LED light on 10 gal shimp tank--what lumen

[miller44444]

Hi, I have a 10-gal planted tank with yellow shrimp, amano shrimp, and endlers. The current flourescent lighting is pretty dim and I want to upgrade it to something brighter. I'm looking at 2 Marineland LED lights on amazon and am wondering which one I should go with. Which one will be better for the shrimp? (I would like to go with the brighter one if it would not be too bright for shrimp)

single bright: 300 lumens
Amazon.com: Marineland Single Bright LED Lighting System 18-24-Inch: Pet Supplies

double bright: 450 lumens
Amazon.com: Marineland ML Double Bright LED Light, 18-Inch, 24-Inch: EntirelyPets

Thanks in advance!

 

[Bottomfeeder88]

Wish someone with more knowledge than I in shrimp tanks would have responded. I'm planing a 10g shrimp tank myself and would also like to use LED, or be told why i shouldn't. Most responses i see are CFL under the hood.

If you ever visit this forum again lemme know which and if it is working for you.

 

[aqua_chem]

CFLs are fine lights for 10g, giving a healthy amount of light up to at least medium light. If you're really wanting an LED fixture, definitely go with the double brights. What reports I've heard about the Marineland LEDs have been largely disappointing, but in a small and shallow tank like a 10g, they may very well be fine. What kind of plants are you wanting to grow?

 

[miller44444]

I did end up buying the double, am waiting for it to arrive. I have mostly low light plants (Anubis, jungle Val, java moss) and some samples that came with my last shrimp purchase (subwassertang and some floating ones). I'll post how it looks when it arrives

 

[Coursair]

I did end up buying the double, am waiting for it to arrive. I have mostly low light plants (Anubis, jungle Val, java moss) and some samples that came with my last shrimp purchase (subwassertang and some floating ones). I'll post how it looks when it arrives

My LED light grows plenty of plants in my rimless 10g. It's kinda messy right now, but you can check my pics on my profile.

I'm using an Archaea 45cm LED fixture. I was surprised the PAR values equalled my 2 CFLs BUT there was a bigger drop off in the corners of the tank.

Plants grow a little leggier and less colorful, but they grow. I have floating plants to provide cover and discourage jumping since there is no top.

 

[miller44444]

Okay, I just got the double-bright last night and installed it. So far, this is what I'm seeing:

Overall appearance: Not as bright as I was expecting, but actually it has a pretty nice appearance in the tank. The lighting in the tank is kinda like sunlight falling through a forest, with (nice-looking) patches of bright and shadow.

The shrimp: look great, the yellows really stand out and are very visible, the amanos are harder to see (as is expected)

The endlers livebearers: with some normal light in the room, don't look as spectacular as they had been under the CFL (I read an amazon review that said that the prettier fish look less spectacular, and the less pretty things end up looking better). They look better when they are directly beneath a LED light, and when the room is dark with the aquarium lights on.

So overall, a little different, not necessarily better.

There was a cool side effect for using the blue LED lights, I will try to post a picture...

 

[miller44444]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/members/59165-albums9075-picture35123.png

 

[miller44444]

 

[miller44444]

 

[miller44444]

Here's the cool effect from the blue LED lights, it only works if the shrimp is DIRECTLY underneath the light, on the "night" setting.

I got super excited when I first saw them glowing in the dark, for about 1 minute I was entertaining fantasies of breeding glow-in-the-dark shrimp...and then I realized it was only the LED lights. Sigh.

 

[miller44444]

This is what the shrimp look like DIRECTLY under the blue LED lights. When I first noticed (on the day setting) when one shrimp seemed to be glowing and then turned on the night setting, I spent a happy minute entertaining fantasies of breeding glow-in-the-dark shrimp...then realized that it was only the blue lights. Sigh.

 

[Bottomfeeder88]

CFLs it is then!