Bye-bye LEDs hello mh!!!!!!!

[GR808]

Here is how I view it.

If the tank is for your pleasure and you want pretty corals then light it how you want too. ;)

Well said Rev..
I believe every tank has their own conditions to deal with and what works best for you may not do the same for another. That's what makes this hobby so great..

 

[Redstag]

Can you show me a spectral chart for the LEDs you are talking about?

I believe I still have those spectral profile charts... I'll see what I can dig up without ******* anybody off. Maybe RelianceLED will chime in...

 

[Nivenboug]

When I was little, I had a six foot long Lamborghini poster in my bedroom. It was red. At night, I would shine a red light on the red Lamborghini and it would appear that the car was white. Maybe if your coral is blue under a specific light and you put it under a blue light, it would appear white, for example. Now I don't know what a purple coral under a light with predominantly blue spectrum would look like or maybe even a brown coral under a light with a red spectrum would like, but maybe that's what you're seeing????

 

[bluepit]

well I have led and never been happier.I've had mh pc and t5 but i will stick to leds

 

[Redstag]

Troy,
Any new update!

 

[Troylee]

Not really... The blues and greens have held there color under the LEDs tremendously even after moving them from LEDs to mh... Other pieces have not and lost there colors... Like I said my led only display looks fantastic but move a single coral under a different light and it's not Pretty...not sure if it's some kind of radiation "not sure if that's the right word" that LEDs put out that give the corals a false color or what... The growth is great I would say even or better than my radiums were.... It's really weird haha...

 

[kuyatwo]

well i just switched from an 8 bulb t5 ati power module supplemented with 2 all blue reefbrites to an 8 bulbt5 ati power module with 2 36" diy led fixtures with 24 leds (16 rb and blue) and 8 cw

we will see how it goes hopefully get alittle more shimmer effect.

 

[kgehrke]

This is an interesting thread. I am betting its that LED's show the color of coral in a different style than MH do. I bet if we took coral out of our aquarium and put it in water roughly the depth they naturally grow at, and under the sun they would all look different. Corals don't necessarily need to be colored up to grow fast either. So in the end it just comes down to personal preference and growth rates in your system.

 

[GR808]

It does come down to personal preference because beauty is in the eye of the beholder.. But every tank has it's own unique conditions and what works best for some, may not work for others...
Although with TL's experience, I'll believe anything he has to say..... :smile:

 

[Troylee]

I'm trying to get a friend over who can show me how to use my camera... If I can get a pic under LEDs with the color I see I could show you guys I can take a coral from mh and say it's green with blue polyps stick it under LEDs we got a teal with purple polyps haha that's just a example... There has to be others out there who have done this I know I'm not the only one here.... Seriously thou I would have never even knew about this if I hadn't set up the new tank with a mh all my corals in the led display look fabulous....;)

 

[Nuocmam]

I have a 90G(lit by 6 lamp PowerModule) and a 34G Solana(lit by Evo LEDs), both tanks are plumbed into a common sump so it's all the same water. I sometimes move corals from one tank to another and will leave it there for a couple months just to see the difference in color change and growth rate that I'm getting in either tank. I totally understand where Troy is coming from with his comments.

 

[Seasonedreefer]

Troy, why not use MH with LED supplement? say a few reef brights to help maintain that color pop we all have come to love so much from LED's. I'm not sure about everyone else but I'm getting great growth from my LED and T-5 combo. not only that I am able to tweak my colors with the T-5 bulbs. Although hindsight the growth maybe due to having a 24 inch tall tank. Either way sorry to hear that you aren't satisfied with your LED's.

 

[Troylee]

I'm going with all 3 haha... Currently run a mh with 4 t5s and now I'm adding 2 diy led strips there will be a total of 36 Cree xpe royal blues on top of 2 blue plus and 2 purple plus t5s and a single 250w phoenix 14k mh...:tongue: my 30x30 cube should be lit like the Vegas strip....

 

[Dave3112]

I'm going with all 3 haha... Currently run a mh with 4 t5s and now I'm adding 2 diy led strips there will be a total of 36 Cree xpe royal blues on top of 2 blue plus and 2 purple plus t5s and a single 250w phoenix 14k mh...:tongue: my 30x30 cube should be lit like the Vegas strip....

Thats exactly what I was doing on mine until I traded my powerbrites for some corals! It really is the best of all three worlds!!!! lol

 

[Troylee]

Just got the LEDs today in the mail... These xpe look interesting way different than the xre I run right now..:tongue:

 

[Raggamuffin]

I really wish I had taken pictures under both systems. I had 14BC with nanotuners LED hood and I still have my 28NC with a 150w MH. the corals had at least 3x the growth under the MH but they colored up amazingly under the LED's. So I ended up growing coral out in the big tank and useing the 14 as a frag tank for a month or so before selling the frags.

It used to happen every single time somebody came over to pick up a frag they would look in the 14 and say "dude I thought you had shopped those pics!" and I would point out the mother in the other tank and get a look that said I was full of bovine fecal matter. I ended up keeping a couple freebie frags in the 28, stuff I sent away to help with shipping or gas, and would pull them from the big tank and just flash them under the LED's.... I don't know how many people I converted to LED's that way but it has been well more than a few.

 

[ReefMP]

I'm trying to get a friend over who can show me how to use my camera... If I can get a pic under LEDs with the color I see I could show you guys I can take a coral from mh and say it's green with blue polyps stick it under LEDs we got a teal with purple polyps haha that's just a example... There has to be others out there who have done this I know I'm not the only one here.... Seriously thou I would have never even knew about this if I hadn't set up the new tank with a mh all my corals in the led display look fabulous....;)

Similar experience...I had multiple systems hooked together by a common sump, the only difference was the lighting, parms were the same. As expected, my corals look completely different (in color) under T5's and LEDs. I purchased a BTA (green with pink tips) and had it in my main tank a few years and it never really bubbled up under T5s. The last time it split, I took one and put it under LEDs (all tanks connected together), it bubbled up within a few minutes and the color was completely different. I found that some of my corals did OK under LED and some did not, while they all did OK under T5s....again, just my opinion from my experience, I'm not saying all LEDs will produce the same results.

 

[Redstag]

Any updated!

 

[fish&corals]

i use T5s right now with blue stunners im taking out 4 of my t5s and going to 175 watt MH on my 180 build i did .. for growth and shimmer

 

[Troylee]

Updates as in????