PDA

View Full Version : Acros (and other SPS) lit by LED only. What do you use?!!?


dhalderman
05/04/2016, 03:52 AM
There is limitless info regarding LED, quality, wavelength, intensity and so forth. Pushing that technical research to the side for a moment, I figured another way to gauge what is possible and what works is a type of "poll" thread here.
This is for those that successfully grow acros mainly, but other SPS also. That is, those that have good growth and maintaining decent color and PE, and all doing it strictly using LED lights. If so, please tell me what LED fixture you use!!!

billdogg
05/04/2016, 04:42 AM
My 120 DT uses 2x AI Sol blues, my grow out tank is set up with 2x kessil A360W's

Kies1
05/04/2016, 04:44 AM
90 gallon maxspect razor 300 watt

Ron Reefman
05/04/2016, 05:00 AM
180g sps/lps reef, 3 years under EverGrow (ReefBreeders Photon 32) and great growth.
65g very mixed shallow reef under the same fixture by another seller
25g frag tank under an OceanRevive T247 (didn't care about sunrise/sunset ability over the frag tank)

Wazzel
05/04/2016, 07:19 AM
AI hydra52's on my display and hydra26 on my frag tank.

GimpyFin
05/04/2016, 07:37 AM
I use two hydra 26 hds.

vhuang168
05/04/2016, 08:54 AM
AP700s on a 40b right now as a holding system while my 190 is being readied. Will have 2 AP700s on the 190.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

moatdaddy
05/04/2016, 09:05 AM
Matts coral connection in Fort Walton Beach, Florida was a huge proponent of kessils when they hit the market 5 years ago or so. He promptly swapped to an all kessil system in his store. In his display tank that has had them for numerous years the lack of shading and directional nature of even great leds is prevalent. The bottom of every sps colony, were talking softball sized pieces, was dead. As the colony grew, which it did grow well in his display tank, it shaded the lower portions of the sps. I never got this far on my personal tank, so all i can do is gauge from one of my LFS display tanks. This did however really effect my lighting decision going forward with my new tank. Currently i run T5 because if i want to grow corals for more than a few years leds alone will lead to shading. This is also brought to light in a recent set of videos made by BulkReefSupply. Week 18-22 go over lighting and it illustrated the downfalls of LEDs as a solo light source. If i had the extra money i would buy the ATI powermod, or a comparable. And a good, decent priced LED/T5 combo fixture along with an all in one digital 24/7 water tester are on my most desired list.

I do have a separate frag tank ran by leds only where its non colonies. I run chinese blackbox, before mars aqua, they are tao tronic full spectrums. Also i am running the kessil ap700 knock offs. the 169w chinese cob lights that im not overly fond of due to they are overly white. both grow frags just fine as long as my chemistry is spot on.

Hentz
05/04/2016, 09:20 AM
I ran an ATI 6x24 over my 36" SPS reef. I told myself I wan to be strictly LED ans nothing else. After reading and reading for about two months, I finally pulled the trigger on Hydra 26 HD's. Couldn't be happier. My corals grew very quick, my polyp extension was nuts, colors changed a little (T5 > LED; as to be expected), all went really really well!
My tank is still being transitioned to autopilot mode again, I moved not too long ago so much working on finding its sweet spot again, but it's doing solid!

Ps; I used Wazzel's hydra profile for my lights. Toned it down and it has worked incredible.

slay
05/04/2016, 10:41 AM
I'm running Radion XR30w G3 Pros. Coloration is great, as is polyp extension, but honestly I couldn't tell you about growth except that they are growing, lol. I don't take pictures of my tank (don't even own a real camera) so I can't make comparisons. Growth feels slow but I suspect it's because a few softies and a nem in the tank are growing faster than weeds, so SPS growth feels slow by comparison.

As a side note, I'm cheating the spirit of this thread a little - I do run two T5s as well to get rid of shadows.

Reef Frog
05/04/2016, 11:02 AM
It seems some LED owners have overcome the shading issue by using multiple strip or canister fixtures at different angles so all parts of the coral colonies are receiving some light.

The BML strips used to have a mounting bracket option that allowed you 20 degrees of movement for this purpose.

