The myth that LED lights last forever

[Reefering1]

Same as mh's to a certain extent.
Looks ugly hanging from your ceiling .

Gavita Pro 270e LEP Grow (41.02 emitter) 277 Volt

Harness the power of the sun with the Gavita Pro 270e LEP. This fixture utilizes a new emitter that allows for a more compact fixture design. When it comes to lighting plants you need both quantity and quality. To further optimize the quality of your crop we introduced supplemental plasma light...

bloomponic.com

Sorry couldn't resist.
There is one actual study out there comparing sulfur plasma to led.

Think it just doesn't " fit" well for reef aquariums unless you are a farmer

To be honest there is sometimes no obvious rhyme or reason for things.
Take electrode-less fluorescent tubes fired up by microwaves
More efficient, longer life.. withering on the vine. Some euro co tried to market it.
Afaict failed.

Shove those ugly things in a canopy and we got a party!! Then heat management becomes the name of the game. But how did they compare, any good?

 

[buruskeee]

I would say that I'm estimating, not guessing. I assumed that others would infer that if I'm saying 3 250w halide fixtures, we aren't taking about a 4x2 tank(duh, OBVIOUSLY!!) And trust me I did plenty research on the xr30s before deciding to dump 3 grand on halide bulbs. I was prepared to spend that on the xr's. Furthermore, what kind of spread/shadowing will they produce at 8" above waterline? Without looking it up again, yes guessing, I thought it was closer to 14-16" up for my desires.
So before guessing and taking a stab at an opportunity to respond to every comment, try reading and comprehending the circumstances/application surrounding the presented scenario! Imo, that's what's wrong with some people(like you) ; they don't

Ok, I’m running 3x XR30 G5 with diffusers and I have to run them at 50% power (300W peak total) because I’m running mixed reef and at 50% I’m still getting 200 PAR on the sand which is still higher than I like (400 PAR at the top of my rocks 10” under the surface).

You never gave the context of the scenario so don’t blame me for not “comprehending”.

Sounds like you also did this quite a few years ago. Tech keeps moving and what’s true this year wasn’t true last year.

No matter how you try to disguise it, current gen LEDs will never put out half the power Halides do. It’s just common sense in the electrical/circuits world - heat alone should imply this.

 

[Reefering1]

Ok, I’m running 3x XR30 G5 with diffusers and I have to run them at 50% power (300W peak total) because I’m running mixed reef and at 50% I’m still getting 200 PAR on the sand which is still higher than I like (400 PAR at the top of my rocks 10” under the surface).

You never gave the context of the scenario so don’t blame me for not “comprehending”.

Sounds like you also did this quite a few years ago. Tech keeps moving and what’s true this year wasn’t true last year.

No matter how you try to disguise it, current gen LEDs will never put out half the power Halides do. It’s just common sense in the electrical/circuits world - heat alone should imply this.

Fair enough... how tall/long is your tank?

 

[buruskeee]

Fair enough... how tall/long is your tank?

water line is 27 high

 

[buruskeee]

Next thing I’ll be told by the same crowd is that the GPH that the DC return pumps put out isn’t the same as the AC pumps at the same wattage.

‍

 

[Reefering1]

Next thing I’ll be told by the same crowd is that the GPH that the DC return pumps put out isn’t the same as the AC pumps at the same wattage.

‍

Sounds like a entirely different subject. But, I love my dc pumps, their inaudible and keep working, I get the biggest that will fit and dial back if necessary

 

[ErikVR]

The energy savings alone are worth it. Even if I have to replace them every two years.

 

[Reefering1]

The energy savings alone are worth it. Even if I have to replace them every two years.

Really!!! Must be a small tank. I can't justify replacing 4 thousand in lights, every 2 years, to save a few hundred watts in electricity every month. Sounds like California talk(?)

 

[Midrats]

Fact: I look terrible under fluorescent lighting.

 

[oreo54]

Shove those ugly things in a canopy and we got a party!! Then heat management becomes the name of the game. But how did they compare, any good?

Yea as far as I remember it had a marginal victory.
To be honest current high cri LEDs should be equivalent but speculation.

My Google-fu seems to be malfunctioning as to finding the paper.
Anyways, history.

what happened to plasma lighting?

So I know 3-4 years ago there was a lot of talk and excitement around plasma lighting technology, since then it has kind of died out so I am wondering does anyone know what exactly happened and why this technology wasn't pursued?

www.reef2reef.com

Huh was in that thread .

