LED's w/Z's and P's (Question)

[jrb_dakine]

For those of you who have LED lighting only on your tank, I would like to ask how your Z's and P's are doing under LED's?

One of my friends has a routine where he puts his fresh frags in his frag tank under LED's and lets them heal (he tries to keep the lighting around 10K). Once his frags are ready he places them back into his DT under dual 250w radiums to color up. His LED's is a DIY set up containing 3 rows LED's and each row is on a separate dimmer.

My friends who gave me frags both have LED systems that are not z & p dominated and wanted to see how the frags would do under my MH. Now I'm interested in getting a LED system (easier maintenance, cost effective, longer bulb life)

Questions:

1. Do you like the way your Z's and P's look under your LED's.

2. If your frags originally came from a tank with MH or T-5 lighting, did they
retain the same color or are you getting better coloring.

3. Do you regret switching to LED's and why?

Thanks

[Friday Night]

For those of you who have LED lighting only on your tank, I would like to ask how your Z's and P's are doing under LED's?

One of my friends has a routine where he puts his fresh frags in his frag tank under LED's and lets them heal (he tries to keep the lighting around 10K). Once his frags are ready he places them back into his DT under dual 250w radiums to color up. His LED's is a DIY set up containing 3 rows LED's and each row is on a separate dimmer.

My friends who gave me frags both have LED systems that are not z & p dominated and wanted to see how the frags would do under my MH. Now I'm interested in getting a LED system (easier maintenance, cost effective, longer bulb life)

Questions:

1. Do you like the way your Z's and P's look under your LED's.

2. If your frags originally came from a tank with MH or T-5 lighting, did they
retain the same color or are you getting better coloring.

3. Do you regret switching to LED's and why?

Thanks

1. Yes makes them "pop" i enjoy the colors that the leds bring out
2. They have always been under led lighting getting much better color..
3. No. I feel they bring out the best color in the corals as well as there the most energy efficient

[MUCHO REEF]

Anybody?

[jrb_dakine]

1. Yes makes them "pop" i enjoy the colors that the leds bring out
2. They have always been under led lighting getting much better color..
3. No. I feel they bring out the best color in the corals as well as there the most energy efficient

Thanks Friday,

What kind of fixture do you have or is it a DIY setup?

[B-Willz]

I have VHO's and the color of every thing is terrible. I reacently got an LED strip to test out and the colors in every thing are insane now. They really make all of the colors pop, tank looks awsome now. I only have the low power LED to supplement the color and I love it. I think the colors are more vibrant than MH, VHO, or T5.

[Friday Night]

Thanks Friday,

What kind of fixture do you have or is it a DIY setup?

https://www.toofishy.com/product.php?productid=92199&cat=819&page=1

I love it.. ;) I drilled the fixture into my canopy like in the pic shows.. 50,000 hours ill think ill be good for awhile.. ;) Awsome lens protector.. no crazy heat issues.. And im loving my PGnE bill too.. :beer:

BTW JRB my light cycle as follows: 6am - 1pm

[Neogenocide]

Questions:

1. Do you like the way your Z's and P's look under your LED's.

2. If your frags originally came from a tank with MH or T-5 lighting, did they
retain the same color or are you getting better coloring.

3. Do you regret switching to LED's and why?

Thanks

1. I absolutely love they way they look under my LED's. Much better than the Halide setup I had before.

2. It's hard to tell as the colors look completely different under LED's than they do under any other type of light. I however like it better than the 20K halides the LFS had them under.

3. Nope....one of the best investments I made in my tank.

Just for reference, I'm running a 46G Bow, 34 Led's Cree XR-E, 18 blue, 16 white. Absolutely loving them!!!!!

Scott

[jrb_dakine]

I have VHO's and the color of every thing is terrible. I reacently got an LED strip to test out and the colors in every thing are insane now. They really make all of the colors pop, tank looks awsome now. I only have the low power LED to supplement the color and I love it. I think the colors are more vibrant than MH, VHO, or T5.

