New LEDs!

T

timthetoolman

I picked up an LED fixture from Exotic LED and it's burning my corals. I had it 6" above a 60g cube (24"^3). I placed it about 12" above the water and turned one of the white and one of the actynics off and everything quit spitting out it's zooxanthellae.

I've read about polyp extension...wow, I didn't believe it could be that much different.

Brief description: We broke down the 125, put some live rock in the cube, let it set for a week or two with a PC light and skimmer running. It's been a couple of weeks since we moved the fish and what was left from the devistation from aptaisa and neglect (because what the slime disease didn't kill the aptaisia did). Good news is I had a brown acro and thought it just grew a lot but I think one of them is my Bonsai because it's coloring back up...yay!

I guess I'll run it for about 6 hours a day half way on and see how things adjust. The web site says it's equivilant to a 400w MH...right [smilie=wink.gif] Well, I'm a believer now.

I've got a little more to do to the light bar but I think it's just going to be temporary till the 90g is cycled. I don't like having 5 frag racks crowede around the sides but it's keeping everything going for now.
 
Good to see you back on and in the mix of things again tim! Love the cube, can't wait to see how the LED works for ya. the burning seems to be a common problem, hopedulkynit works out tho.
 
Tim,

The setup looks nice. I am glad you have this under control. You have four swithces to slowly amp up the light...and hours. Best of luck and keep me posted.
 
Oh man, good luck to you. Hopefully you get it worked out. I picked up some LED's from them too and haven't put it up yet. Its a 28 gallon. Should I place it 2ft high?
 
Ok, some of the low level corals I had at the top were getting cooked. So I changed the name of this thread because I didn't want to scare anyone off because if you caught the part that I went from PC to LED you would know why they were spitting up. I turned one side of actynics and the opposite side of the whites off and raised it so everyone seems happy now. Yes, those independent switches are niiiiice! [smilie=clapping.gif]

You'll get more light than I'm showing if you turn them all on, in the photo only one set of blue and white are on.

[Remember, I changed from PC lights to LEDs ]
 
Haha thanks for the clarifications. I'm glad yours is doing better! So its sitting 1ft above the water now?
 
Yep. I just set up the Aquacontroller to run from 11 am to 10 pm and I only have one blue and one white turned on so we will see how they do with that setup.
If anyone has any experience with these please chime in, Sam...?
 
You are doing fine Tim. Anytime you shift from other light sources to LED, it takes a month for the corals to adapt...till then go moderate and have patience.
 
How long is your 'high noon' when all the lights are on, Tim?
 
Marc,

This fixture is with single cable and can not be controlled thru a programmable dimmer...so you can not simulate day cycle but the next version (coming in mid March) will have two cables to bring the blue light only, white lights only or both...
 
Alright. Tim, what is the specific schedule of your lighting? All of the LEDs are on 11 hours a day?
 
There is a bank of blue on the left and one on the right, same for the white. As you see in the photo I'm running one bank of white and one blue for 11 hours.
 
I guess that's my only complaint is that there is no individual control of blue and white lights so that you can use a controller to turn on the blues and whites separately, so the new models will be cool with separate wires.
I am confused with how much light I really need. I have some zoanthids that are extending but they are at the front and high so possibly out of the lights reach. Being a new tank with seasoned only live rock I'm still seeing some swings in PH. Calcium, Alk, and Magnesium are good at 500, 8, and 1250 respectively.
The new acros don't have the polyp extension I was expecting, maybe because of the transport from CA to TX.
Overall I feel like I have to many variables to focus on just the new lights. [smilie=worried.gif] I'm getting frustrated.
I'll get my CO2 back from hydrostat tomorrow and by this weekend I'll get the reactor going again so I can pull the 8.4 peaks down. Maybe I need to get some buffering going on too?
 
Like you said, too many changes in play. I suggest you focus on the basics. I did the same with my new tank. I didn't add a bunch of new stuff; matter of fact, I have most of the old in the new sump.

I don't think you should run all of your lights for 11 hours a day. That fuels algae. Instead, I'd consider 8 hours enough especially if they are all on at once and all off at once.
 
Only half of the lights are on. It looks like everything is settling down. I think I've got a handle on the lights because all of the lps and zoa mouths have gone back to normal.
I agree, not a good time to add stuff. We have a war coral that was receding but it has started to grow back out.
The montiporas look great, the older sps is great but the new milli still isn't extending like I was hoping.
So this puts the LED issues to rest. Overall I would recommend them. They'll only get better with the new advancements but I'm glad I got them.
 
I'm running 120w LEDs over an 18" tank. I can control blues and whites separately, so I have my whites come on at 10AM. Blues join them for full blue and white at noon. Both blues and whites are on until 8PM. Blues turn off at 10PM. So they're on full for 8 hours, white only for 2, blue only for 2. When I'm adding new corals or fighting back algae I lower it to 1, 6, 1, or keep them off for an entire day.

The next gen of this fixture having blues and whites separate will help so you can do this exact same thing.
 
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