SPS and LED - Can they be a show stopper?

[themcnertney]

I think that it can be a show stopper.

I think you need a lot of lights as you can see from @JMacedo posts. Beautiful by the way.

I am currently running (3) hydra 52HD over my 220. I love it and have had some fantastic growth from my SPS. Issue I have is I could use a couple more lights. I say that because I changed a few months ago from MH which are the best for growth (IMO). So, I decided to add t5s which I am in the process of doing.

 

[Salty1962]

All this negative talk on other threads about 'pop' when we should really be talking about 'BOOOM'

But seriously, here's a shot of my system under Radion Gen 3 Pro's and 4 x 54W T5 supplements!

Excuse the dirty glass

Awesome Tank!

 

[JMacedo]

I think that it can be a show stopper.

I think you need a lot of lights as you can see from @JMacedo posts. Beautiful by the way.

I am currently running (3) hydra 52HD over my 220. I love it and have had some fantastic growth from my SPS. Issue I have is I could use a couple more lights. I say that because I changed a few months ago from MH which are the best for growth (IMO). So, I decided to add t5s which I am in the process of doing.

I have to agree with you. Corals need uniform lighting, achieving that from tiny LEDs with lenses and cone shaped lighting is insane IMHO. If you want to grow sps under T5's you have to cover all the tank, under MH you try to cover the most and the reflectors do the rest, not much different with LED just more expensive in the short run, I think.

 

[hart24601]

Growth IME is all about feeding and color is a combination of lighting and water parameters. Many forget, but back in the MH days when coral gets big enough even MH will have shading issues. LEDs are worse, but it's not like other lighting doesn't have those issues at all.

 

[hotnickz07]

I swapped from Hydras to t5, however leds do work. The key with leds is spread, so use as many units as you can fit.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Wow, that is amazing!

I find this topic so confusing. I see so many comments that say LED's aren't enough. Then I see a ton of comments saying that LED's being set too brightly washes out corals. My brain can't comprehend how both could be possible yet I see it in thread after thread.

I am trying to convince myself that the difference in opinion has to do with the depth of the tank but even that doesn't seem to always hold true.

You'll want to start understanding par and intensity of ligh. And spectrum Plus what each coral likes. PUR.
On fixtures some lights penetratit differently. A tube is a tube with an even fall off. A light with a lens obviously intensifies and projects deeper
Google Dana riddle. It's a good start.
Also a light with a lens is focused so shadowing is an issue. Plus the way most led are made and the trend to spotlight the tank. Looks cool architecturally but creates shadows IME with 25 years of lighting. Not just reef tanks movie stars and houses and towns.

 

[WetWhistle]

LED work just as good as MH and T5 for SPS. They are just not plug and play like MH and T5 so they take some fine tuning and adjusting. Once you dial them in Boom! I myself like to run a mix of lighting (even when i ran MH) so I run supplemental T5 on my 180 at my peak time for two hrs. Sorry about the phone pic's but you get the point.

 

[WetWhistle]

Keep in mind lighting is only part of the combination of conditions that influence color and growth in coral. Feeding, color spectrum, waterflow, temperature and skill level are all equally important as lighting for growth an color. You can make up for lack of light by feeding quality nutritious foods with lots of random water flow so you bring large amounts of food to the coral. In the end pick a light that work best for you. I ran MH\T5 combo for decades. The only thing to pull me away from that combo was LED. I can't be happier with my growth rates and color. I get as good and sometimes better then i did with MH because i can adjust them to fit my needs. Granularity with LED alone is worth it.

 

[happyhourhero]

LED only.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

You can absolutely have a dominated SPS reef with LED lights only. See here: https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/dr-joshi’s-500-gallon-sps-dominated-mixed-reef.2/

The linked tank has 10 LED fixtures but it is a 500G!

 

[sawdonkey]

All LED grown from frags....no other light supplementation.

 

[seastar]

LED only.

ok that is just incredible!!! BOOOM

 

[seastar]

You can absolutely have a dominated SPS reef with LED lights only. See here: https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/dr-joshi’s-500-gallon-sps-dominated-mixed-reef.2/

The linked tank has 10 LED fixtures but it is a 500G!

