Suggestions for my 13 year old reef tank

[skuttduck]

So I started my 75 gallon tank back in 2004. What got me into the hobby was clams. I've had quite a few problems over the years. I'm actually now back to running metal halide, but wondered which LED's I should use?

I was using the Ecoxotic Panorama LED's but I can't seem to get the boards anymore, but maybe if I could get a source of which LED's to use in their strips I could use my soldering iron and fix some of them.

I tried to fix the LED's by updating to a 150watt 24volt power supply, and the LED's that are running 5 of the 6 boards are pulling over 6 amps of power and causing the power supply to shut off then back on again.

So I am wondering should I continue to run my metal halides? I'm only getting temps going from 76 up to 78 and maybe 80 on the really warm day we had. Should I try and repair the boards on my panorama LED's? Should I just buy new LED's such as the Ecotech Radion?

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This how it looked with one of the 250 watt metal halide (on the right) and the failing Ecoxotic Panorama pro on the left.

[skuttduck]

Maybe I could fix one of the panorama lights and buy one Radion until I can get a second one?

[Hopkins]

I went back to T5 after using LEDs for a while. I seem to get better coloring using them. I am going to be adding a Reef Brite strip to get the shimmer and pop though.

[skuttduck]

After seeing how bad my LED's were and the fact that I'm pulling over 150watt trying to maintain one half of the lights I did have I'm thinking my 500 watt of Metal Halide is good for now.

I have to admit the tank looks really good that way, but I wanted to get LED's for when the summer months hit.

[demonclownfish]

I have been using the MARS AQUA LED's from ebay and so have a bunch of other people. My corals are responding amazingly to it. Each fixture covers 24x24". $90 brand new and you can easily fix a bulb if it burns out which I've yet to have an issue with

[skuttduck]

Well I got one on my old panorama LED's back up and running. I soldered in a board as well as moved around some power supplies. I'll see how this looks next to my metal halide once the lights come on. The mars aqua looks pretty promising.

My thought was perhaps to run what I could from the ecoxotic and get another lighting.

I noticed that the 12" true lumen pro leds seem to run off the same voltage and may actually work in the panorama system as well.

[skuttduck]

My tank looks pretty similar to the first picture even with all 6 boards and all LED's working in one of the panorama fixtures.

We kind of think with one halide and one LED it looks like if you were snorkeling and there is something overhead blocking the light. I'm going to try the Mars Aqua for one side and see how it compares to my metal halide.

[skuttduck]

Ok I just installed the mars aqua and I have it nearly dialed in at 100% to get as close to the metal halide.

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Left is metal halide and right is the mars aqua Leds.

[Tom@HaslettMI]

Looks good. Just be careful not to bleach your corals! Consider easing them into the new light.

Tom

[skuttduck]

That side was also under metal halide aside from the last 3 days. I will keep an eye on them.

I still think my metal halide has given me the best light but these are really good as well.

[skuttduck]

Ok, I think I may get another mars aqua but I have to admit the Halide seems to be a much better and brighter light.

I now have another question here. So I still have some working boards from my panorama LED's and my refugium Power compact light went out. I decided to wire up a single board to the LEDs from one of the panorama boards.

Should the heatsink on the panorama board get to 130 degrees? My metal halide ballast doesn't even get that hot.