Hypes Archipelago

[Deckoz2302]

Thanks deckoz. Ive found some species color up no problem within a few weeks while others take a bit longer. I will say the lighting has made the biggest difference most of my sps colors have intensified or changed completely since the switch.

 

 

 

Yea depending where you place them in your tank the coloration could vary greatly in some species. Another local reefer was testing this and had frags that looked like completely different species because of their coloration.

 

 

Its so hard to find a happy medium with LED's only how much of each spectrum should be provided etc.

[Rehype]

Its so hard to find a happy medium with LED's only how much of each spectrum should be provided etc.

 

Yea thats definitely the issue i had with LED's... the lack of spectrum needed by certain species of coral.

[Deckoz2302]

I mean I have spectrum. just how much of each to make it happy. I dunno - just a pain to tune in, I think I need to look at the spectrum analysis of some bulbs and try to mimic that

[Rehype]

I mean I have spectrum. just how much of each to make it happy. I dunno - just a pain to tune in, I think I need to look at the spectrum analysis of some bulbs and try to mimic that

 

Thats definitely a start although my gut feeling is it isnt quite that simple.

[Rehype]

Forgot a pic of daves setosa. I got this as a tiny frag and its grows like a weed.

 

[pschom]

Acans

holy crap, amazing! What T5 fixture did you get. And what page are the pics of the light on? You need to make a picture only thread and ask people to post their responses here only. Lol. How's a guy supposed to find anything among all the compliments!?

[Nano sapiens]

Forgot a pic of daves setosa. I got this as a tiny frag and its grows like a weed.

 

 

Wow, that is one red Setosa. Curious, how much light does it get?

 

SPS pics are looking great!.

[chucktdbm321]

awesome colors... I myself am super frustrated with my leds and trying to get them tuned in just right. Feels like i have to completely adjust it if i get a new piece or it will bleach So close to going back to my 4 bulb which i never ever had problems with and had much better coloration

[Rehype]

holy crap, amazing! What T5 fixture did you get. And what page are the pics of the light on? You need to make a picture only thread and ask people to post their responses here only. Lol. How's a guy supposed to find anything among all the compliments!?

 

Thanks man. Its the dimmable 6 bulb ATI sunpower.Your right i need to find a way to better index this stuff..

 

 

Wow, that is one red Setosa. Curious, how much light does it get?

 

SPS pics are looking great!.

 

Thanks alot ns. It located pretty low in the tank about 2" above the sandbed.

 

awesome colors... I myself am super frustrated with my leds and trying to get them tuned in just right. Feels like i have to completely adjust it if i get a new piece or it will bleach So close to going back to my 4 bulb which i never ever had problems with and had much better coloration

 

Thanks chuck i know exactly how you feel. Some pieces did great while others didnt look as good as they did previous to changing the fixture. However now with the T5's everything looks better than they ever have.

[FlCandy]

I have liked my T5s from the star, only thing I may do is go to a 6 bulb instead of the 4 bulb.... Getting good growth with the 4 for now though.

 

Love you tank Hype, that light is slick too!

[chucktdbm321]

I feel that i always bit my tongue on this forum with leds cause of all the fan boys. But personally leds are still quite the pita and will be switching back most likely to t5's. And yes exactly what you are talking about! some of pieces look out standing and then others loose color and slowly die. It's obvious you made a great choice.

[giojo]

right now we need a new FTS ...

 

awesome tank by the way, looking forward to read your last spec on technique and dosing

[Rehype]

I have liked my T5s from the star, only thing I may do is go to a 6 bulb instead of the 4 bulb.... Getting good growth with the 4 for now though.

 

Love you tank Hype, that light is slick too!

 

Thanks alot candy i went with 6 bulbs because of my tanks width. Ive had T5's in the past but always went back to halides because of the shimmer. At this point i just want whats going to give my corals the best coloration and growth and T5's have given me the best results.

 

I feel that i always bit my tongue on this forum with leds cause of all the fan boys. But personally leds are still quite the pita and will be switching back most likely to t5's. And yes exactly what you are talking about! some of pieces look out standing and then others loose color and slowly die. It's obvious you made a great choice.

