Getting tired.....

trido

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Every day I see a post stating "You will be disappointed with LED in 3-6 months and will wish you hadn't bought them". Its about enough to turn me away from the site because I feel like I have to defend a tried and true technology that does grow a great reef if done right. I have some of the cheapest LED fixtures you can buy and have greater success than most people in the hobby. Is it the lighting or just reefers who expected miracle results and were disappointed? I've been using LED for five years and have had nothing but great results. This is four months after a major reaquascape. LED's grow most of these corals an inch a month.
February-5663.jpg
 

McMullen

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I've seen all the major LED brands and I personally use black box. They all work and grow coral. I've not had any issues with Sps color or growth and that's with acros on the sandbed of my 30in deep tank. I've bleached a bunch of coral and fried some LPS while "adjusting," though.
 

Cory

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Every day I see a post stating "You will be disappointed with LED in 3-6 months and will wish you hadn't bought them". Its about enough to turn me away from the site because I feel like I have to defend a tried and true technology that does grow a great reef if done right. I have some of the cheapest LED fixtures you can buy and have greater success than most people in the hobby. Is it the lighting or just reefers who expected miracle results and were disappointed? I've been using LED for five years and have had nothing but great results. This is four months after a major reaquascape. LED's grow most of these corals an inch a month.
February-5663.jpg

Nice tank! Fwiw i love my Kessil. Growth has only been a problem when po4 got higher than .05ppm on the Hanna. When it reads 0ppm everything starts growing.

Is that a chinese black box led?
 

Humblefish

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I think the issue most people have with LEDs is around the 3 year mark you have to start messing with the settings to compensate for the diodes decrease in light intensity. This gets tricky as you have to keep "dialing it up" without burning your corals.

I'm more of a set it and forget it type. Which is why I just pay every 12-18 months for new MH lamps/T5 bulbs.
 
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trido

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Yes, I use a custom tuned black box from my LFS. They use them on all of their maintenance accounts and have switched the whole store over to them, including their 300G display as well. Most LFS in the Pacific Northwest have switched to LED.
 

cameronh

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My corals have exploded with growth under the leds. Have had no issues what so ever.
 
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trido

trido

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I think the issue most people have with LEDs is around the 3 year mark you have to start messing with the settings to compensate for the diodes decrease in light intensity. This gets tricky as you have to keep "dialing it up" without burning your corals.

I'm more of a set it and forget it type. Which is why I just pay every 12-18 months for new MH lamps/T5 bulbs.

Wow, I used to switch my MH out every 9 months as well as my T-5 and VHO's. Once I ran a DE phoenix 14K for 18 months but the corals in that tank were not happy until I replaced that old bulb.

I will not deny, I just rebuild the RB channel on all of my black boxes at the three year mark. Four fixtures for under $40 and about 45 minutes of work on each. I also rebuilt my stunner strips last month to change the spectrum to more of an aquablue plus look.
 

Humblefish

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Wow, I used to switch my MH out every 9 months as well as my T-5 and VHO's. Once I ran a DE phoenix 14K for 18 months but the corals in that tank were not happy until I replaced that old bulb.

I only run my lights about 8 hrs per day (not overly concerned about coral growth). I still get growth, but I'd rather save a little $$$ and stretch out my bulbs lifespan. I'm also lazy when it comes to cleaning the glass - so only 8 hrs of light per day helps with that. :p
 

hybridazn

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I think the issue most people have with LEDs is around the 3 year mark you have to start messing with the settings to compensate for the diodes decrease in light intensity. This gets tricky as you have to keep "dialing it up" without burning your corals.

I'm more of a set it and forget it type. Which is why I just pay every 12-18 months for new MH lamps/T5 bulbs.

Agreed...

But also a lot has to do with ppl just simply not knowing how to either make the switch to led properly or have unrealistic expectations and prematurely bash something they don't know much about. I ran leds for a few years and had great success with growing a lot of sps and other corals. Then one day I switched back to halides to see if there was a difference in my tank and it was night and day. Growth and color exploded with the 250w radiums from the radions I ran beforehand.
 

Humblefish

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Growth and color exploded with the 250w radiums from the radions I ran beforehand.

Now you're talking. :D 20k Radiums are the only lamps I've ever been happy with, even without any supplemental lighting. I installed some VHOs just so my wife would stop complaining about the "too blue look". ;)
 
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trido

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Thanks for the positive comments. Means a lot coming from reefers who used LED (and switched back) and know that you can be successful. I'm sure I could grow SPS faster with MH but cannot vouch for better coloration. I run my lights 13 hours a day for my viewing pleasure. MH bulbs get old quickly with those hours.
Honestly, I don't want my display tank corals to grow faster. My three big A** tangs would be out of room far too fast, They already force me to thin corals for their well being once a year as it is.
 

Greenstreet.1

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Never had one problem that was caused by my LEDs I love them and will always have LEDs over any system I have.
 

Cory

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Agreed...

But also a lot has to do with ppl just simply not knowing how to either make the switch to led properly or have unrealistic expectations and prematurely bash something they don't know much about. I ran leds for a few years and had great success with growing a lot of sps and other corals. Then one day I switched back to halides to see if there was a difference in my tank and it was night and day. Growth and color exploded with the 250w radiums from the radions I ran beforehand.

What LED was it you used?
 

Cory

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Yes, I use a custom tuned black box from my LFS. They use them on all of their maintenance accounts and have switched the whole store over to them, including their 300G display as well. Most LFS in the Pacific Northwest have switched to LED.

Ive got a black box white/blue with a timer for on off built into it. Its sitting in bubble wrap once i switched to kessil. I wonder if i should swap out some colors? Its the two channel white/blue 165watt.
 

Cory

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This is the one thats in storage:
 

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I think part of the problem is the manufacturers over state the coverage. I'm supplementing my radions with t5's so I can get the growth I've been waiting a year for.
 

junio melo

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I think part of the problem is the manufacturers over state the coverage. I'm supplementing my radions with t5's so I can get the growth I've been waiting a year for.

I agree! Most aquarists think they can use less light after switching to leds. And manufacturers contribute to this mistake by over estimating the area coverage.
 
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trido

trido

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I think part of the problem is the manufacturers over state the coverage. I'm supplementing my radions with t5's so I can get the growth I've been waiting a year for.
Very true, I have the equivelant of five black boxes over my 210 display. Four actual boxes end to end and two 24 emitter stunner strips front and back. Kind of like an old MH/VHO or T-5 set up. The difference is, I only use 1/4 of the electricity.
 
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trido

trido

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Ive got a black box white/blue with a timer for on off built into it. Its sitting in bubble wrap once i switched to kessil. I wonder if i should swap out some colors? Its the two channel white/blue 165watt.
Remove some of the whites and add;
4 UV
2 red
2 Cyan
4 Baby blue 470nm

Then you can run both channels at near the same percentage for a 14-20K look and utilize all of both channels.
I just modded a reef radiance to closer match my evergrows. the blue channel was wore out and I didnt like all of the 4500K whites so I matched it to the array listed above. I'll create a thread ASAP.
 

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