New video of LED reef.

[Gregcoyote]

Yes This,very impressive,,love the mushroom carpet..Kinda what i want in mine someday..
I'd love to see a vid of your scrubber system too..How long have you been running it?

Almost 20 years.

 

[Gregcoyote]

Great looking tank! I've never seen soo many mushrooms in one place before. lol

Neither have I.

 

[Gregcoyote]

Tank looks great! That's quite the crop of anthellia you got there.

I pull baseball size hunks out and trot it to the LFS every few weeks and you can't tell I am doing it at all. The clown fish love it and it seems to be very tame as far as most corals go, it doesn't seem to sting anything.

 

[ccCapt]

I do the same thing. I have it growing on the back wall of my tank and take it to my LFS for store credit.

 

[Gregcoyote]

When it decides to grow, it really grows. But I like something that flows in the current and adds movement.

 

[Gregcoyote]

Watching YouTube videos of other peoples led reefs and a problem occurs to me.
All I found was Marineland and DIY systems with the Cree LEDs, but the biggest I found was only just over 60 watts.
IMO, a 60 watt LED panel is only equivalent to about 120 watts of MH at best. I am seeing big tanks lit with only one or at best two of these fixtures, then complaints that they don't grow coral fast enough. I think too much is being expected from the LED panels. Watts are watts, and while the LEDs can concentrate PAR using lenses, deeper into a tank, the overall lumen values are at best 2:1 in favor of LEDs. Again, this is my experience from moving from 900 watts of MH, to at first, 360 watts of LED. I have now upgraded to 560 watts of LED and believe I now have as much light as I had with the old MH and actinic system. That would be almost 10 of those 60 watt Cree panels for a 250 gallon. In the videos I see them trying to use up to three of them to light a big tank. That's only 180 watts, or about +300 watts of MH. Not much.

 

[Gti_Leo]

i beg to differ those are equivillent to a 120w MH fixture. its not all just about hthe lumens they output or the lumens that the MH. LEDs are a tiny point light which means the optics that are developed for them are much more persice and are able to focus all the LEDs power into a set area, where the MH are so big that the optics can only light a set space at a set power. most MH are used to light up a 24x24 area while a cree LED is used to light up abotu 15-19 square inches which is enough to keep SPS and clams. like a T5HO lamp individually reflected is designed to like up 3 inches ok tank along the length of the lamp which again is good enough for SPS and clams.

MH are out dated in my opinion, their optics are not able to harness all the light output that they are capable of and even if they were they would be stupid inefficiant and most likely would never be used

 

[Gregcoyote]

i beg to differ those are equivillent to a 120w MH fixture. its not all just about hthe lumens they output or the lumens that the MH. LEDs are a tiny point light which means the optics that are developed for them are much more persice and are able to focus all the LEDs power into a set area, where the MH are so big that the optics can only light a set space at a set power. most MH are used to light up a 24x24 area while a cree LED is used to light up abotu 15-19 square inches which is enough to keep SPS and clams. like a T5HO lamp individually reflected is designed to like up 3 inches ok tank along the length of the lamp which again is good enough for SPS and clams.

MH are out dated in my opinion, their optics are not able to harness all the light output that they are capable of and even if they were they would be stupid inefficiant and most likely would never be used

The lensing makes the coverage very different, but the biggest difference IMO is the actual PUR available with LED over MH. The LED spectrum has a lot more available energy for coral growth for the same wattage. I was talking about apparent brightness, or lumens. I have measured a 400 watt MH bulbs and they ranged from 30,000 - 40,000 lumens. My 300 watt LED panel makes just over 18,000 lumens. I do not think a 60 watt LED panel, no matter the emitters used, even the best ones, P4's, can deliver the light output a 250 watt MH can. And I am a huge proponent of LEDs, I am just trying to be conservative in my expectations. And as always, just my observations in my own system. I am going to take measurements with the new P4 emitters that come from the flashlight world, they might be much more efficient explaining your observations. My observations were with panels that were composed of hundreds of 2 watt white and blue emitters. I would need 6 of the Cree panels to cover my tank for even illumination, as they are so focused. But I agree that all other forms of lighting other than MAYBE plasma are dying technologies.

 

[Reefality]

Well the bar has just been set higher yet again. That coral growth is awesome! Everything seems to be thriving.

 

[Gregcoyote]

Well the bar has just been set higher yet again. That coral growth is awesome! Everything seems to be thriving.

As we say, "the proof is in the pudding." I always wondered where that saying came from, but you get the idea. I am going to get more scientific about it as observation of coral growth can have a lot of different factors. But the results seem to be that you don't have to spend a fortune to have the advantages of LED and this trend will only accelerate from here.

