Here is a video from a customer who put a couple LEDs above his 6 foot 130G tank.

http://youtu.be/TRh1jUp_r7I

My tank is 30" deep. I would consider that as being a deep tank. I grow SPS quite well on the sandbed. I cannot have any chalice nor other LPS directly under them as they will bleach. I do run at 100% for a couple of hours each day though. So the info you are reading is not correct.

Keep in mind you'll need 2 sols for 1 Mitra so really comparing $800 to $1200 which isn't as big of a gap. Then when you compare features like built in controller, full spectrum and so on you may conclude the Mitra is also pretty reasonable :biggrin:

There are lower cost units that get the job done but ultimately you're getting what you paid for. Like the D120s, I had to open the fixture up to change the power cord orientation. Doing so I discovered it's basically just a thin aluminium plate with LEDs directly mounted to that, wired to two basic power supplies with a dimmer and three noisy cheap fans. Pretty obvious why they are so cheap but they do work and whatever I put under them seems to do really well but it's a shallow tank so the output is really low, not sure I'd trust the cooling capabilities at full power.

Yes, it's definitely reasonable if you need all of those features. Not everyone needs all those bells and whistles though. As demonstrated in this thread, there are lots of nice tanks running LED lights without any controllers or full spectrum. I'm not about to tell those people that they need more expensive Mitras :-)

And yes, if you want the same output as a Mitras, then you will have to add additional (cheaper units). But then again, not everyone needs the kind of output that the Mitras provides. There are people dialing down the output of LED units that have less maximum output than the Mitras. :biggrin:

More of a spread issue than output relating to using multiple units. For example if you need to cover 36x36" you really can't use 1 sol regardless how low your light demands are, unless you hang it unpractically high that is.

A work in progress but my latest LED tank, seems fit to post it here seeing it's a play on my old LED fluval edge I previously posted :biggrin:

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...s/20130923.jpg

30 gal LED
 

I have this 30 gal with LED since 2008. I can only grow soft corals.

well may I ask what kind

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/03/03/2y5a2y3a.jpg

Finally got all the glass clean. So it's somewhat presentable now. Lol