FirstContact
05/04/2016, 02:14 PM
Had Orphek PR72s on my last build. This new build is with V2 Pendants.

slief
05/04/2016, 02:42 PM
I run eight Kessil 360WE's over a 4'x8' display. Shading is not an issue for me as all my lights are setup in two rows running length wise down the tank. All are angled towards center and or where they are needed to eliminate shading, reduce light bleed onto the viewing panes while also maximizing the coverage where it's needed most. My aquascape also runs down the center of the tank which is setup as a peninsula. I don't run any additional lighting over the tank and all my SPS and other corals are growing like weeds. That said, I do have an area along the back 4' wall where I would like better lighting due to the way my top is on my tank which covers that area so I have been considering adding two more Kessils to shine through the acrylic top as well as through the openings since I have SPS corals growing on that back area of the peninsula. To clarify, my tank has two 24"x24" openings and the rest 1" acrylic. The last pair of lights aren't directly over that end and while I do get decent lighting on that back wall, I could use more there since I have placed corals on that end.

It's the very left side of the photo below that I am talking about and adding to more Kessils would allow me to shift the end two lights further left on my light rack which would result in better intensity across the entire tank. As it sits now, I have great coverage across the entire tank but the left and right sides get the least intensity and I have SPS on the left, a couple giant hammer corals and some SPS on the right side. The additional lights would allow me to spread them out more towards both ends while increasing the light density. I coudl also lower my intensity a bit. I now max at 80% which is sufficient.
http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo347/shleif/Tanks/image_zpsnpbzpq1r.jpeg

alton
05/04/2016, 03:18 PM
Build My Led, but they have moved on to only make Pot Lights

reefkeeper2
05/04/2016, 05:59 PM
Eight Hydra 52 and five Vegashttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160504/6c99110908d74b7a7496e23778191c70.jpg

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yShyNWuVPEM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

vhuang168
05/04/2016, 06:35 PM
@reefkeeper2 did you start the tank on LEDs or did you switch?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

reefkeeper2
05/04/2016, 06:43 PM
I switched years ago from halides.

bif24701
05/04/2016, 06:43 PM
Just installed two AP700 from Kessil on my 180 and very happy. It's a new system a few SPS.http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160505/814dd6a5ee7a40688db3fb9536de0721.jpg


Aaron

vhuang168
05/04/2016, 06:47 PM
I switched years ago from halides.


I'm sure the tank has changed since you switched from MH, were these acros added after or in the tank before the switch?

reefkeeper2
05/04/2016, 06:52 PM
I sort of misunderstood. This tank has only been up for 2 years. Although the same as the last tank, it never had metal halide lighting. These acros have been grown under LED only.

vhuang168
05/04/2016, 06:52 PM
Awesome! Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wazzel
05/04/2016, 08:48 PM
Two year progress
May-14
https://photos.smugmug.com/Other-2/Reef-19-May-14/i-szQsVGb/0/L/left-L.jpg
May-15
https://photos.smugmug.com/Other-2/30-April-2015/i-btQ2T6v/0/L/DSC_0591-L.jpg
May-16
https://photos.smugmug.com/Other-2/Reef-1May16/i-JV4c2BH/0/L/image-L.jpg

Wazzel
05/04/2016, 08:52 PM
A top down
https://photos.smugmug.com/Other-2/Frag-tank-clean-out/i-B3brJk3/0/L/image-L.jpg

dhalderman
05/09/2016, 04:26 PM
I definitely see a Kessil and Ecotech trend here, something that I've already seemed to notice and this serves to confirm. I'm also pretty impressed though looking at those Aquaillumination models. It's just good info to see what out there is actually working successfully "in the field", and to see which brands seem to be getting it right. Awesome replies everyone good info thanks so much!!

ca1ore
05/09/2016, 07:13 PM
It seems some LED owners have overcome the shading issue by using multiple strip or canister fixtures at different angles so all parts of the coral colonies are receiving some light.

That is essentially what I did. I'm using a line source light, a pair of photon 32, along with a number of point source Kessils (both 360s for broad coverage and 160s as target lights). Ended up spending more than anticipated, but they look great and perform very well. Also, FWIW, any colony that grows large will go pale at the base regardless of the lights used.

C Dog
05/09/2016, 07:31 PM
Wazzel how many gallons and what are the deminsion on that tank? Looks good!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

Wazzel
05/09/2016, 09:02 PM
Wazzel how many gallons and what are the deminsion on that tank? Looks good!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

Thanks, it is a 60 cube, 24x24x24

Radioheadx14
05/15/2016, 07:49 AM
I had good success with 2 Kessil 160s on an 18g with montis, stylos and birds nest, and a green frogskin acro. Even with 2 on a small tank there was still some shadows. I upgraded to a 40g breeder and added a kessil 360 and got more acros. I noticed the greens all looked pretty good, but none of the other colors on the acros looked all that great. and there was still serious shadowing.

