Does LED lights go bad?

hipertec · 09/04/2018, 10:07 PM

I have an Ocean Revive 150W LED light system. It's about 3yrs old. My tank is great right now.
Getting algae blooms and corals not growing that great.
Not sure if it's my water condition or the led lights going out/bad. So my question is does leds start to lose their intensity or lighting range?

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oreo57 · 09/04/2018, 10:29 PM

Sort of.. All lights will fade or die ..LED or not.

b4 you get too excited about the t5,8 "lifespan" you need to understand that many will fail long before they fade and since we are only considering lumens, some loss of spectrum
is possible yet show little lumen loss ..Lumen is heavily weighted for green-yellow so losses in violet/blue/red impact the measurement less.
2 components..
420nm violets are usually the most problematic..

Heat will degrade LED's and degradation speed is based on the temp.

mcgyvr · 09/05/2018, 04:41 AM

Yes they certainly do have lumen depreciation and some spectral shift over time but I'd lean towards water conditions being the culprit more than light source at only 3 years..

alton · 09/05/2018, 01:50 PM

A simple foot candle meter reading 3 years ago and then today would tell you if your LEDs are failing. We buy every test kit available to man to test our water, but when it comes to lights we guess? I know PAR meters are expensive but others are not. I have seen diodes go bad in a year including in high dollar led fixtures.

rvareef · 09/05/2018, 03:10 PM

my or had the blue channel crap out after a year

oreo57 · 09/05/2018, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rvareef

my or had the blue channel crap out after a year

that is probably a driver issue, though one dead diode in series can take out the row...

09/04/2018, 10:07 PM	#1
hipertec Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Southern California (Inland Empire) Posts: 1,266	Does LED lights go bad? I have an Ocean Revive 150W LED light system. It's about 3yrs old. My tank is great right now. Getting algae blooms and corals not growing that great. Not sure if it's my water condition or the led lights going out/bad. So my question is does leds start to lose their intensity or lighting range? Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

09/05/2018, 04:41 AM	#3
mcgyvr Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: North Carolina Posts: 20,050	Yes they certainly do have lumen depreciation and some spectral shift over time but I'd lean towards water conditions being the culprit more than light source at only 3 years.. __________________ Who me?

09/04/2018, 10:29 PM	#2
oreo57 Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2013 Posts: 1,793	Sort of.. All lights will fade or die ..LED or not. b4 you get too excited about the t5,8 "lifespan" you need to understand that many will fail long before they fade and since we are only considering lumens, some loss of spectrum is possible yet show little lumen loss ..Lumen is heavily weighted for green-yellow so losses in violet/blue/red impact the measurement less. 2 components.. 420nm violets are usually the most problematic.. Heat will degrade LED's and degradation speed is based on the temp.

09/05/2018, 01:50 PM	#4
alton Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Zuehl, Texas Posts: 4,460	A simple foot candle meter reading 3 years ago and then today would tell you if your LEDs are failing. We buy every test kit available to man to test our water, but when it comes to lights we guess? I know PAR meters are expensive but others are not. I have seen diodes go bad in a year including in high dollar led fixtures.

09/05/2018, 03:10 PM	#5
rvareef In Memoriam Join Date: Jun 2014 Posts: 664	my or had the blue channel crap out after a year