Tanks and Corals under LED Lighting
 

LED lighting has been in the market for a couple years, and many hobbiests like me are curious to see how well it has been doing. Please post a few pictures here if you have tanks with LED lighting. Here is mine,

Oceanic 6 foot bowfront 175G under Solaris I4 , setup in Dec.2007, most SPS grow from frags.
http://i509.photobucket.com/albums/s...i-80205051.jpg


http://i509.photobucket.com/albums/s...i-80205087.jpg



http://i509.photobucket.com/albums/s...i-80205069.jpg


http://i509.photobucket.com/albums/s...i-80205034.jpg



James

my tank right before my I-4 LEDs went out.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLan...localeid=en_US

I have a chronicle of my Solaris 180 on another site.

The LED fixtures I have seen are not as good as the tanks lit by halides OR T5.....not to mention the huge cost difference. (spare me the chiller savings talk at this point and the LED's that are supposed to last forever - check with a Solaris user about that)

The other issue is PATENT.......is Orbitec the ONLY one who CAN legally sell LED lights for aquariums????

This seems to be an up in the air question....especially with PFO out of the game as a result of this.

grigsy:

Thanks for your post but I believe this is a thread for people to show off their tanks under LEDs, not for you to comment on the ad nauseum LED/Halide/T5 debate.

For those that did post (James), what percentages are you running and what is your light cycle like?

bklynreefdue,

I set up 100% for the lights, and run from 8am to 9pm for daylight, and 9pm to 3am for lunar light.

Yes, can anybody post a few of their tank pictures with LED light in this thread?

James

Thanks James. After a year I am still twiddling with the lights. I've just added several acros after success with one, but they don't seem to be responding. I've got about the same cycle but have never gone past 85%, maybe I should. I'm doing a big re-aquascape this weekend and if I like the results I'll snap some pics and throw them up.

Matt

My tanks only a few months old so still very unstable. I have a few sps frags that are slowly encrusting and showing signs of nice colour. A few of the sps stags are rather brown but there making a slow come back.

My leds are diy 20 cree xr-e q5 whites (with 20 degree optics) and 6 blue cree xre leds.

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...sli/ftsnew.jpg

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...wtankstart.jpg

Beautiful and clean setup.

Do you have lots of hobbyists in Australia?

Are there lots of them using LED light?

Any major website for the hobbyists there?

James

I'm one of the first I've seen with a diy build but lots of local members have started recently.

Masa is the biggest reefing site in Aus I know. I have a tank jornal on masa, a good Tj to look at is Stripfisheel's BIGGG Tank for us Aussies at least.

http://www.masa.asn.au/phpBB2/index....932e66953be37a

Heres my tank. Basically staring with LEDs. I love them so far
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...S/DSCF1487.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...S/DSC_0015.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...S/DSC_0056.jpg
Thinking about upgrading the lamp a little... Maybe 12 more LEDs but I love how small and sleek the lamp is right now

sammy, that's an awesome light. Did you buy that or build it yourself?

Totally sick Sammy. Very nice setup.

Thanks! All DIY. Thread on red house

I think I might consider a cube for my next build after looking at these two clean setups.

+1

I hear nanocustoms is doing their own thing as well. It's a PFO powered LED. (simply quoting what they wrote) Can't link to their thread, because I guess it's on a "banned" website that RC and Nano reefs have. I hope I can post pictures...


Pictures:


http://www.nanocustoms.com/development/NC28/1.jpg

http://www.nanocustoms.com/development/NC28/2.jpg

http://www.nanocustoms.com/development/NC28/4.jpg

http://www.nanocustoms.com/development/NC28/5.jpg

http://www.nanocustoms.com/development/NC28/6.jpg

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0slbYKrklo


Pricing is supposed to be "around" $400 for the LED hood for a 29g tank.

LED lights are the future not only for reef tanks. they produce so much more light with less electricity. They may never be us bright us MH but I am confident that in near future they will get close.

I am pretty sure the new wave of LED's can get very close, if not eclipse MH, with a fraction of the heat and electricity (as you mentioned). But with a deadly cost, if not DIY'd.

The cost will come down over time as does all new inventions and gadgets.

sorry but what's redhouse?

It's the button next to the "PM" button. It's a little red house.