B-Willz is this what you used?
http://www.ecoxotic.com/catalog/prod...5/category/12/

This was gonna be my original upgrade to my Sunpod 150:
http://www.ecoxotic.com/community/un...in-a-nano-cube

https://www.toofishy.com/product.php?productid=92199&cat=819&page=1

I love it.. ;) I drilled the fixture into my canopy like in the pic shows.. 50,000 hours ill think ill be good for awhile.. ;) Awsome lens protector.. no crazy heat issues.. And im loving my PGnE bill too.. :beer:

BTW JRB my light cycle as follows: 6am - 1pm

Friday - I'm topless so not an option for me, but i saw there fixture.


1. I absolutely love they way they look under my LED's. Much better than the Halide setup I had before.

2. It's hard to tell as the colors look completely different under LED's than they do under any other type of light. I however like it better than the 20K halides the LFS had them under.

3. Nope....one of the best investments I made in my tank.

Just for reference, I'm running a 46G Bow, 34 Led's Cree XR-E, 18 blue, 16 white. Absolutely loving them!!!!!

Scott

Scott - Does your set up have a dimmer?

Thanks everyone for the info.

[SIR PATRICK]

I will be using led supliments in the near future- Love the colors and crispness/sharpness you get when utilizing leds. Its almost like looking into your tank in High def!

[Neogenocide]

Scott - Does your set up have a dimmer?


No dimmer as of yet, I'm just using the LPC-35-700w constant current driver. I do plan on converting that to a dimmable setup when I get my Audrino controller built.

Scott

[RR37]

Im not complaining, Im using a PFO i5. Happy with both growth and color, tank is 20" deep and all the z's & p's are smack on the bottom.

[B-Willz]

B-Willz is this what you used?
http://www.ecoxotic.com/catalog/prod...5/category/12/

This was gonna be my original upgrade to my Sunpod 150:
http://www.ecoxotic.com/community/un...in-a-nano-cube



The links you have are not working, these are the ones I have. They are expandable so you add what you need. I do not use them as my only lighting just to supplement the color, I have seen a small amount of accelerated growth but I can not say for sure it is the LED's, still testing. The color though is awsome.
http://www.lnt.com/product/light-fixtures/45920/460nm-actinic-led.html

[KafudaFish]

For those that like or love your LEDs how long have you been using them?

[jrb_dakine]

B-Willz is this what you used?
http://www.ecoxotic.com/products/modular-led-lighting/stunner-led-strips.html

This was gonna be my original upgrade to my Sunpod 150:
http://www.ecoxotic.com/community/uncategorized/stunner-453nm-blue-in-a-nano-cube



Friday - I'm topless so not an option for me, but i saw there fixture.




Scott - Does your set up have a dimmer?

Thanks everyone for the info.


URL fixed.

[Raggamuffin]

Questions:

1. Do you like the way your Z's and P's look under your LED's.

2. If your frags originally came from a tank with MH or T-5 lighting, did they
retain the same color or are you getting better coloring.

3. Do you regret switching to LED's and why?

Thanks

1: Yes I love the way they look, I have 2 nano's a 29 with a 150w 20k mh, and a 14g with a nanotuners custom hood. Colors are great in both but the real pop comes under the LEDs.

2: Frags came from the bottom of a 190 and as soon as they get into my tank the grow like mad, at least 1 polyp every 2 days if not more in the 29. The growth of new polyps under the LEDs is MUCH slower (in the 1 polyp per 7-10 days range) but they get some intense color in there.

3: Nope not at all I keep both types of light one for grow out 1 to add color it's a perfect set up for me :) even if I have to use a daisy chain of AIO nanos LMAO!

[russ13]

does anyone have any info on the growth rate using leds.i love the way they look and they are great on energy.

[captstinky]

I've had LEDs only for about a little over a month, the colors really pop. Some are struggling, but I may have increased the PAR too much too soon...I switched from PC to LED and have the capacity to quadruple the PAR...trying to find that happy acclimation...

[ErnieC]

I added LED's to my system and BAM! my zoas really POP... too early to tell about growth and such.

[therman]

1. Love the colors
2. better colors, only thing I have trouble with is some of the pinks and purples on hawaiian PE types
3. Not at all. Power savings, colors, dimmability, virtually infinite emitter life...what's not to like?

