LED vs. MH

irensing

Controversial Reefer
I thought this was pretty cool. It's an ongoing experiment comparing the difference between LED and MH. They compare par levels as well as high and low light corals. pretty interesting. Mr. Saltwater Tank’s LED Experiment I don't have one yet but after careful consideration I'm a big fan of aqua illuminations. I'm curious to hear from people with AI and what kind of corals they've had succes with.
 
Parachute, Andersoned, Northstar all have AI's.....Smitty and Sam have ecoray's off the top of my head. Most anyone that has switched....wont go back.
 
Interesting. AI is sending me the new nano to demo. They told me they have one on a 29g and one on a 50g with success. I don't think I want to mess with my 29g so I may just set up the 40g that been sitting in my garage and give it a try. The nano doesn't have the extensive control system. It has a simplified manual touch control built into the ballast.
 
I've designed components that are used in the LED drivers. I've done a lot of free design work so their hookin' it up.
 
From what I understand, the Sol Nano units from AI are simply half of one of the larger units. The standard SOL units run 70 optics on the four outside pucks, and 40 degree optics on the four inside pucks.

I'd guess that the nano's probably have the 70 degree optics on pucks to help with coverage.

As far as MH vs LED goes, I'd like to think my opinion has a little bit of weight. I started my tank in August of '10 with a combination MH/T5 fixture. March of this year I had a serious outbreak of Cyano, and instead of replacing all the aged bulbs in my system, I decided to upgrade to the AI SOL Super Blues. I have three of the units over my 180, and I cant even run them at full power (I burned some acropora when first using the lights). The nuisance algae went away overnight. Shortly after switching over to the AI's everything in the tank looked better. The corals I had expanded more, and my hammer colored up more than it was under the metal halides.

The metal halides made the tank look 'brighter' but its obvious that the LED's are putting out far more usable light to the corals. The other thing I should mention is that i replaced roughly 1000 watts of light with just 225 Watts, and my actual usage is less because I'm only running them at 40%

The only real complaint I have about the AI's is the clumsiness of their controller, especially the knob you have to turn to make changes to the settings. There are times where I turn it to the right (or forward) and the setting actually changes backward. Realistically though, once my timers were set I haven't really needed the controller much, and you could always use one of those crazy controllers like the Reef Keeper.

I recommend the AI LED's to anyone that asks. Ed put 5 of them over the 'twins' after seeing them setup on my tank. I'm pretty sure Dana liked them over my tank as well.
 
From tanks I've seen with LEDs, they look really dim. And that experiment didn't really say much for them.

And I don't have to pay for the power bill!! BUHAHAHAHA!!!!! :twisted::evil!?!?::twisted::evil!?!?:
 
LED's look dimmer to the human eye because they lack light in the infrared spectrum when compared to T5's or Metal Halides. This is also the spectrum of light that transfers heat to the tank (and why tanks with LED's run at cooler temperatures).

The one big argument against LED's I've read (and the one that is sort of made in the argument linked above) is that some corals change colors under LED. I looked at the photos of the examples in the article and I didn't see any 'bad' looking corals. You could make the argument that color changing is bad, especially if you paid mega dollars for some weird color morph or a 'designer' coral. I have yet to see anything in my personal tank change colors from the change from MH to LED. The cost savings alone means I'll have LED over my tanks. I also love the ability to change the color of my tank on demand with the AI units. The color spectrum available to me is far superior to anything offered by a Metal Halide / T5 combo (with out having to change bulbs). The Sol Super Blue lets me go from White to a pretty incredible shade of blue

Also, it looks like they are using a standard Sol unit. The Super Blues have much better depth penetration with the Royal Blue LED's. There is a thread over on RC that shows the difference between the units, I'll see if I can dig it up and post a link.
 
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LED's look dimmer to the human eye because they lack light in the infrared spectrum when compared to T5's or Metal Halides.

Photosynthesis isn't the only reason for strong lights. There's also the aesthetics. Dim tanks look just, umm, well, dim.
 
Parachute, Andersoned, Northstar all have AI's.....Smitty and Sam have ecoray's off the top of my head. Most anyone that has switched....wont go back.

I've seen alot of people selling their LED's to go back to the MH. They want that shimmer effect that they just can't get from the LED's.

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The one big argument against LED's I've read (and the one that is sort of made in the argument linked above) is that some corals change colors under LED. I looked at the photos of the examples in the article and I didn't see any 'bad' looking corals. You could make the argument that color changing is bad, especially if you paid mega dollars for some weird color morph or a 'designer' coral. I have yet to see anything in my personal tank change colors from the change from MH to LED.

I have seen it first hand. I have a beautiful Blue Stag in my tank, under MH. It came from a LED tank in which it was an Olive Drab Green. Once we got them into a MH tank, or a T5 tank, they colored up nicely.
 
To each their own. I see plenty of shimmer with the AI units. The cost savings of replacement bulbs and power usage convinced me to make the change to LED's and I wont be going back
 
Someone on here or RC did a comparison of MH to LED savings, over the course of 1 and 5 years, its a negligible upgrade cost wise. Ill find the link and post it.
 
Someone on here or RC did a comparison of MH to LED savings, over the course of 1 and 5 years, its a negligible upgrade cost wise. Ill find the link and post it.

I just read that same comparison last week, I'm pretty sure it was over on RC.
 
I just talked to the owner of AI. He told me the nano is a complete re-design on the optics and that I won't be disappointed. They are having much succes with SPS. Also, LEDs should be a large cost savings on energy when comparing lumen output but the ROI might be 5 years because of the cost of the LEDs but like Northstar says when you change your bulbs every year..... I like the fact that you can control the LEDs with many different programs. When you can mimic the solstice, thunderstorms, sunset, etc. youc can't beat it.
 
and from one of my previous quotes, the nano isn't just a built in touch control you can use the AI or any other LED program controller.
 
To each their own. I see plenty of shimmer with the AI units. The cost savings of replacement bulbs and power usage convinced me to make the change to LED's and I wont be going back

Yea what he said. When I was at your house looking at your tank there was plenty of shimmer...to each is own tho. Let's face it tho. LEDs are still going through changes. I've seen some DIY LEDs that shyt all over some big manufacture led fixtures.
 
Don't get me wrong, I am in no way dissing LED's, if you like em, and you believe in them, then run with em. I was just responding to the post that Dana threw out that said everyone that had them won't go back.But for me, not so much. I'd rather run my MH on my tank.
 
I think LED's will be great, I want the market on them to slow down a bit before making the jump over. Until then im perfectly happy with my Halides.

@Irensing, The cost of replacement bulbs was factored in on the study, im not here against the LED's but I wouldnt consider cost reduction of LED's in the process, I mean lets face it, if the ROI is 5 years, by that time you will start to see newer technology budding out and by that time youve gotten maybe 3 years of savings at most before you would want to upgrade again?

Also, all the bells and whistles are great, but lights alone wont simulate thunderstorms etc. Even so, are YOU going to take the time to set up a schedule for such events, maybe buy a programmer and acceptable software to simulate these effects? Also, what benefits if any would get from this?
 
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