Soon to be Switching from MH to Ocean Revive Arctic S026 LEDs

rizon25 · Oct 22, 2013

Hello everyone, I don't post often but I will be finally switching from my metal halide/VHO setup to leds and I thought it could benefit everyone to see my transition and all the problems I might encounter along the way. I will try and post all my parameters and detailed information but if I have left anything out, please feel free to let me know so I can post it up.

Tank setup:
Started in September 2011
100 gallon 48"x24"x20"H Leemar 1 side Starphire rimless aquarium
Sump: 30gallon
Skimmer: Reef Octopus sss2000
Aqua UV 25W UV sterilizer
carbon changed monthly, gfo, and chaeto lit up by led bulb from Home Depot on reverse schedule.
Managed via Apex Controller

Lighting (for the past year): 720 watts total!
Metal Halide Lumenmax 2 2x250W Metal Halides run with 20k Radiums (bulbs changed 3 months ago)
Ballast: Sunlight Supply Galaxy dual 250w ballast
Supplements: 2x110Watt VHO Super Actinic Bulbs

Photoperiod:
VHO: 13:00 - 22:00
Metal Halide: 16:00-21:00

Tank Conditions:
pH: 8.36
Water Temp: 77.1
Alk: 8.3
Calcium: 440
Salinity: 1.026
Magnesium: 1300
Phosphates: 0.03-0.05
Nitrates: low, don't know the number
10 Gallon water change every 2 weeks

Inhabitants:
Chromis x2
Cardinalfish x1
Clownfish x2
Vanderbilt chromis x1
Purple Tang x1
Snails and hermit crabs

Corals:
Mixed reef containing SPS, LPS, Zoas. I recently changed my aquascape and stirred up alot of detritus which has negatively affected a few of my sps. My tricolor is almost dead, my rainbow monti, mystic sunset monti are not doing well. I also have a lot of bubble algae that I tried to remove manually and did a big water change which really cleaned up my water and bleached a lot of my corals

Lesson learned: Do all changes very slowly.

This Wednesday, I am expecting to receive my 2 Ocean Revive Arctic S026 led units. After reading through Ron Reefman and ReefnJunkie's posts, I decided to pick these up over others. I like it because of the price and the spread of LEDs over a greater surface area. Also moving from 720 watts to 240 watts helps! If anyone has any advice on acclimating my tank to the new lights, please do so!

Pictures: Taken with my Canon 40d, lightroom 2.5, no photo editing at all. All pics straight from camera. That's why some pics are overexposed lol.
Energy Usage:

Apex Setup:

Light setup:

Full Tank Shot with VHO:

Full Tank Shot with MH/VHO:

Coral Pictures:

Rainbow acan

Karl Hevacheck · Oct 22, 2013

Nice tank. I just got these for my 120g a few weeks ago. I already noticed some sps coloring up, and looking more vibrant than before. I was using DIY leds before though. Looking forward to seeing how your tank reacts to the change. I think you'll like it.

rizon25 · Oct 22, 2013

I hope so. I've been waiting for a long time before switching to LEDs. I feel the clusters are too concentrated in one area and all my corals are pretty much spread throughout the tank.

specialk · Oct 22, 2013

I am about a month and a half into switching from MH to these same lights .. I have 3 of them hanging about 8 inches above my 6 ft long 125. I'm absolutely thrilled with them. I went thru the process of researching whether or not to make the jump to LEDs and it's the best thing I did... thrilled with them and the corals are LOVING life. My LPS are FAT and noticeably bigger then they were in my old tank with the MH's. Have a few SPS that I am noticing some growth on as well and about to add some more SPS at our local frag swap here Saturday. I'm running the blues' at about 75% and the whites at about 45% (thanks again to the recommendation from RonReefman on the settings) .. But yah man you will love them !!!

rizon25 · Oct 22, 2013

Awesome to hear! So I have a 20" tall, how high above water level should I suspend them starting out and should I start at the recommended 50% blues?

Also, how long of a photoperiod did you run yours at in the beginning?

Thanks for the feedback!

specialk · Oct 22, 2013

That's about the depth of my tank .. and mine are 8 inches above the water surface. I was told (reefman who also uses these) to hang them 8-12 inches above the water surface. I chose 8 and just started the blues at about 40% for a week, then started bumping them up 15-20% every week... while slowly adjusting the whites to fit my liking (as the blues obviously are for the coral growth and the whites are just for the way we like to view the tank) I now run them at 75%-80% and they are doing great! I started off running them 7 hours a day .. that was just me though

rizon25 · Oct 22, 2013

I'll probably follow something close to your schedule. I was also thinking having just the blues come on at first and then later having the whites turn on for the dusk dawn simulation.

ifarmer · Oct 22, 2013

could you post a full tank shots with these LEDs?
thanks

rizon25 · Oct 22, 2013

ifarmer said:
could you post a full tank shots with these LEDs?
thanks

For sure. I'll be getting them tomorrow and I'll update the thread once the package comes in!

specialk · Oct 23, 2013

Yah you will be pleased with them .. I have the whites up just a bit more then others but that's only because I don't like a lot of the "blue look" ... or should I say too much blue. But they are fantastic lights you will love them. And the glare that comes off them to is not bad at all .. your eyes def don't get blasted when looking at them. I am going to post some shots of my corals here shortly as well as document the growth of all my corals thru ought the next few months

Ron Reefman · Oct 23, 2013

Hi rizon25,

Nice looking tank! In a year or so it's going to look spectacular when the corals all start to get bigger (which is how I like them).