Here's his thread for you:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...readid=1658978

it's the icon on the toolbar above the space where you read the thread. some people have documented their builds and that is a hyper link to it

awesome thanks

Biocube 29 LED
 

12 Blue 12 White Luxeon K2s running on 700ma meanwells. Running for a couple weeks now on the LEDs moving from the stock 72W Compact Fluorescents, so far corals seem happy under them.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/showp...t=1&thecat=500
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/...ocube_LEDs.jpg

Let's try posting the photos again...
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/...29_biocube.jpg

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/...ocube_LEDs.jpg

How long have the LED's been on the tank? Do you have any photo's before the conversion?

In my case the before photo's look the same, it's only been a couple weeks. The corals have similar expansion. The favites may be getting greener.

Only time will tell, and the technology is changing (what's available to us) pretty quickly.

Here's my share:

36 Cree XR-E Q5 Cool White
36 Cree XR-E Q5 Royal Blue

Comparison shot between an 8 Array of T5HO's and my DIY LED:

8 T5HO's
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/IMG_6630.jpg

DIY LED lighting
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/IMG_6649.jpg

I have been running my 135gal tank on LED's for more than 6months now. Tank is L72in x W18in x H22in. Most recent tank photos....

http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/IMG_7247.jpg

http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/IMG_7240.jpg

http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/IMG_7246.jpg

WOW! Is all I can say. :eek1:


Fantastic job menthol.

That looks gorgeous under the LED's for sure! Question, have you noticed if any of your LPS or soft corals have become sensitive to the increased light output? It looks like you are going without optics, correct?

I am a very experienced with LEDs. The technology is here already, but we are about 3-5 years out from being more widely available. Pricing is far too high for these to be worth it at this point. 400W MH is still the way to go for the best bang for the buck. LED's are getting stronger with each passing year, but high bin versions are approaching $10/LED, and when you need hundreds of thousands to light a large reef, that's a tremendous payback period.

I personally, am not convinced the spectrum is good enough for corals yet, but am waiting for pricing and availability to become more mainstream.

Stick to MH for large SPS tanks, T5 for everything else, and DIY LED if you want really intense light for 20G and under tanks (but honestly, how many can really keep SPS in a small tank? not many)

Thanks!

Yes, i am running it without any optics. the light is also under-powered(runs at 20V-21V) at the moment because it's hard to find any good or reliable power supply out here in the Philippines. I lost a yellow lettuce, one small sarcophyton, and a red eye chalice when i switched to LED's, all victims of photoshock. Now that everything is acclimated, everybody is doing well. Acros are growing like crazy whether they are at the top or at the bottom of the tank, well everybody is happy including me. Do not get me started on electricity costs as well because this baby is saving me a ton of money over here, 220V over here is a tad more expensive. I have a whole thread about this tank at reefphilippines. thanks!

Well I think that with everyone so far that has switched to LED's would disagree zachtos, but we are all entitled to our own opinion. New technology is often hard to accept, but enevitably will be embraced if it proves to stand up to scrutiny.

I didn't say LED is not good enough yet, It's just not econimically feasible yet. The payback period is FAR FAR too high currently vs MH. DIY setups are still 4X more then a comparable MH setup. But for very small reefs, it can work. I voted about 3-5 more years until they are more econimically feasible and higher bin LEDs are accessible.

I think it's going to come down to a combination of LED, Plasma and Induction Lighting in the US in the next 10 years.

You did say that "I personally, am not convinced the spectrum is good enough for corals yet..." and was the basis of my comment. Dollar for dollar initially or in within a 2 year period, I would agree with you that MH are probably cheaper. However, with the alleviated cost of bulb replacements, chilling requirements and low power consumption in certain markets, it would be very noticeable each month the energy savings that will offset that initial cost, wouldn't you agree? I am sure that as the technology get's better and more accepted, like with anything new, that prices will come down, but even at the higher prices now it is still a strong alternative to MH IMO and I feel better for the enviornment and personal economy as well.

Power consumption is relative. It all depends on how densely you pack your LED setup. A fairly dense setup right now will draw about 65% of what a comparable 400W MH setup will run, but will cost around $4K or so (vs $1400 for MH x 4). So you will have a tremendous payback period that will be over 5-7 years... assuming you don't upgrade again by then =)

Many MH setups do not require chillers nowadays, depends on if you designed it well. Lumenbrites mount over 16-18" from water allowing for easy ventilation for instance. A large sump makes it harder to heat the body of water. I'm not convinced heating is a strong con nowadays.

