LED's SUCK PROVE ME WRONG!

[coralcruze]

BTW, tried to find a dealer that sells the Sfiligoi xr6 and cant find one. then I found a thread that the dealer that was carriying the light went out of buis. cant seem to find a dealer that have them. any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jackson6745]

My tank is 32x32. Par is about 250 near the glass on the sandbed. At the moment I can't pass the cleaning magnet on the right side because SPS are touching glass, the turaki on the left side is getting close to the glass as well. Reason why I said spread is 36x36 is because I've seen a single halide on a tank this size. You won't have blazing par around the parameter, but certainly enough to grow SPS. IME 200par or over is fine for growing and coloring most SPS. The tank appears bright all over though.

As for finding a sfiligoi?. Good luck! The 2 best halide fixtures are the Sfiligoi and the Giesemann Spectra (single ended halide). I have both that I found used after 2 years of searching. I don't know of anyone that sells them in the US anymore. To get these internationally it would cost over 1k with shipping, and you'll immediately have something worth half of what you paid.
The Giesemann Specta is superior to the sfiligoi according to light spread analysis (this is somewhere on reef central). In person the spread of the Spectra in noticeably better, but, it also spreads light all over the room . I have a defective mogul socket that I have to replace on the giesemann and I'll put that one back over the tank. This one fixture would light your 36x36 brightly with no problem.

 

[mellotang]

My tank is still kinda young but so far I'm liking the potential I see in this LED grown acro. I find with the LED water quality is way more important than with any other lighting I've used, Particularly Kh. You slip a little and the corals let you know right away. I bleached everything a few months back with a 3 day low alkalinity problem, and by low I mean NSW conditions. This tank is responding well to high KH.

The light is a Mitras 6200

 

[mellotang]

Even though that blue one is nice I'm more stoked on the purple yellow one, all colors depicted are true to life and not photo adjusted.

The system is bare bottom, fed heavy, high flow, good skimmer, GFO, carbon, and a lot of love.

 

[jackson6745]

That piece looks pretty sick!

 

[Sahin]

Bump. This is an interesting thread. In fact...Richard always seems to start very interesting and thought provoking threads...my kind of reefkeeper.

For those guys whose SPS colour up nicely under LED's, what is it about your tank which gets your Acros to colour up?

From having personally seen a few RadionPro and Hydra52 lit tanks, the most common feature with those tanks that have good SPS colours were the ones with lots of fish and the fish being fed well with a variety of foods.

 

[Mattl22]

Not sure if it's because my tank is deep 30" or because I have 20 ppm and .05-1 po4 but I have much better color under my radions then I do my 250 de mh pendants I have 2 radions g3 pro on ether side and a gen 1 in middle then 2 250w geissman pendants in between
I'm looking to go all radion soon

 

[Mattl22]

That being said if I could do a new tank I would go bare bottom keep the tank size manageable 120 maybe and go t5 mh combo

 

[ifarmer]

Okay just one , here's one of the frags I got from you few weeks ago

a few weeks to a few months dont mean much.
if you have been using led for over year, let's see them
thanks

 

[jackson6745]

Many of the LED lovers of this thread have gone halide. I would love to hear some input.

 

[coralcruze]

Many of the LED lovers of this thread have gone halide. I would love to hear some input.

I was halide and went LED... all I can say is that I still have my halides and havent sold them off yet, just in case I want to switch back, lol

 

[dnov99]

Many of the LED lovers of this thread have gone halide. I would love to hear some input.

Guilty as charged!! Best thing I ever did was go back to MH. SPS growth, color and health has never been better.

 

[duke62]

Did I prove you wrong?? 1 year and 1 month of growth

 

[coralcruze]

Guilty as charged!! Best thing I ever did was go back to MH. SPS growth, color and health has never been better.

Mnnn... dont know about that. I don't miss the heat build up and electric bill. SPS growth was stunted by temp spikes. As much as I love MH's I hate chillers even more.

 

[jackson6745]

Duke your tank has really taken off. VERY NICE!!!! With 3 sols on a 180, IMO, the tank is very poorly lit, but no doubt you're making it work. Can you explain why you're having such success?

 

[duke62]

I have 4 now Rich. Stability is my guess. I don't change anything or try anything new. I found what works for me and keep with it

 

[jackson6745]

I have 4 now Rich. Stability is my guess. I don't change anything or try anything new. I found what works for me and keep with it

Nice! Stability sure is important. I am also impressed with your photography now lol. I remember back in the day your coral pics looked like kindergarten crayon drawings lmao

 

[duke62]

So did I prove you wrong

 

[jackson6745]

So did I prove you wrong

Not really, I still think LED sucks lol. Never said it couldn't work, just difficult for most for various reasons :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

 

[duke62]

Damn I thought I got ya lmao