Can SPS grow with LED lights ? Or it’s waste of money

[jda]

Usually unique or at least very good looking, but there are cheap ones of these too. For some people it means expensive. For others it means harder to keep. Usually, they are both expensive and hard to keep since harder to keep corals that are nice are more expensive with limited supply and high demand.

Sometimes, it is just corals that are new to the market. At one point, Walt Disney, RRC Pink Cadillac and Fox Flame were high end, but now they are just average at best. Corals can change from one category to another.

For everybody, it does not mean corals that they see in a lot of tanks that do very well... like huge colonies that you see in a LFS that nobody wants frags of anymore.

 

[Troylee]

Pardon my newb question, but what makes an sps "high end", and how is it able to distinguish light source when it's "high end"?

The name and price a vendor or person slaps on it lol… nothing makes any acro different than other acro besides species … it’s mostly anything that “rainbow aka 3 colors or more”

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Why is OPs profile picture a screenshot of liveaquaria's Achilles tang lol

 

[twentyleagues]

This is an opposite side question but what is one thing if you can remember that was the change that made your SPS not brown out and color up and give polyp extension and grow? For example, my tank is about 5 months old and all the "cheap" SPS I have got just browned out like a pocillopora, fire diji, and a blue-green monti, except after 2 months the monti finally has polyps and is coloring up. Is that just how it is, like they brown out for a month or two and then just magically bounce back or not?

I think when that happens its a stress related issue. I have had it happen to me. The coral for one is moved from an environment its used to and stuck in a new one. Lighting may be same or different water parameters may be close but not identical ( thatd be almost impossible) so they stress a bit, then the get used to it and its all good.

 

[Dburr1014]

Is there anyone successfully growing HIGH END SPS with LED lights ?
I’m not talking about Monti or cheap acro that grow with any light.
I have 240 gallon tank running for 2 years I have different SPS cheap and high end all cheap ones growing like weeds. While the high end like Rocky balboa and angry bird and rainbow fusion and HW and other expensive ones doing absolutely nothing. Almost a year.
From watching most successful SPS keppers on YouTube I see most of them using Halide !?
So are we paying so much money for LED just for the look ???

Or there are people who are successful keeping SPS with LED ?

Please share your thoughts and PICTURES if you growing SPS with LED.

Ask @Battlecorals
They use Reefbreeders LED and I'm pretty sure he has some high end coral.

 

[Battlecorals]

Is there anyone successfully growing HIGH END SPS with LED lights ?
I’m not talking about Monti or cheap acro that grow with any light.
I have 240 gallon tank running for 2 years I have different SPS cheap and high end all cheap ones growing like weeds. While the high end like Rocky balboa and angry bird and rainbow fusion and HW and other expensive ones doing absolutely nothing. Almost a year.
From watching most successful SPS keppers on YouTube I see most of them using Halide !?
So are we paying so much money for LED just for the look ???

Or there are people who are successful keeping SPS with LED ?

Please share your thoughts and PICTURES if you growing SPS with LED.

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I feel like this question is about 15 years too late lol

I mean LEDs been around for at least as long and have definitely proven to be effective for growing Sps. I would honestly argue the exact opposite in fact, that most successful Sps tanks These days are under LEDs, while the shrinking minority of us are still running halides

I myself have one tank out of six with halides over, the rest are all LED in my main system.

And looking great.

 

[ninjamyst]

Not fake… but not aqua cultured either.. mostly imports and chopped up! Very few farmers out there that have home grown corals and sell… I mean think about how long it takes to grow out a nicer tenius colony? You’d only have inventory at best every 4 months or so..

You do know those same colonies been in their tank for years now right??

 

[t5Nitro]

I think most major coral aquaculture facilities are nearly full LED at this point. You can choose whatever you prefer for lighting. Just don’t run them windex blue because that looks terrible. Subjective opinion, lol

 

[rtparty]

Any decent LED/halide/T5 set at the correct PAR will grow any coral you want. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't live in the real world and use actual data to form opinions.

I was team halide and then team T5 and then team LED and then halide and now LED. I have run them all for extended periods and ALL will create beautfiul, healthy corals. Colors and morphs will happen for sure but water chemistry can change these as well.

