Thinking of dumping MH for this...

poidog

poidog

Active member
Well any one that knows me and has seen my tank, knows I love MH! I've been watching LEDs and I am not convinced that LEDs alone will lead to long term success of corals. I've been recently experimenting with T5s and I am beginning to love the customizable color look that I can get from them, the one peeve about MH that I can't find the color I want with the needed PAR without having to supplement it with T5 (and even then it's not even close sometimes because my fixture has a DE bulb socket, I would of been happier with a SE socket for more bulb choices but the SE fixture was too wide for my tank). I can't do just T5 alone because it makes the tank look flat, dimensionless, and no shimmer... I gots to have me shimmer!!!

So, I was thinking I would stick to my MH/T5 combo (which is high end and only a year old btw) for a while longer until this came along.....
http://reefbuilders.com/2012/05/30/ati-led-powermodul-hybrid-light/

This is the best of both worlds! High end LED clusters that are equivalent to 250w MH that are dimmable, and modeable (i know that's not a real word) with the high end ATI T5s for complete color customization with good PAR. You can even customize the PAR by bulb selection and the power set on the LEDS. ATI says it should be available for distribution in about 2 months and I will be picking one up to try out over all that is sexy in my tank.

ati-led-powermodul-t5-hybrid-5.jpg

ati-led-powermodul-t5-hybrid-6.jpg

ati-led-powermodul-t5-hybrid-7.jpg

ati-led-powermodul-t5-hybrid-8.jpg
 
Can u change the directions of those LEDs? With them just in the middle they will only light the middle-ish section of the tank, even with wide angle optics. U have a lot of SPS and they might not be happy with just 4 T5s if the LEDs can't reach them. They will be good to add shimmer though.
 
It looks like a great fixture and would be perfect for your needs.

As an LED user, I'm not so sure I'm sold on LEDs over MH though....but that's for another thread.
 
ColaAddict said:
Can u change the directions of those LEDs? With them just in the middle they will only light the middle-ish section of the tank, even with wide angle optics. U have a lot of SPS and they might not be happy with just 4 T5s if the LEDs can't reach them. They will be good to add shimmer though.
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I'm sure they are fixed. Notice they have a vent fan in the hood. I would need the 36" fixture and it will have 2 LED clusters. That will be more of a spread then what I have now with a single MH bulb, where the ends don't get much direct light at all. I would prefer a fixture with 6 t5 bulb if it will be available. size/builds haven't been released yet.


KeishaKornbread said:
It looks like a great fixture and would be perfect for your needs.

As an LED user, I'm not so sure I'm sold on LEDs over MH though....but that's for another thread.
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Can you elaborate? Lets discuss since you have been using LEDs....
 
If you are in my area, stop by and take a look at my Dr bulbs. The look pretty good with out sup. lighting.
 
poidog said:
Can you elaborate? Lets discuss since you have been using LEDs....
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It still may be too soon for me to really have an opinion on the success of my setup while using LEDs, but as of now I’m not too sure I’m convinced that LEDs are better than a setup utilizing MHs. This is still the period that many of my corals MAY be getting acclimated to the lights and I could just be an impatient man. My setup is just now reaching its sweet-spot where it’s matured enough and this should also be factored in.

Let me start off by saying so far it’s been a bumpy start with my units. With one module falling into the water and for a two week period my tank had only one module. For 2 months one module had an entire channel (out of 4 channels) not working. My lights are currently set at 75% and when I first received them and set them at 100% it fried almost every SPS I dropped into my tank until I learned better.

I love the energy saving benefit of having LEDs and I also love the color spectrum that my setup provides my reef babies. That customizability certainly pleases my human eye, but I’m wondering if what looks good to my eye is actually benefiting my coral. My purple stylo, which is said to be a sun-loving, demanding, very high light coral, has taken off and the color has intensified and revealed an impressive metallic hue on the polyps. It has encrusted quite quickly so I think it loves the light NOW. I’ve also noticed that the previously more brown Green Tipped Purple Acro has now developed some lovely purple tips. There’s more noticeable encrusting on most of my SPS frags and the polyps have finally extended to where I think they should be. In general, all of my SPS frags are doing well and my Blue Turaki colony immediately took to the LEDs being half a foot under the water surface.

