LED Lighting, Has anyone seen or Used these as their Reef Lighting?

[teen]

PUR? you mean PAR? i bet you dont even know what it stands for or how it comes into play. the numbers just bigger so you think better.
i understand even though the MH looks brighter, the solaris is still putting out the same if not more PAR and thats what the corals use. i dont know about you, but i like my tank bright, and the solaris unit cant do that. gives off the same look as PC lighting IMO.

 

[ibew]

although these fixtures arn't worth buying yet till they work all the kinks out they will be what everyone will have in about 5 to 10 years LEDS are superior to any type of MH, sodium, PC, T5, and have been around for already quite some time but in the past 5 years became very popular in the automotive all electronics and and SONY is going to release a TV very soon that incorporates LEDS for picture viewing weather you want to believe it or not weather they are better now or not they will be the future thats a fact LED = light emiting diode average life span of the LED bulb 25 years when they burn out normally it is the ballast not the LED. I use them flashlights with leds at work I have dropped so many times from heights of 10 feet or above you pick it up turns right on it doesn't have a filament like a normal incandecent does its a diode some instances the flashlight blew apart I duct taped it back together it turned right on
so heres the facts of LEDs as of 2008
are they stronger for sure
are they bright yes
are unbelivalby small yes
very unexpensive to operate yes
do they stay cool yes
is there price high yes but just like anything when it is first relased will be high in price but as the years go on price drops and product improves even more

 

[h3b]

Originally Posted by teen
http:///forum/post/2541414
PUR? you mean PAR? i bet you dont even know what it stands for or how it comes into play. the numbers just bigger so you think better.
i understand even though the MH looks brighter, the solaris is still putting out the same if not more PAR and thats what the corals use. i dont know about you, but i like my tank bright, and the solaris unit cant do that. gives off the same look as PC lighting IMO.
PUR= Photosynthetically usable radiation (ever heard of that)
PAR= Photosynthetically active radiation
dont be so quick to jump on things like that
and I don't know I have never seen MH's so I can't compare but I think solaris makes it look like the real ocean

and you haven't seen the chart so how can you know, although I agree it may be set up that way I would argue that since the study was done not being sponsered by solaris I would doubt it.

 

[hefner413]

I think that since LED's don't heat your tank to the temp of the sun and since they don't cost a small fortune to operate, they must not be as good as MH, etc.

 

[atrialfib22]

Wow...I had no idea they had LED technology like this that can even start an argument about rivaling MHs. I have a little LED strip that provides the blue moonlight for my nano...and I like it. But I had no idea about these Solaris units...kinda cool, different

 

[teen]

Originally Posted by Ibew
http:///forum/post/2541637
are they stronger for sure depends what your comparing it too. a 400w or 1000w MH,naa
are they bright yes again, depends waht youre comparing it too. a PC light, sure there brighter, a MH unit, again, naa.
are unbelivalby small yes idk which unit your talking about, but the ballasts are the same size as a MH ballast, and the fixture is the same size if not bigger than a MH. considering i could light a 4' tank with 2 pendants, it would be much samaller than a 4' solaris unit.
very unexpensive to operate yes got me there
do they stay cool yes got me there again
is there price high yes but just like anything when it is first relased will be high in price but as the years go on price drops and product improves even more how long have these units been out and how much has the price dropped so far? the price will only drop once a rival company produce a fixture with the same or similar specs and sells it for cheaper. then the price of the solaris fixture will drop. for the money they're charging, their track record in overall quality is rather poor IMO.
.

 

[nietzsche]

id like to believe it when i see an SPS dominated tank lit by the solaris unit with sps growing like weeds. for now, MH and t5ho is what i would use

 

[acrylic51]

I must admit..these units are very nice and look promising, but honestly they aren't worth all that IMO......If I want something that will give me cloudy days and such.....I'd buy the Prolux controller to do all that and then some instead of paying for LEDs........Yes they are cooler than MH's, but can someone tell me what the light spread actually is on a unit? I'd like to price these for my new setup going in....60"Lx48"Wx30"H????
As far as the stores running and doing PAR readings.....I can't dispute any values since none were posted, but have to agree with saying they are growing like weeds....Did these stores take readings at varies depths and points in the tank? Again to make a valid comparison between the store running MH's vs. LEDs, you'd have to have all the numbers to give a solid opinion.....They could have changed the lights as well, as other maintenance aspects they were doing as well......IMO still to new to cast the tried and tested MH's to the way side.