 

[Dary421]

As we say, "the proof is in the pudding." I always wondered where that saying came from, but you get the idea. I am going to get more scientific about it as observation of coral growth can have a lot of different factors. But the results seem to be that you don't have to spend a fortune to have the advantages of LED and this trend will only accelerate from here.

Greg.,. As you know,...I'm now a total believer in the LED's myself,...I've had my LED's up and running for a few months now and I can honestly say that everything seems to be flourishing beautifully,.... I realize that a good quality fixture is a little on the pricy side up front but are probably a money saver in the long haul,..I for one would not hesitate for even a second to recommend them to a friend,
Even my lfs buddy who hated them has started to come around and no Longer bad mouths them,... " ... The times ,they are a changing" ,.. ( thanks mr.dylan ) ...

 

[Gregcoyote]

Greg.,. As you know,...I'm now a total believer in the LED's myself,...I've had my LED's up and running for a few months now and I can honestly say that everything seems to be flourishing beautifully,.... I realize that a good quality fixture is a little on the pricy side up front but are probably a money saver in the long haul,..I for one would not hesitate for even a second to recommend them to a friend,
Even my lfs buddy who hated them has started to come around and no Longer bad mouths them,... " ... The times ,they are a changing" ,.. ( thanks mr.dylan ) ...

If you have the money, these more advanced fixtures are dimable, have built in timing circuits and uses fewer higher wattage emitters, like Cree. But the Cree LEDs had cooling problems early on, like most things. But the newer US fixtures seem rock solid. I tend to like a simpler approach, which the Chinese are famous for. There were also quality concerns that I have tried to address. The bottom line was price vs effectiveness. I didn't need all the extra features.

 

[Dary421]

If you have the money, these more advanced fixtures are dimable, have built in timing circuits and uses fewer higher wattage emitters, like Cree. But the Cree LEDs had cooling problems early on, like most things. But the newer US fixtures seem rock solid. I tend to like a simpler approach, which the Chinese are famous for. There were also quality concerns that I have tried to address. The bottom line was price vs effectiveness. I didn't need all the extra features.

Greg ,.my "stark" fixtures uses the Cree LED's and are dimable and I'm not really concerned where they're made ,...They just work fine for me ,... Pm me a link to your LED's I'd like to chek'em out ,...thanks,Dary

 

[Gregcoyote]

Greg ,.my "stark" fixtures uses the Cree LED's and are dimable and I'm not really concerned where they're made ,...They just work fine for me ,... Pm me a link to your LED's I'd like to chek'em out ,...thanks,Dary

Can't do that...forum rules. You can message me and I will send you my email address. The Crees are very nice and there is no doubt they grow corals. They build lots of different devices for their emitters, flashlights being a major market for them. I dabble in high output laser diodes and one of the real tricks for longevity is how the LEDs (especially ones that are designed to be lasers) are heat sinked. While they project little heat, they get hot as blazes. Bigger the led wattage, the more heat it sheds. Grab the business end of a tactical flashlight with a P4 emitter in it and you will feel the heat being dumped into the metal body of the flashlight.

 

[Gregcoyote]

New video on YouTube of the old fish tank;

If YouTube takes it down it may be because of the music. I will stream it off my web site tomorrow for a while.
This is a first edit, so some scenes will be improved and the music track tightened up. Got bored this afternoon, this is the result.
Sorry for the scratches...kind of hard to tear something like this apart to polish the acrylic.

 

[Dary421]

New video on YouTube of the old fish tank;

If YouTube takes it down it may be because of the music. I will stream it off my web site tomorrow for a while.
This is a first edit, so some scenes will be improved and the music track tightened up. Got bored this afternoon, this is the result.
Sorry for the scratches...kind of hard to tear something like this apart to polish the acrylic.

Wow.. Greg.., absolutely beautiful.

 

[Gregcoyote]

Thanks Dary. Still working on it and will replace some shots with better ones. I use to work as a filmmaker/photographer, so I really enjoy doing this stuff. Wish my acrylic was in better shape.

 

[carey]

Awesome video! It was like watching a fish special on tv. LOL

What is the stock list in there if you don't mind me asking....Are those multiple yellow fish coris wrasses?

 

[FTMMWS]

Really nice video..
Have you switched your scrubber lights to LED's also?

 

[redsea]

Really nice tank Greg!

How have the Angels been behaving? I really like them!

If you go on vacation is the tank sulfa-sustaining? Or do you need someone to come in?

Thanks!