LED

[Dube1474]

Looking for sugestions. Wanting to get a LED system for my 135 gallon tank. Have FOWLR right now but want to eventually get corals. Have a limited budget right now. Any sugestions as to what brand and where to purchase would be appreciated. Thanks

[darkreef]

I love my ai sols :)
There considered "low end"
But I got a mixed reef doing well


DIY is a good way to go that way you can get the look you want
I find it has lots of cords to hide though

Check with the vendors ! Christmas deals should be up soon :)

[kien]

Looking for sugestions. Wanting to get a LED system for my 135 gallon tank. Have FOWLR right now but want to eventually get corals. Have a limited budget right now. Any sugestions as to what brand and where to purchase would be appreciated. Thanks

What is your definition of "limited budget" ? Like, $100 or $1000 ?

[Snufflupagus]

I have Ai SOL's and love them. Running a mixed reef tank with no problems.

[Dube1474]

Looking to spend $400-$600. But I can keep saving if I should spend more on them.

[darkreef]

Sols are around 399 a piece same with the hydra depends on what look your going for . I will be using 2 over my 48" tank . I have one over a 3' but that's not enough .

Although I would really like to know if I should upgrade my sols :) and buy a hydra and have two hydras instead ... Hmm

O yah and sols are easy to upgrade to the next generation

[intarsiabox]

Reef Supply Canada carries the Evergrow LED's which are somewhat cheaper than others. I have not tried them myself but they have received lots of good reviews.

[thmh]

ai hydras looks pretty neat, good price point as well!

[Coasting]

Evergrow

[Aquattro]

For a 135g, presumably 6' long, you'll need at least 3 units if you go with pendants. Used AI Sols are priced low lately, that might be an option, or one of the less expensive full length units.

[mark]

about a month ago bought some Hydras and Director and still happy, but since been reading about the Rapid LED Onyx (http://www.rapidled.com/onyx-by-rapid-led/), good reviews, 100 bucks cheaper than Sols/Hydras

[Dube1474]

My tank is 60x24x22

[Aquattro]

My tank is 60x24x22

You might get away with two fixtures, depending on what you want to keep.

[chewie]

I have two led light fixtures similar to the evergrows over my 6 ft tank and they are perfect. Not full complete coverage over all tank, but find that great as i can put low light soft corals where light is a little dim- at sides of tank, and have my high light sps corals in the bright sections.
I am running blue, red,violet,green leds at about 80% power and the whites at about 60%.

Great growth and color from them, great price.

[Reef Supplies]

You might get away with two fixtures, depending on what you want to keep.

2 x Hydra 52 would suffice.

[Madreefer]

From actual experience and not from what some newbie who read about LEDS

I have been running 4 Sols for 2 years and was always looking for those colors that make my corals pop. No luck at all as I wanted to stay with LED. I decided to give the Hydras a try. Why not since there just another cheap AI beginner LED fixture to some. Cuz you get what you pay for Bahahaha. Anyways that sooo fixed my color pop. I added 2 of them to the mix. You will be pretty happy with the Hydras. No offense to all the DIY guys but I've never seen a nice looking DIY fixture. Good if you have a canopy and can hide the industrial look.

[intarsiabox]

2 x Hydra 52 would suffice.

Those are looking pretty tempting! I have a single Radion G2 over my 29g but I'm looking to move up to a 36" x 24" tank in the spring so I'll need 2 fixtures. Trying to decide about getting another Radion or selling it and buying 2 Hydra 52's.

[nrosdal]

best price to output will be Evergrows D120 as you can get 24"x24" coverage with each for under $200. Been running mine for a long while now and have great growth and color.

[darkreef]

Huh evergrows are cheap . Maybe il buy two and put one on each end and my sol in the middle :p see how that works

[Dube1474]

Thanks for all the input everyone.

[asylumdown]

Also you can pick up used radion Gen 1s for around 300-350/unit I think these days. I've got 8 of those on my tank and they've done me right, you can check out the last few pages of my build thread if you want to see what 18 months of them will do.

There's lots of options, options that expand drastically if you're willing to shop around for second hand merch.

