Growing corals with LED's

[darrennickerson]

Hey I recently came across this article http://www.****************/content.php/70-LED-pendent-build and it really got me thinking about switching over to LED's instead of metal halides. I was just wondering if metal halides are the way to go when growing out coral, I know the decrease in energy costs would be a welcomed bonus but I was just thinking about it a lot lately and figured i'd ask what everyone else thought about this

[TiTAN]

I think it would be great way to grow corals.

LED's have progressed a long way with technology, although I still think that they just need to get a little better, by better I mean more cost effective to buy if you do not have the expertise to build such a unit as you mentioned.

If you can build a unit that is able so spread the light evenly across a low Frag tank then it would be ideal, you would have to be in the frag growing for long term as the pay back right now on LED's is still quiet long.

Do a search here on RC and you will find alot of threads talking about LED's and also alot of debate regarding the cost effectiveness of LED's vs Halides vs T5's.

If Capital cost was not a issue I would go for it.

[nowlan]

Wait until you need to change your T5 bulbs.
Then cost is easier to swallow.

Offset new bulbs towards cost of replacing fixture.

Hopefully by that time price will come down.
Fingers crossed.