Show Me Your SPS LED Tank!

[huskysglare1]

I really like the idea of LED for Reefing, but I have some doubt about their effectiveness over SPS tank. Can someone prove me wrong? I've seen a couple and none of them were TOTM quality; Well, beside tanks from the LED manufacturers.

Please show me pictures of your LED SPS tanks. I would really love to see a few stunners to convince me to put $1000+ into a new LED system.

Time lapse pictures would be GRREEAATT! Corals progression pictures.

[Usul0]

Second that! I plan on an upgrade in the near future but don't want to blow 2X the cost on LEDs over T5s and not have them preform as well.

[bearpeidog]

I posted a similar thread in the reef discussion forum, so you can check there as well for responses.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1852578

[Flavordsm]

Well my tank isn't a sps tank, it is a mixed reef but I do have sps in it. Acros, montipora spongodes, encrusting monti, digitata ect.. and they have all shown growth and great color. I also have a blue maxima clam that is happy. I have been running my LEDs since January.

[huskysglare1]

Anyone?

[huskysglare1]

wow, not a single nice looking LED tanks out there yet?

[Neogenocide]

I think your limiting yourself on responses when limiting it to SPS. LED's are quickly becoming more and more popular. If they couldn't support SPS or give off the proper light, you wouldn't see so many threads on them. I can say my mixed reef under LED"s is doing great, but being fairly new to the hobby, haven't tried to keep SPS yet.

Scott

[huskysglare1]

LED is new. that's why i want to get feed back from actual experience. LED is the new IT in reefing that's why i want to upgrade to LED, but as you know, it's expensive as hell. That's why i want to gather more info before i jump in.

[kcress]

Yes but the major point is that they pay back in less than two years typically. That is outstanding return.

[hotdog.ken]

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783517

[Obi-dad]

LED is new. that's why i want to get feed back from actual experience. LED is the new IT in reefing that's why i want to upgrade to LED, but as you know, it's expensive as hell. That's why i want to gather more info before i jump in.

Only expensive as heck if you buy a manufactured unit - many many reefers are DIYing them for far less - and you get way more control out of what you want that way.

[Squidhead9]

I was a relatively early adopter and have had LED's for about two years. I also have a zero edge tank so based on common wisdom there are two reasons I can't do sps.:lmao:

zero edge remedy is to have a dry box in the middle and use vortechs for flow.

As to the LED's I find that some of the higher light requiring sps like tri valida don't color up too well. Most do ok however.

I'm not much of a photographer but here's a few shots of my tank I pulled off our local club website.

[samiam1975]

sweet tank
those are nice pics

[huskysglare1]

Hotdog's link has a nice LED tank. However, the top looks like it was covered with LED. that's a lot of LED.

[huskysglare1]

The Sps that don't color well, do they grow well? Is it because the light is weak that they don't color well?

[funkman262]

The Sps that don't color well, do they grow well? Is it because the light is weak that they don't color well?

Some people theorize that SPS require UV light in order to color well because the coloring is a mechanism to block out the harmful UV light. Others say that UV light is not necessary. I don't believe any studies have been conducted to show any correlation though.

[Akwarius]

Some people theorize that SPS require UV light in order to color well because the coloring is a mechanism to block out the harmful UV light. Others say that UV light is not necessary. I don't believe any studies have been conducted to show any correlation though.

If this were true then why don't wild collected acros from shallow areas have the best color?

The color and growth of my sps has improved since converting from a 20k HQI to an led setup with 3 RB for every 2 CW. As far as I know, these bulbs emit little if any UV light.

[Obi-dad]

Some people theorize that SPS require UV light in order to color well because the coloring is a mechanism to block out the harmful UV light. Others say that UV light is not necessary. I don't believe any studies have been conducted to show any correlation though.

There was an article in one of the online reefkeeping magazines where they looked at the compounds produced in corals by UV, and said they are clear, not colored.

Also, UV doesn't penetrate very far into water, and there are colorful corals deep. The 'UV makes great colors' gets repeated often, but looks to be a myth.

[Obi-dad]

It has been researched by respected authors. From an article (http://www.fishchannel.com/saltwater-aquariums/aquarium-frontiers/natural-reef-light.aspx)
in Aquarium Frontiers by Harker, with references by DelBeek among others:

"First, corals do possess pigments that protect them from UV. The pigments, however, are clear, much like sunscreen used by people is clear (Banaszak and Trench 1995). Furthermore, the green, blue, pink and red pigments normally associated with UV protection by the hobby have nothing to do with UV (Dove et al. 1995).

The link between pigment and UV is easy to understand. With few exceptions, the most colorful corals are found near the surface of the water where high levels of UV light are present. Deeper water corals are typically brown even when nearby corals of the same species closer to the surface are colorful. Based on these observations, it was assumed that UV light produced more colorful corals.

