Who has had a established system and went to LED's? How long have you had the LED's? And any coral reactions such as bleaching, melting or growth?
Who has had a established system and went to LED's? How long have you had the LED's? And any coral reactions such as bleaching, melting or growth?
Hi my name is Larry and I'm a coral addict!
Tagging along for this one..
I've talked about this on other forums, and experimented w/ LEDs for 7 years. Only recenlty have I found it financially viable (if you DIY). 4 year payback period (assuming 12cents/kwh and 1.5yr bulb exchange rate). I have not run my prototype hood long enough to know yet, because I plan to use it for a small desktop 'frag tank' type system. I can't afford to fully convert yet ($2500), so I'll pre-plan over the next year while prices drop. I have tried everything so I posted helpful photos.
240G SPS reef w/ 75G anemone tank & 300G sump. 25,000gph custom storm drive for flow, tank heated by natural gas loop on water heater, 400W MH x 3 (10K XM on coralvue e-ballast and lumenbrite mins), custom built skimmer and Ca Reactor, 50G refugium w/ 70W HPS, DIY zeolite clinoptilolite system w/ bacteria and carbon dosing.
Me and Mr. Binford both have converted over to leds. I have a all softy tank and I had T5 lights My softies love the new lights and the color is awsome. I had no issues changing. Mr binford did lose some things but he has alot of SPS and we learned that you need to start low and work your way of brighting the lights now his corol love the light. I have seen a big change in the electic bill to instead of a $300.00 we now have it under $200.00 It was well worth the change
Thanks everyone for the input! I will be watching the progress at Reef Paradise. I'm experimenting again with LED's. This time over my frag tank. If all goes well, I will convert my main.
Hi my name is Larry and I'm a coral addict!Tom Toro liked this post
You know it's funny because Andy was very skeptical of LEDs......he's def a MH fan and said the technology was too new (this was only a few months ago) and he finally crossed over and from he says, he seems happy with the results.
I've had LEDs on my cube since day one, but I love them and wouldn't think the T5s or MH would do it justice. I would change over the 60g from T5s but I have plans to tear down that tank when I finish the hardwood floors, so will figure out something for a different tank....not sure what I want.
I converted from a 6 bulb T5 fixture to 2 AI modules and started low but not low enough, fried a few of my sps corals, no biggy
It takes a long long time to build a coral reef. Step by step the reefs survive on partnerships. And the most important partners are you and I.
We are completely LEDs now and I would never ever go back! Love them! I did DIY on most of them (but with the price of the AIs now I am pretty much done with DIY) and used a PAR meter to adjust the dimming to make sure I wasn't over doing it...
Bummer Andrew. I'm starting with the lights higher then slowly lowering it!
Hi my name is Larry and I'm a coral addict!