WHY DON’T YOU HAVE LED YET?

[alton]

I don’t know? I got close I had one SOL light in the basket at Reef Geek and then pressed the back button, Darn it.
The positives I have come across are
1. Look nice
2. Cooler (depending on which brand)
3. Less power cost
4. Controllability (depending on which brand)
5. Suppose to last a long time
6. No more changing lamps (maybe)

The negatives are
1. Warranty is only one, maybe two years (you sell me a light that is suppose to last ten years then warrant it for ten)
2. To get the coverage on my tank which is large I am looking at $3,200 for the really good fixtures, and only $1,500 with the less expensive. ( but the less expensive draw as much power as my MH)
3. The one thing that is in the back of every ones mind? How long will the lamps continue to put out great color?

Okay so what is your excuse, you know now mine?

Oh yea I did trade for a Marineland Reef Capable which is doing a pretty good job on my 40 long.

[Europhyllia]

3. The one thing that is in the back of every ones mind? How long will the lamps continue to put out great color?

Here's what I took into consideration: when the white LEDs age they shift towards blue. As MH and T5s age they shift towards red. So while an aging LED may in time shift color it's towards a color already in use in reefkeeping and not encouraging nuisance stuff like cyano, etc.
So the worry is less about spectrum shift and more about intensity.
They have been around long enough to make me feel pretty confident that the quality LEDs in quality fixtures that are run at 100% for 5 years really do have a drop down to 70% is correct info.
Because I am such a planner I actually have it set to where even now I don't have it on 100%. I have white at 70% and blues at 40% each and I get a reminder email every 6 months to tweak it up 3% so when it is at the 5 year mark there's a good chance I can tweak out an extra year, maybe more because obviously I never run them at 100% and I definitely don't run them 24 hours at 100%.
Try tweaking your MHs or T5s up a few percent in a few months...

The only problem I see is really PRICE. it's expensive. But I love it. No regrets. The 4 modules on my 6ft tank are perfectly adequate for my reef even at 70%

[FireWater]

My biggest hurdle has been the price up front to get coverage on my new tank. It hurts to drop that much right off the bat. With that said, I pulled trigger on 2 AI Sol's and plan to buy the 3rd once the tank gets going.
That is a total of $1600 for lights - that hurts. Hurts bad. I came to the realization that 3/4 of my tank cost is lighting. Then I started trying to do math on my other fixtures and the cost I put into them with purchase, bulb replacement, and energy draw - I think it all adds up to the same amount just spread out.

[FireWater]

One other hang up I have had was waiting for a proven track record. LED has been around long enough to make me feel secure in my purchase.

Now once I actually get water in this tank I am sure the next big thing will come along.

[ErikH]

Up front pricing is what's holding me back. My wife just quit her job recently to pursue the completion of her degree. We cannot justify spending 2000 dollars on new lights for the aquarium right now. That's why I settled and went back to MH. I am going to purchase some for supplementation as that cost is feasible.

[ErikH]

There are these which look like unbranded Evolutions fixtures...

[kkiel02]

As many others have said it is the up front cost that is holding me back. I dont even want to start to price out what it would cost to run some AI's. My plan is to slowly start buying them as supplementation then maybe switch over unless they get plasma lighting up and running before then.

Erik those do look like evolutions huh?

[Europhyllia]

Honestly I'd rather piece together an AI one component at a time than waste money on some Chinese knock off. With a lot of things and especially with LEDs there's a huge quality difference and while I am all for getting a good deal I am not into getting cheap things cheap.

[CoryDude]

Stephen's AI fixture was the first tank I saw outside a store setting that used LED's. The heat output, or lack thereof, was really amazing. The dimming capabilities and the storm setting were out of sight.

But there's something about the over all color that I didn't like. Maybe it was too white, too blue, who knows. For some reason the tanks using halides just have a warmth to them that I prefer over led's.

I can say that for some reason, I had trouble getting accurate colors when photographing Stephen's tank vs the others using halides. So I guess my reason is price (like everyone else), and overall color.

[Europhyllia]

But color controlability is what's so awesome about quality LED fixtures.
My seahorse tank has a totally different feel than my reef tank.
Sure you can have it super blue like it seems to be the rage but you can control each individual color component in 1% increments.