That sounds a little on the low side. Do you have a PAR meter you could borrow to find out the light levels?

CJ

Tab28 · Jan 16, 2012

From what I have read by others who have used units similar to that one. it is not enough. The LFS by my house uses a 120 watt 1watt/per LED and they can not keep LPS even on the sand bed. All chalies had to raised on a rock aqua-scaping Their tank is only 12" deep and the unit is mounted 6" from tank so the total would be 18". That is less than just your tank not adding in distance to the mounted fixture. From what I have read for a tank 24" deep you need 2watt/per LED at 120 watts for a 175 and 3watt/per LED at 120 watts for 24" with unit mounted 4-6" from tank in order to peretrate the water depth. From what I read even just those numbers are not the only consideration. There is also the color range of the bulbs, it seems LED is more complicated than I thought.

jordan3548 · Jan 16, 2012

Yeah I should've stuck with my MH's lol but everything seems happy in my tank all my sps and lps are still alive doing well. I guess ill just wait and see how it goes.

Tab28 · Jan 16, 2012

How long have you been running? I was thinking about switching to LED but changed my mind. There is a discussion on the LED board on people who switched back to either MH or T5 after their disappointment. To LED's defence they are new and it takes people to try them to work out the kinks and fine tune the product. Without trial and error manufactures would not know what they need to improve. The units are getting cheaper but the newer units that add the green/red/violet, which seems to be needed for maintaining good coral color are now about $800.00 a unit. I would need 2 for my tank so it is not financially sound for me.

KJAG · Jan 16, 2012

Tab28 said:
How long have you been running? I was thinking about switching to LED but changed my mind. There is a discussion on the LED board on people who switched back to either MH or T5 after their disappointment. To LED's defence they are new and it takes people to try them to work out the kinks and fine tune the product. Without trial and error manufactures would not know what they need to improve. The units are getting cheaper but the newer units that add the green/red/violet, which seems to be needed for maintaining good coral color are now about $800.00 a unit. I would need 2 for my tank so it is not financially sound for me.

Why not build your own? IMO you can DIY something far superior to anything commercially avail as of now.

jordan3548 · Jan 16, 2012

Ive had mine for a little over a month. It doesnt seem as bright as my metal halides were but im not sure if led lights penatrate more and the corals get more than they would with MH's. But so far im happy with the results if something changes at least I still have my MH's in the garage lol

jordan3548 · Jan 16, 2012

I got my unit for 280 my LFS was closing and everything was 50% off so i grabbed it

Tab28 · Jan 16, 2012

Shores805 said:
Why not build your own? IMO you can DIY something far superior to anything commercially avail as of now.

From what I was reading if you want a good system that is the way to go. You could add your own colors. Not only cost wise but there are plenty of aritciles on manufactured systems loosing 3-4 bulbs after 3 years than another group of bulbs dying. These bulbs should last over 10 years under normal lighting usage. If you build it yourself a bulb or two may die but they can be replaced much easier than manufactured units.

Even the DIY units for what I would need is still more than replacing my old MH units wIth newer ones in initial cost, and I do not need to worry if I have the right color spectrum. For me it is better to wait a few years. It took a few years before existing LED users found issues that needed to be solved. Only time will tell.

KJAG · Jan 16, 2012

Tab28 said:
From what I was reading if you want a good system that is the way to go. You could add your own colors. Not only cost wise but there are plenty of aritciles on manufactured systems loosing 3-4 bulbs after 3 years than another group of bulbs dying. These bulbs should last over 10 years under normal lighting usage. If you build it yourself a bulb or two may die but they can be replaced much easier than manufactured units.

Even the DIY units for what I would need is still more than replacing my old MH units wIth newer ones in initial cost, and I do not need to worry if I have the right color spectrum. For me it is better to wait a few years. It took a few years before existing LED users found issues that needed to be solved. Only time will tell.

Exactly. I no longer visit other forums(lots of bickering and un-modded nonsense) but theres some good Aesthetic reading regarding LEDs out there,and alot of guys have done some intricate testing/ expirimenting in their builds.For example, alot of the Reds used in a couple of the high end commercial fixtures arent of the 660nm peak which are supposedly the most beneficial for growth/aesthetics, and the ratios of color mixing is off. With a DIY you can cherry pick everything in the fixture from diodes, drivers, # of dimmable channels etc. and make small adjustments down the line if you need to.

KJAG · Jan 16, 2012

jordan3548 said:
I got my unit for 280 my LFS was closing and everything was 50% off so i grabbed it

Pretty solid deal. Would be cool to keep it on half the tank and do a DIY with more of the color spectrum on the other half. Side by side comparison would be interesting