Cali Kid Corals

LED lighting options

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brettandlyndis

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Hi everyone. I'm looking for opinions and recommendations for a new LED lighting setup for my 90 gallon mixed reef. I'm currently running two 48" Current USA Marine Orbits. Love the customization, and have been relatively happy with the growth. Have been successful with softies, LPS, and easier SPS (montis, etc). But I'm not seeing the colors I'd like. Everything seems a little less brightly colored than I've seen in pics of other tanks. The Kessil AP 700 looks promising, any first hand reviews? Other recommendations? Thanks!
 
I think if you're willing to invest a decent amount of money, any of the well known lighting brands would probably work for you. I think it'll just come down to a matter of personal preference.
 
Kessils provide little control over individual LEDs.

They pretty much only give you two knobs to play with: 1) intensitiy and 2) color range

You dont really know what what color range youre getting.


Which is a good thing for people that dont want that extra control.

Im still running kessils 360s over my tank. I think theyre good lights. They make their own LEDs.


Got my radions in their boxes.
 
The philosophy behind Kessils lighting is that they provide the correct light waves regardless of what color you pick on the scale. They let you add as much white as you find aesthetically pleasing. But anywhere in that range you will always have the 420nm wavelength.

The AP700s give you a little more colors. You can go all red or go through a bunch of other colors.

But after a year with Hydra 52s, I find that to be useless. I pick a color kelvin using their menu and ran a schedule running from 14k to 20k.

I have made the jump to Kessil AP700s and I'm quite happy with them so far. I do wish the interface is better designed and integrated with a cloud service.


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I don't know if I would agree with such a blanket statement as that.

There are many benefits to T5 lighting but LED lights have come a long way. Enough that I'm not sure you could accurately make the above claim.
 
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Coral reefer said:
So you've tried every led with every coral huh?
Click to expand...
No not every single led but at least a handful of them. (Rapidled, Radion and hydra 26, reefbrite...etc)
.
Its an expensive hobby and its your expenses. You dont necessary have to take my words for it.
In my almost 10 yrs of growing acropora. LED are not there yet, at least for stick corals.
I have to admit that MH is a little old and out dated.


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All depends on what kind of corals you want to grow.

Compare the benefits/costs of LEDS/T5s/MH

LEDs are very good for most hobbyists I would say. Unless you really really get into coral collecting, I think most people would be just fine with leds. Cheap, easy, efficient.

When you want something more, do some research on T5s/Metal halides.

If I ever get an acropora tank, I will probably be using T5s + reef brights. Ever seen Rich Thacker's tank in its prime? He had T5s and reef brights.

Adam Crystal and Collin Brennan both use T5s over their tanks and are getting pretty good growth from their zoas.

Lighting is just one aspect. Stable tank chemistries, maintenance just as important.
 
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ifarmer said:
No not every single led but at least a handful of them. (Rapidled, Radion and hydra 26, reefbrite...etc)
.
Its an expensive hobby and its your expenses. You dont necessary have to take my words for it.
In my almost 10 yrs of growing acropora. LED are not there yet, at least for stick corals.
I have to admit that MH is a little old and out dated.


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Click to expand...
Granted that I tend to keep corals that do well with the lighting I have in any given tank, and that I mostly use LEDs, I think they grow most acros pretty well. There likely are plenty of acros that I wouldn't do well with, maybe lighting, maybe other factors, who really know to be honest?
But in my opinion, and my experience, LEDs can and do grow lots of acros/sps very well.
 
This is one of those issues where there is a lot of correlation, but also enough exceptions that you cannot prove anything.
It does seem that the majority of the really nice tanks I see with "difficult" Acropora are mostly MH based.
Yet a few really nice LED-only tanks are out there, so it is clearly possible.
Similar on T5.

I have two conflicting opinions on this:

Theory 1 : MH / T5 is a lot more forgiving to light levels.
The wider spectrum, without the wicked LED spectral spikes, allows corals to handle different light levels better.
It is known that the algae in corals can produce cartinoids to adjust to the light level they need.
These cartinoids both absorb light energy and protect from photodamage.
The idea is that the big spikes you see in LED confuse this adaptation process.
While many people like that idea, I have never heard of it being properly tested.
SO: Those with really nice LED tanks have simply managed to get the light level "just right" so that the corals are happy.
I have seen a bit of this myself. When I started, adjusting the LED light intensity, it made a big difference.
More so that changing the on/off time on my old T5s.

Theory 2 : It is simply due to the nature of the hobby.
In general, radical changes to your tank are bad.
In general, the best tanks are done by people with the most experience.
So simply: If you started in this hobby quite a few years ago, it would be with MH not LED.
By now you have lots of experience, so probably have a really nice tank.
And you don't want to ruin it, so switching to LED is less likely.
Thus, it tends to follow that nice tanks would still have MH.
 
I remembered an old picture I had found on this.
A strong opinion among many: If you want really fast growth, use a Ushio or Iwasaki 6500K.
May not look the best, but Acros will grow like crazy.
The enclosed waveform shows how well it matches sunlight under the water.
It still has spikes of course. But compare that to most any LED, and there is a huge difference.

figure-5.gif
 
rygh said:
I remembered an old picture I had found on this.
A strong opinion among many: If you want really fast growth, use a Ushio or Iwasaki 6500K.
May not look the best, but Acros will grow like crazy.
The enclosed waveform shows how well it matches sunlight under the water.
It still has spikes of course. But compare that to most any LED, and there is a huge difference.

figure-5.gif
Click to expand...
Your pic didn't work.
 
No they don't all have those spikes, they come from whatever elements are in the bulb, more or less emission spikes.

That said an Iwasaki 6500K needs fairly pristine tank conditions or any yellowing crap in the water will be drawn out that much more.
 
Actually, yes, all lights have spikes of some sort, even the sun.

Science FYI:
Photons are produced when an electron drops back down to a lower orbital.
Some sort of energy (such as heat or another photon) pushes the electron up,
and when it drops back down, it emits a photon.
That energy drop is constant for a given element/orbital, which is a specific color.
Each element has an "emission spectrum" which is the exact energy emitted for each possibility.
In that spectrum, there are usually big spikes.

So if you have just one element, like in a simple Red LED, then you generally get just one spike.

For phosphors, there are several elements, so several spikes. Those average out to look more white.
(White LEDs are covered in phosphors)

For Metal Halide, they arc current through a gas, and the various elements in that gas produce spikes.
Again, many spikes that average out to look white.

For the sun, there are MANY elements, plus many energy levels, plus even some doppler effects,
so there are tons of spikes.

(I over simplified a few things)
 
Ok just to clarify what I was saying when other MH dont have those spikes I was talking specifically speaking of spikes at those exact wavelengths which are unique to that particular halide that givss that spectrum if light at 6500K

And further science FYI photons are also created when charged particles accelerate, which in this case of the Sun that is the vast majority of what we see, really hot aroms jiggling around creating a continuous spectrum
 
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