CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!!!!!

madhatter614

New Member
I just got a 60 gallon marineland tank. The lady at the store told me that " That for salt water fish I would need buy power compact lights and that should work.. She was wrong.... Since then I have been to 3 aquarium stores who all tell me different things about lighting. One said to go with a t5 another said to buy 4 led light strips and last one talked me into a buying the marineland led ref lights. Was told that would be fine for hard coral and claims.. Not so far.. Does anyone have any suggestions.. I need enough light for hard coral and claims.. Thanks
 

btldreef

Moderator
Welcome to the forum!
Marineland LED lights will NOT support most corals. They are terrible, IMHO. Most LED strips aren't going to cut it either. When you say hard coral, what corals are you referring to?
For clams, you're really going to need a GOOD T5 unit, halides, or a good LED fixture (Such as Acan Lighting) or a good DIY build. If you're at all handy, go the DIY LED route.
How old is your tank? How are your parameters? These will effect your luck with corals as well.
 

acrylic51

Active Member
What makes Acan and different or better than what's out there???? Still the same 2 colors??? Which in better words are lacking.
 

btldreef

Moderator
Quote:
Originally Posted by acrylic51 http:///t/388360/can-someone-please-help#post_3424687
What makes Acan and different or better than what's out there???? Still the same 2 colors??? Which in better words are lacking.
Honestly, I've seen multiple tanks running on the Acan systems (since they're made on LI and endorsed by my reef club). They've had the lights for more than one year and the growth and colors on the corals is amazing.
 

2quills

Well-Known Member
Anything other than marineland lol. Unfortunately a lot of folks have fallen victim to their marketing techniques. And after reading some more recent information I don't think I'll personally go with any of the manufactured fixtures over diy. There's a guy running the origional sol fixtures over his tank 6 units. Well they are just over 2 years old now so the warranty has run out. And has an average of about 3 leds per fixture that have burned out. And A.I. wants $250 a piece to repair them???
$1500 replace about 16 or so leds. And his tank looks horrible from the loss of par.
 

rynosreef

Member
i have run t-5s on a 75 gallon reef with clams and sps in it. they all did great but i had them at the top of the tank. but when i up graded to a 150 gallon tall i went to 2x 400 watt hm with 14 k bulbs. when i first got into the hobby it was a lot trial and error. i did loss some corals in that time but sometimes its best to learn the hard way. now i am learning that u can have to much light for sps. like i said trail and error.
 

btldreef

Moderator

Anything other than marineland lol. Unfortunately a lot of folks have fallen victim to their marketing techniques. And after reading some more recent information I don't think I'll personally go with any of the manufactured fixtures over diy. There's a guy running the origional sol fixtures over his tank 6 units. Well they are just over 2 years old now so the warranty has run out. And has an average of about 3 leds per fixture that have burned out. And A.I. wants $250 a piece to repair them???
$1500 replace about 16 or so leds. And his tank looks horrible from the loss of par.
I agree, his tanks look terrible. Always have, before LEDs too. It's not the lighting, it's the idiot maintaining the tank. That being said, I've seen these systems on numerous tanks and they look great. Good coral growth and coloring.
 

2quills

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by BTLDreef http:///t/388360/can-someone-please-help#post_3424793
I agree, his tanks look terrible. Always have, before LEDs too. It's not the lighting, it's the idiot maintaining the tank. That being said, I've seen these systems on numerous tanks and they look great. Good coral growth and coloring.
Yeah that wouldn't/doesn't surprise me. I was more concerned about the idea of what it's going to cost people to get these fixtures repaired once the warranty runs out on them. Particularly with the A.I. fixtures or even the new Echo Tech fixtures and the way they are designed with multiple chips on one puck for those who don't want to attempt to fix them on their own. Because even though LED's are typically rated to last 55,000 hours or so, that doesn't necessarily mean they all will. In fact in most cases there's always going to be a few that only last a fraction of their life span. That's just been my observation in dealing with any type of led technology period and not just on the hobby side of things. Otherwise I certianly wouldn't argue that there seem to be plenty of people having really good success with leds.
 

btldreef

Moderator
I actually deleted the post because I misread yours. I was actually talking about the owner of Acan Lightings tank.
 

2quills

Well-Known Member
Oh, haha. Yeah I was talking about another gentlemen who has been running the A.I. SOL whites for the last couple years. Here's some shots he shared of current par values with the fixtures running 100%. And notice the spot lighting effect he's getting around the center of the tank now as well.

