so you switched to LED did ya ?

Reefstarter2 · 01/19/2016, 05:03 PM

Tell me why you chose the brand you did , if you are happy with your choice , and how long have they been on your tank . And what learning curves you faced when switching . I am considering the switch myself but before I spend a boat load of money I want to hear what everyone else has done and why . Skeptics welcome

rffanat1c · 01/19/2016, 05:05 PM

I've only had LED. Tank is 18 months old. I've had radion and Chinese black box. Currently have Chinese black box and love them. Only plus to radion was controllability which I miss a little but not $2k worth

Vinny Kreyling · 01/19/2016, 05:25 PM

Switched years ago for a Solaris, GREAT light but lost a court suit & is no longer.
Had driver problems & could not find parts or I would still have it.
Found a DEAL on a Vertex, now they are no longer in the US.
Many I know swear by the Ocean Revive T247.

Wazzel · 01/19/2016, 05:34 PM

I have done VHO, MH+VHO and LED. This tank was started LED 2 years ago. I went with AI hydra 52 units based on the reccomendation of a friend that works at a public aquarium.

Learning curve issues. Finding a color and Intensity that I liked and worked with the corals. Dealing with the coverage issues.

Starting from new made the change easy. I will doing LED on my upgrade also.

chilli_reef · 01/19/2016, 07:10 PM

Ive done PC, vho, mh+vho, mh+PC, mh+t5, t5, and now LED.
I had crap growth or color with vho and PC. T5 was so so.
Mh was the ticket. Super growth and coloration.
And now starting over years later I'm using a 48" reef breeders (ever grow) photon led fixture. Its one of few that actually do have UV spectrum, and excellent coverage. Its just a touch pad control and LCD on the fixture and a little remote for across the room adjustments. You can adjust coloration in the white and blue scale. With the w series you can adjust a couple more colors I think ? But so far I love mine....
Did a lot of researching before purchasing.
The most success with keeping sps using leds ( based on different boards I've read threads on) seem to come from using reef breeders.

89Foxbody · 01/19/2016, 07:29 PM

I have a RedSea Max 150D with the Rapid LED retrofit kit and it's fantastic. I added moonlights to it on my own. I get great growth and I've always liked the shimmering effect.

slief · 01/19/2016, 08:21 PM

I switched to LED's about 5 years ago from a combination of Metal Halide and VHO fluorescent lighting.

I switched because I wanted to reduce my electrical usage and heat transfer and also wanted the sunrise/sunset effect that dimming LED's offer.

My first LED's were Reef Tech Promitheus fixtures. I was after a fixture that would give me a good mix of quality LED's with good spread and sunrise/sunset effects. I was an early adopter and got a deal from the Mfg that I couldn't pass up. They worked great and gave me the sunrise/sunset I was after while reducing my power usage and heat transfer. My corals responded very well too. There was no learning curve. I had a Par Meter and measured PAR from my Halides and then matched the PAR and reduced it by a bit before working my way up slowly. I also did my best to visually match the color to teh 20k halides I was running before them.

Fast forward to a year and a half ago and I upgraded to Kessil 360WE's. My criteria was Apex control, a high quality light proven to grow all kinds of coral and metal halide like shimmer. Their form factor leant itself very well for my light rack and their spread is also great. I run 8 of them over a 4'x8' tank and have them mounted to articulating light mounts that allow to me aim them where needed to maximize my coverage by focusing the light where I need it most and the arrangement also allowed me to eliminate any shadowing. Again, I used my PAR meter to verify my PAR from the Reef Techs as well as the Kessils. I started with lower PAR and raised it slowly to where I am now (80% max). I also matched the color of the Kessils to the color mix I had with the Reef Techs. In my case, the transition to Kessils was seamless and my corals responded better than I ever could have imagined. Everything in my tank from soft corals, LPS and SPS grows like weeds and I use no supplemental lighting at all. I really couldn't he happier with my choice.

minus9 · 01/19/2016, 08:43 PM

In the past I used MH + PC, VHO's on all of my reef tanks. I was out of the hobby for 12-13 years and started a nano tank a year ago. I new I wanted LED's and I wanted a small form-factor / clean look and Kessil met all of my demands. The shimmer is right up there with MH and they pack a lot of power in such a small light. I absolutely love these lights and they will be incorporated in my next tank.

