Calling all LED users!
- Thread starter Reefing8EZ
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I use 4 of the ecotachi 165 watt full spectrum and they are about 6 inches above the top of my tank. I run the blues from 10am-9pm and the whites/colors from 1pm-8p, the blues I run at 85% and white/colors 80%. I have been using them for 6 months and my corals seem to grow the same as when I was using t5's. I have bleached corols using the leds but that seemed to happen when I was running the white/colors longer. It took me a little time to "tune" my lighting but just go slow and watch how things react, what works for anothers tank may not work for yours.
hope this helps.
hope this helps.
I have seen and have had great luck with kessil a360w's. IMO they grow coral faster than other companies. I have seen a lot of other people who have used multiple lights find the same thing. They come from a background of growing indoor plants with LEDs so I feel like they do a little more research than say ecotech.
Good questions to ask for sure regarding LEDs run time, height, and ect.. it would be nice to have a base line as with MHs and T5s. The reason there is no base line with LEDs is because right now designer's and manufactures of the fixture we are using are using us Hobbiest to learn from. This is evident by the on going upgrades to their products with all the top company's......I have seen a lot of advancement with LEDs over the last two years but believe it will be some time yet before we have LED base lines.
What we do know is go slow with LEDs because each system is different and share what you have learned. As you can already see from the post's one hobbiest loves Kessils another doesn't, one hobbiest loves radions others don't. One claims radions have the highest par/pur I believe Orphek does so we are all still just learning
If we keep sharing what we know and not what we think we will someday have a LED baseline all can use.
Good luck with the information you seek
What we do know is go slow with LEDs because each system is different and share what you have learned. As you can already see from the post's one hobbiest loves Kessils another doesn't, one hobbiest loves radions others don't. One claims radions have the highest par/pur I believe Orphek does so we are all still just learning
If we keep sharing what we know and not what we think we will someday have a LED baseline all can use. Good luck with the information you seek
Good questions to ask for sure regarding LEDs run time, height, and ect.. it would be nice to have a base line as with MHs and T5s. The reason there is no base line with LEDs is because right now designer's and manufactures of the fixture we are using are using us Hobbiest to learn from. This is evident by the on going upgrades to their products with all the top company's......I have seen a lot of advancement with LEDs over the last two years but believe it will be some time yet before we have LED base lines.
What we do know is go slow with LEDs because each system is different and share what you have learned. As you can already see from the post's one hobbiest loves Kessils another doesn't, one hobbiest loves radions others don't. One claims radions have the highest par/pur I believe Orphek does so we are all still just learning If we keep sharing what we know and not what we think we will someday have a LED baseline all can use.
Good luck with the information you seek
What we do know is go slow with LEDs because each system is different and share what you have learned. As you can already see from the post's one hobbiest loves Kessils another doesn't, one hobbiest loves radions others don't. One claims radions have the highest par/pur I believe Orphek does so we are all still just learning
If we keep sharing what we know and not what we think we will someday have a LED baseline all can use. Good luck with the information you seek
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I just did some testing with a PAR meter this past Sunday. My Kessil 360We measured 1175 at water level, about 6 inches below the light. Going down 5 inches I got 350 and all the way down to 30 inches was 85. The PAR value had very little to no change when I changed the color from Blue to White. Off axis of 10 inches either way was 250/300. I also have some Ecoxotic Pro 2's on my other tank and to my surprise they registered 325 at 4 inches below water level with those lights at 3 inches above water line. All test were done with glass tops closed.
im running a ReefBreeders Photon programmable 32inch LED for over a year now and it was the best tank upgrade I ever did. I came from a T5x6bulb setup. Saves way more power too. I have the programing to kick on at about 10am and then slowly increase power every 30 minutes all day long. I go up to about 65% blue/uv and 55 or so on the white channel. it kicks to moon light around 10pm. This is a full spectrum LED system so its not just blue and white. I love the thing. and the cool part is there is several preset setting that I click over to in the push of a button. when I have a party I put the tank in crazy glow mode and when I am just chilling it runs cool blue and icy. on the day to day it just does its thing and ramps up and float up and down to simulate clouds and then goes to a more blue setting at night before going into moon light mood. anyways I run it about 6-8 inches off the water due to canopy. I am using 120 degree optics. all the corals love it. I know this thing comes from china but so does your cell phone and laptop your typing on right now. and to be frank I bet the other name brand $700 units come from china too, or at least the parts they are made form. an my unit was only $450 for a 32 inch programmable system. oh and in the future when I get a bigger tank then the 36x24x24 im running now, im just going to change the optics and raise more over the tank. will be able to get more spread this way.
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