I ditched them for a MH+T5 fixture. I am not against LEDs,but it seems from my experience and others, that using LEDs for acros makes it much harder to get good coloration compared to traditional lighting. I am not saying its impossible, just tougher. If I were doing a softy or LPS tank, I would revisit Kessil's in a heartbeat. My frogspawn never looked better under kessils.

bif24701
05/17/2016, 02:37 AM
My two Kessil AP700 on the 180. I've had many lights before from HQI and Kessil 360s. Nothing really compares to these lights, total package. 360s need T5 supplementation to prevent shadows and make up for some lack of spectrum. That's is all gone with this new light. It will flood a 36"-48 area per light.


Aaron

180 Gallon Dream (Now Reality)
http://www.panhandlereefers.com/forums/index.php?/topic/14405-180-Gallon-Dream-%28Now-Reality%29

bif24701
05/17/2016, 02:37 AM
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160517/a592a944a3cb21f8bdf44522d37c1c2e.jpg


Aaron

180 Gallon Dream (Now Reality)
http://www.panhandlereefers.com/forums/index.php?/topic/14405-180-Gallon-Dream-%28Now-Reality%29

homer1475
05/17/2016, 06:50 AM
But But..

"Its impossible to grow corals under LED's", and the shadowing will kill the corals that are growing". I see that sentiment echoed time and time again on these boards, and yet right here is solid evidence corals grow just fine under LED's.

My own tank, lit by 2 300w mars aqua's, while mostly LPS(I do have a couple "sticks"), grow just fine, and no different then when I had them under T5's.

In my opinion MH's are way old school(I used to use them some 20 years ago), contribute way to much heat to the tank, and are super costly to run. No idea why anyone wouldn't switch. I do think that with LED's, there are way to many variables(ramping, intensity percentages, etc) for some people to get them to work right. If they were just on or off like MH or T5's, more people would have success with them.

Wazzel
05/17/2016, 06:54 AM
But But..

"Its impossible to grow corals under LED's", and the shadowing will kill the corals that are growing". I see that sentiment echoed time and time again on these boards, and yet right here is solid evidence corals grow just fine under LED's.

My own tank, lit by 2 300w mars aqua's, while mostly LPS(I do have a couple "sticks"), grow just fine, and no different then when I had them under T5's.

In my opinion MH's are way old school(I used to use them some 20 years ago), contribute way to much heat to the tank, and are super costly to run. No idea why anyone wouldn't switch. I do think that with LED's, there are way to many variables(ramping, intensity percentages, etc) for some people to get them to work right. If they were just on or off like MH or T5's, more people would have success with them.
If you go with the manufacturers recommended number of units you will have issues with shading. Depending on your tank it could take up to 2x's the units to get good coverage.

homer1475
05/17/2016, 07:00 AM
Exactly why I went with 2 units instead of the recommended 1(32x24x24).

bif24701
05/17/2016, 07:02 AM
Exactly why I went with 2 units instead of the recommended 1(32x24x24).



What units?

homer1475
05/17/2016, 07:14 AM
2 300W mars aquas from fleabay.

Horace
05/17/2016, 07:28 AM
Not that I have any evidence to support the success YET, but I am in the process of building a Lumia 5.2 based fixture for my 180g. I have 6 lumia clusters, which are each fairly similar in nature to a Kessil 360WE. I have them spaced at 10" apart. My plan is to also add 4 80w T5s, two front, two rear, with 2xAquablue+ and 2 Blue+ bulbs.....This should provide a great deal of light, and have a very nice shimmer as well.....

If T5 didnt look so damn dead/dull, I would just go with them.....

drummerboyevil
05/17/2016, 09:01 AM
If T5 didnt look so damn dead/dull, I would just go with them.....

ABS bulbs tend to make things look realllllly dull. Full T5 can look great if you use more like a 1:1 ratio of B+ and Coral+ and throw in a purple+.

Horace
05/17/2016, 05:10 PM
ABS bulbs tend to make things look realllllly dull. Full T5 can look great if you use more like a 1:1 ratio of B+ and Coral+ and throw in a purple+.
It's not the color...I loved the color of my old t5 tank....I had 6 bulbs 2xAB, 1 sun, 3 B+...

The problem was the lack of any shimmer. It drove me nuts. I eventually went with xm20ks and 2x vho super actinic supplements.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

drummerboyevil
05/17/2016, 05:32 PM
It's not the color...I loved the color of my old t5 tank....I had 6 bulbs 2xAB, 1 sun, 3 B+...

The problem was the lack of any shimmer. It drove me nuts. I eventually went with xm20ks and 2x vho super actinic supplements.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk



Ah okay, misunderstood you.