Lets See SPS LED Tanks!

[jcolletteiii]

Originally Posted by huskysglare1

well.... that's from the manufacturer. It doesn't count. It's not that i don't trust them... it's.... who am i kidding, ya, it's because i don't trust them.

Just curious, but why does it not count?

[taekim78]

here is a link from another forum.. been using it over 100 days and it seems like its doing great

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/...iction-11.html

[huskysglare1]

They are the manufacturer; they are like the LFS selling you fish. Do you always trust your LFS? Lets say you buy a digital camera, would you rather get reviews from the people that's selling the cameras or from the users?

[redhanded77]

For one, Ive found it hard to get clear and precise pics with led lighting to show what the tank really looks like. Im using a regular point and shoot, so that might be the reason. I made a small led fixture for a small tank with some sps, Ill give it a few months and see what happens. Its connected to the same system as my 40b lit by t5's.

With back to the topic of the thread, Ill try and see if I can get some pics of my friends tank.

[marinelife]

You need to read some of the LED threads, there are many users with LEDs for more than a year.

[flying_dutchman]

Wow, it almost seems like you have something personal against led's, lol.

+1 lol...

Here are some par readings:


Growth shots with LED's:

btw, coral growth under LED lights in my tank....
This is a before and after inside almost 2 months...




After less than a month, had to frag the top one as it is coming out of the surface....


Another specimen growth inside a month....

Here is a picture of a tank with Grassy LeDio LED spotlights:

I don't know if it's just me or the light is too white or because of the camera, but most of the LED tanks i saw the coral doesn't really pop. The color seems white and washed out.

That is because of the camera, the true color of leds are really hard to capture...

[jcolletteiii]

Originally Posted by huskysglare1

They are the manufacturer; they are like the LFS selling you fish. Do you always trust your LFS? Lets say you buy a digital camera, would you rather get reviews from the people that's selling the cameras or from the users?

The corals themselves are doing the reviewing here. Their corals are colorful and healthy under their lights... what do you think they are doing - switching their lighting to MH when no one is looking? Dying their corals and Photoshopping, while also allowing aquarists to come and look at their tanks? This tank is in their LOBBY - it has been personally seen by many people. http://www.acanlighting.com/index.ph..._content&id=97. They are obviously practicing good husbandry, and have the lighting levels just right. I can't understand denial in the face of evidence - seems rather dogmatic.

[therman]

The attitudes in this thread baffle me, and some people seem to be predisposed to hating LEDs. LEDs grow corals like nothing I have ever seen, with better colors, versatility, and a fraction of the electrical usage.

Granted they have to be properly implemented...you cant put a single 150W MH over a 90g tank and say that because it doesn't grow acros on the bottom halides totally suck.

Look around, plenty of people are having great results with LEDs.


Careful neoyhng...four months is when everything suddenly turns brown and your rock turns gray! ;P

[dendrodude]

"Careful neoyhng...four months is when everything suddenly turns brown and your rock turns gray!"



uh-oh he said it. now your doomed

[Mmckibben]

I have a 36gal sps with cree xpgs, and a dimming power supply for profilux.

[huskysglare1]

AGAIN, I have nothing against LED. I love the idea of LED. it's cheaper, less heat, less energy. All i want is to do is to get more info on LED before i spend $1000+ on an LED system. I want it to work and enhance my tank. I am not rich and $1000+ is a lot of money to me. That's why i want to see Pics of LED on SPS tanks.

I've looked at a lot of threads in regards to LED and had only seen a handful of good looking tanks. I just want to see SPS tanks under LED.

[redhanded77]

Husky - In my previous post, I wasn't referring to you about having something against leds. It was intended towards the other guy.

[neoyhng]

Originally Posted by vegita51

Have you noticed any color differences in your system from switching??

I can't tell there is significant difference. But my wife just told me that my tank is beautiful....she never said that before.

But I did notice one thing. Those SPS with paler colour before the switch seems to react better than those with darker colour...I lost one "brown" colony after the switch and another one losing some tissues (it recovered now). The paler colonies all seems to be happy.

The main reasons for my switch were electricity saving and temperature control. In this respect, I am very happy with my investment.

[jcolletteiii]

None of these are mine, but just to show what kind of research you can accomplish by using the search function...

150 gallon AI system


Solaris growth shots

4 months later...


Same tank under Solaris...

6 mos later...

...another 6 mos later...


Great results from LEDs over sps are pretty easy to find.

[Flowbot]

Originally Posted by therman

The attitudes in this thread baffle me, and some people seem to be predisposed to hating LEDs. LEDs grow corals like nothing I have ever seen, with better colors, versatility, and a fraction of the electrical usage.

I don't believe that for a second. I've tried leds but had to switch to T5 since I was losing so much color in my corals.

[seminolecpa]

Originally Posted by OceansWonders

Exactly no LONG-TERM pics I had some high end zoos in the tank as well they seemed to do fine with the LED's but SPS definitely not long term. Using the blue Cree LED as supplemental lighting works fine I just don't feel that they can replace VHO actinic either though. Like I said I am open to anyone who can prove me wrong.

I am going to beg to differ. I recently went with 2 4' Reefbrite LED strips for actinic supplement and would have to say that they are equal to VHO's in color (if not better IMHO) and significantly more compact. Several old schoolers who have been married to VHO's for a long time out here in the Bay Area are making the switch.

Personally, I would only use them for supplements at this point. Though I am hopeful that things will improve as the technology improves, I still don't think the arrays have been completely worked out for SPS yet. I salute the people that are pioneering the path with them in SPS tanks. Gonna be game changing once they do for sure.

[Rodrigo_BG]

still looking for a led sps tank with real colours..

