SPS dominate LED users

diablomaster9045 · Mar 6, 2015

Hello everyone!

So I am considering the swap from Halide to LED and was hoping there were some people on here with SPS dominated tank lit with LED.

The tank is a 120g SPS dominated reef.

Some lights I am considering:

Hydra 52's
Radeon Gen 3's
Reefbreeders Photon 48
4x 165w china LEDs
Maxspec R420r 300w

If anyone is willing, could you guys post a FTS ,what types of LEDs you are running, and how long you have been running them for?

ifarmer · Mar 6, 2015

a LED/T5 would be nicer.
I have not seen a nice sps dominated tank that is lit by just LED.

diablomaster9045 · Mar 9, 2015

ifarmer said:
a LED/T5 would be nicer.
I have not seen a nice sps dominated tank that is lit by just LED.

Thanks for the input! The possible discontinuation of 250w phoenix bulbs is making me worried.

ifarmer · Mar 9, 2015

you are not going to get many feed back from this.
Because tank with just LED is not easy to take photo. The picture will come out looking ugly and usually washout. and therefore people will not post picture of their SPS tank when their tank photo are looking bad.

ReefLEDLights · Mar 9, 2015

Here are some pics of a tank using DIY Cree LEDs

Squid · Mar 9, 2015

ifarmer said:
you are not going to get many feed back from this.
Because tank with just LED is not easy to take photo. The picture will come out looking ugly and usually washout. and therefore people will not post picture of their SPS tank when their tank photo are looking bad.

Can't disagree more. There's this thing called White balance, learn it. Tons of great sps tanks running LEDs and ReefLEDLights just proved it. Great tank by the way ReefLEDLights looking good

PaulKreider · Mar 9, 2015

ifarmer said:
you are not going to get many feed back from this.
Because tank with just LED is not easy to take photo. The picture will come out looking ugly and usually washout. and therefore people will not post picture of their SPS tank when their tank photo are looking bad.

LOL what?

IMG_5221 by paulkreider60, on Flickr

hart24601 · Mar 9, 2015

I recently replaced my 3 reefbreeders value fixtures with 3 hydra 26 after the blue leds burnt in the value fixtures and I saw the 26's drop to $300. So far I really like them and the director controller. I ordered a 4th hydra 26 for even better coverage. I like multiple 26 over 52 unless the tank is really deep. AI told me the 26 run each led higher so 2 26's are more powerful than 1 52, but I just like the coverage.

NanaReefer · Mar 9, 2015

ifarmer said:
a LED/T5 would be nicer.
I have not seen a nice sps dominated tank that is lit by just LED.

What? You living inna cave somewhere's onna nother planet? Lol Just kidding. But seriously, your not looking very hard

diablomaster9045 · Mar 10, 2015

ReefLEDLights said:
Here are some pics of a tank using DIY Cree LEDs

How old is this thank? That is some great results! You doing the water change route, calcium reactor, or 2 part?

ReefLEDLights · Mar 10, 2015

Not sure on the age but at least 7 years. We helped with the lights 4 years ago and these pics were from last year. Initially 400 watt MH were used but that became to expensive due to heat.

The right LEDs and schedule do grow SPS quite well.

diablomaster9045 · Mar 10, 2015

ReefLEDLights said:
Not sure on the age but at least 7 years. We helped with the lights 4 years ago and these pics were from last year. Initially 400 watt MH were used but that became to expensive due to heat.

The right LEDs and schedule do grow SPS quite well.

Is that tank owner a r2r user?

ReefLEDLights · Mar 10, 2015

No a local guy

eklapp · Mar 10, 2015

I've been using 2 reef breeders along with 4 ati's for 2 years now. Good color and growth

diablomaster9045 · Mar 10, 2015

eklapp said:
I've been using 2 reef breeders along with 4 ati's for 2 years now. Good color and growth

Looks good! I am seeming to want to lean towards a combination of LED, T5, and 2-3 hours of 400w halides

eklapp · Mar 10, 2015

If I had room I'd sneak a few hours of halide in too lol

TJ's Reef · Mar 10, 2015

Well I'm glad to see this thread get some responses as have been waiting patiently not wanting to be the 'cranky old guy' here. So, I can tell you quite honestly that after 33 years in Reefkeeping and having successfully used everything but Plasma I would never go back in lighting tech. Even my nearly 5 year old DIY design is right there with the high/over priced LED fixtures available today and light years beyond MH and T5 tech. Anyone that says LED's won't grow Corals or are sub par to MH or T5 are full of balogna and have very little knowledge of PAR/PUR or even lighting needs of Corals and plants in general. IMHO there is no better lighting to be had and with just a bit of research can learn the ins & outs or do's and dont's to LED use. Ecotech, AI, Orphek, Maxspect are all very nice fixtures especially if you need/want the 'Cool' factor but for value or cost effectiveness I'd much rather use Reef Radiance, Reef Breeders or Ocean Revive units as standard type lighting and probable Kessil for where a pendant is more suited. There is nothing 'wrong' with MH, T5 or even VHO style lighting it's just their inherent flaws in light spectrum degradation giving them very short lived effectiveness by comparison.

A few random pics of my Reeftank exclusively lit with broad spectrum DIY LED's from the start.

Cheers, Todd

hart24601 · Mar 10, 2015

TJ's Reef said:
Well I'm glad to see this thread get some responses as have been waiting patiently not wanting to be the 'cranky old guy' here. So, I can tell you quite honestly that after 33 years in Reefkeeping and having successfully used everything but Plasma I would never go back in lighting tech. Even my nearly 5 year old DIY design is right there with the high/over priced LED fixtures available today and light years beyond MH and T5 tech. Anyone that says LED's won't grow Corals or are sub par to MH or T5 are full of balogna and have very little knowledge of PAR/PUR or even lighting needs of Corals and plants in general. IMHO there is no better lighting to be had and with just a bit of research can learn the ins & outs or do's and dont's to LED use. Ecotech, AI, Orphek, Maxspect are all very nice fixtures especially if you need/want the 'Cool' factor but for value or cost effectiveness I'd much rather use Reef Radiance, Reef Breeders or Ocean Revive units as standard type lighting and probable Kessil for where a pendant is more suited. There is nothing 'wrong' with MH, T5 or even VHO style lighting it's just their inherent flaws in light spectrum degradation giving them very short lived effectiveness by comparison.

A few random pics of my Reeftank exclusively lit with broad spectrum DIY LED's from the start.

Cheers, Todd

I couldn't agree more. I really liked my reefbreeders, but a word of caution to anyone with them or similar LEDs, you might not want to run them at 100%, as I said earlier the blues in 2 of my 3 units burnt. They are now for freshwater plant tanks, lol. I don't know if reefbreeders uses the same LED diodes as other Chinese fixtures, but I do want to let people know it can happen so either use more fixtures or optics to get the PAR you need, don't run them at 100.