Sun Brite LED

[Ace25]

I agree. I think the price is one of the major negatives of LED lighting. But as with buying MH "fixtures" vs Retro, it is much cheaper to build your own LED light vs buying a fixture and LEDs wiring and soldering is about as easy of electronics as one can get. Bulbs + wire + resistors + power supply is all you need to get light.. then you add reflectors and heatsinks.

While I don't believe LEDs are really good enough to light a whole tank, I do have experiments of my own I am going to be trying out soon with LEDs. From reading advancedaquarist articles thet posted recently they went into specific wavelengths that help promote coloring/pigmentation in corals. I want to try and build an "Actinic" strip cheaply, that will match my actinic T5s in PAR and spectrum, and have some special "accent" lighting mixed in to help with coloration. With LEDs I can actually angle/position individual leds onto specific corals. Say to make your purple corals pigmentation stand out more, use a 475nm bulb on it.. so you place that bulb with a narrow angle led to the right spectrum and point it at that one coral. The articles can explain it much better than I can.

Still.. just an experiment I want to do myself just because I am that way.. I ask the question and when there isn't an answer to it I go in search of the answer. I want to know for a fact if LEDs are capable of at least matching the output of an actinic T5HO. I actually believe they may be able to.. but that sunbrite video definately made me have doubts seeing as they had to plug in .. say 2-3 LED strips to equal the output of a T5HO since their measurements were in the water and mine were not. Even 2 of those strips is too expensive, and too big to replace a single T5. I am hoping there are better LEDs and reflectors I can use because I was planning on only having 1 tube of LEDs that size and 1/2 the amount of LEDs on the tube.

 

[KirkMc]

The lighting industry is notorious for "specmanship". Confusion is a major sales aid. LED lights are often specd at 15 degree beam width and so measure stronger when compared to a wide beam or in the case of a bulb, a hemispherical radiator. It is also misleading to spec the power supply and not the light source as those people did. You know the output roughly by looking at power supply and heat sink. Heat is the kiss of death to semis so small heat sink small light. My daughter wants some LED lights so maybe over Christmas I can post some notes.

 

[DoctaQ]

im pretty sure i saw these or something very similar to these at the last reef convention and i was not impressed at all, they look like wimpy 5mm leds and a very pale blue compared to my cree xr-es, which as of the moment are absoluteley the way to go , i always see cute little arrays of 1w leds over huge tanks, thats all junk

leds as they are now, are generally suited for smaller and shallower tanks, i wouldnt use leds on anything bigger than a 40 breeder without giving it serious thought, for a nano, no doubt leds are the way to go for high light

i keep acros and a clam in my 15 with leds only, i havent taken a fts recently but i will and will post it in my sig thread, most of my coral came from tanks running halides or t5s. im pretty sure i overlit them when i ran my leds at full power as they are doing much better now and im running maybe 75% power ( full power at 75w)

leds arent all about par, like ace said, its also about spectrum, cree xr-e royal blues peak at 450 nm and give great pop and the cool whites have one of two peaks at 450 as well, very coral friendly lighting. for the money it is worth it 100% to make your own fixture between color control and optics, or lenses if you will

 

[Ace25]

Yup, I just read about the new generation of LEDs that came out recently and they sound extremely impressive.. I may finally be eating my words and there may be an LED out now that can light an entire tank properly.. obviously not 1 LED for a tank, but you won't need 1000 LEDs to light a 55G with these new LEDs, 1/2 the power of a MH and equal output, actually better spectrum some could argue than a MH.

These LED Fixtures seem like the cream of the crop at the moment. Uses the new Cree XPE bulbs which are supposed to take less power and put out more light than their previous LEDs.

 

[Amphiprion]

Do you know if any readings were taken on these? I don't think they are quite there yet, but it's getting closer and closer for sure.

 

[Ace25]

Nope, no readings other than the data sheets out there.. I agree.. may not be quite there yet but if it isn't it is getting very close.. there is a LED light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[DoctaQ]

sounds kinda spotlighty to me, but it does seem powerful, and all the bells and wistles seem to make it almost comparable to diy. i dont really understand why they made the leds into groups of three?

