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LED Lit Tank Coral Growth Thread


TinyGiant

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I have been keeping a 5.5g nano for 8 months and have had great success with corals. it seems zoas and leathers LOVE the light. and I have been growing tons of coraline. I was curious if anyone else had any pictures of the growth they have seen with LED. I am mostly interested in SPS growth since i know the softies love it.

 

I think this could be a great thread to push people over the edge to a nice efficient lighting setup.

 

here are a couple pictures of my progress.. I will take a new one in the next day or so .. I have to clean the glass first

 

This was July. Lost all the sps in the summer heat :(

4689070275_c309d4c683_b.jpg

 

this was september

5036075591_0aa9c2d24b_b.jpg

 

i'll post another pic in a few :)

 

 

one thing i have noticed is the amount of coraline growth.. i'm very pleased with that.. and the absence of troublesome algaes

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check my sig :)

 

they are ebay lights. 3x1w or 1x3w chinese market no name lights. the par levels on the 5.5g with the optics on at the surface was at like 1900 par lol but with the optics off its around 700 and about 100 at the sand

i have 5 bright white and 4 blues

 

3" from the bulb (above surface of water) 1900 par

 

just below surface 700 par

 

halfway 200 par

 

1" from sand 150 par

 

 

the bright whites with the optics are super bright. could explain why a couple of my sps bleached out. lol

 

i have 3 3x1w and 2 1x3w bulbs for the bright whites.

 

the blues are 3x1w

 

the whites are 7000k

 

just search ebay for "gu10 led cool" of "gu10 led blue" i used the 3x1w or the 1x3w whatever was cheaper at the time.

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  • 3 weeks later...
check my sig :)

 

they are ebay lights. 3x1w or 1x3w chinese market no name lights. the par levels on the 5.5g with the optics on at the surface was at like 1900 par lol but with the optics off its around 700 and about 100 at the sand

 

 

just search ebay for "gu10 led cool" of "gu10 led blue" i used the 3x1w or the 1x3w whatever was cheaper at the time.

 

Glad to see someone having good luck with the "off brand" LEDs

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dont mean to troll but those are spotlighting like a mother. I would try raising the lights higher up for better spectral coverage and even better growth.

 

I dont have any pics but i hav a dragons revenge favia that has put on 8 eyes in 4 months and a garf bonsai that has grown amazingly since i got it a month ago. These are just the best growers but everything is doing good.

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well went back and forth having the optics on the tank. this nano is no longer setup. the lights are currently on my 55 gallon setup which looks much more ballanced :)

 

you can check that out here :

 

the last picture was the day i setup the tank so the water was a little cloudy still so they look spot light like there too.. but now that the water is clear it looks great. I will be posting a link to a short video of the tank shortly :)

 

http://www.nhfragswap.com/forum/index.php?topic=17.0

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  • 3 weeks later...

sorry.. the only camera i have right now is my camera phone..

 

but all this new tip growth and encrusting onto the rock happened in less than a month under 30w of LED (ebay non cree LED) I am getting exciting growth under these lights!

 

 

166693_170966302947410_100001021233256_378289_3519329_n.jpg

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great stuff! I dont think i would ever do anything but led now. I love the color and speed.

 

 

working on doing a 180g with the ebay LED lights now :) starting to save for the tank :)

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nope they are the same bulbs.. just not the "cree" brand same output and everything.. basically the "par" bulbs but far cheaper and not marketed for fish tanks.. which is all the par bulbs really did was market existing bulbs for the aquarium and jack up the price :-P

 

anywho. I will have a total of 20 3w LED bulbs (some of the bulbs are actuall 1x3w and some are 3x1w.. same output and readings)

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cree is not just a brand name, chinese leds are not as efficient as even two generations back of cree.

 

how much is 20 bulbs and sockets going to cost you ?

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I have about $70 into each set of 10 3w bulbs with sockets. The only wiring you need to do is the sockets. the bulbs are reverse polarity protected and have 84v-240v input :) can't get any easier :)

 

the led are driven, with heatsinks and screw into normal gu10 sockets..

 

 

 

blue (i have 1x3w though not the 3x1w)

http://cgi.ebay.com/5x-Blue-3W-GU10-85-265...=item4aa6e7af6e

 

white (7000k)

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Lot-5x-Cool-White-GU10...=item20b6904bf4

 

 

I was able to find a seller to work with me on price and i got them for $4.50 each last time.

 

the sockets are really cheap

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/5pcs-GU10-LED-Halogen-...=item3a55e24b1f

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i had a little collapse the other day so the digi fell off the rock.. so its at a different angle now.. should make for some interesting growth lol

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I could do the same in these if i took the optics off.. but i prefer the optics on. the 55 has been doing great with 10 of the led.. but I want to see what will happen with 20 of them and i want a balanced dusk to dawn look too :)

 

 

the downfall of the crees is all the work involved in setting them up.. not to mention all the heat transfer needed too. These bulbs are a plug and play option that certainly shouldnt be overlooked. I have had great success with them thus far.

 

lol anywho ... we are hijacking the point of this thread. lol

 

Pictures of Growth

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  • 1 month later...

I have some really encouraging pictures to show this time. Mind you these are 4$ ebay LED bulbs. not expensive cree bulbs. they shoot 1500-1900 par at the surface!

 

 

January digi (the nub on the right was non existent when first put in the tank)

growth.jpg

 

 

here is a picture today (march 20th)

IMG_9555.jpg

 

 

 

even more encouraging is the growth of my crocea clam. I brought this home Valentines day

 

so feb 14th-march 20th growth

IMG_9566.jpg

 

 

I love tracking the growth on these. A few members of a NH club that i run have been switching to these led and noticing awesome growth as well.

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  • 1 month later...

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