Would you buy an LED light fixture if the price was right?

I think we'll continue to encounter delays in research and development on these lights.
Unless the light companies are owned by or partnered up with experienced or professional coral farmers, they are going to run into a lot of other problems that aren't related to just the lights.
I'd also be curious as to how far the light spectrum from the LEDs could penetrate into deeper tanks. I could see LED lights working well first in the large shallow coral display tanks at the LFS and coral growers. This could bring down costs and possibly coral prices.
But as with the flourescent bulbs that replaced the incandescent bulbs for "around the house use", as soon as that big wave happened, and the consumer energy consumption fell, they raised the energy prices. Last January, I replaced 85% of the incandescent bulbs in the house with flourescent (not the dimmer controlled ones). That energy bill was just about the same as the previous month due to the 20% hike in energy rates.

 

I most likely would but I would have to see it in action (live) and the price would atleast have to be comperable to MH

 

I feel the same as most of you do. I have seen it in action in a LFS and Im impressed with all the different settings it has, but when it comes to real life function, I agree with Jason. Tank seemed dark, not shimmering, The corals that where in the tank where very few and of course, who can touch the price tag? I would buy one, but not any time soon. Luna

 

yeah I'm impressed with the storm settings and all of the other cool things you can do with those bulbs but that price tag just makes it unattractive at this point. Even wholesale prices are nuts on those things so if lfs owners sell them there's no way they are going to be able to make money because you just can't mark up a 3 thousand dollar fixture that much you know??

 

LFS has them on two display tanks and the owner will frankly say save your money. They do really well in the display tanks that are just 6-8 inches deep but the other one that is 18inches deep he has had some problems. He won't say that it is the lights or not for sure, but he thinks it is at this point. They've been up for at least 6 months and I believe that they are the Solaris brand. Very cool looking and nice that everything is built into it just no where worth the 3000 they need for them.

 

Yup, definitely!
As the technological advances increase and the benefits associated with these LED's, it has opened my ears and eyes!

 

Yes, Yes, yes....
As long as the price was comparable to a MH fixture.

J

 

Some improvements would have to be made to the percieved light output. I've done a little reading and it seems the LEDs have a PAR output that rivals halides, but as Luna said, I've seen a few of these in stores and the tanks look somewhat darker than I expected. The corals thrive under the LEDs, and they produce almost zero heat--serious pluses, but my T5's look brighter. . . . .

 

A) When they've been out a bit longer and the technology is proven to keep corals going. B) When the price comes down and C) When we upgrade to a bigger tank.

 

last yr my lfs got a solaris for half off to try out and decided not to carry them after trying it out.maybe far into the future,i'm just not convinced yet.