Ever tried to replace an LED? how about a light bulb? Which seems easier.
Considering the bulbs will last over 11 years at 12 hours a day, I reckon the non replacement of an LED will be easier than that of an MH bulb.
Anyone with a solidering iron can rig up an LED display, but how many know how to research wavelengths and spectrums in an LED? LED's are not cheap to manufacture or they would be in every automobile in the world. And MH are not the high end of lighting; certain brands, certain fixtures, and certain ballasts are the high end. You can get a single ended MH for about $100 but it definately isn't going to be the high end lighting setup. The same can be said about LEDs. How do you know which exact LED is the perfect one? How are you going to be able to tell if the LEDs par rating is truly better. Just because they say it is are you going to believe it. I worked in R&D for an electronic MH balast manufacture (where I used a PAR meter on a regular basis) and let me tell you how many times the bulbs we got in met manufacturers claimed ratings - 0. There are good manufacturers and then there is the crap. The same will be true for LEDs. If you want a cheap price quality will sufer.
You missed my point, electronic components only go one way in price. Look at RAM, I rememebr when it would cost you 100s of pounds just for 1MB, now you can get 1GB for £40 and less. The reason the LEDs are expensive now is because they are a different style of LED (in the same as the "super birght" LEDs were different to the original LEDs). As the techniques for creation get better and more efficient, the prices will fall.
As far as Tunze, I never said they were crap or even close to a maxijet. The point was they won't let quality suffer (for now) so the price is not affordable for many reefers. And the cost savings of the electrical consumption does not pay for the original cost for quite a few years. With lighting this will take even longer as the lighting cycle on tanks doesn't run all the time and will delay out those savings.
A website did the calculations, though I can't find it now. It actually found that so long as you plan to keep your reef for more than 2 and a half years then Tunze will save you money.
Also as far as programing for seasonal effects in lighting, what is the point? Are you going to have adjustable overflows to simulate the changing tides? No matter what you do you will not be able to simulate the natural chaos of the ocean in your tank. And it is far easier and better to keep the tank simple. Stability is the key in a tank.
You can already do waves witht he Tunze wavebox. And why head for stability. In a single place the reef can change in salinity from 1.022 to 1.027 during the course of the year, temperatures can fluctuate up to 4 degrees in a day in the more tidal zones. Reefs are nowhere near as stable as we would believe.
Take the Southern Great Barrier Reef, as the tide comes in you get a noticeable shimmering effect due to the different temperatures of the tidal pool and the ocean colliding. How do the fish react to this barrier of temperature change? They swim from one side to the other.
Wild reefs are a number of things, stable is most definitely not one of them. I for one would rather try and recreate the natural environment than some artificial unchanging habitat.
I stand by my original statement that LEDs will never be able to take over MH as the cadilac of lighting.
Being English, I could never insult MH enough to call it a cadilac
I do think that LED will overtake MH as the most sought after lights, and the cheaper runnign costs will lead those reefers that plan forwards to choose them over MH. More light for less power for less heat? It's all good.
/www.solarisled.com/
And like crazyelece said, the price may not come down.
