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Who's keeping SPS under LED lighting?


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I'm curious who is using LED lighting and what your experience is with keeping sps.

 

I have an 80 gallon shallow reef (only 16" deep) with 2 AI Vega Colors hung about 10-12" above the waterline ("AWL"). I have the 3 blues at about 75% and the red, white & green about 50%. They start powering up around 8:00 in the morning with roughly a 4-hour ramp time and are off by 10:00 with the same ramp down time. I run the royal blue all night at 1% as a moonlight.

 

  • I have a pink lemonade that seems to love high lighting.
  • I have an ORA bird of paradise that is growing very well and has good color in a lower light area.
  • My purple bonsai is in a fairly high light area and is growing well, but is not as dark as it was.
  • My hot pink stylophora that is in a medium light area has turned a very dark color (not really pink)
  • Pink mille - medium light - has turned dark
  • Superman monti - not very good color
  • All of these have been in the tank since it was set up about 8 months ago.

 

I lost a blue tort and another dark blue stag frag. They very slowly lightened up, then suddenly rtn'ed. Also lost a pokerstar monti to a sudden bleach out.

 

I have a new orange setosa and a new green pocillopora frag - too soon to report on those. I placed the setosa on the outer perimeter of the tank and will slowly move into higher light. I placed the pocillopora in medium light.

 

Please share a little info about your set up and under what circumstances specific corals/frags have thrived or suffered.

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I have had my Vertex Illumina led's for about 4 weeks now so not sure if mine will be a good reference since I am still adjusting mine. I started out pretty low setting and adjusted up about 3 to 5% a week. Just increased again today. Right now I have mine come on at 8 with an hour ramp up time. Then climb to highest light period from 12 noon to 3pm with RB at 80%, B at 75%, white at 60%, soft white at 60%, UV at 50%. then start ramping down after 3pm and off at 9 with moon light at 1% all night. I turned my red and green off for right now cause I started getting some cyno. Not sure if it was from the red and green light or not. I will experiment and turn them on again at a later date. Everything is doing great so far. No issues with bleaching or rtn, Colors are about the same or better looking. I love this light so far. And light is hung 5 inch above water.

 

2 acro (don't know name right off hand) blue/purple in color, mid to high in tank and color has greatly improved with new light

 

following list is no change from my old 150 w HQI

superman monti ,

pokerstar monti,

sunset monti,

purple monte,

green birdsnest,

2 monticaps,

 

LPS all doing great with color and growth (mid to low in tank)

3 favia

frogspawn

hammer

candy cane

2 blasto

a few acan

scolly, color has improved

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I've had my reefbreeders value fixtures running my sps tank for over a year now and I get good growth on most of my corals. The colors may not be as great as a mh lit tank but they are satisfactory to me. I have my fixtures dialed back to about 25% since they are only about 6" off the surface. I definitely notice loss of color if I crank them up much past that. Also have to slowly acclimate all new frags to the lights.

 

My corals:

Green slimer - high light and high flow. Growing fast and nice color

 

turquoise stag - high light and flow. Growing but nothing extraordinary. Turquoise has faded slightly but still looks nice.

 

Pink birdsnest - lower light and lower flow. Very nice pink and fast growing. This one is really effected by light. If I move it up a few inches it loses color quickly.

 

Green hydno - lower light, high flow. Keeps neon green color and very fast grower.

 

Sunset, poker stars and superman montis - all seem to grow well anywhere in my tank and hold color.

 

Ora pearlberry - I have this high in my tank with high flow. Very little growth and color is somewhat dull.

 

Red monti digi - medium light and flow. My fastest grower and nice color.

 

Raspberry limeade - med light and flow - nice color but very little growth.

 

Purple bonsai - I keep trying new spots for this one. I had it high to start with and it lost most of its color. Also very little growth. Moved it lower and it's starting to color up again.

 

Ponape bnest - medium light and flow. Nice color and average growth.

 

Mars tabling acro - have yet to figure this one out. Kind of like the bonsai. Started high and it lost a lot of color and still working on getting that back.

 

Blue tenuis - high light and flow - decent growth but very pale.

 

Pink lemonade - medium light and flow. Encrusts fast but that's about it. Having trouble getting good color or getting it to grow up.

 

Sand colored monti with blue polyps - high light and flow. Nice color and very fast growing.

 

I am fighting with a caulerpa and cyano issue. I have zero nitrates but haven't tested for phosphates. I started running gfo recently and once a month I'm doing 3 days lights out which seems to help and has no negative impacts on the corals. I don't know the source of the nutrients though I feed very lightly and do weekly water changes.