Now…I must say that this has not always been the case. This general happiness amongst my coral did not happen until I moved the frag racks to JUST below the surface of the water, which is where they continue to reside. My issue now with LEDs is with penetration. I’ve been increasing the power by 5% every one or two weeks so perhaps when I finally get to 100%, my SPS will be happy anywhere in my tank but as of now, with my tank going through a huge transition, it is too soon to really form an opinion.

In conclusion, I want LEDs to work, and they just might be working. But my analytic side is saying that a combination of MH/LED or T5/LED may be better. We’ll just have to see how I feel in a year.
 
This fixture looks pretty nice and it would be great if they managed to fit 6 bulbs without bulking the fixture too much.

Would be even more awesome if they're able to integrate a controller into the fixture.
 
That setup looks nice, but with only cool white, there's going to get a lot of overlapping with the blue spectrum. Hence, it will give an icy appearance to the tank. They need to use some neutral white in there to balance out the warmer colors. Also, they need to bump up the ratio of royal blue to blue. Too much regular blue gives a listerine appearance. Granted, it says that they are using red LEDs, but that is likely the old style red that is closer to orange (I've heard stories from people that say this type of light makes them literally nauseous, no joke. Weird right?). If they are using the 660 (so called, "deep red") wavelength red LEDs, I stand corrected. Here is the option I recommend:
6738433607_a176f1ba3a_b.jpg


It's made by Dave Fason who owns Nanobox. He seems like a good guy and frequent poster on forums.
http://www.nano-box-reef.com/products.html
It's the model I based my setup on. The only difference is that I used one less cool white and one more deep red. Also, I added TV LED's to mine. A couple of these could easily be rigged into your setup or in tandem with some other T5 setup. It's also easy to hook it up to a controller for dimming and programming.

If you're serious about LED's I've got a thread you should read. PM'd.
 
You are forgetting this is also a dual high powered T5 fixture. Color/spectrum/PAR tuning can be done with your T5 bulb selection. The LEDs are to supply the power of a MH bulb but the T5s get you the color you ultimately want (same situation I have now with my Mh/T5 fixture, this light will offer me more light coverage tho). I have no interest to switch to just an LED fixture.
 
This is how LED's should of been integrated from the beginning. I would put some heavy research into these lights and if they can keep the price point around what they are now I think I would pick one up too! I seriously want HO T5's now but if this is in the works I can wait a year or two! Thanks Eric~!
 
poidog said:
You are forgetting this is also a dual high powered T5 fixture. Color/spectrum/PAR tuning can be done with your T5 bulb selection. The LEDs are to supply the power of a MH bulb but the T5s get you the color you ultimately want (same situation I have now with my Mh/T5 fixture, this light will offer me more light coverage tho). I have no interest to switch to just an LED fixture.
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No qualms there. I think the spread of T5's in combo with the intensity (and shimmer) of LED's is the ultimate combo. If you're focused on getting your color out of the T5's, go for it! Though, I think you're going to love the pop you get out of the LED's. What color combo do you plan on running with the T5's?

EDIT: The more I think about it, you're going to get some serious color out of the LED's as well. So, it's not just going to be the T5's. I still think the nanobox option will be better (or just DIY). Like I said before, it could be incorporated into your current setup or rigged with another T5 setup. You could fit several of these where your current MH is if you gut it. Though, like you said it woudn't reach the far sides of your tank even without optics. I think like four or five of these 13-ups spread over the length of your tank (in combo with T5's) would be killer!

EDIT #2: Another thing to consider with LED's in general is that they add a challenge to photography. The blues tend to overload the detectors which can make things difficult without photoshop to bring images back to how the corals really look. Just something to think about.
 
prestige-led said:
Time for me to start making an led/T5 unit.
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Or come up with some retrofit that could fit in place of a T5 bulb so people could convert a 6 bulb to a 4 bulb +LED. I've seen a few of these done on various sites and really considering doing this retro to my Tek fixture since 8 bulbs is just too darn many for my needs, and I'd love to get some royal blue pop and shimmer during the day.
 
Orphek already makes those T5 LED bulb replacements that can replace some of your T5 bulbs in a T5 fixture, but I think you have to rewire your fixture so they won't run with the T5 ballast. Aquariumspecialty sells them.
Gus should look into T5/LED combo.
 
Speaking of T5's can someone recommend a wattage for the new 37g build I have I want remove the Sunpod. PM me as to not hijack Eric's thread.
 
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