Success with LED and SPS

[daplatapus]

My $0.02 is I just don't think we fully understand light spectrum demands for many coral species. Or if they are understood (they certainly aren't by me yet, lol), are minimized by thinking corals will grow fine under NW/RB combinations. Many older or cheaper fixtures are only putting out specific wave lengths and are missing some of the wave lengths you get out off natural sunlight or MH/T5 combo's. The production process of LED's is that each LED is made to produce a fairly narrow window of spectrum unlike MH's that give off the full spectrum from UV all the way to 20,000K. Thus the MH's are giving corals everything they need, whereas with a LED that is poorly mixed in colour, would only give the coral part of what it needs and may lose colour, growth etc. It would appear, from my research anyway, that the best results are coming from fixtures with a really good blend of colours. For example:

420nm Actinic blue/violet
430nm bluer actinic blue/violet
445 Blue
455 Royal Blue
6500K Blueish white
10000K Even blue white
20000K super blue white

Some even advocate that wave lengths down to 395nm are beneficial but to an unknown degree. Thus the leaps and bounds we're seeing in LED fixtures as technology and research are yielding either undesirable results, such as poor growth and coloration, or good growth. There are some out there.

No idea if I'm right or wrong, just my opinion I'm starting to develop after looking into DIY'ing my LED fixtures....

[kien]

Here is a Canreef TOTM that is currently running inexpensive eBay LED lights.



It's Dez's tank. I believe he's been running LEDs for a bit over a year now? I'm sure he would chime in but he's busy playing on the beach in California.

[sphelps]

I thought Dez used Sols?

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by sphelps

I thought Dez used Sols?

Last time I talked to him, yes, he was running 3 units

[kien]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Last time I talked to him, yes, he was running 3 units

ah, I guess I missed his change over from the eBay LEDs he was running. Still, his tank has had LEDs over it for a while now.

[Ryan-b]

They definitely grow corals here are a couple shots of my tank on a diy led fixture

Mar 2012


July



November


The growth has been good, I will be switching over to mh/t5 just after Christmas. I feel like I'm lacking some color that the Diy leds aren't able to provide.

[lockrookie]

You guys are making me nervous about building my led fixture.


Sent from my porcelain aquarium

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by lockrookie

You guys are making me nervous about building my led fixture.


Sent from my porcelain aquarium

As long as you have enough emitters, you should be fine. I'm still convinced that LED is still a ways out from replacing MH in coloring SPS, but it's certainly a close second with many other positives. I miss my MH, but I wouldn't go back because of all the other features. I wouldn't hesitate building a fixture, but do model it after a successful unit.

[kien]

Originally Posted by lockrookie

You guys are making me nervous about building my led fixture.


Sent from my porcelain aquarium

are you afraid of your tank looking totally awesome like the tanks we posted pictures of?

[Reefgoat]

The coral in the pictures look fairly healthy but to me the colours look less than awesome. Every time I read a thread on LEDs and SPS there are always people who say that their colours are inferior but the benefits of LEDs outweigh the negatives. If I was keeping an SPS tank I think that vibrant colour would be one of the top priorities.

That being said it may simply be that the pictures are not representative of the actual colours.