I will take a pic of my 20g sps nano with my led fixture for the thread. Smaller, however its the first time in 30yrs. my sps are growing and have good colours. :lol:

I've been tossing around the idea of going L.E.D. for Actinic lighting. My canopy isn't built yet so I havne't put in a ton of reaserch yet.

Check out modularled.ca. They have a lot of knowledge, are out of Red Deer and are a canreef sponsor.

Sorry, wasn't clear enough in the post, that's not my tank, it's the one I linked there from RC, great tank, and the guy has some pretty good info on LED systems. With LED technology going so fast I'm waiting for a little bit. 2 Months ago if you said red LED's you would have been laughed at... and now... well... Ecotech's new system and Vertex upgrades are giving red/green lights.


Some amazing setups in here though, and lots in other forums as well, the whole LED Voodoo "oh no! something new!" Is pretty proven out, and as more people and technology go towards it it can only get better.

Percvisely. Sort of like how Metal halide arent coming down, yet there is competition for cheaper chinese products like odyssea.

People tend to forget the prices are set to tollerances created by the consumer. Not by competition. It is the consumer that decides that the prices are too high from company A, and decides to go to company B. Just Because company B is cheaper, doesnt mean company A through Z is going to lower prices.

There is also a matter of technology and patents. High power LEDs cost a lot of money per unit. Cicuitry, drivers and power supplies from respectible manufactureres cost money as well. When you are buying a system like Vertex and the late PFO Solaris, you are paying for the materials, and a niche-market adjusted margin. Yes, let's not forget that the aquarium market is a niche, in a niche-market companies have to increase their margines to adjust for the fact their market is small, and volume sales are low.

Besides, there ARE cheap LED fixtures out there, but they are made with substandard materials.

Expect their pricing to stay relatively the same for a very long time.

You sure? The price of each of my metal halide pendants has dropped $50 in the last 3 years.


... So does anyone have any LED tank pictures to show off?

what about colour in SPS with LED? Everyone I know who tried LED with SPS changed that after a year or two because they did not like how the color in their SPS turned out.

What about a hot pink birdnest under LED? what about those crazy color we seen in SPS? can it be done with LED and if so, where are the pics?

From where? I bet you, that manufactuer wholesale prices didnt go down. Perhaps the company adjusted it's price integrity and allowed retailers to sell for less. Perhaps the company outsourced to China and it temporarily beinifting from lower production costs. There are a lot of variables. Regardless, inflation and volume usually effects the cost of goods. If these products are made in China, guaranteed that prices are going up, not down.

If they are made in the US and Canada, where inflation is a bit more under control you wont see a significant price drop but not a price increase either. People have to understand. LED lights are not PCs or cars. They arent purchased by everybody on the planet. There arent investors chucking billions at Vertex, building up their infrastructure. It just simply isnt economically plausable.

Not to mention, the patents that need to be paid to manufacture these things. When you consider base cost for material, a limited consumer base and inflation, prices will not drop and if they do, I would not invest money into those companies that are desperately dropping prices to save themselves...they are going under.

Sorry it was $40 not $50. I found my old receipt which says $169.95, currently on their website they are $129.95. They are Lumenmax 3s that I bought at J&L.

Everyone in the developed world is using LEDs now. They're in consumer goods, homes, office buildings and industrial plants. They're also in PCs and cars.

+1 for modular LED, quick easy helpful, i put my leds heatsink and fan right inside the canopy for my JBJ 28g, with a little help from the grizz of course, works great and still looks sexy