LEDs - How do you like them????

I'm working on full spectrum DIY LEDs right now... should have them done in a couple weeks. Can report back once I've finished that. I did have the blues/whites before that, I thought they were ok.

 

We have the ai vega blues, colors, maxspect razors and the radios running over our tanks and I can say that the ai vega seem to be very very clean looking over the tanks. The radions make things look very washed out almost while the Vegas make the coral very vivid.

As fas as spectrum goes, the red and green doesn't do much from my stand point and we only run them at about 2% over our main display tank.

 

That small of tank LEDS are ok. Anything bigger anymore & I am a firm believer in T5 for spread and color.

 

love mine 250 gallon tenecor 75 gallon cube diy led bridgelux not as bright as cree but still very bright

 

I have sol blues over my frag tanks and vegas over my display. The vegas have a really nice clean full spectrum look that looks way better at full day than my sols. I love ais ill never use anything else. And its an iowa based company. Support local.

 

I just finished a full spectrum MakersLED build a couple weeks ago and I really love it. I have it set up with 4 dimmable channels:

1 - Neutral White
2 - Royal Blue
3 - Hyper Violet
4 - OCW / Cool Blue

You are more than welcome to come see it anytime. I live straight up I35 from you, just off the Douglas exit. I got a free coral from you sometime in the last year, so I know it's a quick drive.

 

I have onyx from rapid led.if u'd like to see it,Im available morning on weekdays before 10:30 (lights on at 8am)& on sunday afternoon.let me know. Charmaine

 

LED over my 14 biocube have been extremely successfull. SPS growth like crazy and have not had a single coral respond poorly to them. I have blue/white and blue/magenta panorama pro's and 403nm stunner.

 

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I am also trying to decide on lighting for my be 210 mixed reef. Plenty of sps, lps, and softies in there so wondering what would be the best lighting. Was thinking of finally taking the led plunge, but have read several negative reviews of leds on sps growth much past 6 mos to a year. I am watching this thread closely. Right now I think I am leaning towards a led and t5 combo. Have mh on it right now but the heat is an issue in a small room.

 

I really wouldn't consider anything but LED's for home aquariums and maybe even larger now with ecoxtics new led flood light. Couple things though:
Be aware of corals self shading, good coverage LEDs, multiple fixtures and mindful fragging can deal with it, but of you have just one cluster of LEDs it can be an issue.
Full spectrum is mandatory now. Don't get just white/blue, just using those two colors, while growing some coral well, is outdated. Better growth from a variety of corals using full spectrum, especially actinic range wavelength.
Don't get caught up in total watts, most people run their DIY lights well below 50% because they are just too powerful. Worry more about good coverage and spectrum. Sps can do great with a surprisingly small amount of light from LEDs if they have proper flow and water conditions. The sps in my biocube are growing like weeds with a total of 38 watts of light.

 

http://youtu.be/IpJM-EIrPI0

Vivid aquarium's 800 gallon tank after 1 year. Half of the tank is lit by metal halides and half by LED's.


Doesn't get much better than this.

 

Vega makes a blue and white only fixture and they look much better then the sols.

You do not need red and green for full spectrum.

 

Pretty happy with my LEDs. I been running only LEDs on my tanks for over a year now and my corals have good growth and color

 

Great video link hart, thanks for sharing! Would love to see a similar one showing growth differences. Either way I think I'm pretty much sold on the leds. Matt I've seen your setup and you obviously have no issues with growth so that alone is pretty convincing. Would you recommend a 2 or 4 bulb t5 supplement with the leds or is that overkill?

 

These are the leds in looking at. Dave just got them and recomended them to me. I saw them on his tank and they look great. Any opinions? They are much more affordable then others I have looked at. I don't use a controller, so that doesn't matter to me.

http://reefbreeders.com/value_led_fixtures.html

 

I bought the same ones that reefbreeders sells but I got them directly from the company that supplies reefbreeders. I also got a custom LED layout. I love mine.