Show Us Your LED Tanks

[Madreefer]

I had a discussion with a buddy yesterday about LED lights. He figures that they are the best thing going and bring out the colors more. I'm not sold on them. Those of you that have an LED fixture on your tank (tanks 100G and up) can you please post a FTS for those of us that are curious. The monthly cost savings over MH is huge I know. It's the look i'm interested in seeing.

[sphelps]

The savings are not huge, you may save money in the long run but your payback period will be a few years or more depending on how you look at it. Typically you can use about half the power with LEDs and on a 100 gallon tank you'd probably save around 250W which if run 10 hours a day will save you around $60 a year depending on what you pay for electricity. Your basic LED retro kit will cost around $1200 for 100 gallons and your basic halide retro kit will cost around $600 (ballast, reflector, sockets and cords). Based on replacing bulbs every year and the additional electrical cost you'd be about even after about 3.5 years. So provided you plan on keeping your tank for more than 4 years it may be worth while from a savings point of view.

As for color, I don't think you get better results from LEDs but this tends more to be personal preference. I find that MH's have the potential for a more broad spectrum which gives a better balance for various coral colors. T5s are also really good for coral color for similar reasons and that you can mix and match various bulbs to meet your preference. I find that with only using white and blue LEDs the colors in many corals are not spectacular by any means, you could add other color LEDs for better results but preforming this experimentation isn't as easy as changing a T5 or MH bulbs.

Also pictures can be misleading, I can take a picture of any coral under any light and make it look way better than in person. Cameras can adjust color and light balance much better than our eyes.

[Aquattro]

I agree, savings are not huge. I pay about 25/mo to run my MH, so cut that in half for LED, and it's not a tremendous saving. And since I'm not great with building little things, I'd need to buy a fixture, and at over 4k, it would take me years to break even. And given that I still believe MH will give me the best results, I can't justify going to LED until prices drop way down and they've really proven themselves. The main attraction for me would be the heat factor, but for light quality, I'm likely always going to be a hard core MH fan.

[sphelps]

Yeah the major attractions for LEDs for me is heat and control. Heat not so much because I've never had a real issue using 500W of halide on a 100 gallon tank, a small fan and open top keeps the heat down even on hot summer days without AC. The control factor though is pretty cool but it does add cost depending on what you want to do and whether you already have the controller.

The other problem stopping me is that I've never had the same tank for longer than 3 or 4 years so I don't know if the extra cost would be worth while just for some extra control features.

[mseepman]

I think LED is the way to go if you plan to keep your tank a while. The current pre-built fixtures out there can leave a bit to be desired, although in Canada we tend to look at only a couple of the fixtures and then make our decisions. It seems that the reef conferences of late have been filled with companies bringing LED technology to reefing but when we discuss LED on Canreef, a lot of the discussion is around the Vertex which is crazy money.
I plan on building a DIY fixture which I will attach to a controller for on/off and dimming. I am in the planning stages of my 290G and previously was going to go with MH / T5 combo (again DIY though, not a fixture) and my plans were going to cost me about $900. Now that I've gone with LED instead (purchased half the items already) the cost to light my 7' tank is going to be closer to $2000 but I'll pay that back in 2 years in bulb costs and electricity alone (not factoring in a chiller if it had been needed). If I build it right, I think there is a good chance that I can try to achieve the 10 years of life that these should give you. There is more elbow grease involved but I'm okay with that.
As for coloring, many of the most recent DIY LED fixtures have found that by mixing in some neutral whites and some normal blues, the colors that we really want can be achieved.

[sphelps]

You're going to save $1100 in two years with bulbs and electrical savings? Wow, what were your original plans exactly? If you don't mind me asking.

[gobytron]

right now, MH is the way to go.

LED is an emerging technology who's applications keep growing.

what costs you 4k today will be 1k in 4 years and probably be a more refined product to boot.

I was really close to buying a Vertex...bought into V.RLM and made some good dough but after having a good look at it, I decided to wait it out and see what the next 2 or 3 versions look like.


Anyone else remember when even a basic t5HO would cost you twice what it does now?

[sphelps]

I don't recall a time T5HOs where much more than they are now, I remember some fixtures costing more than others but it's still that way. The difference I find is that back then fixtures and bulbs were hard to get in Canada and you had to order them from the states which cost a lot with shipping and duty. Maybe I'm not going back as far as some others remember.

I don't really buy into the fact LEDs will come down as much as people seem to think. Prices will drop a little as more competition comes in and more products become available but I don't expect to see a 4K fixture sell for 1K in a few years unless it's discontinued, refurbished or used. You can buy cheap LED fixtures now but they don't have controllers or quality LEDs. Solaris fixtures were pricey when they came out and that was quite a long time ago yet today's fixtures are still in the same range if not more, they are however better fixtures but that's the same with any market (this years cars are better than last years but new price is still the same). So how long before LEDs are cheap? We're not getting any younger

[gobytron]

Originally Posted by sphelps

I don't recall a time T5HOs where much more than they are now, I remember some fixtures costing more than others but it's still that way. The difference I find is that back then fixtures and bulbs were hard to get in Canada and you had to order them from the states which cost a lot with shipping and duty. Maybe I'm not going back as far as some others remember.

I don't really buy into the fact LEDs will come down as much as people seem to think. Prices will drop a little as more competition comes in and more products become available but I don't expect to see a 4K fixture sell for 1K in a few years unless it's discontinued, refurbished or used. You can buy cheap LED fixtures now but they don't have controllers or quality LEDs. Solaris fixtures were pricey when they came out and that was quite a long time ago yet today's fixtures are still in the same range if not more, they are however better fixtures but that's the same with any market (this years cars are better than last years but new price is still the same). So how long before LEDs are cheap? We're not getting any younger

Cant agree with you there.
LED business is EXPLODING, there are tonnes of new developments in the technology and manufacturing process and more and more companies joining the fray either directly or through joint ventures...this is called an emerging market and the automobile market is an established and stagnant market with no new players joining the fray for some time....electronic vehicles however fit perfectly into the emerging market category with the first all electric Chevy volt having a stocker of arund 45,000$ (and the first one sold at auction for over 200,000$) with Chevy already anticipating a better version (longer travel per charge) and a lower sticker price in the next model year...

This is just the laws of supply and demand at work here, as more competiton enters the supply side, competition leads to lower prices unless there is as much of a significant increase in demand..which given the hobby, seems unlikely.

Look at how much an old aqualight Advance would have cost you 7 or 8 years ago...over 2K for a 48" one and all they had was MH...no led or supplements.

now you can buy a comparable unit for less than half of that price that comes with LEDs and supplements and offer a better design to boot.

There are already these "cheap" designs you metioned...these will only get more advanced as time goes by...I would be shicked if n the next 3 years, we didnt have a "cheap" model that rivalled everything the current Vertex can do and then some.

This process has already been slowed down due to some patent issues (pfo solaris anyone) in the states but that too wll pass and lead to a eve bigger wave of manufacturers getting involved.

[lastlight]

I think something that will effect what you're talking about is how the types of lighting are attained. With mh and T5 you have a few bulbs in a setup. The bulbs aren't going to get much cheaper. LED units contain hundreds of these repeating parts and their cost I would assume will drop quite a bit from where they are now. With there being so many of them in a unit their unit price doesn't need to go down that much for the overall price to be affected a lot.