Reefstarter2 · 01/20/2016, 05:19 PM

keep em coming , make me believe in Leds !!!! So many have had success with halides and I know lots have with Leds I need a reason to spend the money they cost on them .

Devaji108 · 01/20/2016, 06:18 PM

my 2cents for whats it worth...
I have had PC, HQI MH, MH +VHO DIY LEDs and now manufactured LEDs on in a span of 8 years on 5 different tanks. some tanks where running at the same time...

DIY was the biggest learning curve but the most rewarding. unfortunately GF and I split and had to take the tank down but they seamed to do really well. now I am not sure if DIY is worth the effort or not.

on my up and coming tank I went with BML MC 20K slime slick and sexy + i rent so they can set on the tank and look good to. no holes in the walls. played with them a little so far I like them. think of them like an led t5 bulb one you never have to replace. and if you get the multi channel you have 3 channels to play with to get that sweet spot. so alot of controllability but not the top where your playing with your lights all the time.

there are alot of options out there. It seams alot of ppl are doing the t5 led combo to get the best of it all. I think of you get good coverage with leds they will get the job done. but I have never used t5/led so who knows maybe I am missing something...haha

yacn · 01/20/2016, 08:12 PM

I've been running 3 MH's & 2 VHO's for 10 years

I am thinking of switching to LED's to save on electricity usage, and bulb costs every year.

I am leaning toward LED's made by LEDZeal.com They seem like best quality for the buck. A lot of the other LED's people mention which I'm sure are excellent would cost me thousands for my 72" long tank, and I'm not looking to spend that kind of mula. The LEDzeal s400 is a single unit that should cover my tank and will run me around $6-650 plus I can customize it anyway I want. Optics, LED colors, layout, wired controller or wifi app controller, etc.

Worth a look...although I don't have any experience with them yet.. but there is a thread with a lot of satisfied people using em.

Worth noting ... it's chinese holiday and LEDzeal will closed for 3 weeks starting today.

Marsaqua (chinese black box) on Ebay cost even less, but they don't offer the customization LEDzeal offers...you would have to replace the LED's yourself to customize (soldering) ...which I don't want to do. Thread with a lot of satisfied people using these too.

Or you can spend more money for the Ferrari LED's....lot's of satisfied people here too

oceanic_180 · 01/25/2016, 07:16 PM

Tank: 180 gallon mixed reef (6'x2'x2')
Old light: Custom oak 2x175W MH + 1x400W MH + 2x140W VHO
New light: 4xT247 Ocean revive lights mounted to an aluminum rail w/ moon lights added

I run them at Ch1=50, Ch2=30. I am very, very, happy with them. I have grown many SPS corals from frags to large colonies under them.

I went from 1100 watts down to 260 watts. (They would be 440 watts if both channels were at 100.)

JohnnyHildo · 01/25/2016, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wazzel

I have done VHO, MH+VHO and LED. This tank was started LED 2 years ago. I went with AI hydra 52 units based on the reccomendation of a friend that works at a public aquarium.

Learning curve issues. Finding a color and Intensity that I liked and worked with the corals. Dealing with the coverage issues.

Starting from new made the change easy. I will doing LED on my upgrade also.

i'm brand new to this and trying to do it right the first time.
i see that a 120 is in your future so does this mean you will just add another hydra52 to the mix and call it good?
my lfs who places a lot of attention in helping over sending customers away with what costs more is trying to steer me out of going with LED as they mentioned in their experiences that spotlighting, shading and sustaining health were all difficulties they dealt with.
i'm curious if these are issues that the hydra52 has managed to overcome?

welshintheusa · 01/25/2016, 08:28 PM

When i started keeping marines, only Halides were the thing. Then came T5, then led. I tried T5 and i tried led. Out of the T5 to led i would say T5 is better. But i always go back to Halides. I am running a 400 watt Halide, luminex reflector with a Radium Blue Bulb now.

spjames · 01/25/2016, 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slief

I switched to LED's about 5 years ago from a combination of Metal Halide and VHO fluorescent lighting.

I switched because I wanted to reduce my electrical usage and heat transfer and also wanted the sunrise/sunset effect that dimming LED's offer.

My story is similar...I switched from MH and VHO over 7 years ago to LED. I custom built my lights because it was fun, cheaper and at the time there were few, if any, commercial products available. I went with Seoul P7's, which were the most powerful white leds available and Royal blue and blue, with white and blue on separate programmable, dimmable circuits. The electronics were made for me by a guy in the Philippines after I shipped him all of the components !!

