Who is running a BB LED

[kevlow]

I have had tanks with power compacts, MH, T5, and LEDs. I am most happy with the LEDs. I did have 2 radions over my display and was happy but did not like the shading caused by the puck design. Then I bought an SB to try growing corals in my sump. In a couple months, the corals under the SBs looked better then the Radions. I knew that I would need a least two more Radions to get the coverage I wanted in the display tank. I gave away the Radions and purchased two 32" SBs. I now enjoy excellent coverage like I had with T5s, great growth and color, and less heat in the room.
2018-06-12_08-22-53 by kev low, on Flickr
2018-06-12_08-18-07 by kev low, on Flickr
6/16/18 by kev low, on Flickr
2018-04-29_03-47-47 by kev low, on Flickr
2018-04-29_03-43-02 by kev low, on Flickr

 

[Mrx7899]

I'm running 3 black boxes with t5s on my 225 and getting very good color and growth

 

[EW_Fish]

People have been promising that MH stuff will "not be available soon" for about a decade. What has happened is that new product offerings (fixtures and bulbs) from Hamilton, Giesemann, ReefBrite and a few others have happened in the last few years with so many figuring out that there are better lights than the front-running crowd recommends at the LFS and on message boards. Heck, Hamilton has had to step up production to keep stuff from being backordered.

There could possibly be a lot of reasons not to use MH, but lack of availability is not one of them.

MH has been king for a good time now. When I first got into the reef hobby back in 2008 I had set up a 20L with a 250w radium powering it. The color was amazing growth was amazing just all around a great lighting source. I switch to leds and noticed I could almost get what I was getting with MH with my leds. If I didnt have a heat issue for my tanks now (don't want to run a chiller) I would be running MH. But honestly if these BB leds are ran higher it gives a decent spread for deeper tanks. I never really had luck with my shallow rimless tanks with BB to be honest

 

[pdiehm]

I run a reefbreeders photon 48. On at 25% blue for an hour, then 50% blue for an hour, then 6 hours of 80% blue, 36% white (i think that's the setting), then 50% blue for an hour, 25% blue for an hour.

if my corals all die out, which is highly possible, I may strongly consider an ATI 6x80W sunpower with 3 blue plus, 2 actinic and 1 coral plus (or something like that). If my corals bounce back (possible) I'll stay with my LED.

 

[Ds04384]

Thank you!

I do have a single t5 along the back of my tank because I built my canopy wrong and left the back part of my tank shaded.

I started with galaxyhydro B.B. in 2015 when I came back into the hobby after a 10 year break. Later in 2015 I swapped out the board to a SB Reef Light board > upgraded to a 65 gallon > got another SB Reef Light > December 2017 I upgraded to 100 gal current tank and added another SB Reef Light. I have had the t5 for about 2 months.

Here is what my 65 looked like with just 2 SB Reef lights.

Can you show a pic or two of your canopy? I’m trying to figure out how to make mine for a 40 with two of these lights in it as well

 

[Pho Dac Biet]

I don’t consider SB reef a B.B. SB reef are better than your mars aqua or whatever B.B. I was a huge proponent of LED for years. I hadn’t used halide or T5 in over 10 years. I tested LEDs for color and growth, everything from radion, B.B., SBreef, kessil, AI, orphek, etc. All of them perform about the same for sps color and growth except the B.B. They were noticeably slower and not as good at color on some acros.

Then I decided to test a halide and T5. My belief was that they would be marginally better but not by much, compared to led, as that is what I believed. Boy was I wrong. My T5 halide tank crushed my LED tanks in growth and color. I had no name acros that had been brown and boring for months that suddenly got color and growth. (And then, when put back into LED tanks they went back to brown and boring). So I ran all T5 for a while and finally was able to go back to all halide, which is what I run now.

That doesn’t mean you can’t be successful with LED. But you don’t know what you’re missing until you try.

Edit: I even had SIX xr30 g4 pro over a 6 foot tank. And coral grew great and looked nice. But not as good as the halide T5 do.

