Quote:
Originally Posted by blasterman789
The light from an LED is going to be absorbed in salt just as quickly as metal halide. Photons are photons .The only math that's different is with narrow optics LEDs can concentrate more light in a smaller space which is something conventional reef halides can't do. Simple law of squares. With halides coverage is pretty much fixed and your only adjustment is raising or lowering the light a bit. With LEDs depth is no problem with tighter optics, but you need more of them to get coverage.
I'm with g8gxp in that I can easily grow anything I want under LED for about half the energy expenditure of MH. However, I prefer the central light source of MH for aethestic reasons.
Since reef PAR measurements don't guarantee the spectral exclusions between acropora and dope I only trust them for relative testing.
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Thanks for this. When I said I was concerned about penetration and distribution, I meant overall. I looked a a few sources one LED supplier gave, and the LUX and PAR readings were all above water. The few that they provided thatgave readings underwater were all very low. And as far as distribution, I am questioning the area that each optic will realistically cover. ie, for a 48"x24" area, will 48, 96, 120, x# of LEDs provide 250+ PAR at 24"-30" in saltwater?
I have seen a few different posts, readings, reports of different LEDs and they have all varied. I am just trying to get the best overall understanding of LEDs. I am still reading and learning as much as I can about them. I have not seen any real spectral analysis, however, I do need to read through Sanjay's work again. Thanks for all the information, opinions and experience.