LED Lighting

[i<3reefs]

There is LED lighting on a certain auction site that interests me. They are selling it as an alternative to MH. I know Solaris went under due to their controller patent issues, however these do not come with a controller.
Does anyone have any experience with this kind of setup? Below is their listed specifications, and I'm uploading a photo. I'm curious if all those little 5500k bulbs really ad up to a MH kind of output without the heat. thanks Jarod
Specifications:
Panel material: Aluminum
wave length
16 x 1 watt Blue light LEDs: 455 nm (nanometer) wave length
16 x 1 watt White light LEDs: 5500K
18 + 18 = Total 36 Collimated LEDs
Working Voltage: 100V-240V
Power: JUST 40 Watts !!
Dimensions: 9 7/8” X 9 7/8” (25cm X 25cm) square
Thickness: Very Low Profile 5/8" (1.5cm)
Power cord length: 9 feet
Recommended coverage: one panel per 4 Sq. Ft. at a distance of 18”
LED life: Approx. 50,000 Hours

 

[reefaholic33]

No these will not do what halides do, a halide is anywhere from 175-400 watts for one bulb. These are only 40 watts a panel it looks like. These might be good to use on a FOWLR tank though and avoid the heat.

 

[culp]

LED are still probably 5 years away from rivaling Metal Halide. at this point they MIGHT rival PC. and really the only thing that rivals metal halide today is T5's. you can get a just as nice or nicer looking tank with t5 than you can get with metal halide as long as your tank is than 25" deep.

 

[reefaholic33]

And the Kelvin rating is only 5500 which for corals I believe 10,000 is needed or you can go higher depending on what you want to do.

 

[i<3reefs]

yeah, they didn't really add up to me, so I figured I would post it here, and see what opinions I received.
Thanks for the replies.

 

[cablebox615]

Really 5500k is closer to natural sunlight than a 10000k bulb so the kelvin rating is fine. Anything lower than 10000k starts to get more of a yellow color. Which in not very pleasing to the human eye. 5500k would promote more growth its just very yellow. Idk the led 5500k would promote more growth than t5 5500k which I have not seen to many t5s lower than 10000k. You can use a 5500k bulb with a lot of actinic supplementation. Maybe 4 or more bulbs.