Switching to LEDs..

I have a 75g tank currently with (2) 250 W MH. What would i need to light the tank properly?

 

2 x 250W halides is enough to grow any type of coral that you would want.

Exactly what are you looking for here? Supplemental lighting? Nothing else is really required. I prefer either T5 or LED for some Actinic supplements.

 

I think he has the halides but would like to swith led and is looking for an equivalent.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

My bad.... here ya go

24 Inch Orphek Power Reef PR156 LED Light Fixture

If I ever get LED, this is what I will be going for. They make a PR156W version that has a wider spread for tanks under 28 inches deep.

 

I am personally in the process of building my own diy led fixture for my new tank. Rapidled sells kits or if you want to piece together a kit yourself you can do that too. I order drivers from Nanotuners, heatsink from heatsinkusa, and Leds from LEDGroupBuy. Leds aren't cheap but but I think will be totally worth it.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

Thats some big money.... A good reason to stick it out with mh's until the waters have settled with the technology.

Trying to replace 250 mh with leds is a task and an unknown investment IMO.

LED for supplementing is a safe place to start with LED's.

 

Agrees!

I have converted a few tanks to all LED with great success short term... My longest conversion has been runing for about 6 months on a 50g and I am thrilled with the results with a varity of corals LPS, SPS, even clams!

The real down side is cost, my best guess to reaplace 2 250 MH's would be around $1000.00 for a DIY and much more for a commercial product.

 

I agree with this entirely - I would add that it's only the initial cost that is so high. The offset savings in: electricity, bulb replacement, and cooling load during summer months (depending on climate) would rapidly recapture the capital investment, IMO.

 

I am new to hobby but i observed several tanks with various MH setups and two LED display tanks at two of the LFS.

I have to say proper LED setup makes the tanks look far better. Tons of shimmer everywhere and the colors are just different. Much better for display tanks in my opinion. Overall the colors are much more saturated. MH tanks in comparison looked whiter and just not as colorful. Intense shimmer from LEDs is what's the most appealing to me.

I think that justifies the cost too, if you can afford it.

P.S. The only kits I saw in person, that wowed me, were Aqua Illuminations kits. That is what I base my opinion on. But those are prolly the most expensive on the market.

 

The AIs are sweet. Most people are using 1 per foot though for SPS dominated systems. In reality, that would probably melt your corals if going from 2x250s. It would produce a lot more par. Luckily they are dimmable. With a 75 you may be able to get away with 3, although there would probably be some areas with less coverage, but this would be good for certain corals. They have fixed optics though, so, to get more spread, you need to raise them more. I think with 2, they would be too high and you'd leak too much light over the front and back.


The Orphek leds or Maxspecs have awesome reviews, and you could probably just do 2. There are also cheaper ones, but they often use 1W leds and/or have some build quality issues.

If your trying to save money, the DIY kits are fairly easy. I just built a 6 led kit for a Fluval edge and it took maybe 2 hours, but that included building a fixture. All you need is basic soldering skills. I don't think it would be $1000, the Cree leds are blindingly bright, I think 2 36 led kits would be more than sufficient. that would be about $700. Of course if you don't plan to do all SPS, you could start out with less and expand latter. 2 x 24 led kits should cover soft and LPS corals, with some SPS at the top. That would be $450.
The more leds you do, the narrower the optics. If you did 72, you'd probably want 40 or 60 deg. Maybe with a few wider lenses mixed in. With 48, you'd probably want 60 or 80 deg, but may want to switch them out latter if you added more.

Also, if you want to keep mostly soft and LPS corals, Ecoxotic makes a panorama fixture, which has wide coverage. I don't know as much about it, but I think it would work for that.