would this work?

[dandsbernardo]

Thus maybe the wrong foroum for my first question, I have 3metal 250watt metal halides at 20000k. And 320+ watts of power compasts. Astheticaly I love the blueish spectrum, actually looks like diving in the ocean back home. I shorted out my night lights and heading out to solder the connections and new leds. Will tthe setup ihave work for my current coral? Xenia ,frogspawn, zoos, and some mushrooms.
Second question,relevant to this foroum, has anyone built actinic led for their sysytems?
Not to supplement an existing light, to replace the actinic bulb. So where do I find these materials? Mostly the leds and drivers

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by dandsbernardo http:///t/387651/would-this-work#post_3412523
Thus maybe the wrong foroum for my first question, I have 3metal 250watt metal halides at 20000k. And 320+ watts of power compasts. Astheticaly I love the blueish spectrum, actually looks like diving in the ocean back home. I shorted out my night lights and heading out to solder the connections and new leds. Will tthe setup ihave work for my current coral? Xenia ,frogspawn, zoos, and some mushrooms.
Second question,relevant to this foroum, has anyone built actinic led for their sysytems?
Not to supplement an existing light, to replace the actinic bulb. So where do I find these materials? Mostly the leds and drivers
I have nothing for you on LEDs
You have enough light to house anything you want except what doesn't like light. You might have to put all you corals on the bottom and build them up to the brighter lights. Some corals like the mushrooms really like a little shade, so put them out of direct glow if you can, but on the very bottom of the tank for sure.

 

[snakeblitz33]

You have enough light to keep SPS corals. lol. Infact, you have too much light for xenia and mushrooms. Zoas might even close up a bit because of there being too much light. You will have to put your corals on the bottom of the sand bed in some shade for a couple of weeks and then gradually bring them out, as flower said. I would stick with the lights that you have right now.
There is some research to indicate that some corals prefer a more white/yellow spectrum than blue for growth and reproduction.
LED's have great PAR values out of the water, but PAR readings drop off tremendously under the surface of the water. I don't think LED technology is quite there yet to sustain a reef, unless they are extremely good quality. There are of course high quality LED lights, CREE 3w for example - that you can DIY that do have higher PAR values underwater - however its cost preventative for most people, and even out of DIY reach for people like me.

 

[dandsbernardo]

i have been looking into those leds, i use only 2 of the metal halides at one time. i have and my xenia stays on the bottom, and the mushrooms are on the side of a piece of live rock, in the light but not directly. so far all of my corals are doing extremly well, replacing one of the metal halides with a lower kelvin value for the light that is above the corals, a little more yellow spectrum should stimulate faster growth and reproduction. however i am keeping a journal to see how the corals repsond to the diffrent spectrum lighting

 

[snakeblitz33]

Let us know your results!
The more I research, the more I find that reef nutrition has a lot to do with coral growth and reproduction, but of course light is the other 50% of the equation.

 

[dandsbernardo]

will do. so far the frogspawn spot feed once a day with a small piece of meaty seafood, is growing fast for a lps. and the mushrooms have not shown any real difrence.

 

[dandsbernardo]

Finally got around tk my results, I did find one thing or two: if your going to use light only to feed your corals your missing a part of their diet, meaty things. Also I foun under 20000k lighting the corals from deeper parts grew a bit faster than the shallow water corals. Remember how our sun is rated around 6500k color temp? That's plays a huge role in photosynthesis. I am not sayin however that one spectrum is right or wrong I am saying find a color tend you like as the hobbyist then keep your tank well feed and maintained, and keep your water steady and as close to perfect as you can.
Next project is seein the difference between mh bulb effect on coral growth vs LED.
Also this was just a private experiment nothing lab grade, just a hobbyist that wanted to help put down some rumors and straighten out some facts.

 

[acrylic51]

Are you going to run 1/2 the tank with MH and the other with LED......don't use "junky" LEDs in your test run either......If done on 2 separate systems not really a valid test IMO.....2 many variables between tanks, and that has already been proven by all the threads out there proving or disproving which is better than the other.

 

[dandsbernardo]

If and when I get the money. Plus there's too many variables in one tank alone. All km doing is trying to sort fact from fiction and see what wives tales really work. As long as it doesn't put my love stock in harms way. The only issue I keep coming across for less is all the different lenses; 60,90,104,120 all these greatly affect light output plus the types an brand of led.

 

[dandsbernardo]

*Output needs to be re worded to penetration because either way a 3w chip is a 3w chip.

 

[2quills]

*Output needs to be re worded to penetration because either way a 3w chip is a 3w chip.
Actually there can be huge variation in regards to how much light output that a given make or model of an led can produce. Cree is the leader in producing the most efficient leds on the market. Some of thier stuff produces far more light per watt then many of thier competitors. Many leds are considered 3 what even though they arent capable of using that much energy. Dealers round the numbers off to make them sound better. Output is output and penetration is penetration, they mean two different things. Lenses simply focuse the light it doesnt mean that an led is actually producing more of it its simply becomes more focused and intense in a narrower pattern which gives us better penetration to get more light at deeper depths

 

[dandsbernardo]

Well put and perfectly said. I just didn't even think about that.