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Thanks for your replies. I started this thread because after doing a lot of reading on RC, if found the responses to questions about sps color under LEDs fall into 2 categories - "LEDs suck & your corals will never look good" or "maybe it's not the lights, but rather water quality issues". But my experience (granted it's limited) was that it seemed some sps seem to really like the LEDs and some hated it, so that's why I'm interested in individual's experiences with particular sps. I'm not expecting any scientific revelations, but sometime anecdotal evidence can be very helpful.

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There's a good thread on reefcentral under the sps forum where people are posting pics of their led lit sps tanks. I think it's proven that it can be done but there are a lot of variables. Making sure the full spectrum is covered in your led lights, the led intensity, etc.

 

I think the intensity is the main problem people have with LED lighting. It doesn't appear as bright as MH so people tend to bleach their corals. You have to dial your LEDs back and be very careful acclimating new corals to the LED lighting if you are having color issues or bleaching.

 

Of course there are other factors contributing to coral growth and color beyond lighting choice. You just have to look at your individual tank and rule out other issues. Make sure you have nitrates and phosphates in check, proper flow, no pests, stable alk and ph.

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Right, I have some bam bams that actually glow in the light and some that are just ok. I feel it all depends on the actual environment because I have seen other tanks and

the colors of similar corals under different lighting. Hit or miss on the colors. Willie and Orlando seem to be having great success with color from what I see.

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Thanks for your replies. I started this thread because after doing a lot of reading on RC, if found the responses to questions about sps color under LEDs fall into 2 categories - "LEDs suck & your corals will never look good" or "maybe it's not the lights, but rather water quality issues". But my experience (granted it's limited) was that it seemed some sps seem to really like the LEDs and some hated it, so that's why I'm interested in individual's experiences with particular sps. I'm not expecting any scientific revelations, but sometime anecdotal evidence can be very helpful.

I have always found that some sps will thrive and others not under any lighting besides halides. I've had similar results when changing from halides to t5's then to LED's.

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I have always found that some sps will thrive and others not under any lighting besides halides. I've had similar results when changing from halides to t5's then to LED's.

 

Paul I remember having some corals change color when I went from halides to T-5, but I don't think I killed anything. But then again, that was a long time ago - my memory may be faulty. :)

 

There are days I wish I had bought T-5s instead of LEDs, but I do like the small size and minimalist style of the LED fixtures.

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I have some encrusting montis that are growing REALLY well under my two Hydras. Also have a branching monti and acropora that are doing great. Colors are keeping steady.

 

Although the new aquarium I have running keeps near perfect parameters... while my last one was a swamp due to lack of a sump/skimmer/filtration.

 

Either way, LEDs are working so far. It's only been two weeks so time will tell. I need to get pics up.

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Paul I remember having some corals change color when I went from halides to T-5, but I don't think I killed anything. But then again, that was a long time ago - my memory may be faulty. :)

 

There are days I wish I had bought T-5s instead of LEDs, but I do like the small size and minimalist style of the LED fixtures.

That's true I don't remember killing anything with the t5's either. I have certainly lost corals using the LED's but its hard to say if it was the lighting itself or a mixture of things. I don't think that every person that lost the blue tort from my tank under LEDs was coincidence though.

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That's true I don't remember killing anything with the t5's either. I have certainly lost corals using the LED's but its hard to say if it was the lighting itself or a mixture of things. I don't think that every person that lost the blue tort from my tank under LEDs was coincidence though.

 

I agree about the blue tort. I've been hestitant to try another, or any blue sps for that matter.

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Katrina, i've probably used 5-6 different led fixture's in the last 5yrs or so. The intensity is what really makes the diff to me. I have kept everything under them and feel like i've had great success with just about everything. Only corals i just can't keep are shrooms, they just burn up no matter where i put them. I've had alot of zoa's change colors completely but overall I am very happy with them. Some just can't keep sps very well though. Today i did a par test with Scott99 over and 16-18" under the lights through water some of my sps were getting over 1200 par. So dimming is pretty important piece of the puzzle and placement is super important as well. I like to place different types of sps in different intensity levels. I keep my blue's on for 10hrs and white's on for 6-7hrs.

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I agree about the blue tort. I've been hestitant to try another, or any blue sps for that matter.

Do try more blue sps. I have a bonze that is doing awesome. Its just that one blue tort that seems to have had issues with LED's in 4 or 5 tanks. Too bad because that was a great piece.