I subsequently added uv (never used), violets, more royals and a few triple stars (red, cyan, blue) and a few warm whites all controlled by a Reef Angel. Sunrise and sunset were spectacular, as was the coral fluorescence.

Now I am in the process of making an 'Evil Cluster' to test over the tank. I've also built a 2-channel deep red/ royal blue (8+8) custom unit for my turf scrubber, though I have found that the royals are not really necessary.

The best advice is to read everything you can here and at nano....there is so much good info about these days. Then carefully select the appropriate wavelengths for the look you want with the right power output (using lenses if necessary).

Wazzel · 01/25/2016, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnnyHildo

i'm brand new to this and trying to do it right the first time.
i see that a 120 is in your future so does this mean you will just add another hydra52 to the mix and call it good?
my lfs who places a lot of attention in helping over sending customers away with what costs more is trying to steer me out of going with LED as they mentioned in their experiences that spotlighting, shading and sustaining health were all difficulties they dealt with.
i'm curious if these are issues that the hydra52 has managed to overcome?

I am actually going to use 4 units. I think 3 would have worked,but I got a deal on 2 used ones.

The hydra52 is great in the long axis, but not so great in the short. In reality they cover 12-18, not 24 in the short axis. For any of the cluster unit you will need 1.5 to 2 times what the manufacturer recommends.

My current tank is just over 2 years old and 21 months of living things in it. Check my build thread, I have posted quarterly picture updates and other stuff fairly regularly.

Steve Atkins · 01/25/2016, 10:57 PM

Up to the beginning of last year I was using 4 x 400W metal halides (usually 20k) plus two 140W actinic plus two ordinary 58W daylight tubes. This was over a 1500+ litre tank I had in a downstairs spare room.

I decided to move to a smaller tank upstairs, closer to the daily living space, so downsized to a 500 L which I equipped with 7 x TMC Aquabeam tiles (5 x 2000 and 2 x 1500). They are not available in NZ so I had to import them from the UK.

Prior to this I spent a month or so researching, including on here where those lights (or perhaps just their US distributor) aren’t very popular. Other possibilities I was looking at were Radion and Zetlight, both of which I could get quite readily. Cost ended similar to Radion option.

The light colour proved very close to the previous light combination, as I had hoped, and overall I am pretty happy. I can grow SPS down near the bottom of the tank (about same depth as previous tank) and some corals are slightly less colourful and some are more colourful but most are just the same so I am pleased to have retained the reef looking pretty natural as far as I can tell. Because I have a number of them I get almost no disco ball effect and not much shadowing. I can’t really attribute all the growth to the light since I have also improved tank chemistry with the addition of controller and doser in place of a somewhat flaky calcium reactor.

Steve

01/19/2016, 05:03 PM	#1
Reefstarter2 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2014 Posts: 295	so you switched to LED did ya ? Tell me why you chose the brand you did , if you are happy with your choice , and how long have they been on your tank . And what learning curves you faced when switching . I am considering the switch myself but before I spend a boat load of money I want to hear what everyone else has done and why . Skeptics welcome

01/19/2016, 05:25 PM	#3
Vinny Kreyling Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Miller Place, NY Posts: 7,206	Switched years ago for a Solaris, GREAT light but lost a court suit & is no longer. Had driver problems & could not find parts or I would still have it. Found a DEAL on a Vertex, now they are no longer in the US. Many I know swear by the Ocean Revive T247. __________________ 250 gallon mixed reef, 2 Reefbreeder's Photon V 2, Deepwater BLDC 12, DAS EX-3 Skimmer, MTC mini cal, 2-3/4" Sea Swirls, Aquacontroller & 6 Tunze pumps.

