LEDs: Which Tank Personalities Should Buy, Which Should Hold
I’m pumped for the Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) to become mainstream in the saltwater tank hobby. When they do, you’ll get to drop your energy gulping metal halide lights and chillers will become a thing of the past.
However, the LED technology is still too new on several fronts to be used widely in the hobby. It is too expensive for even the most serious reef junkies to afford, it is still unknown if coral will grow well underneath LEDs and there are too many choices to know which color of bulb/brand of LED to buy.
Here’s what each tank personality should do in regards to LEDs:
Tank Dabblers, I envy you. You are in the perfect spot to pickup some LEDs and start reaping the benefits. Since you are a talk dabbler, you aren’t keeping coral, so you only need to light up your tank – not keep coral alive. Marineland makes a nice LED fixture that is affordable, even in the larger (48″) sizes. If you are a tank dabbler, I’d pick one up as soon as you can and sell your current lighting setup while its still worth something.
Reef Enthusiasts – hang in there. I predict in a year’s time, the prices will have dropped enough that you could justify LEDs and the right color/brand combination will be worked out. Start saving your pennies now.
Reef Junkies – tread with caution. If you have a nano tank, you could consider a small LED setup, but no one has nailed down the right combination of color/brand of LED/reflector type yet. Most of all, I haven’t seen anything that shows that corals thrive under LEDs. For now, I’d steer clear unless you have smaller tank to experiment with, or if you want to use it for a light for your refugium.
Browse the Store! Questions?
damn!!! I had a nice long message and I hit something and it went back to the desk top :(( Here we go again!!
I am on here trying to soak in as much knowledge as possible…..see I dont have a tank YET!! I had a 10 gallon nano reef setup that a friend gave me when he moved (parts from his 90 gallon that he couldn’t bring with him). Well with never having a tank before I couldn’t handle it, so i got so aggravated and fed up that I tossed it all in the trash. This was about 3 years ago or so…….NOW I HAVE THE BUG AGAIN IN A BAD WAY!!!
My dream tank is 60″ 150 gallon tank that will start out as a FOWLR tank then progress from there!! My question is this if I had a price in mind for this WHOLE setup should I splurge on some pretty good LED lights…kinda like these http://shopping.yahoo.com/808758496-48-60-inch-marineland-reef-led-light-fixture/prices;_ylt=AtVAqA4JUVw45oH3PZvEMj9Iu8EF?.crumb=COBOoJ7DYXb&country=US&ts=1&zip=23464
(hope that link is ok) or should I just go with a much smaller set up (what I really DONT want to do). b/c buying anything for a 60″ tank costs soooo much money!! Oh and by the way I cant find anywhere online that sells large fish tanks other than glasscages.com This site is neat b/c it shows you pictures of the tanks and lets you add things like overflows and a sumps, bulkheads, tops, etc… Price with a glass aquarium and stand with overflows ,bulkheads, is right at 2000.00 bucks. Oh yea that with starfire glass all around. Any thoughts??
Anyway thanks for the KILLER web site and good luck in the future!!!
I have a 215 saltwater tank and am in need of a new inline chiller and would like to know what manufacturer or manufacturers you recommend. I have spent a considerable amount of time researching chillers and am still unsure what to purchase.
I review your site quite often, consider you to be well informed and would really appreciate your opinion.
Thanks.