Coral growth under Light Emitting Diode and Light Emitting Plasma: a cross-family comparison

With the advent of new technology, aquarists are able to customize light spectra with great flexibility. However, our knowledge of how light spectrum affects aquarium life, including corals, is still limited. Here, we show the effects of two light spectra, emitted by Light Emitting Diode (LED)...

reefs.com

Study had issues.
Anyways..

The results obtained during this study reveal that the effects of spectrum and irradiance on coral growth are highly species dependent, which underscores the need for species-specific optimization of aquaculture. At present, different coral species are aquacultured under similar conditions, which clearly is not optimal

Actually the discussion is a poster child on the difficulties of comparing one light to another

 

[ErikVR]

Really!!! Must be a small tank. I can't justify replacing 4 thousand in lights, every 2 years, to save a few hundred watts in electricity every month. Sounds like California talk(?)

At €0.79 per kwh... Absolutely!!

 

[Doctorgori]

Been hunting whitetail with Clovis points for years, and they still work (even better on ground sloths)
…and hundreds cheaper then those rifle gizmos

 

[buruskeee]

At €0.79 per kwh... Absolutely!!

I get some people get to live out in the country with $0.05/kWh power and it’s snowy half the year and need whatever heat sources they can get, but every reefer has different needs and priorities.

Bottom line MH/T5/LEDs PAR for PAR grow corals as good as the other.

To stay on topic with this thread title, LED degradation is marginal and a non factor for most reefers with current technology. I just got back into the hobby, but if I was still in the game before the Gen4 Radions came out, I too would have avoided them and stuck with Halides and T5.

Even Melevsreef finally made the switch to LEDs (Sky) and had admitted they grow just as well with a spectrum you can tune to appear to whatever color temperature you prefer.

Again, it’s all preference at this point, unless heat and power are a primary concern of course.

 

[Reefering1]

At €0.79 per kwh... Absolutely!!

I couldn't or wouldn't want to imagine...

 

[Doctorgori]

seriously tho, nobody loved that ATI sun power more than me…Heck even as recently as a few years back I I spent hundreds making a DIY T5 fixture….
to each their own, but tbh it’s over for both T5’s and MH…
I’m not outfitting my tanks with fans or trying to find a dry spot for a ballast, cord, et, nor worry about water splash or when I can shut my lights back on…
….it over…. even if or when my 10yr old Kessils allegedly degrade …. I’ll cop new gear and keep it moving ….

 

[buruskeee]

seriously tho, nobody loved that ATI sun power more than me…Heck even as recently as a few years back I I spent hundreds making a DIY T5 fixture….
to each their own, but tbh it’s over for both T5’s and MH…
I’m not outfitting my tanks with fans or trying to find a dry spot for a ballast, cord, et, nor worry about water splash or when I can shut my lights back on…
….it over….

Yeah I wasn’t ready to give up T5 for fill, but those AI Blades are very impressive. By the time I’ll need fill lights (I hope 18 months), I wonder what new strips will come out.

 

[buruskeee]

I couldn't or wouldn't want to imagine...

Let me run some wire to your meter please.

 

[Reefering1]

Let me run some wire to your meter please.

lol. Good ole Florida!! Where are you? What do they charge there?

 

[oreo54]

For fun ..

Unique Fluorescent Lamp From Italy

Just got back from the Pets Festival in Italy. Saw these lamps - I'm trying to get one to test, and if results are favorable they might be available in the U.S. Available in four spectra - 6500, 10,000, 14,000 and 20,000K (advertised - probably much bluer than that) and in wattages up to 150.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[CBonito]

LEDs last long enough which is good enough for me. Let's face it here...every couple years everyone makes this mass exodus to the next "game changer" marketing gimmick when what they had was perfectly fine...so it's safe to say very few will ever reach the lifespan of their LEDs regardless. They'll get suckered into something else long before that.

If an LED fixture lasts 5 years without a problem, I'm totally fine with that. Chances are the manufacturer wont be making replacement parts for it anyway at that point.

The main enemy of LEDs is heat. If your fixture is maintained, not in a hot enclosed hood and the dust is kept out of the fan, I'm willing to bet they last a lot longer.

It all comes down to what you wanna do. Change bulbs every six months to a year, or chuck a fixture in 5 years...no one is ahead of the other in the end.