 

[h3b]

teen answer to ur last question. They have been out for about 2 years and i cant find prices to compare to. However galileo is coming out with another line soon. Also they use the same sized fixture as mh's.
BTW i took a look at the graph, what do ya know they acually are closer Solaris has 95% PUR and the MH's have 80% rather than 80-40 or what it looked like.

 

[ibew]

Originally Posted by teen
http:///forum/post/2542802
.

I wasn't comparing them to metal halide or any other type
when I said there stronger I meant lamp wise meaning less of a chance of breaking
when I said there bright I meant that at this point being that there new to the SW field they are close to the PAR values of T5 or MH
and when I said there small I wasn't reffering to the fixture I was talking about the lights if they wanted to im sure they could slam in a whole lot more in that fixture then what they have now but they have only been on themarket now for what 2 years if that and how many companys are producing them like I said in 5 to 10 years these will be what alot of reefers will be running if you want to look at track records look how poorly MH did when they first produced these fixtures for comercial lighhting and how long it took to work out all the kinks and how big the ballast use to be all lighting we use today never started out in the SW seen it was used first in comercial lighting or in some other field other than SW than SW companys adobted it alot later down the road

 

[ibew]

basciallly Teen im not disagreeing with anything you have to say just making some points on why LEDs are not the best now but will be down the road thats all trust me if they can produce a light alot cheaper and have the ablity to keep anything we will benifit from this greatly

 

[hefner413]

I would wonder what the cost comparison would be over 5 yrs or so - after the electric bills etc... if the LED would cost more initially, but then save over time. I've heard some people boast some pretty insane electric bills. But I'm sure it would depend on where you live also. My T5HO aren't too expensive.

 

[teen]

ehh, i think they're trying to be the best, but wont make it long term. thats my opinion.

 

[jmick]

I've seen them in action and the only thing that impressed me were the controls and some of the functions. That said, I would take MH or T5's over LED any day of the week.

 

[h3b]

Originally Posted by Jmick
http:///forum/post/2543805
I've seen them in action and the only thing that impressed me were the controls and some of the functions. That said, I would take MH or T5's over LED any day of the week.
Besides initial costs, why?

 

[jmick]

Originally Posted by H3B
http:///forum/post/2543907
Besides initial costs, why?
Par value is anywhere from even to 15% less then most 250watt 20k blubs. You have to put some thought into where you are going to place your corals because the light has poor dispersion--it's tight beam. And the high price tag, I don't think they are worth the $$$ at this time, unless you have extra money sitting around.

 

[ibew]

Originally Posted by Jmick
http:///forum/post/2544125
Par value is anywhere from even to 15% less then most 250watt 20k blubs. You have to put some thought into where you are going to place your corals because the light has poor dispersion--it's tight beam. And the high price tag, I don't think they are worth the $$$ at this time, unless you have extra money sitting around.

not sure amount some of this info but do agree that at this time they are not worth the money but if I had extra cash to blow I would have one

 

[rumika]

We have the Solaris I-4 and we really LOVE it. We have only had it going for 3 months now but everything is growing fine. Our tank is 26" deep and we have zoo's and a brain coral on the bottom and they are all doing fine.
IMO it is all what you like if you like MH then you are gonna love them. We talked to alot of people and everybody has a different opinion.
The I-4 is comparable to 400w MH. Take a look at this link
http://www.solarisled.com/
Here is a picture of my tank.
Attachment 194976

 

[tangwhispr]

Pat @ PFO has created an awesome product, the solaris is the future. Period No more chillers, no more yearly bulb changes, save electricity and great coral growth.

 

[h3b]

Originally Posted by Jmick
http:///forum/post/2544125
Par value is anywhere from even to 15% less then most 250watt 20k blubs. You have to put some thought into where you are going to place your corals because the light has poor dispersion--it's tight beam. And the high price tag, I don't think they are worth the $$$ at this time, unless you have extra money sitting around.
Not quite sure where you got that info but I found alot of research that contradicts that to the extreme. Really it's the exact opposite. And I agree they are not worth the money right now but I did happen to have extra money.