Me too. I am still waiting on someone in china to mfg me a special PWM controller board to add to my Reef Angel controller. Should be another couple weeks as I paid for it last week and I was told it will take 2-3 weeks to build and then ship. I know shipping from China can take 1+ month or more at times. Once I get the PWM add-on board (right now my controller only does 2 PWM channels, I am adding 6 more channels with the add-on board) I will then be able to control my LEDs via software commands instead of knobs (I will switch out my -D drivers for -P which I already have).
I was pleasantly surprised to see my LED light now exceed what a 400w XM 10k bulb will put out. I was just shooting for a hair over 900 PAR when I originally set it up, just enough to beat a 250w XM 10k being over driven, which was the best/most output I could put on my MH setup short of a 6700k bulb. I swapped out all those warm whites for XP-Gs thinking it was the warm whites reducing my PAR output so much.. I probably didn't have to do that seeing the PAR levels I get now, which is equal to the sun @ 2000+ PAR at the surface.
Also, if you don't care for name brand LEDs or exact color output you can build a "chinese LED" light for a lot less. I figured a 72 Cree LED light would run about $700-$800 as a supplemental light to solar tubes.. if you go with cheap chinese LEDs you can build it for around $200.
I got my PAR meter back and did some tests. Under the LED light on my 75G I get between 1700-2000 PAR on average. The video below is me putting the meter at the surface of the water and moving it around under the LED light to show PAR readings throughout the fixture. I also did some quick tests on my 29G light and I am getting 600PAR @ 6" below the surface were my anemones are. On my 75G I am getting 600 PAR 20" under water at the sand bed.
Just to put that picture above into perspective. I was using 535w of power to get 975 PAR before LEDs, now I am using 144w for LEDs (Max, I actually am running them at 108w) and 96w of T5HOs for a total of 240w to get about 1900 PAR, so less than 1/2 the power to get 2x the light. I am actually running the white LEDs at 50% and doing that I get 1200 PAR at the surface instead of 1900 which is still plenty and 3x what my old MH Radium setup was giving me.
XM 10k 250w MH running @ 375w. PAR = 804
XM 10k 250w @ 375w + 4x T5HO @ 160w = 535w to get 975 PAR
...and it just keeps getting better.
Looking forward to the long-term results. I'm sure the LEDs will retain much of their PAR for quite some time. How does that compare with the MH? ...lol
I'd like to see the LED's long-term effects on coral growths and color when compared with the old MH setup, as well.
Great thread.
Finally mounted the LED light how I originally wanted today.. now it sits flush with the top of the canopy instead of hanging inside the canopy. I like it a lot more. I felt it was a little too low before with me using 40 degree optics on a few of the LEDs. It was very bright in the center, too bright, and dim at the edges. After moving the LEDs up about 4" it now covers the tank perfectly, no bright or dim spots. I am also seeing significant growth in my montipora corals since switching to LEDs.
You have to qualify that statement with... photographic evidence (i.e. we need pichers--preferably full tank) . Crazy PAR levels, btw. The growth wouldn't surprise me at all.
I took some pictures a couple days ago as "starter" pictures and will take some updated pictures every week and put them together to show the growth. All I can say right now is on my orange digi and monti caps before I added LEDs there was really no growth. Tips/edges were the same color as the rest of the coral, not white from new growth, and now every tip on the digi is bright white and growth and a white ring of new growth all around the edges of my caps. Even my millis and acros I am seeing some new branches sprouting instead of white tips from growth. Maybe they stayed stagnant so long without growth that they will now branch instead of continuing growing from the tips.
Fine, here is your FTS. First one, LEDs at 100%, second one, White LEDs at 50%. The one coral showing the most growth is the hardest one to get a picture of, which is a monti cap that is on the white PVC pipe behind the Duncans. Hopefully my "aiptasia farm" that has sprung up in great numbers in the last few months will be taken care of when I receive my berghia nudibranches.
I am still waiting on someone in china to mfg me a special PWM controller board to add to my Reef Angel controller. Should be another couple weeks as I paid for it last week and I was told it will take 2-3 weeks to build and then ship. I know shipping from China can take 1+ month or more at times. Once I get the PWM add-on board (right now my controller only does 2 PWM channels, I am adding 6 more channels with the add-on board) I will then be able to control my LEDs via software commands instead of knobs (I will switch out my -D drivers for -P which I already have).
. Crazy PAR levels, btw. The growth wouldn't surprise me at all.
First one, LEDs at 100%, second one, White LEDs at 50%. The one coral showing the most growth is the hardest one to get a picture of, which is a monti cap that is on the white PVC pipe behind the Duncans. Hopefully my "aiptasia farm" that has sprung up in great numbers in the last few months will be taken care of when I receive my berghia nudibranches.
