Quote:
Originally Posted by Myka
You're 11 months in now Brad, what do you think for growth and color changes?
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Picking on my because I called you chatty?? lol
Well, 11 months in, and overall I'm happy with the purchase. Chris (Tang Daddy) said it best with "LED are the best lights in the world, once you forget what the MH looked like". I don't remember clearly what the MH looked like anymore, so now I'm content with the AI's.
To be honest, I only had one real color change in coral; the pink and blue milli went all blue. The rest stayed the same, and growth, quite frankly, has been stupid. I'm constantly trimming and dealing with coral aggression. Colors are all bright and vibrant, PE is great and overall, tank is doing well. Last week's frag swap left more nose prints on the front glass than I could count, so that is probably a testament to what others thought of the tank.
I have one light that shuts off the whites later in the day once or twice a week, but unplugging and plugging back in turns it back on. I think it's related to power supplies getting hot, but haven't rearranged them yet.
I bought them at Modular, and the one concern I had about one unit went unheeded, and a follow up with AI didn't produce much better results. One of the units, very rarely, will have more of a green color to the blues when at less than 10%. Like twice a month. Martin didn't have much to say, and AI gave me "acceptable range" BS. But out of 7 units I own, 5 have given me no grief at all.
I do like the control I have over lighting with the Apex. You don't get that with other lighting solutions, so a big plus there.
Heat: I still require a chiller on warmer days, although to a lesser extent than with MH. This is of course to keep temp stable. I don't think it would get into dangerous temps if left to their own, but I don't want more than 1 degree swing.
Evaporation is considerably less now, which was the primary reason to switch.
So I guess, looking back, mostly a good move. Corals didn't lose much if anything, growth is the same as it always was, the tank is pleasing to look at and I don't terribly regret the choice.
That being said, my dream tank still would run 400w Radiums, assuming I could manage heat and evap properly.