LEDs. Forever controversial?

[svogun]

Im using a radion gen 3 pro over my 93. Mixed reef. Sps mostly in the top 3rd. Im noticing alot of shadowing with just one unit. Am looking into adding another radion or do A t5 retrofit. Would love to hear some feedback about experiences combining the t5 and led.

 

[aereaus]

No offense, but this pic is typical of the lack of colors in corals using led. Lots of drab blue and purple, and florescent green. What little red that is in the tank, is not really red at all.

The algae in corals react to the wavelengths or spectrum of light that it receives. LED's have finite wavelengths that are emitted, and the lack of colors of corals in LED lit tanks illustrate that.

Lol. Im not even gonna argue with you because I have hooked up my par meter under both my 250w metal halides and under the radions. The radions are far brighter and cover a much better spectrum. Cameras have a pretty hard time capturing the colors in tanks especially when theyre taken from a cell phone.

 

[aereaus]

Im using a radion gen 3 pro over my 93. Mixed reef. Sps mostly in the top 3rd. Im noticing alot of shadowing with just one unit. Am looking into adding another radion or do A t5 retrofit. Would love to hear some feedback about experiences combining the t5 and led.

T5+LED works amazing. My main complain with LED is shadowing and the t5 works great for a diffused light source to help eliminate some of that.

 

[svogun]

I bet you have some better coloration as well.

 

[aereaus]

Colors look good to me

 

[svogun]

Very nice. Looking at 2 of the 24 watt giesmann retrofits.

 

[cjd]

Here is a good article written by Mike Paletta from 2014, much more current. Lot's of good conversation going on about this topic.
coral-excerpt-seeing-the-light-the-conversion-from-years-of-metal-halide-use-to-radically-new-leds

Great article, read it awhile back. He's using 750 dollar a piece × 6 to supplement his 65k halides.

 

[cjd]

Colors look good to me

Spectacular

 

[Greenstreet.1]

Colors look good to me

Beautiful now that's what I'm talking about. Keep it up.

 

[cjd]

Beautiful now that's what I'm talking about. Keep it up.

Now if we can get him to admit he used halides and t5 to grow that out and last night he just got those leds and snapped a picture we are all done here.just kidding of course. Beautiful work, radion pros ....anyone?...anyone?

 

[Greenstreet.1]

Upgraded to hydra 52's

 

[aereaus]

The hydra 52s are pretty awesome from what I have seen.

 

[fragit]

I'm setting up a new system. I'm gonn go with Radions for sure probably the pros. Check out the radion show off thread here and you'll see why. There are many other reasons I'm going with radion over other brands. Amongst those is that they will just better suit my build both functionally and aesthetically.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

Well based on the post this is a sore subject. People go to LED for a number of reasons, bulb replacement, cooling requirements, energy requirements. T5, Metal Halide, LED are all proven lighting systems that work. The problem with comparing the three systems is quality, reflectors, lens, and the variations of the entire setup. The first time I went into a coral reseller that stated that LEDs do not work and that SPS grow strange they were using the cheap Chinese fixtures about 3 feet above the corals, already knew the problem, was wrong spectrum and lack of par. Another LFS I used a lot all he had was led fixtures to save on cooling and energy. All great high quality fixtures are expensive regardless of light type. Correct spectrum at correct levels is what you should be looking at. The same tank with the same lights can grow coral differently just by putting it into different rooms. Individual LEDs have a narrow spectrum compared to T5 or Halide so it requires a mix of different leds to get the correct spectrum but unless leds with a spectrum that is not needed are added they will never look exactly the same as T5 or Halide. I did a lot of research before I went to LED, I went with Orphek Atlantik V2.1b they can definitely be as bright as halide and give great shimmer. There are a umber of led fixtures that will work but they need to be matched to the size of the tank and the inhabitants. you will not be able to use 2 Radions or 2 Hydra 52 on a display tank 72" x30" x 30" and grow SPS anywhere but if you positioned them right you can grow SPS and LPS. My 2 Orpheks will grow SPS anywhere except a cave and will still grow most LPS. I will never tell somebody that any of these types of lights will not work alone or in combination but I will asked them to pick their tank and what they plan to keep before they make a choice on lighting. Can not grow sps with one T5 if the tank is 36" deep or you can not grow LPS in a 10 gallon tank under 400 watt halide.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

Got an email and Orphek has a new fixture! The Atlantik V3 PLUS

Can't wait to get my hands on this one

if my v2.1b had a buyer I would go the new Orphek V3+

 

[twilliard]

Oh ya the spectral graph is amazing!

 

[mcarroll]

[...]