I've been running 22CW/22RB Cree XR-Es over my 29g polyp tank for just over a year. Just built an 88 Cree array for my 150g rubbermaid tank and a 156 Cree array for a new 36x36x18. These are mostly sps, still trying to figure out the colors on some of the reds and pinks, blues, purples, oranges, and greens are insane. I think it's because of the higher color temp of the XP-Gs I used on the 88 array though. The 156 is all XR-Es and has a nice slightly warmer color to the whites.
-Tim

[KafudaFish]

Tim,
Do you have a thread about your DIY LEDs?

I am listening to Motorhead's Ace of Spades and it looks like your skull is Lemy singing.

[therman]

I don't have a thread, though I have a few pics here:
LED lighting (http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x165/t-a-herman/LED%20lighting/)

The skull is actually Murray, the demonic talking skull from the Curse of Monkey Island.

[jrb_dakine]

I don't have a thread, though I have a few pics here:
LED lighting (http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x165/t-a-herman/LED%20lighting/)

The skull is actually Murray, the demonic talking skull from the Curse of Monkey Island.


VERY NICE!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you mind me asking your cost to build this?

[KafudaFish]

Ok thanks.

I remember that.

[blasterman789]

better colors, only thing I have trouble with is some of the pinks and purples on hawaiian PE types

Because you're using cool-white LEDs which have crappy color. Rather than just blindly doing what other LED guys were telling me to do I tested various LED combos and found RB + Cool-white delivered the worst color. 2:1 RB+neutral fixes a lot of these problems. 3:1 RB + warm works as well.

The only problem I've found with LED is that it's real easy to tick off zoos with too much blue light (the PAR component). They'll either lay compressed as close to the rock as they can, or just stay closed if it's too bright. The tolerance is much more narrow than T5 because of the increased directionality of LED. I do notice that my dark green button polyps tend to love as much light as they can get while lighter colored zoos want much less.

[therman]

Because you're using cool-white LEDs which have crappy color. Rather than just blindly doing what other LED guys were telling me to do I tested various LED combos and found RB + Cool-white delivered the worst color. 2:1 RB+neutral fixes a lot of these problems. 3:1 RB + warm works as well.

The only problem I've found with LED is that it's real easy to tick off zoos with too much blue light (the PAR component). They'll either lay compressed as close to the rock as they can, or just stay closed if it's too bright. The tolerance is much more narrow than T5 because of the increased directionality of LED. I do notice that my dark green button polyps tend to love as much light as they can get while lighter colored zoos want much less.

Hmmmm... How many different polyps have you tried under your different LED rigs and how long did you try them for? I have phenomenal color on really everything except two hawaiian PE morphs (electric ladies and star trek PE). I would hardly call these results "crappy color". They are fully dimmable after all, and there is plenty of red and yellow spectrum in the WG bin XR-Es to make them as warm as you would ever want in a reef. I have tried probably 100 morphs, many high end polyps under the LEDs with overall great results. 3:1 RB or even 2:1 must be incredibly blue...are you dimming them or just running them all at the same current?

[therman]

VERY NICE!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you mind me asking your cost to build this?

Unfortunately the group buys for Cree LEDs on another forum have been squashed due to changes in the user agreement, so the LEDs were cheaper than most people can get them for now.

The light over the polyp tank was done with buckpucks, before Meanwells were really discovered, so it could probably be done cheaper now.

2 24V power supplies@$15 ea
44 Cree XR-Es@ $5.25 ea
44 20 deg optics @$1 ea
8 dimming buckpucks @$20 ea
24"x5 heatsink @$48

Total $513, plus odds and ends (fans, wiring, thermal epoxy, etc.) and shipping it was close to $600. I run it at maybe 600mA average and it draws about 130W. Considering the versatility, colors, growth, energy savings, and savings on replacement bulbs I think it's worth every penny. You could build it with 4 Meanwell ELN-60-48 and save about $90 over the buckpucks too.

The 156 array is crazy nice....but rather pricey too :D