01/19/2016, 05:34 PM	#4
Wazzel Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Houma, LA Posts: 4,743	I have done VHO, MH+VHO and LED. This tank was started LED 2 years ago. I went with AI hydra 52 units based on the reccomendation of a friend that works at a public aquarium. Learning curve issues. Finding a color and Intensity that I liked and worked with the corals. Dealing with the coverage issues. Starting from new made the change easy. I will doing LED on my upgrade also. __________________ Mark Beware the light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes it's a train. Current Tank Info: 120, LED, Bare Bottom, SPS/LPS

01/19/2016, 07:10 PM	#5
chilli_reef Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2015 Location: Chillicothe Ohio Posts: 468	Ive done PC, vho, mh+vho, mh+PC, mh+t5, t5, and now LED. I had crap growth or color with vho and PC. T5 was so so. Mh was the ticket. Super growth and coloration. And now starting over years later I'm using a 48" reef breeders (ever grow) photon led fixture. Its one of few that actually do have UV spectrum, and excellent coverage. Its just a touch pad control and LCD on the fixture and a little remote for across the room adjustments. You can adjust coloration in the white and blue scale. With the w series you can adjust a couple more colors I think ? But so far I love mine.... Did a lot of researching before purchasing. The most success with keeping sps using leds ( based on different boards I've read threads on) seem to come from using reef breeders. __________________ "But did you die !" Current Tank Info: 75g nondrilled reef.

01/19/2016, 07:29 PM	#6
89Foxbody Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Norwich, CT Posts: 1,532	I have a RedSea Max 150D with the Rapid LED retrofit kit and it's fantastic. I added moonlights to it on my own. I get great growth and I've always liked the shimmering effect. __________________ Red Sea Max 130D Mixed Reef: ReefKeeper2, Rapid-LED retrofit, MiniMaxx Reactor, Tunze 9001 Skimmer, 2x Jebao RW-4, 2x Maxi-Jet 600 returns, 2x Koralia Nano 425

01/19/2016, 05:05 PM	#2
rffanat1c Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2014 Location: Kenosha, WI Posts: 693	I've only had LED. Tank is 18 months old. I've had radion and Chinese black box. Currently have Chinese black box and love them. Only plus to radion was controllability which I miss a little but not $2k worth

01/19/2016, 08:21 PM	#7
slief RC Sponsor Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 14,173	I switched to LED's about 5 years ago from a combination of Metal Halide and VHO fluorescent lighting. I switched because I wanted to reduce my electrical usage and heat transfer and also wanted the sunrise/sunset effect that dimming LED's offer. My first LED's were Reef Tech Promitheus fixtures. I was after a fixture that would give me a good mix of quality LED's with good spread and sunrise/sunset effects. I was an early adopter and got a deal from the Mfg that I couldn't pass up. They worked great and gave me the sunrise/sunset I was after while reducing my power usage and heat transfer. My corals responded very well too. There was no learning curve. I had a Par Meter and measured PAR from my Halides and then matched the PAR and reduced it by a bit before working my way up slowly. I also did my best to visually match the color to teh 20k halides I was running before them. Fast forward to a year and a half ago and I upgraded to Kessil 360WE's. My criteria was Apex control, a high quality light proven to grow all kinds of coral and metal halide like shimmer. Their form factor leant itself very well for my light rack and their spread is also great. I run 8 of them over a 4'x8' tank and have them mounted to articulating light mounts that allow to me aim them where needed to maximize my coverage by focusing the light where I need it most and the arrangement also allowed me to eliminate any shadowing. Again, I used my PAR meter to verify my PAR from the Reef Techs as well as the Kessils. I started with lower PAR and raised it slowly to where I am now (80% max). I also matched the color of the Kessils to the color mix I had with the Reef Techs. In my case, the transition to Kessils was seamless and my corals responded better than I ever could have imagined. Everything in my tank from soft corals, LPS and SPS grows like weeds and I use no supplemental lighting at all. I really couldn't he happier with my choice. __________________ Director Customer Support Royal Exclusiv USA For All Royal Exclusiv & Bubble King questions please refer to our Sponsor forum: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/fo...play.php?f=745 Current Tank Info: 480G display mixed reef, 90G sump, 90G refugium, 60G display refugium. Check out my build thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476

01/19/2016, 08:43 PM	#8
minus9 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: I'm in the Valley, Dude! Posts: 1,349	In the past I used MH + PC, VHO's on all of my reef tanks. I was out of the hobby for 12-13 years and started a nano tank a year ago. I new I wanted LED's and I wanted a small form-factor / clean look and Kessil met all of my demands. The shimmer is right up there with MH and they pack a lot of power in such a small light. I absolutely love these lights and they will be incorporated in my next tank.

01/20/2016, 05:19 PM	#9
Reefstarter2 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2014 Posts: 295	keep em coming , make me believe in Leds !!!! So many have had success with halides and I know lots have with Leds I need a reason to spend the money they cost on them .