I never assume pictures on the internet look the same as in person, but just based on the photo, this looks very "crazy purple" to me. Like someone was messing with the color controls on the TV, but not in a good way.

 

[aereaus]

Yeah the UV and blues tend to mess with the lens on the camera a lot. However the results speak for themselves.

 

[WetWhistle]

To clarify some of my points I was not saying anyone said LED don't work is in this thread. It is a common comment you hear in LED threads quite often that they don't work or they don't work as well. I am also not saying LED work better then any of the lighting options. But someone saying they don't work or they don't work as well is false and bad information. Because they do.

Take my comments about T5, I hate and I mean hate doing bulb replacements yearly so as a main light source I would not use them. As I have many tanks and I would be spending over $800 a year in bulb replacements alone, it would be silly for me to go that route not to mention not cost effective. In my case I could buy a new Hydra 52 or buy 4 Chinese EverGrow D2120 every year for that kind of money. But I didn't say T5 don't work or LED work better. Just that in my case T5 don't work for me.

I base my comments on my experience with all the types of lighting. I haven't just read about them I have tested for years the differences between them all and I am very familiar with T5, MH and LED and how they grow corals. Each type of lighting has its pros and cons and it all depends on what you are going for and what works best for you and your situation. Years ago there was a lighting gap between the different lighting options and one could clearly say this worked better then that. But as technology has progress the gap has closed. You no longer have a clear winner but instead have many options to choose from. It is just that people that have LED get tired of all the bad mouthing of them because they clearly work.

People fail at LED or they don't work for them for a few common reasons. I have spoken to a lot of people that switched back to their previous lighting option and they all have a few things in common. One of the top reason for LED not working is the reefer themselves and not having a good understanding on how to use LED.

1: They go to fast. Fast and LED don't work. Corals need time to adjust to any light source so slow down.
Or they go to slow and are overly cautious. They put the new corals in less than ideal spots to accumulate them then after a few weeks they have adjusted to the lower levels seem to think it is ok to plop the coral in the final spot. Then the corals get shocked to the sudden jump in lighting intensity and they then blame it on LED and not their mistake. Here is a tip on corals. If your corals color lighten quickly it is normally to high an intensity jump, if the color fades slowly over a few weeks it is normally too low of intensity. At least the majority of the time.

2: They keep treating their new LED lights like their old lights. LED are not your old lights so stop trying to force corals to grow or act like they would under another light source. Because any light regardless if it is T5, MH or LED don't grow exactly like each other and you will have differences even if they are small. So embrace the light that you have not what you used to have.

3: They set them wrong. People get caught up in how the tank looks to them but don't stop to do research on what the corals actual needs are and not the aquarists needs. They set the intensity way to low or way to high, they set the color to what they like the look of regardless of the corals needs. They over think all the settings and make it more complected then it needs to be. The higher end LED come with presets so use them and then tweak if needed. If not find out the Kelvin you like and what you are going for in terms of growth and color. Do you want best growth, best color or both. Set the K to what you want it to be and slowly adjust the intensity up 2% to 5% weekly. The lower value if you are not experienced and if you are you can do the higher value. People raise the lights higher for T5 and MH for accumulation. The same goes with LED for changing the intensity with no need to raise them. Other bulbs like T5 or MH you choose the spectrum you want by bulb selection. LED can just adjust without having to pick a bulb spectrum.

4: They fiddle and adjust constantly the intensity and spectrum. Getting bored or always looking for something they think could\should be getting better even when this is not possible. With T5 or MH the only way would be to keep trying new bulbs all the time and this would cost you. You would not do that with these type of lights so why do it with LED just because it doesn't cost you extra? Keep your hands off and be happy with what you have and are getting. Stop looking at what other people are getting as your tank is not their tank.

5: One LED is not as good as another. Just like anything in life you get what you pay for. Lower end Chinese LED work great but you can't expect them to preform or look the same as a light that is higher end. I use three different LED on my tanks and my higher end one works best by far. Just like any light source sometimes the LED you have is just not powerful enough. If it is only a little the difference can be made up in other ways like with more quality food. On some occasions you need another fixture. When LED first came out this happened more often but as it became more popular this doesn't happen as often. Because with anything they get better with time.

If you stick to these things you will have great results with LED. If anyone has questions just PM me I will be happy to share what I have learned over the years.

 

[WetWhistle]

Yeah the UV and blues tend to mess with the lens on the camera a lot. However the results speak for themselves.

It is quite hard to take a pic of a tank with LED. In pictures it looks a little over saturated like someone messed with it but in person the colors are actually quite close to the picture. At least with mine.