School me on LEDs for SPS!

[Graffiti Spot]

Is what I want to know is how long do leds last? Not before burning out but before there is a drop in par or spectrum or whatever. I remember in the beginning everyone said they are supposed to last 10+ years. Do leds go bad over time like halides do? A 400w radium needs to be replaced 6 months down the line or your not giving the corals all the light offers, do leds end up doing the same thing?

 

[hart24601]

Been very happy with LEDs and sps and don't plan on adding anything else, however if I needed I would consider t5 to supplement but I would probably just buy another fixture. Happy to see more panels like orpheks which I am running over a waterbox 100.3 which is 36" long so 1 fixture provides total coverage. The orphek bars are now a solid solution too if using puck style lights.

Just make sure to have the lights high enough so light spill just starts to happen outside the tank so you are using the glass to reflect light. Some people still mount them too low to increase par and you can see a cone of light in the tank, you want the 'cone' to be the tank footprint at the top of the tank, not the bottom. Here is an example of light reflection. It's a UV flashlight with a narrow beam shining on the side glass. UV makes small particles show up if all other lights are off so it's a neat example and I am showing two angles and you can see how the light bounces and flouresces the coral.

 

[CivicS14]

I should mention that some of the best LED only lit tanks use their panels at/near 100% on all channels for a lot of the day. Therman, Dr, Joshi and a few more. There are some vendors that do it too, but since I truly believe that people wanting to be like a vendor causes more issues than help since the typical hobbyist in peril looking for help will only pick and choose pieces instead of going all-in, I am not naming names.

mine was max 25% in all settings and I was at 200 par at the sandbed. Do you have stock in a bulb manufacturer or something?

 

[kapnkush608]

I run all LED on an SPS tank and have seen some great results. Puck style definitely caused some shadowing when I had them all mounted like this in a straight line.
——— ———
But then I staggered them and get great coverage now and will get even more when I get around to raising the a a couple inches. They are staggered at an angle like this now:
_ – ‾ ‾ – _
Each dash represents a pendant.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Yes definitely helped,

I knew shading can be an issue, but that's only with single chip/point of lights like Kessils right?
Radions generally dont have that problem because of its puck configuration and lenses?

What programs are all the LED only stick heads on their radions? or AIs?
percentages if each channel?

I know Ecotechs and AI have some off the shelf "programs" you can upload? what are people liking the most for coloration/growth for SPS? what about mixed reefs?

I’m slowly adding more and more white to that 2 hour peak.

 

[biecacka]

I think the key is to slowly build up the white. When I switched dot orpheks from halides I ran acclimation mode for about 5 weeks then went to growth and color and it was like 80% for the whites and I fried a few pieces.
slow kemosabi.....

corey

 

[NanoDJS]

Just switched my main DT and show frag tank to RedSea 90's I own and have used black boxes,AI primes , and radions , also t5 , MH, and even some PC fixtures, so far my favorite is the RedSea90 ,you dont have to know crap about spectrum and bam they just work , no disco effect.Price to performance they grow coral amazing, color and health are awesome you can adapt them to any scenario due too single puck design also and the shimmer rocks like the OG 400w radium MH look, these are like Kessils on steroids.... you name dropped the legend Sally Jo GARF system for life !!!!^5 , for all the people running the "AB+" setting with AI products , when i checked the bulb specs i found the "white" channel has a major part of the blended spectrums 450nm spike , and the uv , and violet ..... so high ? with 660nm red like bumpin its an algae machine , what are your results like this ?

I’m slowly adding more and more white to that 2 hour peak.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Just switched my main DT and show frag tank to RedSea 90's I own and have used black boxes,AI primes , and radions , also t5 , MH, and even some PC fixtures, so far my favorite is the RedSea90 ,you dont have to know crap about spectrum and bam they just work , no disco effect.Price to performance they grow coral amazing, color and health are awesome you can adapt them to any scenario due too single puck design also and the shimmer rocks like the OG 400w radium MH look, these are like Kessils on steroids.... you name dropped the legend Sally Jo GARF system for life !!!!^5 , for all the people running the "AB+" setting with AI products , when i checked the bulb specs i found the "white" channel has a major part of the blended spectrums 450nm spike , and the uv , and violet ..... so high ? with 660nm red like bumpin its an algae machine , what are your results like this ?