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Katrina, i've probably used 5-6 different led fixture's in the last 5yrs or so. The intensity is what really makes the diff to me. I have kept everything under them and feel like i've had great success with just about everything. Only corals i just can't keep are shrooms, they just burn up no matter where i put them. I've had alot of zoa's change colors completely but overall I am very happy with them. Some just can't keep sps very well though. Today i did a par test with Scott99 over and 16-18" under the lights through water some of my sps were getting over 1200 par. So dimming is pretty important piece of the puzzle and placement is super important as well. I like to place different types of sps in different intensity levels. I keep my blue's on for 10hrs and white's on for 6-7hrs.

I initially thought the intensity was the issue but wonder now if I just didn't provide enough par to the sps that perished. I'm leaning towards if you run t5's or LED then the parameter flexibility might decrease.

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I can't contribute much as I'm not very much into sps but my reef breeders fixture like chopper320 has did a great job with the green, red(pink), superman monti I had, honestly everything in the tank looked great under it. Its quite possibly the best look/growth I've seen in my own tanks over the years, granted I don't have much experience outside of t5 and that basic led fixture.

 

When I switched from an aquaticlife t5 I ran the light around 30% on both channels and brought it up what I assume was around 5% a week till I hit about 60% which eventually I dialed down to 50. Everything was great at that point.

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My blue tort has done really well with the led's, as have all of the sps. I have one of the old RapidLed diy kits, with 48 3 watt bulbs over a 125 gallon tank (half blue, half white). No dimming.

 

Are you using any supplemental lighting?

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Before my alk spike and recent decline due to other variables, I was having great success with SPS and coloration. :(

 

I'd say that it takes longer for them to get adjusted to LEDs and that the LEDs need to have the right spectrum to fulfill the needs of Chlorophyl A/B. Before adding my big tank in, things had stabalized and corals were adjusted, colored up, and growing like mad with the Atlantik.

 

I was 100 Xs happier with the look of my "frag tank" before:

Atlantik-9_zps2e2f0bba.jpg

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I have now backed my lights off to 50% again. My lps started loosing color, that was my clue that I raised them too soon. Now that I backed them down my corals are looking good again. Nothing bleached or anything like that, the colors were just faded. I think the key is to increase very slowly.

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Spectrum is also an issue that I haven't mentioned. Some Aquaillumniation owners posting over on RC have recently added UV to their fixtures and many are not happy with it. When running HQI MH we have to filter out the UV, so the concept of adding it in confused me a bit.

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I have now backed my lights off to 50% again. My lps started loosing color, that was my clue that I raised them too soon. Now that I backed them down my corals are looking good again. Nothing bleached or anything like that, the colors were just faded. I think the key is to increase very slowly.

 

Many people's perception of the brightness of LEDs is thrown off. We're traditionally used to seeing MHs/T5s which don't have a tight spectrum where we need it. Our eyes perceive yellow and green as brightness and LEDs typically don't have this spectrum covered by anything.

 

That's when the PAR meter comes in handy! (Also pay close attention to what your coral are telling you!)

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I have now backed my lights off to 50% again. My lps started loosing color, that was my clue that I raised them too soon. Now that I backed them down my corals are looking good again. Nothing bleached or anything like that, the colors were just faded. I think the key is to increase very slowly.

 

That's the process I'm still going through. I have not noticed fading of LPS, but my green monti cap is the "canary" in my tank.

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Many people's perception of the brightness of LEDs is thrown off. We're traditionally used to seeing MHs/T5s which don't have a tight spectrum where we need it. Our eyes perceive yellow and green as brightness and LEDs typically don't have this spectrum covered by anything.

 

That's when the PAR meter comes in handy! (Also pay close attention to what your coral are telling you!)

 

Since I don't have the luxury of owning a par meter, I used the club's to "map" out my tank. I did a rough drawing, then took par readings at points on the rock where I was most likely to add a coral in the future.

 

I have one spot that is getting blasted with light so if you find a coral that loves that, let me know. :)

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Spectrum is also an issue that I haven't mentioned. Some Aquaillumniation owners posting over on RC have recently added UV to their fixtures and many are not happy with it. When running HQI MH we have to filter out the UV, so the concept of adding it in confused me a bit.

 

It depends on the spectrum the UV is covering. If it's below 400 nm it's harmful. Above 400 is beneficial in aestethics from my understanding. When talking about filtering UV in previous fixtures it was a different classification of UV (UV-A, UV-B, UV-C, etc) and is often referred to as UV radiation and IS harmful to coral.

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