Michae52 Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 I have 60 watt Cree Leds and if you crank them up to 100 percent I hope that your stuff is sitting low because you will start to burn things. I had some live rock a couple of inches below the water line and it is now pure white. We had my 60 watt crees next to 150 watt MH and you could not tell a difference in a 40 gal tank today. And the testing goes on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kkiel02 Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Any other SPS keepers that have switched to LED's? That'd be me. Everything is running along fine under LEDs. Coral growth hasn't slowed. Color is as good, if not better, no heat issues. Thats good to hear. Your Mr Saltwater TV led experiment talked me down from my LED purchase but you did say the tank was very sterile and new. I might try it again but the lack of spread of the current models is also a big minus for my size tank. I can run 750w of mh with my large lumenbright but if I can get away with ~500w of LEDs... that would be even better. Not even going to mention the sticker shock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Any other SPS keepers that have switched to LED's? That'd be me. Everything is running along fine under LEDs. Coral growth hasn't slowed. Color is as good, if not better, no heat issues. Thats good to hear. Your Mr Saltwater TV led experiment talked me down from my LED purchase but you did say the tank was very sterile and new. I might try it again but the lack of spread of the current models is also a big minus for my size tank. I can run 750w of mh with my large lumenbright but if I can get away with ~500w of LEDs... that would be even better. Not even going to mention the sticker shock. Actually what we thought was the issue was that the tank was too clean. Never said the tank was new...it was 6+ yrs old. I'm always amused at the difference between what I say and what people think they hear. I was very specific several times in that video that the LEDs had nothing to do with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kkiel02 Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 I think we are talking about a different episode as you showed yourself setting up the tank I believe? It was the 2x2' cube. I dont think there were fish(coral food) in the LED tank. I know you plumbed into the existing sump from the other tank but like I said the "fat boy", as I think it was called, was too sterile or too clean in your words. Eh either way I would still need more spread unless the Vega could fill the gap... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 I think we are talking about a different episode as you showed yourself setting up the tank I believe? It was the 2x2' cube. I dont think there were fish(coral food) in the LED tank. I know you plumbed into the existing sump from the other tank but like I said the "fat boy", as I think it was called, was too sterile or too clean in your words. Eh either way I would still need more spread unless the Vega could fill the gap... we're on the same page. The issue with that tank was something in the bigger system. We thought the water was too clean, then we went through all the chemistry and found nothing wrong. We starting looking at diseases and we thought it was a Vibrio infection which we treated for and got no result. It had everything to do with the whole tank/system, nothing with the LEDs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bannerfish Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Fragit, i would think your sps would be fine running at a higher percentage if you raised the power very slowly. Mine are taking forever to recover, the exception was my green stag, all it did was brown out a little at first but its back to being its normal green self and growing. I havent raised mine above 50% cause im already getting good color and growth, i dont wanna bleach tjem again lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 I love my LEDs on my 10 gallon. All my sps frags are more colorful now than when they came out of the tanks in Austin I bought them from. Here's a link to my build thread if you're interested to check it out. http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/18305-a-step-by-step-led-build/page__fromsearch__1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FragIt Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 Thanks... I am forging ahead daily and so far the results are very encouraging. This may sound like a noob question, but what are signs of bleaching? I mean I have snorkeled Maui and Bahamas and about to go to Cozumel(any tips on what to eat do see while there?) and have seen the effects of our influence out there, but in a tank I have no experience ( knock wood)....Is it the obvious bleach white polyp extension? Or does everyone brown out first? Do polyps still extend, and if so, how far? As of now I see nothing but good from my Led switch so this is proactive communication. Just curious, as I like to push things to the limit so I am familiar with my allowances. Does anyone out there have a photo log of their corals bleaching? Threads etc...