How the heck can anyone be happy with leds?

[ahammer]

Nice power bill

 

[bif24701]

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.

Beautiful tank. Care to share your program with me? I use a PMK I just got to get some PAR numbers and I just get blown away with the even spread these things put out.

 

[ohiojeffsreef]

In the end this is an argument that can go around and around. The bottom line is that if your reef is happy, colorful and you like it, who cares? Right now we have tanks that look great under T5's, others under LED and still another with MH. Not sure there is a clear winner seeing them all. Water quality plays as big a part in all of this as the lights in my experience.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

I have 2 Orphek Atlantik over my 6 foot tank and the shimmer is great. I have a brand new fixture MH, T5, with led moonlights bought years ago and never used. I have though about trying it but I just don't want the heat, electric bill and bulb changes. I live in Arizona and 120 degrees in the summer.

 

[knightnsd]

I run an 8 bulb ati dimmable with 2 kessils 160WE's I think is the model over a 140 cube and I get a pretty nice shimmer from them till they dim down. I think you lose the shimmer when you run led's that are more of the larger lights with several led's in the fixture versus an LED spot light like some of the kessils that acts similar to metal halide.

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

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.

How high off the water is the fixture and what's the intensity of it? Thanks

 

[Robert Vacchiano]

Keep house at 70 in winter and 74 to 75 in summer . Chiller does run in summer but not in winter and the halides help heat house in winter. Use 250 watt halides and vho great growth and color. Bulbs are cheaper I get 10 k 20 k and 14 k for 15 dollars each so that is not a factor changing them out every year . And if you don have top of the line leds and are using multiple fixtures to get enough light than your not really saving anything compared to a 250 watt halide

 

[Sir Chris]

I'm on full agreement. I'm T5 and suppliment with a360tuna 2 keep my BTAs in the same place. I hate what I see on some tanks that it's green red and blue allover and not dispersed well and these are Red Sea leds. At least the old tank non rimless. I can't the only led I would ever buy are kessels or a G4 just 2 try on some frags of my corals as a test. "Any1 wanna donate me a G4 for this hahah. But seriously not an led fan except on Refuges

 

[Sir Chris]

My RP frag 3 months old freshly fragged under coral + and actinic. No filters and used take a photo over using a stored 1 with HDR on. Untampered.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

A little shimmer but a lot of love.

The tank is looking GOOD after the move, man! I'm trying to grow you a BOP frag, man!

 

[Sir Chris]

It's just too hot here for way too long. Fans did help some but it was still too warm. I keep my house at 73 year round (mainly because of my DT- keeps the temperature perfect lol). My halide fixture was over the frag tank in another room. With the door closed the heat could be felt 10' away lol. So my husband said no more metal halides or I am paying the electric bill. ($500 is honestly too much in August or I would have done so...)

500$ a month for ur lighting. Waaaaa. My bill went up 20$ for my T5s. No way I'm going back 2 HPS 1000 watt

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

IDK...I'm not sure I understand the debate here. I've had a tank with MH only and a tank with LED only. You're going to have to work hard to convince me that the point source lighting on a Kessil A360 LED does not replicate the shimmer of a metal halide bulb. The shimmer is very similar, but I've found the shimmer effect decreases with more LED fixtures. I suppose that makes sense since more LED fixtures replicates more MH bulbs, and so the constructive and destructive interference adds up. I supplement my LEDs with T5s, and I've tried to run only the T5s to simulate what it would look like if I only have T5 bulbs. Honestly, I didn't like it. I like the shimmer, and it's more representative of a shallow water environment, in my opinion.

 

[kevlow]

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

I agree with this. Hang them high, turn up the power if needed.

Great looking tank, good show.

 

[atoll]

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)

Agree with this, I have Hydra 26s (none HD) over my reef working very well. I also use a LED light bar to give a bit of extra pop for a few hours.

 

[Joseph Pagnotta]

Well I Have 2 Ai prime hd led lights Over My 55 gallon Reef Tank. As far as A Shimmer, or Disco Ball effects, with these I have no Issues. In fact, at times I position My return to break the Water so I can have Some Shimmer, as this happens on Shallow Reefs. Love the Ai prime hd.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Even a cheap home made lighting system will light up tank beautifully in my opinion...

 

[Khackman]

I hear you. Here it is already in the 80's. Will be 100 soon. Loved my old MH but it's LED and t5 for me now. Sooooo much cheaper and the temps are much easier to handle also. My chiller doesn't really come on anymore during the summer.

What's a chiller? I mean, I'm not saying it's hot here in Mississippi, but two hobbits just tried to throw a ring in my backyard!

Seriously- I've never used a chiller. Of course, as a Zoology instructor, I keep my tank in my classroom- a balmy 72F in the daytime, and nearly 75F at night. Temp changes in a building this large aren't drastic.

 

[stevieduk]

I do not mind some white shimmer like you see while diving on shallow reefs. What I do not care for is the separated color shimmer from LEDs.
I have the fixture 16" above the waterline. This blends the light nicely and produces a nice white light shimmer. Fixtures with the puck arrangement was supposed to deal with this but I found if the fixture was close to the water it had the disco effect no matter what.

Having even and sufficient coverage is important as well. Having bright spots that flicker on the bottom in the current looks bad to me. LEDs have direction light from pin point sources. I think having them in concentrated areas only increases the disco effect if three inches away there is very low par.

I have my L.E.D pods actuly resting on the top of the tank 4 inch above the water surface and a maxijet pump fireing water upwards to just break the suface and cause the water to ripple. this get rid of most of the bad shimmer and provides great gas exchange

 

[ca1ore]

Not good for my mental health to read through yet another LED thread - did anyone actually make a new and interesting point, or was it just a flock of parrots?

 

[kevlow]

I have my L.E.D pods actuly resting on the top of the tank 4 inch above the water surface and a maxijet pump fireing water upwards to just break the suface and cause the water to ripple. this get rid of most of the bad shimmer and provides great gas exchange

Actually, that is pretty good idea. A win-win-win; current, gas exchange, light blending.

Have you checked for the even distribution of light while using surface current to blend light? I would be interested in knowing if that could eliminate hot spots as well as reducing the bad shimmer. I don't know if you have access to a par meter or if you had in the past.