LED aquarium lighting?

[zeromus-x]

Has anyone really tried using an LED system to light a reef tank yet? I've been doing a little searching around online and haven't seen anything -- mostly reports that nothing was really available yet, from 2000 or so -- so I'm curious to know if anyone has given it a shot. LEDs at this point are extremely high-power from what they used to be, and white LEDs don't have a huge cost associated with them anymore. Lights such as the 1W and 3W Luxeon LEDs are capable of producing much more than the old style most people think of.
Something like this:

...produces over 1300 lumens and is fully RGB color controlled. So in the morning you could simulate sunrise, during the day have it "full on", then at night have it fade to blue and then a dull blue illumination to simulate a moonlight. It looks like a 24" T5 bulb puts out about 2000 lumens, and has a lifespan of about 8000 hours (though if you're supposed to replace them at their half-life, that'd be 4000 hours). LEDs last essentially indefinitely (the fixture up there has a lifespan of 100,000 hours). So if a 24" T5 bulb costs about $20 bucks to replace, that's $500 in bulbs you're buying, plus the cost of the fixture (provided the fixture lasts through 25 bulb changes!) which we'll say is about $200. So there's $700. Two of those LED panels up there would run about $450, would produce no heat whatsoever into the tank (and a negligible amount above it), and each panel uses 12W as opposed to the ~65W of the 24" T5 bulb.
Is there some reason they're not being used yet? Or is this something people haven't really played with? I have a 10 gallon tank that isn't doing anything but sitting around, and I'd have no problem using one of my LED systems to see what effect it has. I don't have any coral or plant life in my aquarium, so I can't specifically check that unless anyone has a small frag they want to put in the tank to find out what's going to happen to it.

 

[marinfire1]

solirs Sp? make an LED light but their still VERY VERY expense...ur looking at the $1000-2000 range for a light...

 

[brucoh]

There is an LED fixture on the market right now by a company called PFO. The fixture is called the Solaris. It does all the things you talked about simulating day to night effects, it even simulates cloud cover. These fixtures have a processor in it that runs these lighting cycles. Supposedly they are bright enough to grow SPS. The fixtures are pretty expensive though, I think the cheapest, a 20" fixture is like $900. The good thing about them though is they eliminate the need for chillers because they run cool, which would kinda justify paying that high of a price. It would also save you money with your electric bill each month. They also elimate the need for timers since you can program your light cycles into the processor and the whole thing has only one power cord. The LED bulbs also last years so you don't spend money replacing bulbs every year. Just google "PFO Solaris" and go to their website. It shows pictures of the fixture on different reef tanks. They look cool. I'd buy one if I had the extra money. You'd pay alot upfront, but you'd save in the long run. It's just that intial sticker shock that turns people off.

 

[scsinet]

The problem I have with LED lighting for tanks is that not enough time has passed for any kind of definititive, objective (read: not sponsored by the people selling the product) information on how the animals do under them.
The industry is still too young in this area to know anything for sure. I'm all for it, but I'm kinda sitting back to see how they do in the real world, over the span of a couple years or more, by independant researchers and hobbiests.

 

[brucoh]

I've read threads about the Solaris on the other board I frequent and the people that have them seem to like them, but they haven't been out long enough to judge the long term effects. Pretty much everyone else has that wait and see attitude about them too. Most of them want to wait until some other companies start putting them out and the price is driven down a little. It's actually only the 14" fixture that's $900, not the 20". The higher wattage 72" fixture is over $4000.:scared: