so this hasn't been touched on in ages but are the bazillion of LED fixture makers licensing technology from Orbital Technologies or did people all just ignore that and carry on?

Good question! Best I could come up with was an article that's already a couple of years old, but it looks like there are just too many new players out there for Orbital to prevail with their patent much longer. I suspect PFO lighting was merely the sacrificial lamb because they had the misfortune of being the first innovators to come up with a large controllable LED fixture. As far as I can tell, Orbital still hasn't come up with anything for Marine Tanks, but they do have some 'plant' growing offerings. Wonder if they've considered taking on some of the grow op light manufacturers??!

http://reefbuilders.com/2011/12/02/aquarium-led-patent/

Orbital's bogus patent was invalidated. So others are free to develop and market as they see fit.

Has anyone had any experience with Pacific Sun's LED/T5 combo fixtures (and knows of a dealer!)? I'm a big LED lighting fan, but I find the lighting so point source (especially with my Kessil) that shadows can become an issue. Adding T5 seems like a easy solution to that, but I'm not willing to spend over $1000 on the 24" ATI T5/LED fixture... just seems over priced.

I have! we subsequently dropped them from distribution. PM me if you want any further info but some previous end users may post their own experiences.

Good Day:

Here is an interesting article from Advanced Aquarist:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/10/aafeature

KInda lost me at

The light spectrum on the surface can be defined as a function I0(λ), where λ is the wavelength and I0 is the intensity for corresponding wavelength at zero depth. Hence the adsorption spectrum Ia(λ) at the depth D can be determined as
Ia(λ) = I0(λ) · K(λ) · D (1)

Does it say if I can grow SPS under LED?

I coulda told you that without all the math!!

One corona two corona three corona wwhat?????

No you lost me

Coronas I understand!! Una mas Corona, por favor!!

When one cannot make someone believe something, starting putting complex equations.....and it works :lol:

:wave:

a update to this thread, Brad has also decided T5's suck (which we all knew) and has gone to MH.

Steve

Im starting to think the LED's are sucking I My corals have been looking like crap all levels are good to what I have known to be good.

My scollies have receaded to nothing and on its way to croak. my zoo's are also croaking some of them seems like the lower light par ones are doing ok.
leather is doing ok not growing staying at one level.
Acans some of them are receading and the higher end ones are pretty much died off

I think my Mitras isnt what it it.

might go back to the 250 w MH
Mitras 6200, and the 6100 sell them.

Did he just say they were to bland for his taste? Mine are that also in comparison to my 2080 but hoping the acro colour makes up for it. Not to mention the coverage my 3ft tank now has.

Too flat for my tastes. I like the dimension and ripple that MH give. Colors were fine, just looked to static.

Is this for real?

I just put my MH back on yesterday. Such a big difference in brightness. I had no success under T5HOs. Hoping to get back to this kind of growth again.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...ghlight=growth

Here is 2 months in growth that I was getting under MH in the past.

http://www.aquarianet.com/reef/coral...040305_std.jpg

http://www.aquarianet.com/reef/coral...050303_std.jpg

The above started out from this frag:

http://www.aquarianet.com/reef/coral...g_8465_std.jpg

Me going back to MH? Absolutely!

That I will never do.....:lol:

your loss :)

Actually I was looking for a fixture with a pair of 150 HQI,s and t-5 :lol:

i currently have a 6bulb tek t5 fixture and thought about switching to LED, its just too expensive right now, if the prices came down i would do it, but then again i do have to replace the bulbs every 6-8 months on my current fixture.

would you guys just add an LED strip to the fixture and wait a few years until the LED technology gets better and more affordable?

It's almost at that point now, so you might not have long to wait. Really, it comes down to what you are wanting. If you want that POP! from the royal blue LEDs, or hate changing T5 bulbs, or want more oomph to your lighting... then maybe consider making the switch sooner than later. If you're concerned about cost, then wait it out a bit longer.

I had actually priced out a new T5 fixture for my tank (a nice ATI or Giesemann) and realized that once I bought the fixture and all the bulbs that it basically cost me the same as buying an LED fixture... but I'd never do that since I can make the darn thing! (I'm a product designer with a full machine shop at my disposal)

DIY LED fixtures have become brilliantly simple these days. If you are somewhat handy, I encourage you to look at MakersLED or LEDGroupbuy to see just how cheap you can build your own fixture. If you are super handy, I strongly encourage you to build you own! It's not too hard, it's very rewarding and you can customize it anyway you like!

Since going back to MH from T5HO, I am now able keep Acros alive and growing again. Other corals also colored up from brown (including zoas). I restocked with Acros and they've been doing great. But with the awesome sales on Kessils this Black Friday (basically 20-25% off at various places after stacking with additional discounts) I will be converting from dual 150W MH HQI to dual 360 Kessil A360N-E. Hope to see similar results in growth and color of the corals.

I'm working on supplementing my 3 Mitras with 4 4' T5HO bulbs. Just to fill in the shady areas ;)

Those who went back to MH, did you stay with them?

I did, wouldn't leave again.