LEDs and Acropora...Please shed some light on this topic (urrghhhh...)

msp307 · Jun 11, 2015

Ya thats why I moved lolololol to expensive up there.

Meldrath · Jun 11, 2015

For almost 2 years I've had my LED's on my main system, they can grow SPS but not nearly at the speed T5 or MH can. The other problem is the pinpoint light source, I find the sides of my acros usually die and this causes stress on the acros making them VERY susceptible to STN/RTN if they get damaged, injured or stressed.

As a note, I use a custom built by myself, 270 watt (90 x 3w CREE/Semi for UV) heavy blue/uv with a little red/green/white. It has very similar ratios to the AI Hydra 52's, and grows LPS and Softies like a champ.

kidtango · Jun 11, 2015

Meldrath said:
For almost 2 years I've had my LED's on my main system, they can grow SPS but not nearly at the speed T5 or MH can. The other problem is the pinpoint light source, I find the sides of my acros usually die and this causes stress on the acros making them VERY susceptible to STN/RTN if they get damaged, injured or stressed.

As a note, I use a custom built by myself, 270 watt (90 x 3w CREE/Semi for UV) heavy blue/uv with a little red/green/white. It has very similar ratios to the AI Hydra 52's, and grows LPS and Softies like a champ.

Is this a common issue with other brand named leds also? Is this an issue due to the lens or the spread of the led fixture that you designed?

Meldrath · Jun 11, 2015

I find it to be an issue even with my AI Hydra 52's... and I used a very widespread lens on all my homebuilt leds.

Remember even with a lens, you're just only spreading it out, it's still coming from a pinpoint source instead of being bounced off a reflector at all different angles and internally off the glass. With a lens, you're just spreading the light from a cone, to a ripply cone, it's still the same effect, little internal reflection along with no "deep" angle reflections from a reflector.

hart24601 · Jun 11, 2015

Sounds like normal shading issues, IME having plenty of fixture overlap or fixtures that cover the entire surface of the tank help.

Meldrath · Jun 11, 2015

It's the sides on the outside and of course the underside due to shading. It's just that t5/mh don't seem to have this issue as noticeably as LEDs.

akustik.sound · Jun 13, 2015

http://www.salzwasserwelten.de/produkttests/beleuchtung/kessil-a360-n/

Under Orphek and Kessil

bklynreef · Jun 15, 2015

Im keeping acros under 8 radion pros at 20Ks and also supplimenting them with 5 400 watt 20k radiums for a few hours. Best of both worlds but honestly if my tank wasn't 36 deep id use ati fixtures as well for the best of all worlds.

ggo16 · Jun 18, 2015

jonb27 · Jun 20, 2015

Personally I use a mixture of LED's and t5's I use the Fluval 2.0 Marine and sea the ones with the dimmable mode I use 4 of the t5 from red sea and two fluval led bars

Daytonareefing · Jun 21, 2015

Something that may have been said but I didn't see and needs to be said. I had reefbreeder's a few years now and one reason corals bleach or in my case did not bleach but did not grow is the light intensity was too high. My lights are only about 6" off the water in my canopy so I figured out if I run them 30% to 40% overall they grow fine anymore than that they look good but don't grow. People think because sps grow better under strong light that led's should be cranked all the way up or up too high in intensity and with shadowing I can see why but in most cases its to strong of lighting so nothing grows or it grows so slow you can't tell. I have started switching to hydra 26's which I like better but the reefbreeder's work fine once tuned right. The companies that make these lights should have better paperwork included with the light to help dial them in right. It's hard to believe they charge so much money and a lot don't include instructions. I hope this helps other people out.

TarHeelReefer22 · Jun 21, 2015

I am having issues with my acros and running kessil a360 we I have since supplemented some t5 seems to be doing better

bklynreef · Jun 21, 2015

Daytonareefing said:
Something that may have been said but I didn't see and needs to be said. I had reefbreeder's a few years now and one reason corals bleach or in my case did not bleach but did not grow is the light intensity was too high. My lights are only about 6" off the water in my canopy so I figured out if I run them 30% to 40% overall they grow fine anymore than that they look good but don't grow. People think because sps grow better under strong light that led's should be cranked all the way up or up too high in intensity and with shadowing I can see why but in most cases its to strong of lighting so nothing grows or it grows so slow you can't tell. I have started switching to hydra 26's which I like better but the reefbreeder's work fine once tuned right. The companies that make these lights should have better paperwork included with the light to help dial them in right. It's hard to believe they charge so much money and a lot don't include instructions. I hope this helps other people out.

