Back To Halides - Corysaurus Rex

[CoryDude]

Yep, I'm a dinosaur now. After following the led bandwagon for a year now, I'm going back to what works...energy chuggin, hot as the sun's corona, 250w metal halides. But all is not lost. I'm actually going with a halide/led/vho combo.

My sps never regained their colors during the switch to the vegas. Even after I added a third unit (ai hydra) everything still looked pale and washed out compared to the halide/vho days. I've noticed that when keeping corals, that LEDs seemed work better on tortusa, stylophoras, seriataporas, and most lps.

But acans, mushrooms, and all milleaporas hated the transition. So after a lot of back and forth, I ordered a pair of 12 inch reflectors, Phoenix 12ks, and a pair of uri super actinic vho bulbs.

The plan for now is to mount the halides onto my light rack, keep the hydra in between the reflectors, and supplement with the vho's. But the whites for the hydra would be scaled back th 15-20% at the most.

i love the electric blues of the LEDs, the controllability, and the lack of heat. But I think the manufacturers need a few more years to get LEDs to the reliability point of halides. Maybe the hydra 52 is at that point, but I'm unwilling to spend any more money on them until I see a few years of experience under their belts.


Sorry folks, I tried them, but I'm going back to basics. Anyone else had a similar experience? Any sps keepers out there prefer the colors of their corals under LEDs to mh?

[Bill S]

Cory:

I think you are right on the spot. I love LEDs for lots of things. But the spectrum just doesn't seem broad enough.

[350gt]

Hahaha.....

Dang dinos ;)

[Pennies2Cents]

I agree with you 100% Cory I like the blast of color from blue/purple LED, but would never ever purchase another. The zoas hated the transition from MH to LED. The Solona is where the LED's were.. Thats coming down soon. The MH fixture that I had on it is acting funny, but dont want to deal with it. I wonder if they would be at least good enough for Chaeto growth?? Something for me to research.

[Big_Pun]

I know a couple others doing the same Cory. I'm sticking with my fixture hopefully soon I'll have more Sps and document growth with monthly pics.

good luck Cory keep us updated


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[Zephyr Aquatics]

The fact is that with a halide we know what to expect. With leds it seems to be a roll of the dice with lots of adjustment and guessing.

[Paul28]

Dude your Leds are MH look almost the same best led ive ever seen above a tank those look insane to other leds (Chris) forgot to add quotes

[ramsey]

The fact is that with a halide we know what to expect. With leds it seems to be a roll of the dice with lots of adjustment and guessing.

Agree 100%. There's way too many success stories and beautiful SPS tanks lit with LEDs for it to be the LEDs fault. However, I think the success stories are from those who either get really lucky with the right settings or do a lot of tweaking (probably with the help of a PAR meter) to get things dialed in just right. Either way, I think MH and T5s are way more plug and play. I've honestly considered switching to MH as well but I'm having luck with the Radion so I don't want to break something that's working.

[Big_Pun]

Dude your Leds are MH look almost the same best led ive ever seen above a tank those look insane to other leds (Chris) forgot to add quotes

the problem with that fixture is the price tag(which has dropped) scares people from getting them. since only a few people run them and they don't advertise as heavily in the us as other lights they aren't as popular. but yes they look almost exactly the same as halide and also growth is the same. I'll snap pics if growth tips on the one tester "stix" that I have in there.

[zerreissen]

CoryDude, I had the same issues with SPS are you are, they all lost color after I switched from my MH/VHO setup to my AI Vegas. What I recently figured out is that they were getting TOO much light, specifically the white LED's. I recently turned the whites down quite a bit and all of my SPS are slowly regaining their color. My orange montipora was almost all white, it's now turning orange again. My pink birdsnest was also almost all white, but now is a nice pale pink. Same story with others in the tank. I couldn't keep any acans in the tank, they would just shrivel away. I now have a colony that I got from Allan and it's doing great.

I think part of the problem for me is I have a 36" long x 18" deep x 19" tall tank, and I have two Vegas since I figured I needed to for coverage, but this is a TON of light for my 50 gallon tank.

[KING]

Hey Corey I'm doing the same combo..2 LED's and 1 400 watt metal highlight in the center. i love the look so far..

[LuckySingh]

LEDs didn't work for me either and switched completely to halides primarily . Now my new upcoming build is t5s hybrid

[CoryDude]

I know a couple others doing the same Cory. I'm sticking with my fixture hopefully soon I'll have more Sps and document growth with monthly pics.

good luck Cory keep us updated


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It will be interesting to see how things work starting a tank from point zero with LEDs. That way the sps can grow into a favorable pattern to match the lights.


CoryDude, I had the same issues with SPS are you are, they all lost color after I switched from my MH/VHO setup to my AI Vegas. What I recently figured out is that they were getting TOO much light, specifically the white LED's. I recently turned the whites down quite a bit and all of my SPS are slowly regaining their color. My orange montipora was almost all white, it's now turning orange again. My pink birdsnest was also almost all white, but now is a nice pale pink. Same story with others in the tank. I couldn't keep any acans in the tank, they would just shrivel away. I now have a colony that I got from Allan and it's doing great.

I think part of the problem for me is I have a 36" long x 18" deep x 19" tall tank, and I have two Vegas since I figured I needed to for coverage, but this is a TON of light for my 50 gallon tank.

I'm running 2 Vegas and 1 hydra on a 120, so I'm right there with you. What percentage are you running whites at?

[rrasco]

I guess I just got lucky then. Probably also helps that I never ran anything but LEDs on this tank. I'm still contemplating putting a MH on my frag tank that will be plumbed into the same water, so it would be a pretty even test. Lights would even be in different rooms, so no way for "cross-contamination". I've never used MH and wanted to see the literal difference on a controlled environment.

[zerreissen]

What percentage are you running whites at?

Whites are currently at 18%