LEDs - Good, Bad or just another addiction?

[duke62]

ive noticed sps bleaching with a certain unit.even kept over 10" off the water

 

[cmor1701d]

Did you light acclimate the sps to the new light? Not sure what unit you have, but with the PacSun I'm currently running the units at 62% and gradually bumping it a couple of ponts every other day. I stopped at this point as I am now increasing the length of the photoperiod. Eventualy I'll get to 100% for a few hours/day during a 12 hour photperiod.

 

[cali_reef]

Most if not all the 1W units are assembly-line soldered on, very difficult to replace LED bulbs for a hobbyist.

 

[cali_reef]

I wanted to know Why PAcsun aka you and felix were coming out with a new fixture with 3w leds when you already had a 1w that was supposed to be good enough.

When a computer is made with more memory or a faster proccessor the old model is considered obselete. Which in aquarium stuff is true too. I didnt make this up, its widely know.

That doesnt mean that a product doesnt work it just means that there was a chance for upgrade.

In my pics on the other forum the lights the tank was just set up as i said and had lots of stuff floating in the water, cyano on the sand from my cycle. Its a mess but it was the first shots of my tank with the leds set up on them.

I GOT THE LIGHTS ON JAN 6 those pictures are from JAN 13. The tank was set up Dec 10.

Id like to show pics of what my tank looks like now, fully setup and the Leds totally adjusted. You can wait till tommorow cant you?

Ive never seen pics of your tanks with LEDS on them.

Rafal do you work for pacsun cause youve got all the answers.

Here is your answer on the 1W vs. 3W LED. looks like it took a few weeks for them to figure this out but they think the 3W LED's are better:

"PacificSun USA has announced the release of the IO Unit!

This 80W Unit Packs a BIG PUNCH!
Using 3W Cree Bulbs, this units outputs almost
as much light as the 120W Pythons!"

Time for some folks to "upgrade" :lol2:...

And yes, looks like he does work or is part owner of PSUSA.

 

[AlohaTropics]

Hi Cali or Captain Obvious,

I have never hidden my association with Pacific Sun. As a matter of fact, at the Frag Swap, I handed out 3x5 Cards of the creation of PacificSun USA. Why don't you stop taking jabs at me? Its getting really old.

In response to the 1W vs 3W, Warren was using the Solaris, and other 3W units. He also went with a 1W PacSun unit. Its just a fundamentally different light. We recognized the "Battle" between the schools of thought of 1W technology and 3W technology. We urged the Manufacturers to produce the 3W AS WELL as the 1W units because simply there is a market for both. As I explained initially, we are just trying to satisfy both sides of the market that think either one is better than the other. Its like McDonalds owns Chipotle. Are they trying to say that one is better than the other? No, they just realize that some prefer one and some prefer the other, so as a retailer, they are offering both.

And also don't forget, the 3W units are more expensive. Thats another factor. These IO units are on an intially offering discount, but when its over, they will probably be priced around the same as the 120W 1W units. If you want the 3W 160W units, you will have to pay for them (about $300 more than the 120W).

Its all relative.

 

[pecan2phat]

Felix,
Question on the monetary surcharge for customers ordering the 160W Cree units with optional focal optics? (How much does the option cost?)
Also, how are they mounting the optics? Normally, I see them clipped onto the traditional LED star but the PS Cree units looks like one PCB?

 

[rafal07013]

Warren - I emailed Przemek and he said that focal optics are between the MCPCB board and glass cover and connected with 3M adhesive.

Price - it depends on the type of the optic you want and quantity.

Felix,
Question on the monetary surcharge for customers ordering the 160W Cree units with optional focal optics? (How much does the option cost?)
Also, how are they mounting the optics? Normally, I see them clipped onto the traditional LED star but the PS Cree units looks like one PCB?

 

[pecan2phat]

Thanks for the info Rafal

 

[cali_reef]

Hi Cali or Captain Obvious,

I have never hidden my association with Pacific Sun. As a matter of fact, at the Frag Swap, I handed out 3x5 Cards of the creation of PacificSun USA. Why don't you stop taking jabs at me? Its getting really old.

In response to the 1W vs 3W, Warren was using the Solaris, and other 3W units. He also went with a 1W PacSun unit. Its just a fundamentally different light. We recognized the "Battle" between the schools of thought of 1W technology and 3W technology. We urged the Manufacturers to produce the 3W AS WELL as the 1W units because simply there is a market for both. As I explained initially, we are just trying to satisfy both sides of the market that think either one is better than the other. Its like McDonalds owns Chipotle. Are they trying to say that one is better than the other? No, they just realize that some prefer one and some prefer the other, so as a retailer, they are offering both.

And also don't forget, the 3W units are more expensive. Thats another factor. These IO units are on an intially offering discount, but when its over, they will probably be priced around the same as the 120W 1W units. If you want the 3W 160W units, you will have to pay for them (about $300 more than the 120W).

