LCD lights for planted tanks?

[Pecktec]

Has anyone here had any luck with LED lights? I have only used compact florescent lights and its bulb buying time again. I would love to only do this every 11 years like they often advertise. Even if it costs a bit more. But I have trouble believing all those little lights will do the job. There are a few “panels” on ebay that look promising but I would hate to spend the cash for it if they really stink.

 

[mfdrookie516]

I assume you mean LED (Light Emitting Diode) rather than LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)? If so, yes, many people use LED's. BigJim DIY'd a fixture for one of his tanks and it's doing quite well. He has a build somewhere in the DIY forum.

 

[Pecktec]

I assume you mean LED (Light Emitting Diode) rather than LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)? If so, yes, many people use LED's. BigJim DIY'd a fixture for one of his tanks and it's doing quite well. He has a build somewhere in the DIY forum.

DOUH!!! Sorry I must have been thinking about my monitor while posting. I'll look that one up. They seem more popular with the saltwater folk’s retail wise anyway

 

[mfdrookie516]

It's really all about the initial cost. They're really cheap to run long term, and last a lot longer than T5HO's, but they just haven't been on the market long enough to become affordable yet. BigJim DIY'd his for about what it would cost for a cheaper T5HO unit I believe.

 

[Pecktec]

Wow yea that was cool. I don't know if I'm up for that though. I like DIY up until electricity is involved.

 

[strokinbyeu]

i bought this one for my 10gal tank and it works great, im in the prosses of setting up co2 but the light makes the plants take off like crazy.


Marineland Reef LED Lighting with Lunar LED Lights

 

[fishfanatic]

I have a marineland reef led on my 40 gallon and my plants seem to do well... I also have a glo T5 HO (2, 39 Watt bulbs). I had the glo fixture for about a year and the plants never really did great, but once I added the led fixture my Amazon sword started to perl! (I have now added co2 and now it perls even more.

 

[Pecktec]

I was looking at these. They have all white lights.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...94486&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_10492wt_922

 

[fishfanatic]

Did the article say what degree k the lights are? I didn't see it... but then again of has been a long day.

 

[Pecktec]

Did the article say what degree k the lights are? I didn't see it... but then again of has been a long day.

Humm nope I don't see it either.

 

[fishfanatic]

It did mention that it had lots of blue and red (blue and red= good for plant )

 

[fishfanatic]

I don't really see why they wouldn't work. Unless the light can't penitrate that deep. The mairineland reef led light almost half's at a depth of 24 inches.

 

[Edward61]

I just bought the Marineland reef ready LED system for my 46 gallon planted tank. The info for this system is Marineland, LED Reef Capable Lighting System, 2610 Lumens, 10,000K white, 460nm actinic blue, 36 1-watt white and 6 1-watt blue LEDs, 36" - 48".

The regular LED light systems (non reef ready) only provided enough light for low light plants according to a few different articles and forum posts I read.

I will say I am very pleased and the option for the night time blue only LEDs are awesome, the tank looks great 24 hours a day. One down side is there is only 1 rocker switch so timers cannot be used for automatically switching from day to night.

 

[Pecktec]

Will the actinic blue lights cause algae problems? That was the main reason I looked at the eBay lights over the Marineland stuff (Which looks cool by the way). I have the blue night time LEDs on my CF light fixture and your right it is neat especially if you have nocturnal residents who you don’t see a lot during the day.

 

[BigJim]

High-power LEDs do work well for planted tanks. My DIY LED fixture cost me less than $100 to build and it blows away a comparably priced T5HO fixture. I've got a bunch of high-light plants thriving in a 20H under 30W of LED. Check out the LED link in my signature. If you understand the basic principles of electricity, you can build an LED fixture.

 

[Pecktec]

High-power LEDs do work well for planted tanks. My DIY LED fixture cost me less than $100 to build and it blows away a comparably priced T5HO fixture. I've got a bunch of high-light plants thriving in a 20H under 30W of LED. Check out the LED link in my signature. If you understand the basic principles of electricity, you can build an LED fixture.

Yes I have been looking at that. I'm a little scared to try it. But doesn't look super hard to do.

 

[fishfanatic]

If I were to do it over I would build my own. I was just like you 'do I really want to get involved in a project like this' bit my marineland led light strip was about 350$. You could build one twice as bright for about 1/3 the cost. There are wonderful people on AA that are more than happy to help you build one. (I want to build one for my next tank) which is probably 4 years down the road

 

[BigJim]

I was pretty apprehensive when I started my LED build. That's why I tried it on my 20H instead of my 40B. The hardest part is picking the right components. Here's the route I followed:

1. Pick your LEDs. I chose cool blue Cree XR-E Q5s because I'd seen others get good results using them and they look nice. Be sure to figure out the voltage and amperage required.

2. Look at LED drivers. You don't have to pick one yet, but get an idea of what's available and keep it in mind during the next step.

3. Figure out how many LEDs you want and how you're going to arrange them. Try to arrange them so you can wire them cleanly to a specific driver and still get the look you're after. I found a 15-18V 2A driver that works perfectly with two legs of five XR-Es, so that's the way they're wired on my fixture.

After you get the major components figured out, it's just little stuff like frame design and possibly adding a switch. Here's the list of tools I used to assemble my fixture:

- ruler
- permanent marker
- hacksaw
- pistol drill
- tap
- screwdriver
- soldering iron

No special tools required. Most people have these things lying around. If you've got a design that you want checked, feel free to PM me and I'll take a look.

 

[Pecktec]

OK well the tank in question is a 56 Gal Column. I would like to get somewhere in the 2/12 3 watts per gallon range. Since it will need to penetrate so much water. I wonder how that translates to how many LEDs I would need.

 

[BigJim]

LEDs are ideal for a deep tank. They really penetrate well.

As a rough guess based on my experience with my 20H, figure 1W LED = 3W fluorescent. You could cut it down to 1W LED = 2-2.5W fluorescent as a safety factor to account for your tank's depth.