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samancrb 
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Joined: December 10 2015
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 Topic: light for corals
Posted: December 10 2015 at 5:49am |
Guys, who uses LEDs
for lighting the corals? Do you pay for electricity less? I ask because I heard
that the led light is better for the corals? Is it true? I have a standard T5
panel. The LED panels cost too much for me. Can I leave my current panel for the corals? I
will add purple and pipe corals.
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Krazie4Acans
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Posted: December 10 2015 at 5:58am |
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There are quite a few of us that use LEDs over our tanks. Tons of us use a mixed setup with more than one type of lighting. Tell us a little more about your system and we can probably be more helpful with information specific to what can help you achieve what you're looking for.
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My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water Tank Thread:
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ggs
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Posted: December 10 2015 at 6:40am |
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I run complete leds over both tanks and get nice growth and coloration in my corals sps and lps as for the power bill I pay less then 100$ a month and run 5 sets of leds over a 150g and a 50g grow tank
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150 mixed reef w/ 50g grow out
28 jbj
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Fatman
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Posted: December 10 2015 at 8:06am |
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I had metal halide lights over my tanks and my light bill was huge. We changed to LEDs and has a significant drop in the power bill. It was so impressive we moved to LEDs for the lighting in our home where ever we could.
I like them and the ability to control the lights more than other lights. Some people say the coral grow better under T-5 or halides, but I haven't noticed a difference.
Fat
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ttabbal
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Posted: December 10 2015 at 9:32am |
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I use some pretty cheap LED panels from EBay, they work well though. If you already have T5s, you're probably good to keep them unless you have really specific needs. More info about what's in the tank, pics of the tank, etc. would help determine if there's a reason to switch. How many T5 bulbs does your setup use, and are they T5 or T5HO?
The cost to run LED vs T5 isn't likely to be a huge difference. If you were running Metal Halide, that would be huge, but T5 is pretty efficient. To "break even" on LED power savings vs cost for LED would take a while.
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: December 10 2015 at 10:25am |
The answers above are all good. I especially like how ttabbel said it. LED's are finally getting good enough to grow coral, though the best LED fixtures are still way expensive to buy. More and more used LED fixtures are coming up for sale. Yippie! I've just got to throw this in.  Sunlight is free and grows everything much better than artificial light, but when the sun goes down...it's fluorescent lights(T5, PC) and LED's for me. Plus, I love Macroalgae. 
Aloha, Mark 
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samancrb
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Posted: December 11 2015 at 1:35am |
Thank you guys for all your answers.
Mark, your tank is really beautiful in the daylight. What fluorescent
lamps do you use when the sun goes down? My T5 fixture is with these types of
lamps https://www.mrosupply.com/lighting/ballasts/fluorescent-ballasts/1854552_flft521w835_fulham-lighting/
Can I grow soft corals with it? I have 4 lamps there now.
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: December 11 2015 at 7:50am |
Yes those lamps can grow coral of every type, if placed close enough to the coral. Those are yellowish-white lights with a Kelvin rating of 3500K. That's what is used for normal household/office lighting and also why they are so cheap at $2.90 each for a case of 25. They are also standard output tubes.
Please tell us, What brand and model is the fixture? Is it High Output(HO)?
In a 4 tube fixture I use 3 blue tubes and one pink tube. The blue tubes are for growth and health while the pink tube helps makes colors "pop". The pink tubes reflection was just slightly out of view in this pic where 3 blue tubes are clearly visible. A pink is just barely seen in the reflection of the neighboring fixture along the right edge of this pic:
The tank these pics came from were not that beautiful. They were just part of a coral farm that I started.  Here is the grander view of the coral farm where sunlight came in from the large south facing window:
Where sunlight is not available, fluorescent tubes that emit light in the spectrum closer to what coral receive in the wild are good for growing coral. I'll show some pics to illustrate this idea and we can go on from there. Notice how quickly the blue segment of the light spectrum (the rainbow) becomes the dominant color.
(That's 30 feet deep)
Aloha, Mark
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Marcoss
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Posted: December 11 2015 at 8:23am |
Mark,
Do you have a build thread for your coral farm? Curious to know how your water bridge worked, assuming that is what I see in the images.
Marcos
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RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: December 11 2015 at 8:45am |
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