High Power LED's on a reef tank

[evilc66]

If i were to design or go with a high power LED setup i would recommend that it be only used for daylighting and that a florecent actinic setup be used along with it. The blues for these particular LEDs were horrid at providing anything more than a pop to corals. The water column literally looked like no lights were on at all.... just dark with the fish almost invisible.

I agree though it was just a poor first attempt setup and i should have known better.

There is no point to using a fluorescent tube just for actinic supplimentation or color. With a properly set up LED rig, it will light up the tank every bit as well as a T5, PC, or MH setup.

 

[wld1783]

There is no point to using a fluorescent tube just for actinic supplimentation or color. With a properly set up LED rig, it will light up the tank every bit as well as a T5, PC, or MH setup.

+1

On my SPS tank its all LEDs with great growth awesome looks. On my 570 Mixed I have 8 T5s but to save on electricity I'm thinking of pulling them. I only run them 4-6 hours a day depending on the seasonal sunrise from my Apex. I'm in no hurry to pull them as running them this way the bulbs last 18-24 months and I still have 8 new ones. T5s are really optional and I only recommend them if you already have the hardware as I did. Otherwise they are more expensive in the long run and as evic66 said there is no point using them just for actinic supplementation or colour.

Bill

 

[DarkSephiroth]

Cannon LED pendant from Ecoxotic gets real, in 50 watt blue or white

That tank that was in this article is actually ran by 2x250W halide with 4x54W T-5 the entire time. But the article kinda persuade people to think that the cannon has been on it for a while. They came to the LFS and took out the Halide unit, turn off the lights and BAM took some pictures and left. That was that.