Just curious... What T5 and led combinations are you running? I've been playing around with the idea of running a pair of T5s in combination with my Apollo LED's to try to tweak the color.
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Considering LEDs
- Thread starter jose7878
- Start date
Just curious... What T5 and led combinations are you running? I've been playing around with the idea of running a pair of T5s in combination with my Apollo LED's to try to tweak the color.
Great point!!! I'm going to use this line anytime I hear an led / mh/t5 debate.
I have to agree with Stan, after running every combination of lighting, MH is king. If you can handle the heat and the electric bills it is the best long term for color and growth. I was most please with running a combination of LED and MH over my 5' long 100g. I'm running LED over my DT now and longing for some MH too. In an effort not to use my chiller, I may run the MH too, but only during the winter months.
A BIG +1
All this photon talk brought me back to the original Star Trek days.
The photon is a photon comment needs a little tweaking. At a fixed wavelength, a photon is a photon. Realize that photons are produced at any and all wavelengths and that there is an inverse relationship between the energy of a photon and the wavelength. As an example, using simple numbers for wavelengths, the ratio of energy of X-rays (0.05 nm) to that of a photon of visible light (500 nm) is 10,000. But I’m not going to light my tank with X-rays. So if I’m comparing two lights that produce the same wavelengths, than a photon is a photon. Otherwise, let’s talk wavelength as well.
I'm currently running 4 AI SOL blue's over my 150 gallon display tank. I love halides. To be sure I don't think there is a better light out there. I currently have a top of the line chiller and I am in the process of tweaking my canopy to make sure that If I DO go back to halides over my AISOLS that I will be prepared. Thus far I am pleased with the AI sols over my tank but I AM trying to figure out what I'm missing. I KNOW I'm missing something but I just can't place my finger on it yet. I am going to try 2 54w T5 retro kit from ATI and see how that works out for me. Ultimately if this does not work out then I'll be selling 2 of my AI SOLS and picking up a ATI 8bulb Power Module... Next year I am purchasing a new fish tank. 48X30X25" and I will definitely need to revisit my lighting. I will be determining at that point if to go back to my halides or T5's.. -(I am leaning HEAVILY toward's T5's)
Yeah the same thing is what I was thinking. I will wait though and give these AI SOL's a real chance before I make a decision.
Let Me Clarify
A few things I think I should make clear to you Jose lol. I am a LED supporter to the highest degree. However, from my experience there are somethings that have to be taken into consideration whenever you are trying out new things. I believe the next TANK of the MONTH on RC will eventually be LED driven using current generation LED's. The fact is that LED's can and have been growing corals for MUCH longer than people have even realized. NO 2 Reefers are alike and while LED's work for a lot of people they do not work for others. I fought a long and hard battle before switching to led's. I tried a few different brands and up until last year I was sure that I had stumbled across my IDEAL LED setup.
I believe that like MH alone.. LED's are not the best things to use when driving a SPS tank. As my SOLANA (completely led driven) would attest to.. LED's are wonderful for ZOAS,LPS, and other fleshy things. For SPS I have always believed that MH + T5 is the way to go. One thing I have not seen a lot of people try is a LED + T5 setup. Its basically what I feel is the IDEAL setup to have. T5's with their flood of light is AWESOME for filling in any spots that LED's might have missed while having the ability to color shift almost anything into a more than acceptable look and feel.
Despite Fans - I have found that my tank will require a chiller no matter what I do to maintain optimal temperature while running a T5 + Halide Setup. Even after removing tons of heat generating equipment I still find my tank running a little hot without cooling while running halides. Living in an old apartment building without central air moving things around like a house or a basement like many other reefers have I am severely limited to what I can do with my actual fish tank for cooling. Even the chiller is not practical because it throws a lot of heat out into the room and is not exactly attractive to have around the area.
Facing facts ... the chiller is causing a lot of power issues for me because It DOES run fairly often while cooling down my tank. My light bill was really high for a few months in a row and while I think that is attributed to something else I switched to the LED's when the opportunity arose. So now I am giving them a fair try. I have not burned ANY corals while switching over to LED's. In the next few days I will be posting a new build thread where I have rebuilt my 150 after wiping out almost everything due to some crazy nutrient/disease issue. In march I will actually be changing everything over to a new tank which Is why I am giving these LED's a Fair try. If I find that I do not love them by the time my new tank arrives then chances are I will be going back to Halides and T5's with no canopy and a few awesome fans to keep it cool.
I see TONS of people using LED's and having excellent success.. IN the next month the only change to my LED's that I am making is that I will be changing the optics out to 70 degree spreads. I will also be supplementing them with ATI BLUE+ or ATI Purple + T5's (2 Bulbs).
If All is well I think I can actually use only TWO AI SOLS with 70 Degree optics and 4 54w T5's which should be all kinds of awesome.