 

I know what you mean alot of guys dont like to hear anything other than praise for the technology while theres some glaring inconsistencies. I came across this post on reef2reef and it really havent heard anyone explain the issues we see any better than this....his name is 2Sunny on r2f

 

"There are many types of spectrums, but for the purpose of LEDs it is critical to understand that the discussion is about the wavelengths of the photons being created by this source of light. Roughly speaking light humans can see comes from photons that have wavelengths in the approximate range between 400 nm and 700 nm. What that means is actually quite complicated because on the one hand light can act like a B-B shot from a gun and on the other it can act like waves rippling across a pond, but for this discussion we're talking about the waves rippling across the pond. The only difference is the waves are really really really tiny

 

Now, hypothetically speaking if I take 3 distinct photons of very different colors say a blue photon and a red photon and a green photon each with it's own distinct and singular wavelength, I can "fool" your eye into seeing yellow light that looks like high noon sunlight, BUT I only used 3 distinct photons with 3 very specific wavelengths. I did not shoot any photons at all of the inbetween wavelengths, but your eye perceived the 3 photon mix the same as sunlight. LEDs create photons in very narrow bands of wavelength. There is some creation of other wavelengths, but when you are discussing the radiation that is actually used by coral zooxanthellea you can essentially treat the LED as a single wavelength because the relative amount of energy created in the other wavelengths from a single LED is negligble. Metal halide lighting and flourescent lighting are quite different. They have peaks in their emission spectrum like Radiums peak at 420 nm, but the proportion of total photons having this wavelength is low relative to the total number of photons produced. Metal halide and flourescent lights produce lots of photons across a broad spectrum. LEDs produce photons in a very narrow spectrum.

 

 

The trouble begins when we begin to ask what wavelength do we need? We know precious little with regards to that for 99.9% of the corals out there. We do know that research on stylophora showed red wavelengths can kill, and that because the ocean water filters out some wavelengths of sunlight many corals with symbiotic zooxanthellea if not most corals have adapted to grow best with light from the blue end of the spectrum, and importantly we have recently learned that a certain amount of UV is helpful to stimulate the growth of zooxanthellea clades that create the colors we love so much in our SPS and LPS. Amazingly we have also learned that corals can photoadapt. So if you change the amount or type of light a coral gets it may well survive regardless as it will rely more on direct feeding if light falls, or increase the production of zooxanthellea that can absorb hurtful amounts of light to protect itself, if light becomes stronger.

 

 

Personally, I have tested 3 different manufacturers of LEDs, 2 that used a limited number of LED colors and 1 that used a greater number of LEDs including LEDs that produced light in the UV range. In my experience, Oregon Tort could not survive under blue + white LED light alone. I also saw O.T. die in two other local tanks that use LEDs as well. While in those same tanks rght next to the Tort other corals were growing like crazy with fantastic color. What do I think happened? I think Oregon Tort has photoadapted to life under metal halides and flourescents that have wavelength peaks in the area of 420 nm, and LED lights that don't have ample amounts of this particular wavelength actually starve the Torts. Now this last part is not scientifically proven, and is merely my opinion, but I would add that commercially speaking greenhouses have not yet changed over to LED lighting. Why not? LEDs definitely grow plants. The answer is LEDs cause peculiar growth patterns that we don't yet fully understand. Lettuce grown under green light grows faster than normal. Roses grown under red light will deepen in color. Each particular wavelength seems to have benefits and sometimes drawbacks (like red light killing stylophoras). So what does that mean to you and me.

 

It means, if you choose to use LEDs that is awesome 'cuz you're getting some killer technology and efficiency, but in terms of whether or not you'll get great color on all your favorite corals, that you'll just have to see for yourself. Obviously some corals love it but just as obviously some corals don't. On the other hand if you choose T5s, you are guaranteed to have great color on virtually any light loving coral you'd like to try. "

 

right now we need a new FTS ...

awesome tank by the way, looking forward to read your last spec on technique and dosing

 

Thanks alot gj It actually doesnt look much different from my last LFS.

 

Ill have that writeup posted shortly

[TheNordCelt]

I know what you mean alot of guys dont like to hear anything other than praise for the technology while theres some glaring inconsistencies. I came across this post on reef2reef and it really havent heard anyone explain the issues we see any better than this....his name is 2Sunny on r2f quote

 

That's funny,I've been seeing people preaching t5's so much in recent months. I have no experience with t5's.I went from PC's to LED's, and other than almost melting everything in my tank(learning curve) I've had no problems with my RB+CW combo. I really think people need to start out very low, and allow the coral to adapt to the light on it's own space. A controller is a must for led's too, If I just had mine running 50/50 full blast I'd have jelly in the tank in no time.

