Reef Breeder Led Fixture

[harleymike]

Ordering this light tomorrow. I have followed it the last year and tossed around the idea of going all led.

http://reefbreeders.com/shop/photon-48/

I am finally taking the plunge.
I will post pics and comments once I get it.
So i will be posting a aquaticlfie 8 fixture t5 48" light for sale.

Thanks
MIke

 

[Jewel]

Nice to see LED coming down in price.

 

[harleymike]

They are shipped and will be here on wed. I will post any review as i set them up.

 

[sunnykita]

I'll be following this thread with great interest !

 

[chuckm]

ME too!

 

[curiousphil]

What were you previously using Mike? I can't remember..

 

[harleymike]

I was using an auquticlife 8 bulb t5ho 48inch long. which is now for sale.

 

[harleymike]

OK picked them up today. They were here in 3 days.Awesome shipping. Packaging was excellent. Very heavy duty. They could have fallen off the back of a truck and survived.
First impression, very well built, look great. Don't feel flimsy at all. They came with a hanging kit, that i did not use. But the hanging kit is of top quality. Fully adjustable up, down, and front to back.
I removed my t5 fixture and installed the reef breeder led.
Love it. Very easy to program. I got it right the first time. LOL
I ran a piece of 2x2 across each end of my canopy and have it sitting on this. Now I can slide it forward or backwards for adjusting.

Its about 8 inches above the water. Thats as high as I could put it.
I did leave the 90 deg optics on it. I can take them off and have 120 deg optics then.
It looks fine with the 90 but i may change my mind. As I do have some shadowing near the front edge. But keep in mind my tank is 48"long,30" front to back. So for a 24" tank the coverage would be better.

The lights are very bright and colour looks great.
I have them ramping up over 3 hours to 60% and 50% on each channel, and they stay on at this power for 3 hours, then ramp down to moonlights over another 3 hours.

Over the next couple of weeks I will adjust intensity and length of time. Also play with the colour mixture a bit.
I will keep you guys informed on coral growth and any other issues that may or may not arise.
So far, I would highly recommend them. But its just the first day, so stay tuned.
I do have a bunch of DIY leds now, so I may adda strip to the front edge to take care of the coverage, but only because my tank is so big (front to back).
I should add, I sent Logan at reef breeders a bunch of emails, and he was very quick to respond and had excellent advise. He also warned me that with my tank dimensions there could be shadows at the front or back.
See pics below.
Mike

 

[harleymike]

tank shot

 

[EricTMah]

Awesome upgrade!

I'd highly recommend starting slow with the intensity. You're definitely going to burn some corals if you crank that up too high. Especially coming from T5's. I went from Mh's with T5's and toasted about half my corals running my maxspects at 60% intensity in less than a week.

The shimmer must be amazing compared to the T5's!

 

[harleymike]

hmm maybe i will dial it down a bit. I had 8 t5 on 12 hours a day before.

 

[EricTMah]

I'd start off around the 40% range maybe lower. For a week. Then bump it about 5% weekly till you're where you want to be.



Sent from my Z30 using Tapatalk 2

 

[harleymike]

I just lowered it to 50% on channel 1 (blues) and 40% on channel two ( the rest)
I might pull the 90 deg optics off in a couple days. See how it looks.

 

[EricTMah]

That's a safe spot to start.

Take before and after pics of the optics removed.

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[harleymike]

Still on the fence about removing them. I was just debating about doing it now.
Would i lose much par values running them with no optics(120 deg)

 

[monizb]

I started my led at %40 %40 and worked them up slowly and now at %50 %55 and coral are great and I.came from 8 bulb ati

 

[EricTMah]

Still on the fence about removing them. I was just debating about doing it now.
Would i lose much par values running them with no optics(120 deg)

I'm actually not sure about the par numbers after you remove the optics. Maybe brandon can chime in. I know he tried it with his led's.

Sent from my Z30 using Tapatalk 2

 

[curiousphil]

I've tried my DIY LEDs with and without optics. Optics made a minor difference in my case, I believe it was at most 50 PAR gained just under the surface.

 

[harleymike]

After 5 days. I can some polyp extension is huge. But I do see some browning on a couple corals.
I do frequent water changes and run gfo. So I suspect not enough light.
I added another 5% to the power output on channel 1(blues) then I will maybe adjust again in a few days.
I was running 8 t5 and 36leds before. So i may not have the light output i had before.
mike

 

[harleymike]

Lights seem more than able to grow corals of all sorts. But they are powerful.
I did end up cutting them back even more. I burnt 2 small corals, and the tips of a couple others.
But these lights are very nice, great colour, and easy to run. Built in timer is great and user friendly.
On a side note, I had a huge alk swing and now adding the led's. I have managed to kill a few corals. But out of the sps corals, the milli corals seem to be the hardiest ones. They never missed a beat through all this upset.
I would highly recommend these lights, great product at a very reasonable price.
Mike