New Years eve....

[LizStreithorst]

I'm about in the same place. I know the lighting is bad, l'll probably replace the bulbs. It's about the cost, it's going to cost  2 to 4 hundred depending on leds. It's the down side to planting a big tanks.

Good Lord..I was told that they were cheap as dirt now.  I have an entire fish room   I think I'll take LED's off my wish list and replace them with one 100% down pillow which only costs $300.

[b125killer]

You have to take into consideration the length and depth of the tank. I'm grown plant and corals for the saltwater. If I just wanted light I could get a 48" led for like 50 buck. I'm looking to grow plants and the cheaper low Watt leds won't do that. When you look at buying a 6 foot 3 watt led it starts to cost a lot more. Or 4 36" fugeray planted leds at 100 buck a pop.

[LizStreithorst]

Got it.  I don't care about plants.  It will still be a bundle for me to spend.  Perhaps I will do it little by little rather than in one fell swoop.

[LizStreithorst]

I wanted to welcome in the new year but I guess I won't make it.  Eyes getting heavy. Nite everybody.  Here's hoping that 2016 wlll be a good year

[b125killer]

Happy new years Liz, and good night.

[BillT]

Do you guys see any dimming or change of color in the high end LEDs after a year or two?

[Mugwump]

I haven't seen any changes in the ones that I have....

Bill, look around in here, it'll give an idea of LED pricing....search under 'Beamswork' too...

http://www.aquatraders.com/LED-Aquarium-Lighting-s/22.htm

[Ron Sower]

I have Finnex Planted Pluses ffor over a year now and don't notice any dimming. I don't have any technical way of measuring though. My plants are still growing and multiplying well.

[b125killer]

I have had the finnex for a while and there's no notable difference that I can see. Time will tell with the saltwater leds. I do hear that a lot of saltwater people go back to mh after a few months. But I don't know what leds they were running. The technology on led change quickly. The next big thing in saltwater is a true uv led. I guess it's supposed to make your coral color pop. I want a par meter but there not cheap either. With the saltwater led it's all adjustable so it's just a guess as to what the true levels are. I'm kind of going by coral growth. And so far there fine.

[BillT]

A PAR meter would be interesting to play with.
Here is a nice article from 2013 about some PAR meters and using them with LEDs:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2013/2/equipment

A simple way to see if they change over time would be to side-by side compare a new one with one that has been running for a year or so.
When I was looking into LEDs for various reasons 2 or 3 years ago a lighting salesman showed me some LEDs they had running in the store for about a year. He said they had dimmed and changed color somewhat. I figured that these were kind of cheap ones and have wondered about others. I have several LED stripes which seem to have survived OK for a few years.

There are now so many kinds of LEDs it is difficult to keep track of them.

High end ones can produce good light but they aren't cheap. This can be off-set by their inexpensive operating costs and longer life, unless their long life is not fully functional.

I heard about an LED UV sterilizer being produced for the aquaculture industry. This use requires powerful output.
There are now big LED arrays for growing terrestrial plants too. They also are more expensive than the MH lights.