This touches on another concern of mine, I live in Florida but I don't want to run a chiller (I currently have fans and A/C with a natural gas powered generator in the works). Amazing growth there!

 

[seastar]

All LED grown from frags....no other light supplementation.

Did you have to blanket your tank in LED's as well? Envious of what you've been able to accomplish there.

 

[alten78]

I am putting together an SPS heavy tank in the near future but want to be energy conscious.

I want to run LEDs but I'm really worried I need HQI or t5 lighting to pull off a top notch SPS tank. Can you please put my mind at ease with some LED SPS tanks?

I would be willing to bet that there are thousands of posts about this very subject across every reef bbs across the net and in each of those threads you will find just as many different opinions. The nicest tank ive seen in person ran nothing but older LEDs but in the same breath look at how many people are successful with just T5's, just MH, and every combination in between. My point is to look around and you'll see more than enough tanks to put your mind at ease if you just look for them.

The cost savings of LED myth has been debunked for awhile. Depending on the size of the tank and how many lights you need to cover can be just as much wattage and close to the same price as T5s and not much off from MH. Where Im at, electricity is less than 6 cents per kWh(plus delivery of course). On my 4ft tank it would take 2 Radions to cover it or at minimum 4 x54 T5s (I use 6 for my SPS dominated) but for arguments sake, if both Radions were half power and I went with my original 4 bulb T5 fixture (which grew sps just fine) the difference in price per month is a few dollars.

 

[aquaterra]

I supplement my leds with more LEDs. I'm running the ab+ on both gen2p radions. Then matched my kessil by visual inspection. I used a par meter to set my intensity across the board. I get 400-500 where the lights intersect at the top , 350 where the lights don't intersect at the top and down to 100-200 at the bottom. Currently running all 3 lights at 30%.

 

[sawdonkey]

Did you have to blanket your tank in LED's as well? Envious of what you've been able to accomplish there.

Old, but here's a shot under the hood.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Wow. Whole lotta boom going on!
Fwiw I'm at macna right this minute. The led industry is definatly responding to our concerns. The lenses are different. The reflector styles are being used differently. Some of the led don't even have lenses.

And man oh man the aurora it a thing of beauty! No lens led with t 5. !!!!!!!
Looks like a Ferrari and I wonder if it performs like one.

 

[eg8r210]

Wow, that is amazing!

I find this topic so confusing. I see so many comments that say LED's aren't enough. Then I see a ton of comments saying that LED's being set too brightly washes out corals. My brain can't comprehend how both could be possible yet I see it in thread after thread.

I completely agree his tank is amazing. I think the reason why you are confused is that the two things you are mentioning are referring to different things. First, LEDs aren't enough. Most people say this because the vendor recommend number of fixtures is always not enough. They want to get the hobbyist to think I Radion light equals a MH in the same area of a tank. There is a ton of reasons that cause this but for the most part the problem is shading. I attribute this to use of lens on LED and reflectors on MH/T5. As you can see on the amazing tank running Hydra52s, he is running 6 fixtures. This combats the shading issue tremendously. Also, for people used to looking at MH, a tank lit with LED looks dimmer.

Second issue is the same LED that aren't enough to light the tank properly (referring to shading) can also burn the acros or other coral. With MH there is still a hotspot under the bulb but it is larger (a bit more spread out). You don't normally move corals directly under the hotspot unless they are ready for it. Well LEDs have the exact same issue except you have a bunch more hotspots and the light is more focused. So, it is best to acclimate the corals to the light. Start low and slowly bring the intensity up (same with new bulbs and shortening the light cycle).

I am sure people caught up on technicalities can rip that apart but for the most part that is how a bulb can be too much and not enough at the same time.

 

[WetWhistle]

Cost saving is not a myth for everyone. Where I come from hydro is 18C per KW. On my 180 when I ran MH\T5 I had to run three 250 watt and 4 80 watt T5. So 750 watts of MH for 12 hrs and 320 watts of T5 for 8 hrs. Now I run three Hydra 52 LED with 405 watts worth (12 Hrs) and 4 X 80 watt T5 with 320 watts worth (2 hrs). My main lighting alone cut me 345 watts and I cut 320 watts for 6 hrs a day off as well for my T5. That is a whole lot of savings.