 

[Troylee]

You do know those same colonies been in their tank for years now right??

Very few… old corals don’t catch high dollar like the new rainbow hoobleee boo-boo! They’re out there most are a dime a dozen and people sell them dirt cheap! It’s business…

 

[rtparty]

Nope, LEDs can’t grow large colonies of “high end” SPS

 

[ronnie]

Patience will grow anything. And stability.

I ran an XR15 G6 Pro w a 4 bulb T5 and I had lackluster results (poor color and no growth). I swapped to a bigger tank (more stability) and put on new LEDs only and I am seeing strong results over the last two weeks with the new lights. Growth is starting and colors are showing up that had been faded.

Is it all the light? Not even close. It’s patience. And stability. Stability Promotes Success. Any light works if it has the right spectrum and intensity.

 

[trmiv]

This may have been a debate years ago, but it’s not anymore. I’d say far more people running nice sps tanks are running LED vs anything else.

WWC did an update on one of their 750 farm display/growouts. Seems like the LED’s may be working just fine for SPS…….

Those are gen 4 radions too.



This is just one of many tanks there growing nice sps exclusively under LED.

 

[ReefStable]

You can ABSOLUTELY grow high end sps under LEDs, but the intensity and spectrum become a bit more technical...

You'll want to check PAR to get it to match your current non-led setup. The other thing to remember is that *MOST* LEDs don't get very much, if any, UV. The only exception I know about is Orphek UV and maybe the Blue Plus?

Anyway, yes, you can. You probably need to pay more attention to the intensity though.

 

[ninjamyst]

Very few… old corals don’t catch high dollar like the new rainbow hoobleee boo-boo! They’re out there most are a dime a dozen and people sell them dirt cheap! It’s business…

what the heck are you smoking. I been visiting their store for a few years now and it's the same colonies in their big display tanks. I even saw them start a new SPS tank and watched the corals grow from frags to colonies. Have you even been to their stores regularly?

 

[KandAReefs]

I was kinda wanting to stay out of the vendor thing, but most of the vendors that people will list cannot grow any coral and any time. They have a few varities that they keep in house and grow, but they also still import a lot and sell those. Folks like Adam at Battlecorals grows all of his own stuff and he still uses 6500k Halides. Tim Herman grows all of his own stuff too and he uses Photon V2, but with lots of light other than blues.

The large shops are not really good to compare. Some of them also get paid to use Radions... as do some hobbyists that talk about how great that they are.

In any case, don't do what vendors do, do what hobbyists do.

I would listen people who are not selling you anything. Abe comes to mind... great videos about acropora.

Have you been to the WWC farm or the winter park store? Just going to disagree with you on this one.

 

[Dburr1014]

Have you been to the WWC farm or the winter park store? Just going to disagree with you on this one.

True, even Adam from battlecorals himself on this thread says he has 1 tank with halides. All the rest are LED.

 

[jackson6745]

It’s a money thing. For sps you need blanket coverage to have real growth. On a 6’ or 8’ tank you’re in for big bucks. Spending 5k or more on lighting is just not acceptable to me when I can have better results with a $1k halide fixture or $600 t5 fixture. I get it that guys want that florescence to their corals. Add a reefbrite or something similar.

 

[Tiatank]

Is there anyone successfully growing HIGH END SPS with LED lights ?
I’m not talking about Monti or cheap acro that grow with any light.
I have 240 gallon tank running for 2 years I have different SPS cheap and high end all cheap ones growing like weeds. While the high end like Rocky balboa and angry bird and rainbow fusion and HW and other expensive ones doing absolutely nothing. Almost a year.
From watching most successful SPS keppers on YouTube I see most of them using Halide !?
So are we paying so much money for LED just for the look ???

Or there are people who are successful keeping SPS with LED ?

Please share your thoughts and PICTURES if you growing SPS with LED.

Radions work great, agreed that the higher end take longer but they will start moving. My Walt Disney nub took over a year then started growing like crazy. For me the icp test along with dosing trace elements was key

 

[Katrina71]

I think sps do best with hybrid lighting. Jmo