 

 

 

 

Oregon Tort could not survive under blue + white LED light alone

. I'll have to post some pics of my healthy growing tort, went from a chip to a mini colony in 6 months.

 

Awesome sps

[Rehype]

Thanks pat. I think it really depends on the species and the lighting it was under previous to the LED's.

[castiel]

Just realized i dont have pics of most of my SPS even though this tank is mostly dominated by them. Heres some of the larger colonies..

I don't usually like quoting a large image post .. but as this thread is moving so quickly! - for the SPS noobs among us, could you name these? I am in love with the red on in particular ...

 

 

Hey paigee congrats on the rainbow..watch out bc sps are addictive

 

1.Need an ID

2.Blue Iris

3.Red Table

4.Need an ID

5.Acropora Hoeksemai

 

Forgot a pic of daves setosa. I got this as a tiny frag and its grows like a weed.

 

 

Nevermind, caught up on the thread now! There should be a speed limit in place ...

[neuwave]

Rehype have you this article from back in the day with led tech before it even barley hit the mainstream as moon lights. Gives you a good idea of the effects of particular light wavelength close up on a coral. I couldn't find the older link to the original website but looks links advance aquarist remade an article about it.

 

Led experiment

[Rehype]

Nevermind, caught up on the thread now! There should be a speed limit in place ...

 

It never usually goes that fast i guess it was the number of pics in one post.

[Joe Dirt]

I have a "Fishneedit" T5 fixture that I put ATI bulbs into. I have ATI Blue+ x2, Aquablue Special, and a Purple+. I've had this fixture in the garage for a while now because I broke down my quarantine tank. For S&G, I removed my LED converted hood and put that fixture on top to see the difference. As dim as the light appeared to be, I could not believe how much the LPS color just immediately popped! I have long forgotten the colors of the corals I love so much. I have to agree that corals do look a little flat under LEDs. I think I will be having some sort of ATI fixture on the next tank. Or maybe a hybrid?

[MedRed]

Page 172? I'm missing some. I only see 35

[Rehype]

Rehype have you this article from back in the day with led tech before it even barley hit the mainstream as moon lights. Gives you a good idea of the effects of particular light wavelength close up on a coral. I couldn't find the older link to the original website but looks links advance aquarist remade an article about it.

 

Led experiment

 

Very interesting read(thanks for the link) I wonder if anyone has done a similar test with additional LED's. I would love to see the results on other species of sps as well as some LPS.

 

 

I have a "Fishneedit" T5 fixture that I put ATI bulbs into. I have ATI Blue+ x2, Aquablue Special, and a Purple+. I've had this fixture in the garage for a while now because I broke down my quarantine tank. For S&G, I removed my LED converted hood and put that fixture on top to see the difference. As dim as the light appeared to be, I could not believe how much the LPS color just immediately popped! I have long forgotten the colors of the corals I love so much. I have to agree that corals do look a little flat under LEDs. I think I will be having some sort of ATI fixture on the next tank. Or maybe a hybrid?

 

I noticed the same thing when i switched joe..certain sps colors changed entirely while other colors intensified.Some corals took a few weeks to adjust to switch but they all look noticeably better. I would credit it to the broad spectrum T5's are able to cover. I added the reefbrites because of the pop that only royal blues can add to a tank.

 

I think a hybrid is the best of both worlds. A typical white/blue LED setup with T5 supplementation. Specifically using Purple plus bulbs to fill in the gaps. Ive seen this combo and the results were incredible.

 

Page 172? I'm missing some. I only see 35

 

Wait i dont get it Im slow sometimes..

[JR!]

Wait i dont get it Im slow sometimes..

[metrokat]

:WANT:

 

Red Planet is so nice. Possibly my favorite coral.

 

+1

[Rehype]

 

ohhhh ha! I never even noticed that setting..thanks jr. BTW jr where do you get those cool magnet for your frags?

 

+1

 

Definitely in my top 3. I cant wait until it grows out.

[Joe Dirt]

I think a hybrid is the best of both worlds. A typical white/blue LED setup with T5 supplementation. Specifically using Purple plus bulbs to fill in the gaps. Ive seen this combo and the results were incredible.

 

Are their any commercially available and units? I know Nanotuners USED to make one. Anyone else?