The spectrum delivered by LED is currently lacking 400-430nm range. I'm not sure if that is really needed, but there are few high powered LED's that hit that very well. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge LED enthusiast, but I'm still skeptical of the spectrums given off by LED and long term coral growth. I'm worried that a crucial piece of their lighting diet is still missing. I personally would add T5 actinics to a LED setup to make up for that 420nm.

btw, coral growth under LED lights in my tank....

This is a before and after inside almost 2 months...
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/t...k/IMG_6854.jpg
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/t...k/IMG_6945.jpg

After less than a month, had to frag the top one as it is coming out of the surface....
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/t...k/IMG_7063.jpg

Another specimen growth inside a month....http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/t...k/IMG_6952.jpg
http://i624.photobucket.com/albums/t...k/IMG_7062.jpg

all other livestock are growing and creeping of course, but in these staghorns i notice a dramatic growth pattern. I'm still devising a way to controll my 25ppm nitrates to bring their colors back a bit.

thats awesome. Also the poly extension is great

HA, blue tipped stags dont count! they grow like weeds in any light. Still skeptical. =)

there is only one blue tip in the picture, hehe, or maybe you really know better:)

from what i can see in my tank (just not in the picture), i have some purple tip, pink tip, a yellow, white, etc. True that they do not all grow the same length at the same time but they all grow as much and as fast as my other friend's tanks that run MH 250's and 400's. Of course my lighting cost runs at $12-$15/month and theirs runs at $45-$50/month over here.:D Anyway, i've ran MH lights on my tanks when i was still living in Los Angeles, CA, i was really very happy with it. Back then Solaris just came out of the market and was skeptical as well mainly because of the price vs. the promise of it. Now, all i can say is i am glad i took the LED plunge and it's so much cheaper too because of the DIY, hehe.

I agree and the frags, sorry, colonies are looking good and healthy!

You guys may be right, I've seen a few other threads past few days w/ pretty good growth w/ pure LED. Perhaps the spectrum is not lacking (or corals do not actually require 420nm to thrive). I still suggest suplementing a pure LED tank w/ T5 actinics to make up for the almost completely missing spectrum. LED hits 470nm hard, but not much lower.

If someone is considering doing a DIY LED system today though, they need to make some calculations using their kilowatt hour savings to determine a payback period (if you are doing a large project). I would say if you are paying more then 20 cents/killowatt hour, then lighting costs gets more important.

*Note: lighting is only about 40% of your average tank's electrical load. Electro resistive heating is outrageously expensive (I use natural gas to heat my tank), powerheads chew up a lot of energy when you have many (i use closed loop storm drive on frequency drive) and returns/pumps to run your skimmer etc are expensive (my return pump feeds atleast 6 different devices in addition to return pump to tank).

as per what Cree's datasheet says, the one that i'm using is at 450nm.

You are right about the power costs zachtos, my skimmer and return pumps are what costs the most. I had a sub-meter installed just for my tank and my monthly power cost for this tank alone is $54, hehe.

Sorry for being off-topic. :cool:

Sorry, folks, as someone that has been using Solaris lighting for 2+ years, and through 2 different generations of their lighting (H and I series), I can tell you with absolute certainty that the lighting is sub optimal for SPS. I ran the H series for just over a year and could not grow corals at all. They would survive and limp along, but I had stunted growth or no growth at all. PFO then tells me, "Yeah, it was just not ready for SPS, but the I series is!" So, I spent $$$ more and upgraded to an I series and have been running it for about a year. It's a better light fixture and puts out more PAR, but it *not* good for SPS. Not near the amount of growth that I should be seeing.

What I am finding is that the LEDs put out a lot of PAR, but not enough UV. I hear that Solaris was getting around to another upgrade to fix this issue, but they went under before they made the upgrade.

I am done with LED. Maybe in a few years they will have something comparable, and I will consider it then, as I love the concept and love the ease of using my Solaris, but I am going to T5 (or at least add T5s to augment my Solaris).

Here is my new one 10 g with 12 cree xre.



http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/...51IMG_0023.JPG

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/...51IMG_0033.JPG

Why nowone has mentioned the Aquaillumination LED fixtures...

I think you just did. Add to the list Eco-Lamps.

Can anyone even get on the backordered list for Aquaillumination yet?

LumenAqua by Oceanus Lighting is available here in Southeast Asia.