WHAT HALIDE LIGHTS DO YOU RUN?

 

[BoomCorals]

WHAT HALIDE LIGHTS DO YOU RUN?

Hamilton 20k with lumen bright reflectors

 

[TexasTodd]

KE what SB RL do you run? Not sure if they come in different colors etc.

 

[kevlow]

KE what SB RL do you run? Not sure if they come in different colors etc.

Not sure if this is for me?
If so, I am glad to respond but I am not sure I understand the question. "what SB RL do you run" I am not sure what this is.

 

[TankLife86]

I'm using 2 black boxes on my 125gal and getting really good growth for all my corals!

 

[BoomCorals]

I'm using 2 black boxes on my 125gal and getting really good growth for all my corals!

You just got those colonies though right?

 

[TankLife86]

You just got those colonies though right?

The 2 colonies yes but the rest have been in my tank for awhile...

 

[THIEN LE]

If you are using a BB LED like the Mars or similar to light your sps reef please share your tank and experience with tthem.

switched from Mars 100% at 6" to vipa 85% at 10" for few mos, I got a bit better colors and growth, but still...I want to experience 2 hydra 52hd.
Anyone did such upgrade please share your hydra's setting

 

[alton]

I bought a Mars BB a couple years ago to run over my QT tank. With only having softies it did good. Then I set up a 180 so I bought two more and they looked good. But after a years of use the older Mars had to be set at 100% to match the newer two set at 50%. I have since sold this system but with these leds only being able to last two years, kind of a joke. My oldest BML Led is 7 years old and still works flawlessly which is what is to be expected with leds. If you invest in these, invest in a PAR meter with the savings so you can keep up with the drop in PAR and adjust up when needed.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I have used all types of lighting over the years and still use all goes on tanks at this point. BB lights have done just as well, for me, as name brand leds, halides, and T5s.

In relation to BB lights, I have noticed that people may be running them too high for too long. Some of the units put out 750 par hot spots 6” under the water. For example, I have a photon gen1 that with the stock lens put almost 600 par to about 10 spots in the tank at the 6” range. This was with blue at 100% and whites at 60%. I then swapped the lens and turned it down a hair and all was well (Par was measure with an Apogee). That light is still in use after all these years and is on a tank that recently had SPS added in. The sps is doing well and growing like weeds. Almost as fast as my MH/T5 tank (they share a sump, so all params are the same except flow.)

Either way, one must be careful with BB lights. You can give a coral to much light and slow growth. It may not kill it, but it sure can slow down growth when the zoo decide to ignore the light lol.

 

[EMeyer]

I liked the color and growth I got from MH. Wild acros would color up and grow like weeds.

I dont miss changing bulbs every six months (or suffering serious PAR declines if I forgot to). a MH lamp is a different light every day it turns on.

I dont miss the heat. I used these in a lab, where I had a chiller and central AC. I cant imagine putting a couple 250W MH in my living room in the summer. I dont need a chiller currently with BB LEDs. If we're comparing costs, we should probably include the cost of adding a chiller to each tank for MHs.

I don't miss bulbs and fixture parts randomly dying, and having to keep a few on hand to replace them when they went out.

Black box LEDs I can plug them in, tune them with a PAR meter, and forget about them for years.

... all I'm saying is lets keep the tradeoffs in mind. MH had some non trivial downsides.

I still miss the color I got with them.

 

[BobbyOtto]

LED black boxes work, plain and simple, anyone who tells you otherwise is full of themselves. Just remember they are only one part of the equation of a beautiful reef. The people bashing them (especially sponsers) should really chill out because you are wrong

 

[Aardvark1134]

Halides are #1 in heat and #1 in power usage and #1 in replacement bulb cost.
As far as my choice for lighting a reef they are dead last.

 

[Backreefing]

In my opinion LEDs and bb are not at where they can be . They just need a little more time to work out some short falls . They may become the future of the coral hobby. I never had halides . T5 s are dang cool.
At this time I’m in the hybrid camp LEDs and t5 together are nice . And when I upgrade tanks in the future. I will be bb and t5 .