LED vs Metal Halide?

[IloveLPS]

Hello all,

I have a 29 biocube HQI. The tank is all coral with a fire shrimp, nerite snails, and a pom pom crab. Because it has the hailde over it, I have been thinking of perhaps modifying it to LED. The bulb in the halide is a 150 watt 14,000K.

The coral I have is acan lords, aussie duncans, a large open brain coral, some sort of blasto colony (not sure the specific specie), various yuma ricordea, a small green plate coral, a frogspawn, a green zoanthid colony, a long skirt orange zoanthid colony, a blue center/orange rim zoanthid colony, a green red eye favia, and an encrusting coral of some sort with green and orange polyps.

I will be acquiring another type of acans, blasto, two favia, a chalice and some palythoas.

I guess my biggest concern is the spectrum of the 14,000K. Is it adequate? I know blue color is important I believe... Everything seems to be doing really well. I pay close attention to my tank. I was also worried about say that if I do make the switch, how big of a shock my corals would endure. I of course would ween them into the new light slowly, but I'm still concerned. Thoughts from those who have done this?

I don't really know anything about LEDS. I'm looking to be knowledged if you think they're a better choice. I know they give off less heat and are more energy efficient. They also look "crisper." I want my corals to look nice, but above all, I want them to be happy about the lighting too. So give me some input please! Fixtures/brands you would suggest. I'm a college student, also. So perhaps something that works well, but doesn't break my bank.

I appreciate it!

 

[Reefing Madness]

 

[EricTMah]

I'm bias to Maxspect Razors as I run them on my system.

It will provide plenty of light for what you have and will grow all your corals beautifully.

If I were you. I'd put a Maxspect razor 120W 16000K fixture over your system. The fixture is great because you can control two separate channels on it, blue and white. So you can customize the exact color temp you want for looks and growth.

I replaced my 175w MH with T5's with the 120w maxspects and I can't run the LED's on 100%. It ends up being too bright for my corals.

I personally think the razors are the best bang for the buck!

 

[EricTMah]

R420r LED Lighting System

 

[ifarmer]

MH and T5 light gives the best color than LED as of right now. Not many long term success on LED yet

 

[IloveLPS]

I'm bias to Maxspect Razors as I run them on my system.

It will provide plenty of light for what you have and will grow all your corals beautifully.

If I were you. I'd put a Maxspect razor 120W 16000K fixture over your system. The fixture is great because you can control two separate channels on it, blue and white. So you can customize the exact color temp you want for looks and growth.

I replaced my 175w MH with T5's with the 120w maxspects and I can't run the LED's on 100%. It ends up being too bright for my corals.

I personally think the razors are the best bang for the buck!

Thank you EricTMah for your reply! How long have you been running this system for and what makes you bias about them just out of curiosity?

 

[IloveLPS]

MH and T5 light gives the best color than LED as of right now. Not many long term success on LED yet

Yes... I was thinking t5s also after looking into it a little more. It's just hard finding something for the tank size I have unfortunately.

 

[IloveLPS]

:flypig:

 

[sqcube4me]

i used to run MHs but switched over to evolution LED fixtures .. less heat .. less evap ..

 

[RacinRevo0818]

Lps adjust best to LEDs but you might have a little morphing with the acans. I would look into a stunner strip for night time viewing and a little more blue during the day . Your going to get the best growth from a 14k mh compared to more blue. You can always try another bulb if your wanting more blue. Like 20k but your growth might suffer.

 

[IloveLPS]

i used to run MHs but switched over to evolution LED fixtures .. less heat .. less evap ..

Hi, sqcube4me. What all do you have in your tank and did you notice a better response from your coral?

 

[mainereefer]

I love my greensun multicolor leds! cant beat them. each 120w light replaced a 350w fixture 250w hqi mh with 4x24w t5 actinic and I run the led with "white at 35-40% and blue about 65% on a 24" deep tank

with led just make sure you do a little research they are not all the same. most chinese fixtures come with just 14k whites and blues you want the full spectrum, 3000k-14000k whites along with cyan and orange (most have red but imo- orange is better)

 

[backpack]

A good led setup pays for itself in no time. I dropped $100 a month off my bill when I went to radions. Color is great as well. But if you have high dollar acans some look better some look worse.

 

[mainereefer]

btw my tank is 90% lps the only problem I have ever seen was bleaching or ppl with just white and blue led if you are missing part of the color spectrum you will lose the color in the coral that uses that part of the spectrum mostly sps do this or high light corals

 

[kuyatwo]

i just converted my system to run both reef radiance - 400 watt lumenbright with 20k elos bulb - reef radiance. both fixtures with wide angle lenses. I was running two 400 watt lumenbrights.

 

[EricTMah]

Thank you EricTMah for your reply! How long have you been running this system for and what makes you bias about them just out of curiosity?

My system had been set up with Mh's for about 4yrs before I made the switch. Been running the Maxspects for about 8 months now and have never looked back.

I am bias because I run them on my own system. I did research at the time and found that the Maxspects provided the best bang for the buck at the time I purchased mine. I'm still 100% satisfied with the lights. Love the control over the two separate channels, dimmable, and IMO they look nice over the tank.

btw my tank is 90% lps the only problem I have ever seen was bleaching or ppl with just white and blue led if you are missing part of the color spectrum you will lose the color in the coral that uses that part of the spectrum mostly sps do this or high light corals

I had bleached out a few of my corals when I first made the switch. I was unaware of the intensity increase from my old set up. I recommend all people who are going to make the switch, to start off slow with intensity and duration of the LED's. They're brighter than you think!

I still to this day ramp my lights down by 20% every time I have a new addition and ramp them back up to full over a week or two. Obviously depending on what lighting conditions they came from.