[waynemah]

What do you have right now for lighting? Depending on your coral choices you may not need to change anything... Good water parameters can go a long ways.

[Dube1474]

Right now I have a 48 inch 250w metal halide with 2 T5s and led moonlights.

[Aquattro]

Right now I have a 48 inch 250w metal halide with 2 T5s and led moonlights.

So why do you want to change? I'd keep that setup.

[waynemah]

I wouldn't change a thing...

[Dube1474]

I was told by a couple people that LEDs were the way to go. Because they last longer and are more efficient. But I also have been reading lots comparing the 2. Just wanted to get opinions on what LEDs to use if I was to switch so I could read all the reviews. Read that with LEDs your heaters will run way more. Basically making no savings in the power bill. Is that true. Thanks again for all the input.

[Reef Pilot]

With my LEDs, my heater comes on occasionally at night (early in the morning, actually), but on and off for at most 3 hours. But the much bigger cost is the chiller. During the summer, of course, no heater, but the chiller still runs quite a few hours in the afternoon/evening.

I had T5s before I went LEDs, and didn't even use a heater (not even in the winter). But the chiller had to run at lot, even during the winter. So, no question, LEDs had a huge net saving in heater/chiller costs for me.

I should mention, though, I have enclosed covered tanks, so they do trap more heat. And because I have SPS, have quite a few in-tank pumps which also produce some heat.

But the bigger power savings are actually the wattage used by LEDs vs T5s (and even more with MH). No comparison there.

And then there are the pure capital costs over 5 years. LEDs cost more up front, but you save on annual bulb replacement costs. The break even depends on which LEDs you buy, of course, but with my Radions (not cheap), it is about 5 years for me.

So, I really can't see how anybody can say LEDs cost more because of heater, or other costs.

[waynemah]

My power bill went down since switching to T5. Then again, the tank is in the basement and I have central AC. My heaters (2x300w) were on frequently with LED, they almost never turn on now. My lights set my tank at 27C during the day and it drops to 26C at night.

[sphelps]

Read that with LEDs your heaters will run way more. Basically making no savings in the power bill. Is that true.

I did some measurements before and posted results here:
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=95643

But please note the corrections posted here:
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=801264&postcount=33

[Madreefer]

Well to some on here LEDs do not save money, are not worth the money and basically in short form just junk.
I've had them for 2 years last Sept. It was a huge learning curve and well, it took me 2 years to finally get the colors I wanted out of my corals. With MHs and T5 combo I had I fought with overheating my tank in the summer months. I no longer plug my heaters in until Dec and turn them off in March. But I also have a basement sump with display a floor above. Some corals do great and some not so well. They grow pretty much anything, it's usually colors that people talk about with that. I'm quite happy with my choice to switch over and I chose low end cheap AIs. That's my experience with them and some on here have had the opposite of mine. Only thing I can suggest to you is to do your research and make your choices off of those that have actually tried LEDs long term.

[mike31154]

I built a fixture using 10 watt multi-chip LEDs and have been running them over a year & a half. It will be 2 years in April. No LED failures but it looks like the cheap little fans on the heatsinks I'm using are a weak point. Since I'm underdriving the LEDs & have spare heatsinks, it's not really an issue, they don't run that hot and the heatsinks seem to do the job even with a stalled fan.

I have a mixed tank with only a few SPS, monti caps mostly & they are growing like gangbusters. LPS & soft coral are all doing fine & my BTAs are loving the LEDs as well, puffing up huge & not sure lights are an indication, but one of them split into 4 clones a few weeks ago.

Since building my unit, choices in multi-chip LEDs have improved with chips offered that combine different colours on the same die. They are also available in larger sizes, well over 100 watts on a single chip. My next project will be a fixture with fewer but larger multi-chips with optics hung higher off the surface. Less wiring, but heatsinking & fan performance will need to be bulletproof.

If your current set up is working fine, there's really no compelling reason to switch to LEDs in a big hurry. Take your time, look around at all the options, there's a lot of stuff out there & improving constantly. Prices probably stabilized somewhat these days, so manufacturers are offering more features to promote their product. Some of the features add value, some don't.