Its all relative.

I see your issue now, you have a problem with READING..

The question and answer link I posted is in regarding to Rafal's affiliation with PSUSA, not you.

As for your explanation of why PS now have 3W LED based units, it don't fly.. McD's and Chipotle serves two different food, it's more like comparing LED vs. T5 or MH, not LED to LED.. You would have a better case if McD happens to own say, WhiteCastle or Windy's.

You should ask Rafal to work out mathematically at a $ cost per watt bases for the 160W and the 120W unit, he seems to be good at working out these "complex" calculations. Why would a light that uses more power, produce less light, and cost more to purchase per watt is "better" or be even equivalent? You'll also need to consider the extra 40 watts of electricity the 80W IO will be saving when compare to the 120W units you've sold, that was a big selling point in your 1W LED's when compared to other brands.

 

[AlohaTropics]

I see your issue now, you have a problem with READING..

The question and answer link I posted is in regarding to Rafal's affiliation with PSUSA, not you.

As for your explanation of why PS now have 3W LED based units, it don't fly.. McD's and Chipotle serves two different food, it's more like comparing LED vs. T5 or MH, not LED to LED.. You would have a better case if McD happens to own say, WhiteCastle or Windy's.

You should ask Rafal to work out mathematically at a $ cost per watt bases for the 160W and the 120W unit, he seems to be good at working out these "complex" calculations. Why would a light that uses more power, produce less light, and cost more to purchase per watt is "better" or be even equivalent? You'll also need to consider the extra 40 watts of electricity the 80W IO will be saving when compare to the 120W units you've sold, that was a big selling point in your 1W LED's when compared to other brands.

Okay, I apologize Cali, I didn't realize you were referring to Rafal's affiliation because you posted previously all this info trying to link me to PacSun. But anyway, yes he has been helping from the start because he speaks the native language of the manufacturers.

Maybe my analogy should have said its like a company that produces both Double Ended Metal Halide Bulb Fixtures and Single Ended Moguls. Or how about a company that produces a few different types of skimmers, needle wheel, conical, etc...

Regardless, we wanted to assure the people that purchased 1W units, that they're units are NOT obsolete. That was main idea. All of the arguing and twisting of logic has gotten away from that statement. We are producing both units to try to satisfy both sides of the market. The 1W units are still being sold side by side with the 3W units and will continue to have the great customer service we have already demonstrated.

 

[mellotang]

Is Cree the only option? Meaning are there comparable quality bulbs, is it like comparing ushio to xm, both quality, just different. Or is Cree really the best for reefing?

 

[cali_reef]

Cree's are readily available pre-mounted on a aluminum star, fairly easy for a consumer\hobbyist to intergrade. They also have one if the highest Luminous Flux from all the data sheet I have come across.

 

[pecan2phat]

Seth,
The Cree High bin XP-G & XR-E seem to be the brightest output when compared to other 3W LEDs like SemiLED.

Wingo is doing a bulk group buy on the Crees and I'm guessing that he will be offering them as an option on his future builds.

 

[mfarris2]

Recommended Daily Light Hours And Color.

What does everyone recommend for color and length of time for LED lights.
When I was running MH's a few weeks ago, I ran my main lights from 5:30am until 5:00pm. No algae problems as I run a sulfur denitrater keeping my nitrates at 0. Corals were growing like crazy.
Is there such a thing as to much light for the corals? I know that 10K color is great for the corals with MH. But everyone I see with LED's seems to be heavy on the blue spectrum. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Tank is a mixed tank with sps, lps, zoos, clams, mushrooms, etc

 

[pecan2phat]

I played around with the spectrum at first but ended up going back to the 18K default kelvin temp which should be 100% blues & whites.
I don't think at that kelvin temp that it is too blue and happen to like it since my last set of MH bulbs were a 14k look.
I run my lights on a 12 hour photo period with 60 minute sunrise & sunset. Also cloud cover for 15 minute intervals 5x a day. So for intensity purposes, my corals are only getting about 9 hours of 100% intensity during one photo period.

 

[ming]

My LED's have arrived. XP-G R5's and XR-E Royal Blues!
Maybe I'll get started over the weekend.

 

[mfarris2]

Thank you. I will play with with the setting starting at your recommended settings.

 

[pecan2phat]

My LED's have arrived. XP-G R5's and XR-E Royal Blues!
Maybe I'll get started over the weekend.

Aw Ming,
I didn't know that they were so special that you are bedding them :biglaugh:

 

[pecan2phat]

Thank you. I will play with with the setting starting at your recommended settings.

mfarris,
I have found that sometimes when you change the setting, they are unresponsive. Best thing to do is to clear the memory and program everything new. I usually do this after the current photo period is over.

 

[mfarris2]

Have done as you suggested and cleared memory. Then reprogrammed as suggested. Thank you for your input.