LED Lighting

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Hi everyone, new here to the reef tank, i'm trying to start a build of a 90 gallon salt water tank, and i've been doing a lot of reserach on lighting and it seems that 2 250MH are the way to go. However those things are outrageously priced, use tons of electricity and need to be replaced annually. I was looking into LED lighting, i've seen the PFO Solaris and imo seems like a great system, if not for the hefty price tag. Has anyone here done their own LED hood setup? You can purchace the high output LEDS from phillips for about 3 bucks per, if you have an array of 100 leds for a 4 foot tank comes out to around 300 plus wiring, power supply, lenses, timers etc. Which really isn't that bad if you can get the same output as 2 250 MHs. Just wondering if anyone has tried this yet, I know one guy tried to do it with the 5mm leds, probably won't work as well as the 3 watt luxeons.

[icebear]

there was a lot of talk about this sort of thing about a year back, but i've been out of the loop for a while.

so, i'll just tag along and see if there's anything new.


i think the main question then was light quality, wavelength and stuff like that ...i only half understand...

[mitchelWB]

I'm pretty partial to the T-5's myself... a lot less wiring, can be had for about the same price as what you're describing, much cooler running and less power consumption than MH's, and proven to work for just about everything in a reef tank.

I've got T-5's on both of my tanks, and I love them.

[Geoff]

there does not seem to be enough long term data on the LED's yet. not sure if they can actually penetrate the water as well as the MH's can either.

i am worried about how long they will last. right now all of the new LED stuff out there is overdriven and will not last near as long as it should. just take a look at all of those silly LED moonlights. see how often they need to be replaced. they should last for years and most seem to be replacing them at least once year. that is for a silly $30 light. i would not like to see that happen to a $2000 light.

G~

[Nyles]

Ig your looking for cheaper than MH, you need to research T-5. Cheaper to start and cheaper anually. Theres lots of data on the forums.

[VWD]

Welcome To TRT!!!
The LEDs are out and I have not heard anyone really write about them. People that buy them and use them that is, I like MH's the best and will alway say if you can afford them, get some, You will be happy in the end. I have never had someone I talked into buying them come back unhappy

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Hi thanks for the info, was looking into T-5's and came across a Nova Extreme setup that looks ok-

http://cgi.ebay.com/Nova-Extreme-T-5...QQcmdZViewItem

tell me what you guys think of this

[tiburon]

I was going to get 2x250MH for my 85 gallon reef but after seeing how much light came out of my first hood with only 1x 150mh I changed my plan and ended up with a 2x 150 HQI MH + 4x 39W T5 actinics.. it's VERY bright.. the new Current Outer Orbit fixtures have T5s in them.. pretty slick packages with the ballasts in the hood and everything.