How the heck can anyone be happy with leds?

[wkscott]

I have used MHs, T5s, and LEDs during my time in the hobby. They each have pluses and minuses. What I choose to use over may tank, in my home, for whatever reason, is my business, and shouldn't be berated by others in the hobby. To each his own.

 

[427HISS]

I agree my friend, like with cars and women (or men), what ever makes you happy.
Is their reefs that utilize LED's and have amazing growth and health, yes, but I beleive that has much to do with other matters, like
low TDS, great equipment and husbandry. (spelling)

But, given tank to tank the same, around the world, I'll bet people have better growth, color and health under MH than LED.
That, would be an interesting test !

I assume though, I'll never go back to MH because of the heat and electric bill.
I'll stick with Kessil and T-5's. Or maybe someday, I'll find a great deal on a great LED system that both the corals and I like. lol

 

[427HISS]

Stick with what you like! If you like the looks of MH, rock on. I don't like MH, never have and that's fine too. Some LEDs shimmer, some don't - now there seem to be a couple terms used interchangeably with DISCO - some use that term for shimmer, some use that term for when colors don't blend.

As I said, stick with what you like! Plenty of lights and types have grown great corals in peoples tanks. My personal opinion? If you are blaming lights for coral not growing fast enough or having enough color the problem is you, not them.

As for how anyone could be happy with LEDs? Here is how I am happy with them, last photo is winning the acro growout contest with yes, LEDs.

Wow bud, beautiful reef !
And congrats on the growout win!

What light system do you have ?

 

[Maacc]

I agree my friend, like with cars and women (or men), what ever makes you happy.
Is their reefs that utilize LED's and have amazing growth and health, yes, but I beleive that has much to do with other matters, like
low TDS, great equipment and husbandry. (spelling)

But, given tank to tank the same, around the world, I'll bet people have better growth, color and health under MH than LED.
That, would be an interesting test !

Check out Sanjay Joshi's tank all led and high nutrient. Growing like crazy with great colors.

 

[Mark Gray]

I love my LED's, back 20 plus years ago I used MH, then switched to T5 driven with and Ice cap blast. I just recently about 9 months ago started a new tank with LED's Love them will not go back for a few reasons. The main reason is they don't produce much heat, it's not a big deal in the winter but in the summer it is. The second reason is the power consumption, I have run and amp probe and all and LED's win by far.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I have used MHs, T5s, and LEDs during my time in the hobby. They each have pluses and minuses. What I choose to use over may tank, in my home, for whatever reason, is my business, and shouldn't be berated by others in the hobby. To each his own.

+1

 

[427HISS]

I have. He doesn't care for the LED's and it's not a real "go nuts", clean tank. lol

 

[prsnlty]

Might be able to save a chunk if you went around looking for areas of the house that could use better insulation. I saved an easy 160 per month doing this to my place. Might be able to keep MH after that? For reference when I lived in Alabama I kept it year round at 65-67.

My house is actually over insulated and so tight that when people go to leave they think the front door is locked when trying to pull it open lol. Dang, 67 is too cold when temps outside are 100! I don't know how you do it [emoji12]

 

[mikejrice]

Kessil has the same point source, shimmer effect as a halide.

 

[hart24601]

Wow bud, beautiful reef !
And congrats on the growout win!

What light system do you have ?

Thanks. Just AI hydra 26's non HD. Simple program, 80% blue channels(including V and near UV), 40% whites (W,G,R).

8hr a day with 1hr ramps. Simple and easy. With the spacing I get 200PAR on the bottom and no hot or low spots. I personally don't think any other lighting source would give me any better results and in fact they could very well be worse. Hard to get a light to produce 200 PAR on sandbed evenly in a 24" tall tank with the lights mounted high enough so I can enjoy the looks of a rimless tank and have unobstructed top down viewing with minimal light bleed in the room.

I also think, personally, that an aquarium should not only be beautiful when you look at the inhabitants, but it should be a highlight in the room overall even if the tank is empty. The slim form factor of these lights, the clear ability to win acro growing contests and produce the colors I want and how they can afford top down viewing easily and show off the 3/4" glass = win (at least for me)

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Any source of light with adequate intensity of proper spectrum will grow and color up corals.

 

[Water Dog]

Thanks. Just AI hydra 26's non HD. Simple program, 80% blue channels(including V and near UV), 40% whites (W,G,R).

8hr a day with 1hr ramps. Simple and easy. With the spacing I get 200PAR on the bottom and no hot or low spots.

Absolutely beautiful tank! How many Hydra 26s are you using and what are the dimensions of your tank?

*Edit - Never mind, I think I see 3 over the tank. in the picture. Still curious as to your tank's dimensions though.

 

[maroun.c]

You can add T5s to haludes if ur setup fits them and use those to ramp up/down. I had 4 lines of T5 with my haludes and could do that.
You can also combine halides and LED which im doing now to get the best of both worlds.
As for shimmer i have a Radion G4 on a new tank i setup and shimmer is much less than Gen 3 as light is more diffuse and no disco ball effect so maybe check those.

 

[revhtree]

So far I am loving mine! I have Radions with no supplement and I don't get the disco effect.

 

[cnseekatz]

I will never,.....spend the amount needed for the Radion's. Outragious !

I don't know. If you add up the cost of replacing bulbs, installing chillers, additional electricity costs, I doubt that LEDs are much more expensive than MH or T5 over time.

 

[cnseekatz]

If you are blaming lights for coral not growing fast enough or having enough color the problem is you, not them.

This.

 

[Reef man 89]

I ask this because of one simple factor when compared with a MH: the shimmer.

The fact that the light comes from tens of sources distributed over a wide area creates a light pattern that looks almost epileptic fit inducing. This also happens with more recent fixtures that manage to reduce discoball effect.

I had an old maxspect fixture that had 2 x 30watts led chips and its shimmer was comparable to a MH (with some good will).

All later fixtures from maxspect abandoned these higher power chips. I still have a 160w Razor and that's the main reason I'm not happy with it and I will not pull the trigger on their newest model, the Ethereal.

The thing that surprises me is that I hardly hear anyone complaining about the epileptic fit inducing look of almost all of current led fixtures, with the exception of Kessils, which are only common in the US.

The only reason that keeps me from going back to MH is their lack of possibility of ramping up/down.

IMO I have the new Ethreal and absolutely love it.

 

[bif24701]

I added just two 60" T5s to my two Kessil AP700s over my 6' 180 and couldn't be happier. Love the visual look of the tank and only issues I've had where a lack of nutrients and after I've solved that my corals colors and growth has been on fire since.

I chose not LEFs but Kessil because of Kessil Logic*. I can chose what ever color I find appealing and know my corals will be happy, and the shimmer. I also like that they are DC powered so when I got back to Europe I can use the lights no problem. I like the shimmer too.

 

[chino402]

Hang your LEDs higher, problem solved! I have one of the cheaper fixtures but corals love it and I love the shimmer.

 

[BlennyKravitz]

I have Kessil AP700s and don't have that problem at all. I'm very happy with not just LEDs but KESSIL!

Two AP700s on a 60" Red Sea here. There are LED aquarium lights and there is the AP700... not even in the same technology league. Kessil is the Porsche of LEDs.

Everyone else is using the same off the shelf Osram, Philips and Cree chips, you can't get them close enough without diffusion lenses. That's why you can make your own lights that will perform as well as a Hydra or a Radion - exactly the same LED.

T5 will color shift over time. No good. The light is literally different every day. Not that significant, but we are hobbyists working in ppm domain.