They’re pretty good
And I don’t have 1 strand of algae

 

[Bob Weigant]

I love the response I’m getting from my sps using the radion gen 4 pro. Best polyp extension I’ve ever had. I am also using 2 kessil 360N for alittle added light for the front of the tank where the chalices are

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I love the response I’m getting from my sps using the radion gen 4 pro. Best polyp extension I’ve ever had. I am also using 2 kessil 360N for alittle added light for the front of the tank where the chalices are

Hydras yield some pretty good PE as well
See above

 

[Dugless]

Great information ! I need to check out these other fixtures that are a little less in the spotlight, like reef breeders and rapidleds, I knew Orphek made some dope lights because that's what a lot of the wholesalers used on their holding raceways/ grow out vats.

Thanks again, and I agree about water quality/params being huge success as well, Sally Joe of garf was growing fairly colorful acropora under 3-4 40w T12 over a 55gallon! granted they were like 6" from the surface ,
Still though reefkeeping is very much water keeping.




Hey,
Thanks for answering my call to ATI hybrid owners ! It really is appealing to me, your setup
looks great! very clean! Its obviously giving you great results too. I had a 6 bulb ati fixture over my 58 for a while I was doing Zeovit back in the day and really liked it but without my beloved glitter lines it just felt flat. Do you have control over individual channels on the LEDs ? or just intensity? Kelvin temperature? are the LEDs strong enough to really overpower the T-5 and give the "dancing" glitter line effect I like?
Thanks for letting me pick your brain a bit!

I don’t even utilize the white channel and I have MH like glitter lines. There are four total led colors to dial in. White, Blue, Royal and Violet. With the T5s there is no need for any red or green LEDs.

T5s do the best at filling a tank with light, no question. LEDs will never match T5s in that regard simply because they are single source lights. However, LEDs have a reputation for pulling good color. Whether or not that is true is debatable.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Just switched my main DT and show frag tank to RedSea 90's I own and have used black boxes,AI primes , and radions , also t5 , MH, and even some PC fixtures, so far my favorite is the RedSea90 ,you dont have to know crap about spectrum and bam they just work , no disco effect.Price to performance they grow coral amazing, color and health are awesome you can adapt them to any scenario due too single puck design also and the shimmer rocks like the OG 400w radium MH look, these are like Kessils on steroids.... you name dropped the legend Sally Jo GARF system for life !!!!^5 , for all the people running the "AB+" setting with AI products , when i checked the bulb specs i found the "white" channel has a major part of the blended spectrums 450nm spike , and the uv , and violet ..... so high ? with 660nm red like bumpin its an algae machine , what are your results like this ?

I showed you mine
Now.....
It’s your turn

Share your growth progression pics!

Thought this would be a neat thread to compile some cool growth progression shots. Here's a 15 mo progression of a small w/c A. hyacinthus tabling out in last tank I had running. Sare your progress pics!

www.reef2reef.com

 

[MrWheelock]

@bubbaque was using an aquatic life T5 fixture with LED (kessil i think, maybe radions) and his corals looked to be growing in very well. If you have some time to check out his build thread its a pretty good read. I myself am going 4 A360s and the Aquatic life T5 fixture once I get back from the sandbox.

Best of Luck, glad to see you around again C.
Glen

 

[bubbaque]

I have never run pure LED without t5 as supplement. Not that t5 is needed but without them I’d need another row of leds and they are very costly. I have used power compacts, haldies, t5 and leds and nothing was better than led to bring out colors. Even Battlecorals will say he didn’t see certain colors until they were under led. Some of the legends in the hobby like Sanjay and Mike paletta once used halides buy have switched to led. Sanjay runs all his channels at 100% because he likes the look and Mike runs a bluer tank because he likes it that way.

No matter the light you use choose you’ll have success as long as you have great water quality.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Is what I want to know is how long do leds last? Not before burning out but before there is a drop in par or spectrum or whatever. I remember in the beginning everyone said they are supposed to last 10+ years. Do leds go bad over time like halides do? A 400w radium needs to be replaced 6 months down the line or your not giving the corals all the light offers, do leds end up doing the same thing?

No one has any idea about this?

On the subject, from what I have seen, using the whites as high as you can get them is key, also using as many fixtures as you can and mounting them higher than you would just one.

 

[sawdonkey]

Ever since I got into coral in 2012 or so, I’ve been using LED, so I’m not familiar with other types. I’ve had regular black boxes (evergrow), Ocean Revives, an currently have Orpheks. If I were building a new tank right now, I’d go with Ocean Revive. They are cheap and get the job done. Plus, you can fake a daylight and atintic photoperiod by staggering the two channels.