[emoji106]

Harold Green · Jun 21, 2015

I think most of us running led's would like more help in setting them up properly. Mine are a mix of Chinese imports and diy cree's. I'm finding the corals are growing better under the imports than the cree's. Most sps are growing well but slowly. Colors are fine. Brain corals on the sand bed have feeding tentacles out most of the time. Sps are encrusting on the rocks. Only problem so far is I have several monti caps, orange, purple, white with purple polyps and green. Each time I get a green it fades to white over several weeks while all other acros look fine. All the other caps have polyps extended and are growing. Off topic I don't seem to find a place shady enough in the tank for mushrooms to expand. Paly's on the sand bed are fully open and look like they could handle even more light. At present I have just under 900 watts of led's on a 210. Mostly rb and cw. Love the way the colors look in the tank but I think thats from a few red and lime led's. Previously I had a 75 with vho's and the soft coral growth was taking over the tank. However I got tired of the cost of replacement lamps and the second time the ice cap ballast died I decided it was time to try led's.

kstone2274 · Jun 21, 2015

Best thing is to run all three

Damon · Jun 21, 2015

Daytonareefing said:
Something that may have been said but I didn't see and needs to be said. I had reefbreeder's a few years now and one reason corals bleach or in my case did not bleach but did not grow is the light intensity was too high. My lights are only about 6" off the water in my canopy so I figured out if I run them 30% to 40% overall they grow fine anymore than that they look good but don't grow. People think because sps grow better under strong light that led's should be cranked all the way up or up too high in intensity and with shadowing I can see why but in most cases its to strong of lighting so nothing grows or it grows so slow you can't tell. I have started switching to hydra 26's which I like better but the reefbreeder's work fine once tuned right. The companies that make these lights should have better paperwork included with the light to help dial them in right. It's hard to believe they charge so much money and a lot don't include instructions. I hope this helps other people out.

It's interesting and refreshing that you said that. I have run breeders ever since I began using led. I tried out the orbits, but they simply don't have the power.. However, back on topic, it's interesting, because with threads, most documentation says to start them out at 30% on white and to usually ramp over a week or two period at a time over a realistic throughout the day schedule.

Well, I for one have never run mine that way. One reason was(and I'm not too willing to deviate) I never had any success running any kind of light more than 8 to 9 hours on my display tanks. I typically run 8 hours straight, same intensity, at lower intensity. I usually ramp it up(and down) over say a hour at the most, then let it go at that.

I, right now, on my 180 that I upgraded from a 50, and I am only running the whites at 30%, and the blues at 80%. And I only went to 30 from 20 last week. It has been sitting at 20 for the longest. But my point or thought is, in addition to what your saying, and I completely agree, that the duration, for me at least that is suggested is far too long. I just honestly, set them up, and forget. I probably will not touch anything with the lights for another month and a half at least. But, Idon't know, at least for me, the short duration works well. Even on my 50, with a photon 48, I was getting great color and growth with whites on 15 and blues on 40.

But I have to agree about supplemental with the shade. I am running 3 5' t5 bulbs simply for fill. It's weird though, as I'm not sure wether it's the fluorescents or just the led, but I am getting some very interesting colors. Also, the growth it's very different, with more initial large base growth on almost everything first, then it spreads out rapidly as far as outward and arm growth..lll"

ritter6788 · Jun 22, 2015

Optics or not plays a huge role in led lighting. A light with 40-60-90 degree optics will need to be dimmed down while a fixture with no (120 degree) optics can be turned up higher.

ck24 · Jun 22, 2015

ritter6788 said:
Optics or not plays a huge role in led lighting. A light with 40-60-90 degree optics will need to be dimmed down while a fixture with no (120 degree) optics can be turned up higher.

So is it better to use optics or not?

ritter6788 · Jun 22, 2015

ck24 said:
So is it better to use optics or not?

That's the big question. Depends on your tank and setup.

Leds high or over a deep tank could use optics to penetrate the water with light. Lights 6-12" over a 12-24" tank can likely do without optics depending on how many fixtures/LEDs.