A few things I think I should make clear to you Jose lol. I am a LED supporter to the highest degree. However, from my experience there are somethings that have to be taken into consideration whenever you are trying out new things. I believe the next TANK of the MONTH on RC will eventually be LED driven using current generation LED's. The fact is that LED's can and have been growing corals for MUCH longer than people have even realized. NO 2 Reefers are alike and while LED's work for a lot of people they do not work for others. I fought a long and hard battle before switching to led's. I tried a few different brands and up until last year I was sure that I had stumbled across my IDEAL LED setup.
I believe that like MH alone.. LED's are not the best things to use when driving a SPS tank. As my SOLANA (completely led driven) would attest to.. LED's are wonderful for ZOAS,LPS, and other fleshy things. For SPS I have always believed that MH + T5 is the way to go. One thing I have not seen a lot of people try is a LED + T5 setup. Its basically what I feel is the IDEAL setup to have. T5's with their flood of light is AWESOME for filling in any spots that LED's might have missed while having the ability to color shift almost anything into a more than acceptable look and feel.
Despite Fans - I have found that my tank will require a chiller no matter what I do to maintain optimal temperature while running a T5 + Halide Setup. Even after removing tons of heat generating equipment I still find my tank running a little hot without cooling while running halides. Living in an old apartment building without central air moving things around like a house or a basement like many other reefers have I am severely limited to what I can do with my actual fish tank for cooling. Even the chiller is not practical because it throws a lot of heat out into the room and is not exactly attractive to have around the area.
Facing facts ... the chiller is causing a lot of power issues for me because It DOES run fairly often while cooling down my tank. My light bill was really high for a few months in a row and while I think that is attributed to something else I switched to the LED's when the opportunity arose. So now I am giving them a fair try. I have not burned ANY corals while switching over to LED's. In the next few days I will be posting a new build thread where I have rebuilt my 150 after wiping out almost everything due to some crazy nutrient/disease issue. In march I will actually be changing everything over to a new tank which Is why I am giving these LED's a Fair try. If I find that I do not love them by the time my new tank arrives then chances are I will be going back to Halides and T5's with no canopy and a few awesome fans to keep it cool.
I see TONS of people using LED's and having excellent success.. IN the next month the only change to my LED's that I am making is that I will be changing the optics out to 70 degree spreads. I will also be supplementing them with ATI BLUE+ or ATI Purple + T5's (2 Bulbs).
If All is well I think I can actually use only TWO AI SOLS with 70 Degree optics and 4 54w T5's which should be all kinds of awesome.
So it is no shock that I have been through multiple tanks in my career here at NJRC .
1. Biocube 14g - stock PC lighting = okay, but nothing special
2. Oceanic 135g w/ 3 x 150 watt MH - 14k radium bulb - AWESOME, best color and looks w/ shimmer, but hot hot hot
3. Perfecto 180g w/ Tek 6 bulb x 54 watt T5 - great colors, lacked the shimmer and intensity of MH
4. RSM 130D w/ ecotech radion led - did not really strike me as whoa
5. standard 75g w/ ATI 6 x 54 watt - great colors, lacked shimmer, bit blue due to bulb selectio
6. 60g deep blue w/ ATi 6 bulb x 54 watt - switched bulbs and got some more white, but still missing some shimmer and intensity.
7. Current 180g in wall tank - most likely going to do led due to A. cost savings of bulbs B. electricity. Given my tank is a fowlr I think that leds is the best option.
Now as tri pointed out LED mixed with T5 will probably be the best bet. You get the shimmer + some intensity w/ the leds and then added color w/ the t5s.
Although I must admit those 14k MH bulbs were mmm mmm sexay.
.1. Biocube 14g - stock PC lighting = okay, but nothing special
2. Oceanic 135g w/ 3 x 150 watt MH - 14k radium bulb - AWESOME, best color and looks w/ shimmer, but hot hot hot
3. Perfecto 180g w/ Tek 6 bulb x 54 watt T5 - great colors, lacked the shimmer and intensity of MH
4. RSM 130D w/ ecotech radion led - did not really strike me as whoa
5. standard 75g w/ ATI 6 x 54 watt - great colors, lacked shimmer, bit blue due to bulb selectio
6. 60g deep blue w/ ATi 6 bulb x 54 watt - switched bulbs and got some more white, but still missing some shimmer and intensity.
7. Current 180g in wall tank - most likely going to do led due to A. cost savings of bulbs B. electricity. Given my tank is a fowlr I think that leds is the best option.
Now as tri pointed out LED mixed with T5 will probably be the best bet. You get the shimmer + some intensity w/ the leds and then added color w/ the t5s.
Although I must admit those 14k MH bulbs were mmm mmm sexay.
Check with Darren(dnov99) as he runs led on his dt but t5 on his fray(pretty sure it hasn't changed)
I run 100%led but haven't jumped into major spa yet do I'm a bad judge.
Over on MR they did an led vs mh vs t5 in 3 different tanks. At the end I think it was close but go search for it. I know one guy had to drop out but not becaude of lack of growth.
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I run 100%led but haven't jumped into major spa yet do I'm a bad judge.
Over on MR they did an led vs mh vs t5 in 3 different tanks. At the end I think it was close but go search for it. I know one guy had to drop out but not becaude of lack of growth.
Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2