Is LED lighting my answer?

[Scrandrew]

I have a 210 gallon reef tank. It is 6' x 2' x 30". I intend to maintain a mixed type reef with SPS, ricordea, xenia, maybe a clam or anemone or two. I have been keeping reefs for quite some time.

My lighting system consists of 3 400 watt Iwaki MH and 8 T5 lights for blue supplement. I am getting killed on power bills. I am have been debating changing to LEDs for some time.

That being said, can you give me any advice? It would seem that the SPS I currently have enjoy the MH. My rose bubble tips love the light. My mushroom rock, does OK, but, the shrooms often release from the rock and place themselves at the lowest point in the tank. Like many others before me, I would like to find the magic solution and be able to keep any coral and to minimize my power bills.

Should I get LEDs? Will I have any coral loss. Are LEDs bright enough to maintain my coral? How much power will I save? From what company should I purchase the lighting system? How many watts do I need? Will the LEDs give me enough PAR value at the lowest part of the tank? How much PAR do I need to properly maintain the coral? Please help.

I was considering a company from Canada that sells a nice looking 240 watt unit for around $300. I would need three of them, of course. Thoughts?

Andy

[sirreal63]

Originally Posted by Scrandrew

I have a 210 gallon reef tank. It is 6' x 2' x 30". I intend to maintain a mixed type reef with SPS, ricordea, xenia, maybe a clam or anemone or two. I have been keeping reefs for quite some time.

My lighting system consists of 3 400 watt Iwaki MH and 8 T5 lights for blue supplement. I am getting killed on power bills. I am have been debating changing to LEDs for some time.

That being said, can you give me any advice? It would seem that the SPS I currently have enjoy the MH. My rose bubble tips love the light. My mushroom rock, does OK, but, the shrooms often release from the rock and place themselves at the lowest point in the tank. Like many others before me, I would like to find the magic solution and be able to keep any coral and to minimize my power bills.

Should I get LEDs? Will I have any coral loss. Are LEDs bright enough to maintain my coral? How much power will I save? From what company should I purchase the lighting system? How many watts do I need? Will the LEDs give me enough PAR value at the lowest part of the tank? How much PAR do I need to properly maintain the coral? Please help.

I was considering a company from Canada that sells a nice looking 240 watt unit for around $300. I would need three of them, of course. Thoughts?

Andy

There's a lot of questions there Andy.

Some things to consider, a 30" tall tank can be lit with LED's but will require tight optics to penetrate, but using tight optics will kill the spread of light that you currently have. That means more LED fixtures to keep things as they are with the light your tank is accustomed to. You will be hard pressed to find any combination of LED's that can compete with the 400 watt Iwasaki, that is a ton of light! If it were me, I would look at replacing the 400 watters with 250 watters in LumenArc or LumenMax Large reflectors. You will save 450 watts right there. If your bulbs are the 6500's I would move to 10K's and cut out half the T5's. You will still get adequate light and color and save 770 watts with the reduction in MH watts and T5 watts.

I honestly don't think you need as much light as you have, but let's say you decided to go with the AI Sol. You would need a minimum of 6 of them. That's $2500 bucks for lights and no controller.

The Radion...that's $4500 and yes, you will still need 6 because they don't adequately cover a 24x24 area.

I don't know what you pay for electricity, or if you are using a chiller, but with some better equipment planning, you can save a lot of electricity.

[Anemonebuff]

http://www.shop.clayboa.com/p...4&categoryId=5

These appear to be promissing. They also get good props from RB.

With the amount of leds it may be a more viable choice for depth/PAR penetration and coverage.

[Anemonebuff]

Cheaper, not better.

[sirreal63]

Not a bad looking fixture, I hadn't seen that one before.

[Scrandrew]

Based upon the response, I was wondering one more thing. Even though my balast is designed for 3 400 watt metal halide bulbs, can I use it to light 3 250 watt bulbs, or, 3 175 watt bulbs, or, do I have to now purchase a new balast?

Andy

[sirreal63]

New ballast time, but it would be helpful to know what the rest of the system is.

[Anemonebuff]

Originally Posted by Scrandrew

Based upon the response, I was wondering one more thing. Even though my balast is designed for 3 400 watt metal halide bulbs, can I use it to light 3 250 watt bulbs, or, 3 175 watt bulbs, or, do I have to now purchase a new balast?

Andy

No. The ballast must match the intended wattage output. We are talking fires worst case scenario.