LED's, are they up to par?

guppychao · Jan 5, 2010

thinking of changing 2 of my 3 lights. have a 180 gal tank (6X2X2)and will keep my 400 watt in the center and replace the 2, 250 watt de mh with LED's. up front it will cost $$$'s however in the long run i believe it will cost about the same.

my question is are LED's technology there yet? any one use them now?

a bit more info: my tank is mixed reef, the left side are just RBTA's, center is SPS, with a few LPS, and the right side will be mostly LPS, with a few SPS. so the led's will be above the left and right side only.

also if i do the switch, i heard that the light intensity on LED are extremely bright, so i would most likely have to acclimate it. any suggestions, use a screen or keep them high and lower them by time?

evilc66 · Jan 6, 2010

Yes, LEDs are up to "PAR"

With the right LEDs in the right configuration, you can replace any MH setup when it comes to equaling PAR. Even your 400W. It will be expensive, but if set up right, the long term savings can be great.

For acclimation, it would be best to actually use a dimmable driver. That way you can set your overall brightness to what you and the livestock want or need, and you can als adjust the color temperature of the light by changing the bias of white and blue LED intensisty.

jaytizzle · Jan 6, 2010

Tagging along for opinions here as well... about to swap my MH and T5 actinics on my 24 gallon aquapod for a LED fixture and see how it works...

inactive · Jan 6, 2010

mmmmmmm... LEDs..... soon.

TJ15 · Jan 21, 2010

NOPE.

LED lights are NOT up to par. This is my opinion as well as many others. What is out on the market still has a way to go.

Too much $$$ for too little.

T5 or MH still is a better choice.

evilc66 · Jan 24, 2010

While it is your opinion, is it your experience? I have been running LEDs for years now with great success.

inactive · Jan 24, 2010

TJ15 said:
NOPE.

LED lights are NOT up to par. This is my opinion as well as many others. What is out on the market still has a way to go.

Too much $$$ for too little.

T5 or MH still is a better choice.

Seems like you are just cutting the idea down without actually knowing... anything... obviously...

I'd love to see your LED madness and experiences....

...but I'm sure I won't.

mevstheworld · Jan 24, 2010

This tanks looks like it's doing just fine on LED's https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/f52/pjrs-135g-led-based-tank-35229.html Cool light setup, expensive bulbs, but looks good.

jaytizzle · Jan 24, 2010

Just got my new toy...

This is going on my 24 gallon aquapod at my office and is replacing a 150W MH + 2x18W T5 actinics. It is a 90W LED fixture (45 each 1W white and 1W blue leds).

bmac16 · Jan 24, 2010

hey evil, i have talked to you alot about led's on another site and have a little bit of experience with led's as supplementation. IMO, i dont think a lone led fixture is sufficient for an EXOTIC coral reef (very colorful sps/chalice), however IMO the royal blue led's for supplementation is uncomparable. i do think led's are a bit before their time and will be more amazing than they are already once the right combination of diodes can be put together like with the expensive fixtures (uv, light blues, oranges..etc), but if you plan on housing exotic coral from what i have seen, i dont think led's will keep there color. in terms of par, the led's surpass MH when used correctly, so dont know where that statement came from.

evilc66 · Jan 25, 2010

You know what though, the dividing line isn't between common and exotic corals. I have sps under LEDs that look better than under my 150W Phoenix. I have a purple bonsai acro and a pink lemonade acro that look amaizing. I'm still adding more corals to that tank, so I don't have a ton of higher end corals that I can use for comparison. I do have some chalices in there that look great also.

The issue I have found so far is with certain colors on certain corals. Red seems to be the biggest issue so far. I have red blastos that have looked great under LED, but red acans that didn't. It's not down to specific corals or specific colors, but combinations of the two.

Now, I have found that keeping alk, calc, and mag levels up and constant has been far more important for coloration that it has been for other lighting sources. Case in point, I have a neon green birdsnest under a Phoenix that looks great, and I don't dose. Just water changes. A frag of the same coral did not look nearly as good color wise until I started raising the levels, and dosing on a regular basis. Looks much better now. While some may think that this is a lot of work, you really should be doing this anyway if you are keeping lps and sps.

TomToro · Jan 26, 2010

I'm still waiting for a nice Sanjay run LED study comparing the higher end units. Unless he's already done one???

I've seen the tank Mev's talking about in person and it's unreal. Still too rich for my blood, but I do think it's the future of lighting.

Just like anything else, there's lots of hacks on ebay selling junk (t5 fixtures, mh bulbs and now the leds). I've been tempted, though.

evilc66 · Jan 26, 2010

PJR's tank does look great, and the growth from a relatively low output LED system was surprising. Tom, you should come over and see my 40 breeder with the PAR38s over it. Totally different look.

TomToro · Jan 26, 2010

evilc66 said:
PJR's tank does look great, and the growth from a relatively low output LED system was surprising. Tom, you should come over and see my 40 breeder with the PAR38s over it. Totally different look.

I'll look up the Par38's and that's a generous offer, E. Let me know what city you live in and next time I'm around there, I'll ask if it's a good time.

I just found your site on LED's. Going to spend some time there now.