LED lights

[nycfatcow]

I have a 55 gallon planted freshwater tank and im running 260 watts of power compacts right now. One of the bulbs recently blew and I was considering making an upgrade to LED lights since PCs cost so much to replace. I saw this on ebay which seems too good to be true.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LED-48-800-A...item19d088ff21

Double bright version:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/48-51-Aquari...item5890603288

They also have this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EVO-48-LED-A...item460362f2fe

which is made by another brand but the output of lumens is even higher than the double brights


Do you guys think that this light would have enough light for moss, swords and rotalia? and also do you think that this light fixture will get too hot? I didnt see any fans built in. Thanks

 

[alLexX]

pretty much everything has enough light for moss

 

[TheNamelessPoet]

Just be careful, I remember reading recently on here that the LED you almost HAVE to get the reef setups or it wont grow plants.

 

[rkilling1]

IMO, you need to look into LED's that have lower then 10000K temps.
The whiter the LED the less red and green in the spectrum. That first setup I don't think will work very well. It has .06 W LED's.

I would also look for a dimable setup.

Research Phosphor burnout. LED's that produce the light spectrum for plants use phosphors to generate the additional colors. These phosphors burn out before the end of the LED's life.

 

[mohican]

Marineland came out with one for plants. IMO, I feel led lighting has not been perfected for our setups using co2. I think they're geared for simple couple plant tanks, low tech.

 

[nycfatcow]

thats a bit disappointing, i was really considering picking one of those LED light fixtures up. i must of spent 100 bucks on my PCs just for the bulbs recently and another one just blew out.

 

[rkilling1]

thats a bit disappointing, i was really considering picking one of those LED light fixtures up. i must of spent 100 bucks on my PCs just for the bulbs recently and another one just blew out.

Many people have DIYed their own setup with good results. I just don't know of any produced ones, that would be good for a highlight setup, that don't cost a fortune.

BTW, you can purchase CF bulbs many places online for pretty cheap. My last bulb purchase for (4) 55W 6500K CF's cost me 35 bucks.

 

[nycfatcow]

Many people have DIYed their own setup with good results. I just don't know of any produced ones, that would be good for a highlight setup, that don't cost a fortune.

BTW, you can purchase CF bulbs many places online for pretty cheap. My last bulb purchase for (4) 55W 6500K CF's cost me 35 bucks.

Where did you get 4 CF's for 35 bucks????

 

[nycfatcow]

Eiko 49312 - DT55/65/RS - 55 Watt - 4 Pin 2G11 Base - 6500K - CFL | 1000Bulbs.com

is this all i need? is 6500k the best for planted tanks? I have a coralife CF fixture which usually runs 65watt straight pin bulbs.

Geez what was i doing spending 30 bucks a bulb?

 

[ashleynicole]

I have the marinland double bright LED's and have no trouble growing low to medium light plants. I will find a picture here somewhere and show you a pic of my 29 gallon before i switched to the 55. I had dwarf sag, crypts, anubias, java fern, wisteria. I used the strip of marinland double bright LED's and supplemented with one 15 watt plant grow flourescent light.

*EDIT* I found one pic on my laptop that was actually in the beginning stages of that tank. After a few months the dwarf sag had grown a fairly thick carpet and everything was flourishing. I just recently upgraded to a 55 gallon and I need to get a second strip of the marinlight double brights so half of my tank has LED's and the other half has flourescent strips. When I get a second strip of LED's I will have LED's on both sides and still keep the two 15 watt flourescent strips to supplement. Seems to be a good combination.