 

btldreef

Moderator
My reef club has a par meter that we all get to use. My turn is this week. I plan on testing my DIY LED fixture, the Marineland Double Bright Reef and Single Bright LEDs and my T5 fixtures. I'm really interested to know what my fixture is putting out, and to put some numbers to the "Don't buy the Marinrland unit" statement.
 

2quills

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by BTLDreef http:///t/388360/can-someone-please-help#post_3424801
My reef club has a par meter that we all get to use. My turn is this week. I plan on testing my DIY LED fixture, the Marineland Double Bright Reef and Single Bright LEDs and my T5 fixtures. I'm really interested to know what my fixture is putting out, and to put some numbers to the "Don't buy the Marinrland unit" statement.
Well I'll be interested to see how your results compare to the rest that have already been done. The best that I can discern from all of the other information out there that I've seen and read on these fixtures is that they can be compared as a relative equivalent to a typical power compact fixture without doing any of my own testing to see for myself. I'm pretty inclined to believe that as being a fairly good comparison for this led fixture.
 

btldreef

Moderator
Yeah, I use the Marinelands on my QT tank and on a FOWLR that has some macro in it.
Really curious to see what my fixture is pushing because my SPS is growing like weeds, lol
 

2quills

Well-Known Member
Well that's inspiring news for the o.p.
Shallow or deep quarantine tank?
Which type of sps do you have in there?
I wouldn't be terribly shocked to see something like montipora digitata or even monti caps doing well under pc's. Or even hyndophora or pavona spp. Some of the low light sps.
I have a 4 bulb coralife pc fixture over my 50g. And I have some lps that are doing well under them but have also tried a few that didn't fair so well under them either.
 

btldreef

Moderator
Under the Marineland lights I only grow grape caulerpa and button polyps. The SPS is under my DIY fixture
 

reefraff

Active Member
Hmmm. I guess my DIY is a little higher PAR than I thought LOL! I'm getting in the 120's at the bottom of my 120 gallon (2 feet tall)
Keep in mind the PAR meter doesn't read blue light very well, especially deep blue like the Royal Blues. According to Apogee they under read by about 20% but I don't know if that was a guess or if they have actually compared the royal blues using a high end sensor against theirs.
 

2quills

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by reefraff http:///t/388360/can-someone-please-help#post_3424835
Hmmm. I guess my DIY is a little higher PAR than I thought LOL! I'm getting in the 120's at the bottom of my 120 gallon (2 feet tall)
Keep in mind the PAR meter doesn't read blue light very well, especially deep blue like the Royal Blues. According to Apogee they under read by about 20% but I don't know if that was a guess or if they have actually compared the royal blues using a high end sensor against theirs.
There was an email that someone shared from apogee about that. I'll try and find it again. But yeah it did talk about the fact that sensors don't accurately read the blue lighting very well. Even when you compare the lux values of leds they get lower and lower the further down the spectrum you go for leds of the same power rating.
 

reefraff

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Quills http:///t/388360/can-someone-please-help#post_3424843
There was an email that someone shared from apogee about that. I'll try and find it again. But yeah it did talk about the fact that sensors don't accurately read the blue lighting very well. Even when you compare the lux values of leds they get lower and lower the further down the spectrum you go for leds of the same power rating.
I know when I tested T5 lamps I got like 305 for a Blue Plus and 350 or so for a UVL Aquasun but when Sanjay Joshi tested them with a Specrometer the Blue Plus had higher PAR than the Aquasun.
 

2quills

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by reefraff http:///t/388360/can-someone-please-help#post_3424859
I know when I tested T5 lamps I got like 305 for a Blue Plus and 350 or so for a UVL Aquasun but when Sanjay Joshi tested them with a Specrometer the Blue Plus had higher PAR than the Aquasun.
Yeah it gets pretty technical and I don't know a great deal about it. But from what I understand is that unless you're shelling out thousands of dollars for highly accurate equipment then you're really only getting ballpark figures with an apogee. The rep from apogee not only mentioned that you're readings would be low for blue led lighting but on the oposite end of the scale you could get abnormally high readings in the red range. I believe it has something to do with using specific sensors are needed in order to read the specific spikes that leds put out. Where as the typical sensors gather data across the spectrum. I need to find that thread again. Some of it was a little over my head the first time I read it because I'm not farmiliar with that equipment.
 
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