在过去的几年中，我迁移了我必须带领的每个礁石坦克，即使是一点点淡水纳米正在运行的LED。我认为LED的未来有着巨大的未来，而转向LED改变了我对照明的看法，并对我们的一次性消费主义进行了一些认真的思考。LED的寿命使每年扔掉灯泡似乎很浪费。
事情嗡嗡作响。LPS很高兴，SP是丰富多彩的，增长也不错。但是，随着碎片成长为殖民地，我注意到我的180加仑中有一些有趣的发展。我的分支珊瑚，例如Acropora，在阴影树枝上发生了衰退。这导致了逐渐的组织衰退。我发现这很有趣。照明区域仍然像疯狂一样长大，着色是惊人的。
I took a step back, and noticed this issue didn’t manifest in plating corals and other morphs. My brain started fixating on my LEDs. Branching staghorns are prone to self shading. It just happens. Meanwhile, LEDs are known for hard shadows, particularly systems that use highly directional lenses. All those little individual diodes are just like tiny point sources of light. And that creates a lot of shadows for the same reason LEDs produce a lot of glimmer lines.
The anecdotal tinkerer in me wanted to see what would happen if I put some halides back on. I pulled my old 3x 250-watt halide fixture out of the closet. The fixture also has a compliment of T5 Actinics. A few weeks later, the recession in the shadows ceased. The light clearly bathed the entire tank in light. Heck, it bathed the whole room in light(unfortunately) and the shadows were no more.
This revisit of metal halides modified my view regarding LEDs on large systems . I think I could have remedied the shading by adding more LED modules, but it gets to be very cost prohibitive on a large system. It is my personal feeling that many LED fixtures have some shortcomings on larger tanks, particularly if you go by the manufacturer recommended number of fixtures. I think LED recommendations are mostly based on measuring PAR values within a given area, like 2′ x2′.
尽管LED的不同品牌肯定具有单个模块或固定装置对该区域的PAR要求，但LED的性质会导致分支珊瑚的阴影。随着这些珊瑚的生长更大，阴影开始阻碍或退缩生长。我认为解决方案很简单。随着储罐变大，灯具的分配表面也需要更大。
我需要迭代，这不是固定装置的错，我被LED震惊了，但它们确实有一些缺点。人们需要认识到有时需要更多的固定装置或模块。不是出于标准，而是更好地传播……好处是您可以从更少的模块开始，并且随着珊瑚的增长而增加更多。流动泵也可以这样说。
But can we make better LED fixtures?
It’s a ying yang situation. You could solve the excessive shading by spreading the placement of diodes out over a larger surface area, rather than a tight cluster with optics. The problem with this solution is that you end up with massive fixtures covering the majority of the tank, and also risk the disco effect of isolated colors on the corals and sand.
较大水箱的更好解决方案是混合固定装置。新旧的混合物：
混合1：保持LED用光学元件紧密聚集，但要投入一些T5。LED会增加大量的标准杆，而紧密的集群将在没有迪斯科颜色的情况下产生一个吸引人的微光。T5提供了分布式的光源，以填充任何刺耳的阴影。电力和热量仍将在高效范围内。
混合2：带回金属卤化物，但在较低的瓦特上。然后补充蓝色的弹幕。LED将取代通常的T5阳光。卤化物的热量会更大，但总体而言，这仍然是较大储罐的有效方法。
混合灯具对这种爱好并不陌生。数十年来，礁一直将金属卤化物与VHO，T5甚至紧凑型粉化混合。我想补充一点，我的70加仑没有阴影问题。较小的表面积有效地被其上方的LED灯具沐浴。
那我从这里去哪里？我现在坚持使用卤化物吗？不，我希望不要。我的礁石中的温度为78，LED的温度为82，带有卤化物的温度为82。用电量也比我想要的要高。我讨厌卤化物如何将光渗入房间。眩光很烦人，因为我没有树冠。我也想知道，如果我从一开始就长大了珊瑚，我的问题是否会不存在。
I miss the LED tremendously. Right now, I’m weighing my options. The easiest solution would be to add even more LED modules to my current arsenal of five. But I also like the idea of going hybrid on the 180-gallon. I’m intrigued by the混合ATI PowerModule固定装置I keep seeing on the web. Hopefully, we see more of these types from other brands.
I’ll post an update when I make up my mind. Below you can see some old photos of the same reef aquarium under the metal halides and even after some time with a T5 fixture.
