LED or Traditional Lighting

R

Ross110

I would like to get feedback especially from reefers that have been running LEDs for more then 3 years. How is the heat, bulb life, coral color vs traditional lighting.
Replacement cost, available features (such as cloud pattern and dimmable features), and color spectrum are factors that I would like to hear your feedback on.
Which did you chose and Why
Which would you choose if you could pick and why
 
Ive been running them for a little less than 2 years. I would say your light choice depends on what you plan to achieve from them. I chose LEDs over all others from the beginning because I like building things. If I had started out with a good MH or T5 fixture i would in all honesty say go with that one. However, from the beginning I had amazing colors. Frags from friends tanks turned out to be completely different colors that what it looked like under their lighting. Be it MH or T5 or a mixture.

For instance, a purple milli in a friends tank looks purpleish, but under my LEDs the skeleton is bright green with purple/brownish polyps. Red planet has a multitude of colors instead of red and green under his lights. But, the major draw back is growth. We both got a frag the same size, from the same mother colony, cut that day, 6 months later, his frag of sourapple birdsnest is the size of a golfball while mine is about half the size. Same water params and salt used. Its all a matter of preference. I wanted color more than growth.

But you could conceivably do a mixture of HP LEDs and MH or a combo of all three. Me personally i will stick with LEDs until i get a tank too large to realistically and financially support them with LEDs.
 
I am in the processes of converting all our tanks over the next year to LED lighting. That also includes the lights over the sump.
 
Ive been running LED for about a year now, and I would say go with a mix of LED and T5. Most of my corals have thrived under the LEDs, but some have lost their color, growth, and have been stagnant. Moved them to a different light system, and they start thriving again. I am converting all my tanks to T5/LED. I plan to make most of the light from LED, with 2 bulbs of T5I will be playing with multiple bulb formations to see if the corals prefer whites from T5 or blues from T5's. Oh, and IVe been using Cree's.
 
If...LOL...when I get another tank I plan to go with a combo of Halogen, t-5 & leds. I'm sure no expert, but they all provide a different viewing/growing aspect to the tank. For a 75 or smaller I might skip the halogens. I'm not "sold" on all leds.
 
@C4rN4gE wrote:
Ive been running LED for about a year now said:
+1 I would go only crees. I hear too many bad things about Chinese made LEDs. Also i am going to add couple t5 to my diy led fixture as i read on rc and Wayne said certain sps do not grow or color up under just LEDs.
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I have a glass center brace across my 150 gal, what will happen if the LED unit is mounted above the brace? How much will it reduce the light getting to the bottom of the tank?
 
@Tommy Tucker wrote:
I have a glass center brace across my 150 gal said:
I would think you could go with a different optic lens so it would concentrate the light more and would increase the concentration. I am no led expert but you might send Wayne imagex a pm
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I voted for LEDs only, I changed from Halide/T-5 combos about 1.5 years ago and have never looked back. I used all Crees and light my fuge and display with them. Growth is good and color is great, I made my display system using XPG and XPE and dimmable meanwell drivers controlled by my Apex.
 
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