PDA

View Full Version : Lights


Dearth
03-20-2017, 06:28 PM
I see a lot of people who went from Metal Halides to LED are now leaving the LEDs for T5 or T5 hybrid lighting.

I have been looking at LED lights for some time but seeing people leaving LEDs for T5s has me wondering are LEDs all they are cracked up to be? Or are people just wanting a change?

Animal-Chin
03-20-2017, 06:40 PM
I started with T5's and really liked them but they cost more to run and you have to change the bulbs a lot and they are expensive (IMO) so I purchased LED's about 4 years ago and really like them.

Pros

Powerfull and will grow all coral
Cool to run, no extra heat
No changing bulbs for a long time (50,000 hours)
Cheaper to run
you can adjust the color to what you like (more blue, more white)

Cons

Sometimes too powerful for soft or LPS coral. I've have ricordia melt under them.

Uni directional light. SPS don't get any light under their branches and it causes shadowing underneath. They only get light from one direction. This is why a lot of people suplement their lighting with T5s.

Set up cost. If you go Radion or something like that they are expensive to start off with. I went Ebay black box so the set up was pretty cheap.



In the end I'll never go back, I like the LED lighting in my tank and have great success with the coral I have. I do think some of my coral would prefer a more reflective light but other than that...

tang daddy
03-20-2017, 06:41 PM
The most common combo is led and t5 mix.

If you have a chiller and can afford bulb changes every 8-10 months then t5 are a great choice, but they put out a fair amount of heat so unless the fixture is well ventilated it will transfer some heat into the tank. LEDs are great for growing coral but sometimes can be expensive to start up, the up sides is virtually no heat and no bulb change. Downsides is leds don't have tons of spread and light is directional so lots of shading which is why people supplement with t5.

I run all 3 and couldn't be happier!

Dearth
03-20-2017, 08:14 PM
Any issues with fans burning out or losing a bank of lights as I've read many people with LEDs experience one or both issues with their LED lights

Animal-Chin
03-20-2017, 09:46 PM
Fan no, light bulbs yes. I've had a few bulbs burn out but I just replaced them myself. You just need to know how to solder...

dino
03-20-2017, 10:55 PM
I've had my led fixtures for 4 years or so. No issues at all as of yet

Sharkbait-huhaha
03-20-2017, 11:16 PM
I've been using vertex illumina for a couple years now. loooooove it.

jason604
03-23-2017, 05:55 PM
I'm running radions supplemented with 1 t5 blue+ bulb on each side of my leds. Seems to bring out more color than just LEds alone and there's not rly much heat. I'm thinking of mybe adding 1 more t5 on each side. Dunno yet

dino
03-23-2017, 06:28 PM
are you running sundblasters? for the T5

jason604
03-23-2017, 08:59 PM
are you running sundblasters? for the T5

Yes sun blasters.

mike31154
03-24-2017, 03:25 PM
My DIY LED fixture will have 5 years running time come April. Not one LED has burned out to date. No bulb changes for 5 years, that's a relief for the pocket book & the landfill/hassle of proper disposal of fluorescents. No way I would consider going back. Don't find the need to supplement for what I have in the tank either, multi-chip LEDs provide very good coverage & more colour choices are available in LED technology than ever before.

DKoKoMan
03-24-2017, 04:10 PM
I have an Evergrow IT series 48" light and the fans are pretty much silent. I have had the light fixture for 8 months and no issues with the fans or led clusters.

dino
03-24-2017, 04:29 PM
I have a dilemma what would you do? I have my led units that have done me well for my 90. I built a four foot 120 and want to add another fixture and I have two options. I have another led unit that's 4 foot and really nice it's 220 watts and has 420-460nm bulbs and 10000-20000k or I can use a three bulb t5 fixture with 55 watt bulbs I believe. What other fixture would you use?

chi
03-24-2017, 06:26 PM
Switching back to t5's as LEDs can't truly provide sufficient UV. You can tell that there's no UV sterilizers that uses LED for our hobby. Nor UV tanning salons. That being said. The photons emitted via electricity through gas medium produces a much more even spread. I noticed that my anemones have much better colouration under t5's.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

dino
03-24-2017, 07:26 PM
To be clear I'm still going to use my led but want to add another fixture. Just wondering what I should use for the extra unit. My led have uv bulbs on them

sphelps
03-24-2017, 08:33 PM
Switching back to t5's as LEDs can't truly provide sufficient UV. You can tell that there's no UV sterilizers that uses LED for our hobby. Nor UV tanning salons. That being said. The photons emitted via electricity through gas medium produces a much more even spread. I noticed that my anemones have much better colouration under t5's.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

They make LEDs for sterilization and tanning beds so I'm not what your assumptions are based on. It's all fairly new technology so certainly not the most common yet but options are available if you care to look. Most LED fixtures these days also have LEDs that produce light in the UV range so I don't believe there's much advantage using other light sources over LED for the sole purpose of providing more UV.

At any rate I think all lighting options have draw backs. T5 only tanks look amazing in pictures due to the even light distribution but IMO look flat in person and lack contrast. Halides on the other hand go too far in the other direction and lack the ability to evenly light a tank and bring good light and color to all corals and areas. The combination of the two however gives you best of both. LEDs are no different and will lack certain things when used solely, however out of the three they are best on their own IMO, provided you use the right fixture. That said supplementing with T5s will obviously produce better results but often won't be worth the effort for most people.

iamfrontosa
03-25-2017, 04:34 AM
google ecotech coral lab

adam84
03-25-2017, 11:48 AM
I am now running a few T5s along with my leds, true actinic and coral plus for a few hours in the middle of my lighting cycle, getting deeper color from most corals.

DKoKoMan
03-25-2017, 04:09 PM
google ecotech coral lab

Good read! Nice setup for sure.

Default
03-25-2017, 04:27 PM
Switching back to t5's as LEDs can't truly provide sufficient UV. You can tell that there's no UV sterilizers that uses LED for our hobby. Nor UV tanning salons. That being said. The photons emitted via electricity through gas medium produces a much more even spread. I noticed that my anemones have much better colouration under t5's.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

Thats because UV leds are very expensive. I use 365nm and 220nm UV leds for my business and just the LEDs alone are over 150USD each. Dentists have been using UV LEDS for over a decade and same with the NDT industry.
I dont see the price coming down on them as there is a very limited market for UV LEDS.