ATI T5 hybrids with 8 39 watt T5s, 2 XR 15s, 2 XR 30s. Not impressed with the LEDs. M. Caps grow slowly like stacked plates rather than vase like. Shaded SPS corals brown on shaded area with thin odd shaped branches and poor polyp extension. I am into shape and growing colorful tips and borders as much as overall color. Slow growth of SPS and LPS for me, virtually no growth without the T5s. LPS not fully expanded. Clams and anemones did fairly well. I have a PAR meter and Par was anywhere from 200 on the bottom to 1,000+ near the surface. I've had a reef tank for over 25 years. The clowns in the tank are 27 years old. The anemones are the original and 2 surviving splits from H Magnifica bought over 13 years ago. I've used my share of lights over the years.
Yea i miss my DE 6500k iwasaki 250watt. With actinic supplements there my favorite color spectrum. There just too hot, too much electricity.
One video. The frags are doing better. Too soon to eval growth, but I am basing growth I have seen in the past with MH/VHO set up. However, the M Caps are already growing more vase like. Tired of higher dKh and LEDs killing corals where I never had that issue in the past. Watts are based on power consumption and not brightness. None the less, the LED hybrid system cost much more and was much more of a hassle programming, buying more LEDs, buying Hybrid set up, etc. I'm not a fan. They are sleek, quiet, and have less heat though.
Coral view has 14k single end bulbs or here on ebay.
I once had an ATI 6 bulbs (6X 54W= 324W) replaced by 2 black boxes (330W) and it was the worse move I've ever did in my life! You only can tell if you know better! Colony structure was absolutely terrible. The colors were only emphasized by the reflection of the blue diodes, while they were over the system. After about 6 months I replaced the LEDs by the same old T5s again. I then noticed the colonies actually changed/lost some of their natural pigments they had produced under T5s, while they were under those LEDs. After a week under T5s again they started to show an amazing transformation!! The electricity bill basically didn't change at all because I use chiller to maintain the temperature independent of what type of light I use. Went back to metal halides a while ago because I missed them so much and the results were obviously amazing. Reproduction, colors, colonial structure are even better than T5 only. Metal halides and T5s are the very best in captivity. The simplest test one can do is to offer a 150W LED fixture against a 150W halide bulb alone. The qualities of halides count, like spread (with the proper fixture), UV, IR and consistent spectrum, not PAR alone! Even a 20K halide bulb will explode of growth and colors against any "high PAR" LED fixture under the same circumstances!!! There is no comparison! Generally speaking LEDs are a fashion and market propaganda for a high priced tag product. An overpriced tag in most cases, to tell the truth. I'm glad your system is showing those amazing results! Happy for you!!! Heard nothing but great things about Hamilton fixtures, bulbs and customer service through the years! Watch your clams... they are in love with your halides!!! Right on!
I had a black box on my 18" cubed nano and it was ok.
We really can't tell by pictures. If you look pictures of my system you will think I have "brown zoas" under Ushio 14Ks. Much worse to the eyes look the Iwasaki 65Ks, which in reality is the one of the very best bulbs to produce natural pigments (not reflection), growth and colony structure of all halide bulbs IME. Coral growers use them to grow their corals producing those "real pigment" so when their buyers place those frags under their LEDs they go crazy... but unfortunately they will change over time under LEDs. In reality things change a lot. Also, like I've said... the reflection of the blue diodes make it look "richer" to the eyes in some cases, and we tend to appreciate that a bit more. The fact that those diodes over your tank reflect their individual colors and look better to our eyes doesn't necessarily mean the corals are actually producing colorful pigments and are growing better than metal halide/T5s.I had a black box on my 18" cubed nano and it was ok.
Swithced to a hamilton 150 watt. No comparison, imo.
Judge for yourself.
I meant I like the MH quality look better. Never really cared for the black box look. But I agree it is personal choice.
I'm sorry I missed your point in that message, and that was because the LED picture actually looks more colorful than the halide picture. The main reason could be because the camera captures the spill from the halide fixture while the LEDs are projected straight downward preventing the camera to misread the image. But that was great to illustrate here how the pictures can sometimes deceive the actual results. It's great to see so many people publishing their great results with halides.