 

[Cory Keeper]

Mcsassy, When you usually read about Reefers keeping high light corals under LED, do keep in mind that they are no doubt using 3w LEDs such as Crees or Luxeons. I myself am keeping a 29g planted tank with only 12 3w LEDs. Light level in Lumens isn't all that bright, but judging from plant growth when I switched from 3x23w CFLs to just 12x3w LEDs, there is a big PAR difference.

With that said, I have also lit a 5g pico reef with just white LEDs, and wound up bleaching a shroom or two with it. that project has since fallen by the wayside due to lack of funds (though car is almost paid off so I may make it round two shortly)

LEDs are a viable light system even in larger tanks. Deeper than 18" requires reflectors though. However, cost goes up even further.

BTW, Ace, 3w LEDs lighting a 75g tank. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1587273 Includes PAR values.

 

[Ace25]

Still see too many things wrong with them... but I still think one day they will be good.. just not today.

With that 75G tank you linked. 1. PAR values are VERY low, lower than just my 4 T5s without my MH on. So, look how much he spent for that LED array + time to assemble and he still isn't beating a simple 4x24w T5HO setup that cost less than $200. He is getting around 100 PAR at the sand level with his LEDs, I get around 280 PAR with just my actinic T5's. Almost 3x the penetration/PAR with only 4 460nm 24" bulbs. Someone also mentioned in that thread it is $120 cheaper to buy 2 250w MH setups than it is to build that array, and 2 250w would give 10x the PAR readings for less $. Yes, LEDs will save you on electricity, but I beg someone to do the math on that one, put 2 250w MHs against an EQUIVALENT LED array that matches the PAR output, then figure out the build cost and cost of electricity. I am betting it will take you 5+ years to recoup the $ on the LEDs with power saving costs and at that time you will have had to replace the majority of your Blue LEDs out at least once in that 5 years (unless Blue LEDs have gotten better recently, I still only get about 1 year of use before my Blue LEDs burn out).

2. The monochromatic spectrum LEDs put out. While LEDs may be hitting the peak/critical areas that corals like (with the blue LEDs) they still do not give a full spectrum of light like the sun does. You simply want growth then LEDs may be sufficient enough for that, but if you want your corals to look as colorful as they can, LEDs just can't do that because they can't provide enough spectrum for that to happen. When you start to throw in other LEDs to balance out the spectrum (reds, yellow, greens, etc) and try and match the suns complete spectrum you will end up having way more LEDs than your tank can handle/fit and you still wouldn't have the PAR reading the sun gives. Look at it this way, my friend with SolaTubes gets 3000+ PAR at the surface on a bright summer day and 1200 PAR 24" deep in his tank. On a sunny winter day he still gets around 2000 PAR at the surface at 900 PAR at the bottom of his tank. SolaTube cost around $400 + installation and is a one time cost. No electricity costs there after, no replacing bulbs, and you know you get exactly the lighting corals had in nature. I know SolaTubes are not an option for everyone. First you must own your own place to be able to cut holes in the roof.. that would be the biggest drawback, but if you own your own home and are really serious about having a reef tank for a long time then SolaTubes are a no brainer for me for the majority of circumstances (Depending how far north/south you live from the equator they may not be the best option).

**Side note, reading that thread hurt my head. WTH is with people wanting to put UV LEDs on their aquarium? UV is BAD for aquariums, why do you think they put UV shields on DE MH lights and SE MH lights have a second glass layer for UV shielding. I see people purposely throwing UV LEDs on their tanks to act as "Black Lights" for their moon lights. I thought that was a serious No-No on the aquarium world.

 

[Amphiprion]

Those PAR readings are still pretty deficient compared to current options. Can't argue with the overall heat production and energy usage. I just can't justify that kind of cost for that small amount of light, when I can get a setup that initially costs less and will perform more right off the bat. Sure, there's energy savings, but at what other cost? I still stand by my assessment that LEDs still have a bit further to go before they are the better option. I have no doubts in my mind about that. But what's in that link doesn't quite cut the mustard for me.

Edit: Ninja'd by Ace....