Not real happy with reef breeders led and sps...add T5 for better growth? Or go MH?

So what would you suggest?

Raise my leds power slower till I am eventually running 100% power?
Add more leds?
Add t5's?
Dump the leds and go MH? (what I'm leaning towards as long as I don't need a chiller)

 

Do you have any photos?
I like what someone said above about NO3 and PO4 testing.
I'm no LED expert .. currently run T5 Sun power on 225 but 24" tall.
I dream about Radium shimmer but for now T5 does the job for me in bringing out the colors I like. It's a good compromise for heat and cost. I also have an LED actinic strip with UV to bring out a little more pop similar to Radium. It's mounted on my sunpower.
I've seen a couple local tanks with the Reefbreeders and they had fantastic color.. one guy did say he had to put some coral very close to the top to get colors he wanted. I would check into the nutrients first though.

 

Nice thread.

you said you're running your LED's at 100% for 3 hours? Ouch.
I would think that much intensity would greak out your corals.
How many dimmer channels do you have? Assuming 2- both at 100% for 3 hours? Get some sun screen!
Have you put a PAR meter on those?

Not to talk you out or anything, but I run my Evergrows about 65%bluer channel, and 35% whiter channel.
I run the Bluer channel about 12hours/day, and the whiter channel almost 10.
I didn't pay for the ability to ramp them up or down, or do thunderstorms.
I've Par metered mine- they beat Radions, and basically have the same/similar colors of
LED's.

Edit: My 180 is 24", and I have them 12" off the water surface.
At those settings, I"m running ~400 PAR at ~9" deep.



No complaints here.

Again, I'm not trying to talk you out of anything, or into for that matter, just adding my 2 cents.

 

Run em at 100%blue 80%white for full light cycle.

 

No, sorry here is what my led's are doing - ramp up from 50 blue and 40 white to a high of 70% blue and 60% white for 3 hours. My total light cycle is 12 hours on per day.

I believe I have plenty of par but am concerned that something is missing in the spectrum that is hampering sps growth....

 

I'd check some of the levels, get a grounding probe, drink a beer, etc.

 

I pretty well have the same setup as you only a slightly deeper tank at 30" (probably 27" to the sandbed) and am running my RB's at a higher power setting.

How long have you had RB leds?

What lighting did you have before?

How has your growth (sps) been under RB?

 

I have had this problem before myself. Color stays, polyp extension is great, and I get ZERO growth. It happened with a DIY (semi-full spectrum LED ) light I made. It happened with AI Sol's and Radion's. I supplemented with T5HO, with little improvement. I switched to 250W Radium MH's and color stayed, PE stayed, and growth exploded. No other changes. Some will argue LED's were not powerful enough, and some will say optics were causing too much light, etc. I know LED's can grow corals, as I've seen many friends with tremendous success. I've also seen too many experiences like this one as well...something must be amiss. I would add T5's (ATI Blue+ and Coral+) and see what happens.

 

I have the Evergrow LED's- Ebay, I think it's the same as their base model
I had PC's before.
I'm getting very good growth and PE with my current lights- off Ebay.

 

I do understand though that every DT and situation varies for sure.