LEDs - Good, Bad or just another addiction?

[mfarris2]

Pacific Sun Led"s

Well, several months have gone by with my Pacific Sun Led's. This is an analysis of my lights. I have two 120 watt units on a 75 gallon tank.
When I first received my lights, I noticed that the fans did not work properly. (In my opinion.) After talking with Rafal and him talking to his people, they came up with a fix.) I sent my master unit back to him and it was promptly repaired and returned to me.
I love the bluetooth software that allows me to customize my light temperature and intensity. I can add cloud cover throughout the day and have moon phase. (I do wish that I could customize cloud cover at different times of the day for different days. Say for 7 days, a full week.)
I live in Florida and this was especially long hot summer. Removing metal halides and installing the LED's cut my chiller run time by at least 50%. The room temperature has also dropped by several degrees. Thus my A/C ran a bit less.
But the real test was how would the corals react. I am very happy to say I did not waste my $1800.00. The coral growth has been phenomenal. I have a mixed tank. Both my SPS and LPS have grown at an unbelievable rate. All of my frags have at least grown to 4 times the original size. A few are easily classified as mother colonies now. (Better than 10 times the original size.)
All of my corals have grown at a much better rate than when I was running metal halide (Bulbs changed every six months) and florescents.
All of my corals look healthy and happy.
Other than the fan situation which was promptly corrected. The PS led's thus far have been very reliable and have given me no issues.
I therefore can make the statement that with the included software and the quality of the modules, if I had to choose again, I would still be buying Pacific Suns.

 

[strendo]

Great review thanks

 

[Mattl22]

First time I'm seeing this thread wow pecan ur tanks r amazing especially ur main dt
U guys r way ahead of where I'm at I hope to catch up though !

 

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

wow great post pecan i have had so much to take in with all the led mystery going around and i gotta say i was leaning towards a more affordable t5 unit but settled with the ai sol unit and im really happy with it , it provides some realy amazing lighting spectrums but i did in fact have to wait about a month to get mine from a dealer in south carolina and i think the remote was also on back order but after the wait , i have been fully convinced about the led revolution and the fact that my water temp does not change is amazing.

even though it is a bit pricey i do believe that led is here to stay it will see its changes and improvements for sometime to come, but im keeping my ai sol system and loving that simple 5 dollar a month electric bill increase lol .

in conclusion what you shell out now will be saved in just a year or two of bulb replacements.

i have a nice custom mounted image of my unit in my images if anybody wants to see.

 

[pecan2phat]

Nice clean mount saltwaterinbrooklyn, is that an SOL blue or SOL white unit?

This is the great thing about all the products out there, different applications for different tanks and needs.
DIY, 3 watters, 1 watters, with and without optics, controllable, simple on/off for blues and whites etc.

 

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

oh its a sol but not sure which model its got both blue and white in the 8 puck system and it now has the firmware upgrade to simulate thunder storms with lightning affects which i think should be fun once i download it, and thanks , it was a pain in the but to mount lucky for me i have a good friend who works in metal welding and did the bracket and arm for me! that was a big help in the clean install, but i forgot to tell ya, that your pictures are amazing i hope to have a tank like that some day its amazing to say the least.

 

[rgarofalo]

whatr color tem is everyone running on their pac suns?
I'm running 19500k
Wondering what would be better for growth

 

[robbous]

i am running mine the same 19500k like the custom hood i had made for the pacific sun lights?? hanging from the celling.

 

[cmor1701d]

How high over the water are your LEDs sitting?
I have mine at 4.5" over the water, with the fixures mounted in the canopy.

 

[pecan2phat]

It's been 13 months since I switched over from MH/VHO to 1 watt LEDs. The Pacific Sun 1 watt versions have grown my SPS very well and even the clams on the bottom seem to be fine so no reason to upgrade to all the 3 watt Cree lamps out there now.