01/20/2016, 06:18 PM	#10
Devaji108 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Jackson Hole Wy Posts: 3,430	my 2cents for whats it worth... I have had PC, HQI MH, MH +VHO DIY LEDs and now manufactured LEDs on in a span of 8 years on 5 different tanks. some tanks where running at the same time... DIY was the biggest learning curve but the most rewarding. unfortunately GF and I split and had to take the tank down but they seamed to do really well. now I am not sure if DIY is worth the effort or not. on my up and coming tank I went with BML MC 20K slime slick and sexy + i rent so they can set on the tank and look good to. no holes in the walls. played with them a little so far I like them. think of them like an led t5 bulb one you never have to replace. and if you get the multi channel you have 3 channels to play with to get that sweet spot. so alot of controllability but not the top where your playing with your lights all the time. there are alot of options out there. It seams alot of ppl are doing the t5 led combo to get the best of it all. I think of you get good coverage with leds they will get the job done. but I have never used t5/led so who knows maybe I am missing something...haha

01/20/2016, 08:12 PM	#11
yacn Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Detroit, Michigan Posts: 212	I've been running 3 MH's & 2 VHO's for 10 years I am thinking of switching to LED's to save on electricity usage, and bulb costs every year. I am leaning toward LED's made by LEDZeal.com They seem like best quality for the buck. A lot of the other LED's people mention which I'm sure are excellent would cost me thousands for my 72" long tank, and I'm not looking to spend that kind of mula. The LEDzeal s400 is a single unit that should cover my tank and will run me around $6-650 plus I can customize it anyway I want. Optics, LED colors, layout, wired controller or wifi app controller, etc. Worth a look...although I don't have any experience with them yet.. but there is a thread with a lot of satisfied people using em. Worth noting ... it's chinese holiday and LEDzeal will closed for 3 weeks starting today. Marsaqua (chinese black box) on Ebay cost even less, but they don't offer the customization LEDzeal offers...you would have to replace the LED's yourself to customize (soldering) ...which I don't want to do. Thread with a lot of satisfied people using these too. Or you can spend more money for the Ferrari LED's....lot's of satisfied people here too Last edited by yacn; 01/20/2016 at 08:36 PM.

01/25/2016, 07:16 PM	#12
oceanic_180 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2014 Posts: 57	Tank: 180 gallon mixed reef (6'x2'x2') Old light: Custom oak 2x175W MH + 1x400W MH + 2x140W VHO New light: 4xT247 Ocean revive lights mounted to an aluminum rail w/ moon lights added I run them at Ch1=50, Ch2=30. I am very, very, happy with them. I have grown many SPS corals from frags to large colonies under them. I went from 1100 watts down to 260 watts. (They would be 440 watts if both channels were at 100.)

01/25/2016, 08:28 PM	#14
welshintheusa Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2016 Posts: 52	When i started keeping marines, only Halides were the thing. Then came T5, then led. I tried T5 and i tried led. Out of the T5 to led i would say T5 is better. But i always go back to Halides. I am running a 400 watt Halide, luminex reflector with a Radium Blue Bulb now. __________________ Regards Garry Thomas

01/25/2016, 10:57 PM	#17
Steve Atkins Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Wellington, NZ Posts: 552	Up to the beginning of last year I was using 4 x 400W metal halides (usually 20k) plus two 140W actinic plus two ordinary 58W daylight tubes. This was over a 1500+ litre tank I had in a downstairs spare room. I decided to move to a smaller tank upstairs, closer to the daily living space, so downsized to a 500 L which I equipped with 7 x TMC Aquabeam tiles (5 x 2000 and 2 x 1500). They are not available in NZ so I had to import them from the UK. Prior to this I spent a month or so researching, including on here where those lights (or perhaps just their US distributor) aren’t very popular. Other possibilities I was looking at were Radion and Zetlight, both of which I could get quite readily. Cost ended similar to Radion option. The light colour proved very close to the previous light combination, as I had hoped, and overall I am pretty happy. I can grow SPS down near the bottom of the tank (about same depth as previous tank) and some corals are slightly less colourful and some are more colourful but most are just the same so I am pleased to have retained the reef looking pretty natural as far as I can tell. Because I have a number of them I get almost no disco ball effect and not much shadowing. I can’t really attribute all the growth to the light since I have also improved tank chemistry with the addition of controller and doser in place of a somewhat flaky calcium reactor. Steve