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 So forgive my LED ignorance. I currently have 52 cree over a 48" long by 21" deep tank. So is it 3w x 52 = 156w? which equates to what in a metal halide? I was told by the guy at rapid LED that 24 cree split down the middle between RB/CW equaled to one 250w MH at 20" depth with lights about 10-12" off the water. Would you guys say this is pretty accurate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 Maybe, I've seen light output differ by 45% in identical side by side MH fixtures with new bulbs of different K ratings by different manufacturers so I would want to know more info about the comparison. It would also be affected by the optics. Using RapidLEDs 40 degree optics will give a smaller but more intense light field than thier 80 degree optics. And spacing would obviously be a factor as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 . . . This may sound like a noob question, but what are signs of bleaching? . . . Is it the obvious bleach white polyp extension? Or does everyone brown out first? Do polyps still extend, and if so, how far? . . . I don't think this is a noob question at all, unfortunately I don't think I have a good answer. The times I've seen bleaching, as in totally white, in my tanks it's been almost instantanious. This has almost always been heat related though. I have had corals turn brown under more intense lighting but this appeared to be an increase in the zoxanthellae as normal colors returned when the coral was lowered away from the lights. I've also had corals get washed out but not completly bleach out (keeped most of their pigments but the brown zoxanthellae noticibly lightened from brown to tan) and this has happened fairly quickly also. Recovery may take months and I once saw a monti colony in a friends tank that had bleached completely white almost immediately after being placed in the tank but had grown and doubled it's diameter whithout regaining any color. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FragIt Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 Thanks Tim.....SO I guess if noone is white that is a good thing.......lol. I actually think the only bit of a problem I am seeing is the encrusting portion of the Sunset Monti is RED......not the brown color I am used to seeing in LFS and online.....I kind of assumed this was a sign of too much light, but brown does not seem to be the problem, nor is the fading of color...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lchlucky7 Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 I have been running LED for just over 1.5 years now using a DIY I built. Switched from 250 MH that was running on the tank for approximately 8 months. Tank is 125G that is 72" long and its running 120 LEDs. I have two heat sinks each with 36 XRE Blues, 12 XRE Whites, and 12 XPG whites. Approximately 12 inches above the water with 80 degree and 65 degree optics (if memory serves right). I have a few varieties of montipora and some pavona for SPS along with a crocea clam. Also have some candy cane, torches, frogspawn, GSP, acan, scolly, Ricordea, mushrooms, and polyps in the tank. I don’t have any acro’s but adding some frags soon hopefully. When I first switched I started at 50% power on the drivers and slowly brought the power up over a couple months to 75%. I didn’t see any difference in coloring during that time but about 6 months after that I started to lose some color. I thought it was a lack of light so I started increasing the power but that made it worse so started to back off. I’m at 65% now and I have most colors back but likely will decrease a bit more. Overall I’m glad I switched, power consumption is much lower and I have zero heat issues even though I have an enclosed top. The main dislike I have is the pink and dark purple coralline algae hardly grows now but from what I have been reading I might need to come down in the power more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Capt. Obvious Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 judge me all you want but my daughter's 5.5 galon pico "mixed reef" (palys, zoas, montipora and birsdnest) has a clam that loves the whopping 9 watts of LED's That's right ... you heard me...CLAM...PICO...LED 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 CALL THE CLAM POLICE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Capt. Obvious Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 "we've got a clam on the lamb" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUSH Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 My SPS are growing like weeds and the Maxima has grown 1/2" under the PAR38's -Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsquared Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 I just switched over to the Apollo Reef Dimmable LED's and I must say I am rather impressed with the way things look. I have only had them up a week or so but could not be happier. I have the blues programmed to "Sunrise" starting at 1 pm and "Sunset" at 9:00 pm dimming from 0 to 65% & 65% to 0 in 120 minutes. The whites begin sunrise at 3:00 and sunset at about 8:30. I have not had time to mess around with any other programs such as thunderstorm or cloudy and don't know if I ever will. Overall, I would definitely give these fixtures a thumbs up. The only downside is you have to have an Apex or Profilux controller to have them work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Im really hoping I can keep a clam in my tank. Should be able to with 52 cree over a 20" deep tank? I need to take some pics with the whites cranked all the way up. Below pic is whites dimmed to 1.5v input to the Meanwell(as far down as I can go with wall wart). Blues all the way up. 1.1 ratio B/W. I should be able to grow SPS but worried may still not be enough for a clam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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