Because research has ruled out UV, other conditions must account for the difference. "

[Jay1982]

I think since we are talking about coloration levels here I should note that when I added an algae turf scrubber (which increased the oxygen content in the water colum) my corals have really started to color up. My Nitrates have droped down quite a bit but I feel that the other reason might be that there is a relation between oxygen content and coloration.

This is purely speculation and if someone has some research that debunks this then by all means please let me know. But perhaps factor X in coloration that we are referencing to is oxygen content since we know that out in the ocean there is a severe drop off in oxygen content the further down one goes in the water.

[huskysglare1]

bump

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Here is a thread you might want to look at:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1718642

There are many other LED threads you may or may not have seen:

The Mother Thread:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1678127

Some others:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1662682

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1751598

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1672708

And some facts:

1) LEDs are capable of plenty of intensity. More than our corals need. As with any other type of lighting, it's simply a matter of sizing the array to match the intensity you want. See Taqpol's posts here:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1826521

On the most recent page he posted PAR readings well above what you need to keep SPS, and comparable to what a typical high output T5 or MH array will produce. You made a comment above "that's a lot of LEDs." Well, yeah, I suppose, but you could also look at a tank with 8 T5 lamps and say "that's a lot of T5's." It's all relative.

So, intensity really won't be a problem with a properly designed "let me grow SPS" LED rig.

2) LEDs are capable of a wide range of spectral outputs. Most LED manufacturers market several white models (typically cool white, neutral white, and warm white.) Many bin these white LEDs into specific color bins, meaning you get many dozens of color choices for white LEDs. In addition, you can buy LEDs in many monochromatic models, and those are typically binned by dominant wavelength. So, if you have a certain color in mind, or even a certain spectrum, you can likely create it by mixing and matching different colors/bins of LEDs. In a way, LEDs give you more freedom with color than other technologies, since you're working in smaller steps with more choices.

So, if you're convinced you need a certain color of light to get good results with SPS, you can likely achieve that color result with LEDs. (Of course, there's pretty much zero agreement in the hobby about what color you need with good results, and there's little or no information from the scientific community on the subject - so this is a highly subjective area).

3) LEDs give you freedoms not easily achieved with other lighting technologies. First, it's easy to dim LEDs and/or change their power level on a whim. Secondly, since you're working in smaller increments, you have a finer degree of control over placement, angle, and orientation of the light. You can create an evenly distributed look, similar to what you get with T5, where the light is spread evenly over the tank. Or, you can create a "point source" look, by bunching LEDs close together and simulating an MH. You can spotlight individual corals with specific colors of light if you want. The freedom is pretty endless.

LEDs are not for everyone, and there is still a fair degree of development happening, both in the literal sense (LEDs are developing more or less according to Moore's Law - performance is doubling ever 18 months or so) and in the hobby sense (we're still experimenting with different combinations of LEDs and other parameters). However, there have been many successful tanks, including SPS, so if you were really interested in finding them and you haven't yet, maybe you need to do some more searching? If your question is, "is it possible to grow nice looking SPS with LEDs?" then there is a pretty clear answer of "yes." If your question is, "should I put LEDs on my tank?" then you have to answer that for yourself. If you're not confident that you can adopt LEDs for your tank at this point in time, then you may be better off keeping a lighting technology you're more comfortable with.

[XSiVE]

I don't have before and after pics, but I can say that I can see growth tips on all of my SPS, since I switched from MH. I always noticed when the corals were bigger but I never really saw growth tips like I am now.

[blasterman789]

The 'UV makes great colors' gets repeated often, but looks to be a myth.


I tend to agree. I've seen a lot of T5 tanks with not only dismal color but poor SPS growth, and there was significant supplimentation of 420nm tubes. 420nm is almost unheard of with LED.

However, on the flip side, most of us with LEDs aren't running anything below 450-455nm because that's about where Royal Blue cuts off. Between UV-A and royal blue there's a helluva lot of spectrum, and a significant chunk of it right around the main clorophyl A line. Halides pump a lot of energy here and we can't just dismiss its relevance for zooxanthellae growth. Does this light have more significance in terms of raw PAR over LED? Probably not. Does 400-450nm blue light below the range of most LED rigs promote other biologic properties or pigmentation processes in SPS (excluding UV-A) ? Possibly. You have to remember that many species of Acro grow in absurdly shallow water, if not above water in heavy tidal regions. So, it's spectral requirements might be different than deeper water corals where the spectral range is much narrower.

Whatever the arguement is though, at least LED are consistent about it. Halides change spectral as they age in a period measured in months, and changing bulbs is like changing fuel rods at the local nuclear plant in terms of risk.