Success with LED and SPS

[daplatapus]

My $0.02 is I just don't think we fully understand light spectrum demands for many coral species. Or if they are understood (they certainly aren't by me yet, lol), are minimized by thinking corals will grow fine under NW/RB combinations. Many older or cheaper fixtures are only putting out specific wave lengths and are missing some of the wave lengths you get out off natural sunlight or MH/T5 combo's. The production process of LED's is that each LED is made to produce a fairly narrow window of spectrum unlike MH's that give off the full spectrum from UV all the way to 20,000K. Thus the MH's are giving corals everything they need, whereas with a LED that is poorly mixed in colour, would only give the coral part of what it needs and may lose colour, growth etc. It would appear, from my research anyway, that the best results are coming from fixtures with a really good blend of colours. For example:

420nm Actinic blue/violet
430nm bluer actinic blue/violet
445 Blue
455 Royal Blue
6500K Blueish white
10000K Even blue white
20000K super blue white

Some even advocate that wave lengths down to 395nm are beneficial but to an unknown degree. Thus the leaps and bounds we're seeing in LED fixtures as technology and research are yielding either undesirable results, such as poor growth and coloration, or good growth. There are some out there.

No idea if I'm right or wrong, just my opinion I'm starting to develop after looking into DIY'ing my LED fixtures....

[kien]

Here is a Canreef TOTM that is currently running inexpensive eBay LED lights.



It's Dez's tank. I believe he's been running LEDs for a bit over a year now? I'm sure he would chime in but he's busy playing on the beach in California.

[sphelps]

I thought Dez used Sols?

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by sphelps

I thought Dez used Sols?

Last time I talked to him, yes, he was running 3 units

[kien]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Last time I talked to him, yes, he was running 3 units

ah, I guess I missed his change over from the eBay LEDs he was running. Still, his tank has had LEDs over it for a while now.

[Ryan-b]

They definitely grow corals here are a couple shots of my tank on a diy led fixture

Mar 2012


July



November


The growth has been good, I will be switching over to mh/t5 just after Christmas. I feel like I'm lacking some color that the Diy leds aren't able to provide.

[daplatapus]

Originally Posted by Ryan-b

They definitely grow corals here are a couple shots of my tank on a diy led fixture


The growth has been good, I will be switching over to mh/t5 just after Christmas. I feel like I'm lacking some color that the Diy leds aren't able to provide.

What specific colours LED's have you got on your fixture? How many?

[Dez]

Originally Posted by kien

ah, I guess I missed his change over from the eBay LEDs he was running. Still, his tank has had LEDs over it for a while now.

I am running 3 Sols with some DIYs. The Ebay fixtures were too loud for my liking even though my corals still grew. I've been on LEDs now for a year and 8 months and corals are still growing. Over the last year I've removed at least 15 colonies of sps (most had to be broken in order to fit in a 5 gal pail). So in a nutshell, yes, LEDs can grow sps just fine and the colours are still beautiful.

[kien]

Originally Posted by Dez

So in a nutshell, yes, LEDs can grow sps just fine and the colours are still beautiful.

There you have it. No further discussion required. Mods, please close thread.

[ocean diver]

Dez; what are you running beside the SOL's as far as the DIY you speech of?