These LED's just aren't cutting it. Or - are they?

[Saltnoob]

i have the sunbrite led and it is amazing i dont know my light is about 5 inches fron water top and everything is great i got a goni that is about the size of a basketball and polyps extend like 7 inches it loves my led

[neoh]

I'll try taking it down by 10 across the blues and see if it makes a difference!

[PurpleMonkey]

In my experience with LED's (designed and built a full spectrum light for my BC29), if the corals bleach, then its too much light too fast. If they brown out, then probably want more light (or nitrates/phosphates are too high -- or a combo of the two factors).

[monocus]

i have no problems with my vertex .if you want you could borrow my par meter and check various levels of your tank

[Slyguy00]

Where do you get par meters, and how much do they cost?

[waynemah]

16" tall water column with 9" between water and light gives you 25" to the sand bed. I ran my lights 15" above my 24" tall tank with great success (39" above sand bed). If you raise the light up a bit, you can continue with your current brightness and get better coverage. I would likely start by raising it about 5".

If you decide to turn the lights down a bit, I would say cut all colors equally. Your LED lit tank will look about 30% duller than your T5 tank. Every time I look at my tank now (with T5) it's like a glowing kick in the face compared to what it was with LED.

[Slyguy00]

Originally Posted by waynemah

I ran my lights 15" above my 24" tall tank with great success (39" above sand bed).

Was that at 100%? 39" seems really high.

[neoh]

Originally Posted by waynemah

16" tall water column with 9" between water and light gives you 25" to the sand bed. I ran my lights 15" above my 24" tall tank with great success (39" above sand bed). If you raise the light up a bit, you can continue with your current brightness and get better coverage. I would likely start by raising it about 5".

If you decide to turn the lights down a bit, I would say cut all colors equally. Your LED lit tank will look about 30% duller than your T5 tank. Every time I look at my tank now (with T5) it's like a glowing kick in the face compared to what it was with LED.

I did indeed turn them all down equally. Well, except the white since it's only at 6% anyways.

The lights are definitely duller than when I ran T5's.

I'll try turning the light down as opposed to moving the lights up, as it would illuminate the room a little too much. I'll give it two weeks - if nothing happens, I'll move them up as recommend.

I appreciate everyone's input! And monocus, I'll need to finally put you up on that offer for the PAR meter.

[monocus]

with tax they are$500-i got mine at apogee instruments

[monocus]

in the instructions on mounting the vertex,height above the water is 12".my depth of my tank is 36" so i run my white at 50%,blue at 75% and royal blue at 80%.i am going to start getting more modules(5-6 uv &3-4 rbg s)