Technology- Hailed and VHO's out vs LED systems ?

[427HISS]

I was a reef keeper back in the 90's and wanting to pick up the outstanding hobby again. I have some Halide's and VHO's, are those technologies out and replaced with LED lighting ? What are the differences between spectrum, coral growth, power, cost ect...... ? Learn me please....lol

 

[Ron Reefman]

There is the start of a discussion at the OceanRevive sponsor forum here at R2R. There are links there to a couple of very informative articles on light and lighting.
Here is a link to there thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/oc...ghting-how-coral-zooxanthellae-use-light.html

The old VHO's are pretty much gone, but t5 fluorescents and MH are still very much part of the current hobby. Leds are really starting to catch on now that they have dimmers or controllers and a multi spectrum leds (various shades of blue and white) have become popular.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Halides are still a preferred light to many that have SPS. Although LEDs are quickly up and coming. I would still choose VHO Actinics over any T5 out there. The VHO coloration is still the best there is when it comes to Actinics.

 

[427HISS]

I really love my VHO setup and even stony's were growing, but later added a 250w halide. Those were the years that everyone starting to go with all halides and the kelvin spectrum was going crazy, even up to 20. I like the blue tone but that was way too much. My 75 gal. wall reef had around 7,500K total and looked beautiful to our eyes and the corals grew wonderfully. A friend just like the 5,000k or less, which did made it look more like shallow water atolls, almost pure white. I also had a timmer/dimmer controller by Ice Cap, which worked perfectly !
I'll have to see if their still in business ?

For heat escape, I found that a small fan bowing across the top of the water kept the temps down to only 1-2 degrees higher than off, while a halide system needed a chiller.

What kelvin is mostly used today ?

 

[Reefing Madness]

For the Atcinics, the Super Actinic R.

 

[ReefLEDLights]

I'm Old School

110 watt VHO w Iwasaki 65K

Then 110 watt VHO w Radium...(I was able to secure 400 watt Radium bulbs at $69ea for a lot)...Great Looks but still expensive.

The Heat and Electricity was was killing me.

Changed over to LEDs and went from just under 30Amps to 12 Amps and have more PAR and fully dimmable for sunrise and sunset.

If you go quality LEDs you will never go back.

That said some budget Chinese Fixtures come awfully close to a wash when it comes to bulb replacement and you have no IR heat radiated into the tank. But then you have reliability issues.

Bill

 

[mike007]

I have had many different lighting systems throughout the years and halides are still awesome but since i have switched to leds i will never go back. Leds keep my tank cooler and my electric bill has gone down too. My sps corals are really loving the new light. My advice if considering leds is to do your research and don't settle for the cheapest. Leds will pay for themselves with energy savings and bulb replacement .

 

[cuzican76]

Im in the middle of building my new stand /tank its a 54 coner and a 40 gallon frag tank and 75 gallon sump ...on the display imma run a 250 watt halide for about only 4 hours and use the 3 watt crees for my actinic supplement with a few 420 uv leds ....and I think ill get the best of both worlds the growth from a halide and the color growth from led

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Xparent Green Tapatalk 2

 

[DSP]

Halides are still king I would def use them or t5hos if your looking to setup a nice reef

 

[1.0reef]

I have halides because they came with my tank and I can't afford LEDs, I preferred my Razor. Looks, heat, and no UV protective glass.
I do want to try the radium so I'm trying that, then leds once it's used