[huskysglare1]

JCO, that's an amazing growth rate and your Corals look pretty darn nice.

[OceansWonders]

Few comments to add about my posts,
Everyone has there own opinion of what they think looks best and works best.
These are from personal experience with MH and LED lighting systems and personal opinions on the lighting systems. I never said that SPS were not growing under the LED's they grew quite well but not with nearly the color that I had with MH. I hate when people take your words add a few to it like suddenly as if the corals and rock tuned gray in a few days vrs a few months. Please refrain from quoting my words unless the are exactly what I said.
The pictures of the LED tanks posted here still do not have color like I have seen with MH and VHO's.

[jayl65]

I also really want leds to work. I have been researching for a little over a month now and I believe they will work fine with sps tank. I am in the process of upgrading to a larger 150 gallon tank from a 70 gallon I started with power compacts and t5's. When I started my tank a few years ago vho and metal halides were the thing to get and everyone was leary of the t5's and even today many people don't trust them for sps tanks. I also don't have alot of money and need to consider my led purchase carfully. I have been emailing a led manufacturing company in China about their lights. They are the supplier for many of the lights I see on the market here in the US today. They can build the light the way you want and even with shiping it is considerably less. I can do my new 150 gallon tank for about $750 shipped. That's 3 120 watt leds fixtures with a controller to dim and simulate dusk dawn effect, indepent control of the blue and white leds plus moonlight. It seems that people here are concerned about the quality of chinese made leds and would rather build their own or retro an exhisting fixture to death. Check out the Maxspect thread. The LFS store here in Albuquerque sells a locally made led unit from SMGS. They have them on their tanks in the store for over a year now and the tanks look great. But these lights would cost me 2 grand on a 150 gallon tank. I am going to be pioneer and take a chance on the chinese made lights. They are the same ones used by Clamsondemand,ledwholesalers and a few other companies here and abroad. I have been talking with them for a while now and feel comfortable that it is a good product and that they will stand behide it. They have a three year warranty. Below is part of an email reguarding their light compared to Maxspect.

To be frankly, i know about more about the Maxspect , my advice as the following,

Yeah, the Maxspect looks nice. we know that, too.

But here i would like to show you the advantages and disadvantages of both two lights:



Beautiful shape, more functions, 3w led as the light source. All aspect shows that is upmarket light.

Our lights,



simple shape, not so beautiful, 1w led as the light source.

So our light has the advantages is the LED light. According to the test, the luminous efficiency of 3pcs 1w LED is 1.4times of 1pcs 3w LED. so for the same 160w led, our lights 1w/per unit will price 1.4 times of luments than the Maxspect 3w/per unit light. And the high power led light source will have a big light decay, you are insure it.

The led Chip, because for the heat dissipation , so the 3LED is cannot iusse more light than 3pcs 1w.

so totally, just like two winter coats, the Maxspect is gorgeousm but the effect of anti-cool is no tso good, our light , just not so beautifu, but it is benefits and working.

of course, if you are rich man, you change your fixture easily, the Maxspect is good choice. if you want o get the really good light, our light will save much more money for you.

[menthol]

LED's as a main lighting DO work. at least IME on my tank. It's a 135 and it's been running for more than a year under CREE's.

my tank thread here in RC - http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...8#post17045338

if you do not mind visiting "reefphilippines", then you'll see a very detailed progression thread of my tank in there under my username in the members tank section.

However, i cannot attest too much on coloration under LED's because all my LS are wild caught. They all brown out by the first 2 weeks in captivity then "some" turn into really nice colors as "months" passes by.

Also, there is no UV on LED's unlike MH's, i'ved had smaller sps tanks before under MHs and i have to say that UV have some play when it comes to sps coloration.

My tank was doing very well and just keeps getting better until March '09, then i had to leave for Europe for a month. the maid was in-charge of everything and of course, you can all guess what happened then, hehe.

anyway, here is my tank before Europe:




my frag pack 20in below on the sand:



I lost a lot after Europe because of Alk imbalance and 25ppm NO3, plus high summer temps here (30-31C water temp). Here's her most recent shot:


To finish, i'll say again that LED's DO WORK for SPS! whether it's color, growth or whatever lighting concerns it may be. If something odd or bad is happening to your LS under LEDs, then most likely.... IT IS NOT THE LIGHTS.

[Haksar]

Pics speak a thousand words.
Well said menthol.You have a nice looking tank.

[lucidheights]

i've seen a tank that has been lit by leds for about 2 years, belongs to a dude named emmanuel. Seeing it in person is amazing, it almost sparkles

[NaClCrocodile]

I think a lot of the arguments FOR LEDs at this point are based on good growth. This isn't in debate IMO. LEDs will put out the same PAR as a MH system if built well. The problem is color. I haven't seen truly colorful SPS in any of the posted LED tanks. I really wanted to go with an AI system, but can't justify it yet.

[boodlefish]

Originally Posted by NaClCrocodile

I think a lot of the arguments FOR LEDs at this point are based on good growth. This isn't in debate IMO. LEDs will put out the same PAR as a MH system if built well. The problem is color. I haven't seen truly colorful SPS in any of the posted LED tanks. I really wanted to go with an AI system, but can't justify it yet.

+1

led's can be tricky too, my brother in law had a 12g nano going great under a viper 70W hqi he was growing mainly lps zoas and a couple sps (frags form me) but as all started to go down hill onece he did a diy led.

he had some param issues too but the LED really cooked all his stuff and even when he adjusted the lights nothing really seemed to work for him, he is an electric engineer so i'm sure the craftsmanship was fine... its just still to new of a technology thats all. i will be in line when they are proven but until then.... t5's for me!