I finally got a chance to use one of the chinese branded light that I had bought a while back for backup purposes. These are 1 watt/120 watt fixtures, just a tad bit whiter then the Pacific Suns based on the bulb configurations and are non-controllable but have separate on/off for whites and blues/actinics.
I sold off the Oceanic 45g Tech tank and replaced it with a 66g 30"x30"x17" cube as the frag tank running off the 120g SPS system. It is just a way to add water volume and a place to grow out frags and place stuff that has no more room in the 120g.
The lamp is 11" off the water surface so that I can get the coverage that I need. It's good enough for a frag/growout system but I might replace it with two AI SOL blue modules if opportunity arises. The separate modules would allow me to space them a little vs a single 120w module. For now it's good enough.
First pic is the replaced 45g Tech with a Solaris I5 that ran at 216 watts, now it's more volume and surface space at about half the wattage:

66g Glass Cages low iron cube:

 

[cali_reef]

Those "frags" looks more like mini colonies. the 120 looks great!

 

[Mattl22]

U r tank is amazing that's from 1 watt LEDs ? How many of them


Sent from my iPhone using Reefs

 

[Alex]

Pecan2phat........... WOW, amazing tank or better yet amazing tanks. you have some fantastic growth. My hat goes off to you and your tanks, absolutely amazing.

 

[LongIslandAndy]

Beautiful Warren, who's tank is it. JK

 

[pecan2phat]

Thanks guys, just wanted to show all that my corals are still alive :lol2:

Yes Matt, they are 1 watt emitters. The 120g has two units, each unit has 119 one watt emitters.

So for all those that state 1 watt LEDs cannot grow SPS................................

 

[InfernoST]

Pecan2Phat, Beautiful setup.:splitspin

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

恭喜發財

Your frag tank seems better made than your 120G-look at the canopy, the stand and cabinet. J/K

Great setups.

Congradulate you corals are still alive taking the bold step towards LED. Actually they look very healthy under them.

 

[MarineLt]

Just Awesome. Hats off to you

 

[pecan2phat]

So I've come to the conclusion that it is an addiction :lol:

I've always wanted to try the Maxspect line as an inexpensive line of lights vs all the controllable fixtures just to see how they are. Since I am piss poor, I ended up picking a G2-60w to jerry rig into a 24g Aqua Pod hood.
Unit seems nicely made along with their power supply with a built in timer that switches to 2 one watt moonlights after the lighting period. The G2-60w does not have separate on/off for the whites and blues but all the other larger units do. 3 rows of LEDs not including the 2 moonlights. Outer rows consist of 5 whites and 1 actinic for each row and the center row has 6 blue LEDs. Total of 18 primary LEDs.
When I get a chance to setup and transfer the stuff from the 12g, I'll post more pics and let you know what I think about them. For now, heres a couple of pics on stuffing the small unit into the AP hood. I gutted the hood of everything and used a hole saw to cut out a circle for the light's internal fan. I used stainless steel solid wire to secure the light utilizing some existing screw tabs on the hood. Added two stealth fans where the fan mounts are:

Another line I've always had my eye on were the Aqua Illumination fixtures. Since they came out with the SOL Blues, it was very enticing. I originally had setup the 66g frag tank/cube with one 120w chinese branded LED fixture. While it was okay, I felt it was a little dim since I had to keep it raised about 11" due to the canopy and also to achieve the spread for the 30"x30" foot print.
I picked up a 48" AI system and finally got around to putting 2 modules on the frag/cube tank. It works out well with 2 modules because I can spread them vs a single centered pendant. The 2 AI modules are rated at 144w vs the single 120w fixture so energy consumption is not really a factor.
I have to say that I am quite amazed by these modules. I have them at 35% for the whites, blues & royal blues and it is just as bright if not brighter, as the 120w chinese branded fixture.
I'm going to say that out of the Pacific Sun, Solaris I5, the AIs might be my favorite controllable fixture to date:

 

[MIKE NY]

looking good Warrren!...I was looking at the Ai fixtures as well. They are very nice units, but still alittle pricey for my tank.