I have S026's over my 24g frag tank and my 55g QT. These tanks have no canopies and the reduced amount of glare I get from the S026's compared to the Reef Breeders 'value fixtures' I had before is unbelievable! You can even see the difference when you take photos. And they run super cool. I ran one at 100% power (not over a tank) for 12 hours and the case was only a couple degrees above room temperature!

I have mine 8" off the 20" deep QT and 18" off the 10" deep frag tank. I was one of the early users and after 6+ months, my frag tank corals are doing better than ever. Zoas grow so fast they get attached to the egg crate before I realize it!

Ron

rizon25 · Oct 23, 2013

Ron Reefman said:
Hi rizon25,

Nice looking tank! In a year or so it's going to look spectacular when the corals all start to get bigger (which is how I like them).

I have S026's over my 24g frag tank and my 55g QT. These tanks have no canopies and the reduced amount of glare I get from the S026's compared to the Reef Breeders 'value fixtures' I had before is unbelievable! You can even see the difference when you take photos. And they run super cool. I ran one at 100% power (not over a tank) for 12 hours and the case was only a couple degrees above room temperature!

I have mine 8" off the 20" deep QT and 18" off the 10" deep frag tank. I was one of the early users and after 6+ months, my frag tank corals are doing better than ever. Zoas grow so fast they get attached to the egg crate before I realize it!

Ron

Thanks for the compliments Ron! I read your review from earlier about these lights and that was one of the main reasons why I chose to go with these. How long do you run your lights for?

The only prior experience I had with LEDs was when I added a diy 48" led bar consisting of cree royal blues and violet leds. It worked great but I wanted more pop so then I chose to go with VHOs for the actinic look. The amount of heat, electricity usage, and water evaporation (15gallons in 7 days) from this new setup gave me more motivation to switch to leds. However, I felt that the cost of those high end LED fixtures were just too much for me since newer and better fixtures keep getting released. And then these lights came out! I see that a lot of people are switching to a hybrid type light source of led/t5 and even including mh but it seems like overkill and really defeats the purpose of having an efficient LED setup. But I do understand that these people did start with a full LED setup and saw that something was lacking. I really hope that with these lights I do not have to go that route.

Andrew.concepcion · Oct 23, 2013

I'm just wondering how much do these LEDs cost and where did you get them? I've been thinking about switching to LEDs myself for my 125.

rizon25 · Oct 23, 2013

http://oceanrevivellc.com

Arctic S026

rizon25 · Oct 23, 2013

My lights finally came in the mail via UPS today!

Pictures of the packaging:

Pics of the lights mounted:

I am pretty happy with the lights so far. Packaging was great, the lights were in perfect condition except for a few minor issues which were:
1. On one unit the manual dial for both blue and white dimmer controls did not line up exactly with the min/max dots. So I had to guesstimate where the 50% measurement mark was. In the picture, the setting is all the way set to off but it isn't lined up with the min side. The other unit was okay.

2. There was a slight smudge of white thermal paste on the side of the unit. It shows in the picture. I wiped it off. No biggie. Otherwise no scratches dents, etc on the unit itself.

I will post pictures of the lights in action later.

rizon25 · Oct 23, 2013

Lights are on! They are about 10" above water level.

I have programmed my lights for 7 hours blue and 4 hours white light. The blues are at 50% and the whites are around 30-40%. I am very happy with the look of the lights so far. Only time will tell how my corals will change with the new lights. Pictures taken are not modified or changed in any way. They are straight from my camera. Oddly, my camera was able to pick up the look of the tank even with the blue lights only on.

The only thing I did notice was that on the sand bed I could see a little bit of separation of color in the shadows which I believe people call the disco effect. It doesn't bother me at all. I've seen other higher end led light fixtures and the disco effect is much greater. Lights have been on for a couple hrs now and temp is still at 77.2, hardly any difference from the lights!

Pictures: I have my apex turn on the left side blue only, then 1/2hr later the right side blue color and 1/2hr later left side whites turn on, and then 1/2 hr later the right side white color turns on to sorta simulate the dusk/dawn effect. I like it.

Left side blue on only

Right side blue only

All blue plus left white color

All lights on

Coral pictures:
green slimer blue only then all on:

Scoly

Here in the next 2 pics you can tell the slight disco effect:

Ron Reefman · Oct 23, 2013

Andrew.concepcion said:
I'm just wondering how much do these LEDs cost and where did you get them? I've been thinking about switching to LEDs myself for my 125.

Check out the OceanRevive sponsor forum here on R2R. They have a great deal going in a group buy.