LED lighting on a 450 reef

[pdfrogman]

wondering if anyone is running LED's on a 450 gallon tank or anything 30" deep
no issues with my lighting on my 450 but wouldn't mind dropping electric bill and
reducing heat

[larryfl1]

Ai will penetrate fine

[bullitr]

I am in a process mixing LEDs with metal halide

[pdfrogman]

Ai will penetrate fine

what is the cost

[nata]

I wanna hera more about the led and halide mix ..I am thinking about that too..but scared that leds will me outdone ..moonlight leds are not visible with halides..any thought?

[a240reef]

I bought the 5 unit AI set for my 150 gallon (60x24x24) which cost me $2.9k shipped.

450 gallons, you may get away with 12 units at $600 a piece. so you're looking at $7.2k shipped.

[pdfrogman]

I bought the 5 unit AI set for my 150 gallon (60x24x24) which cost me $2.9k shipped.

450 gallons, you may get away with 12 units at $600 a piece. so you're looking at $7.2k shipped.

that is insane! I'll get rid of my tank before I spend that much coin on a lighting system

[patmack]

You can run MH for a long time for $7200

[pdfrogman]

You can run MH for a long time for $7200

agreed

[bullitr]

There a lot of product coming up
Reefkoi is developing 3 watts bulb for 200 watts total fixtures for Less than 400 according to Chris
Ecoray have a similar one right now!
Wait in a couple of months the market will be flooded with LEDs ...

[serpentman]

I tried to convert to all LED's back in the spring on 300g (28" deep) but grossly underestimated the coverage I needed. I went with 144 3W LEDs. I feel they did a good job but to effectively cover the entire tank I would have need another 72-100+. In total this would run about 650-800W. This really put a damper on my ROI since I was running 3 x 250W MHs and would only save 100W. Given the expense and the experimental nature, I ended up chickening out and went with 48 LEDs for actinic supplementation. This replaced the 6 VHO bulbs and saved me about 450W.

Experimental LED array
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i223/serpentman2000/DSCF0542.jpg

Right 2/3 MH, 1 LED Array to the left
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i223/serpentman2000/DSCF0534.jpg

LED Only (notice the shadowing in between arrays)
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i223/serpentman2000/DSCF0551p.jpg

MH with LED Supplementation
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i223/serpentman2000/DSCF0747.jpg

[pdfrogman]

I am running 3- 250watt MH with lumen arc reflectors and 4 T5 39W pure actinics
the tank is doing very well good coral growth and color
my interest in converting is fueled by my 1100.00 a month electric bill