LED Lights - Enough lights and What can I plant?

[sudz]

The days of WPG are gone, it sbeen a while since I've been in the game.

I bought two of these fixtures, and am happy with their aesthetic output, but I want some groundcover plants when I replant my tank and am a bit afraid that they aren't bright enough.

I have two of these lights over a 75 gallon. (one for each side)

Listing says they're 11 watts, but it comes with a 20 watt powersupply.

I have Pressurized CO2 running and I'm currently on the low side of the ppm scale. (hard water, its hard to absorb enough without burning through tanks of CO2)

That being said: Think the light is enough to have some good ground color and colorful plants?

I have a large piece of "Tree" like driftwood I want to plant in various heights.

Also, I'm trying to get a grip on my BBA. Its slowly looking more unhealthy as my crypts are growing like weeds.

Thanks in advance for your Aquarium Advice!

 

[Brookster123]

Those lights won't do much on that tank. Low low light

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[sudz]

I have another light fixture I made a while ago, but it was flakey. I can add to this and make an enclosure for them all I suppose.

it was composed of 12 Cree XP-G 5000k lights, I can run them upto 1350mah but I did not enjoy the look of them for some reason. Combined with these fixtures though (which have some blue LED's) it may look better.

Think that would do it?

Edit: Specs of unit I built: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f20/overdriving-meanwell-eln-48-60d-271548.html

 

[Bert2oo1]

To be honest I recon you would be in the low light region. So plants like crypts, Java fern, mosses, vals, anubias. All have a lot of different types and Colours. I'd say reds and carpets will need more lighting

In regards to co2 it's best to run a reactor for large tanks. Google cerges or Griggs reactor. I run about 5 bps in my 60g and I hit the 30ppm target with some serious surface agitation.

Lighting is measured in par now so I'd read up about PAR before getting anymore fixtures.

High light fixtures are expensive and you will require that 30ppm of co2 or you'll run into trouble.

BBA is mainly caused by low co2 and a build up of organics

 

[sudz]

currently I have a ceramic diffuser which bubbles up into the intake of a powerhead. It is aimed downward so the bubbles are in contact with the water for a good long while, and it throws them halfway across the tank. (which doesn't look very good IMO.. so the reactor might be a good idea.


I am having trouble finding LED lights of sufficient power meant for Fresh water planted tanks. Is there a known great price/performance contender?

Im handy with a soldering iron, electronics, etc. I would gladly go DIY (again) if it saves some money. (and this way I can play with relays/arduino to make it automated and tie into CO2 Regulator)

 

[Bert2oo1]

currently I have a ceramic diffuser which bubbles up into the intake of a powerhead. It is aimed downward so the bubbles are in contact with the water for a good long while, and it throws them halfway across the tank. (which doesn't look very good IMO.. so the reactor might be a good idea.





I am having trouble finding LED lights of sufficient power meant for Fresh water planted tanks. Is there a known great price/performance contender?



Im handy with a soldering iron, electronics, etc. I would gladly go DIY (again) if it saves some money. (and this way I can play with relays/arduino to make it automated and tie into CO2 Regulator)

I use makemyled from south Australia and they make them to all size tanks and depths. You might be able to find out what they use and make your own. Highly recommend the LED's they use.

 

[sudz]

I use makemyled from south Australia and they make them to all size tanks and depths. You might be able to find out what they use and make your own. Highly recommend the LED's they use.

Ugh, literally the complete oppisite side of the globe to me, lol. I'll check shipping anyway, or just clone the design.

I think my existing (36 watt Cree XP-G) might do it if I focus it and get some optics for it. I got 5000k LED's.

So many Amazon sellers selling "PAR" meters which are actually lux meters. Zero help. PAR meter seem quite expensive. I'll see if anyone local to me (Ontario, Canada) has one they'd be willing to loan/rent me.

 

[sudz]

OK, I fixed my Driver. It now no longer dims.

Set it to run at its maximum 1300mah. Plugged into a power meter it draws 56 watts. These are 6000k Cree XP-G R5's

Forward voltage is 3.1v and current is 1310mah. (about 4 watts each)

At this level it should put out quite a bit, but unforutnately I have no idea what PAR.

All I know is that I put it up on my tank just now, and within 5 minutes the plants started dishing out bubbles like nobody's business. May have to step up the CO2.

Pictures! (really roughly put in, I think I'm going to make a shallow open backed enclosure to stop the light from blinding people in my living room)

 

[Delapool]

Ugh, literally the complete oppisite side of the globe to me, lol. I'll check shipping anyway, or just clone the design.



I think my existing (36 watt Cree XP-G) might do it if I focus it and get some optics for it. I got 5000k LED's.



So many Amazon sellers selling "PAR" meters which are actually lux meters. Zero help. PAR meter seem quite expensive. I'll see if anyone local to me (Ontario, Canada) has one they'd be willing to loan/rent me.

I have a Seneye reef par meter after I tried several times to get the apogee mq200 meter. I think the apogee is better but the Seneye has been useful. It is cheaper (well here it was - also in Australia) BUT you need to spend extra to get the readings to your computer (I have the long coms cord).

 

[sudz]

I'm going to get optics for the XP-G's. I don't like their light color but its obvious it helps.

I think I may make an additional light bar with Cree Red, blue and UV to fill out the spectrum. Probably just 8 LEDs. 4 Blue 2 green, 2 red. (assuming I can run them on the same power supply..., not sure if can find LED's that carry the same Forward voltage and current requirements.

More research is needed.

Edit: research is futile. I'll need multiple drivers. I may as well go big and replace all my lighting and see what I an sell.

Problem is Red LED's have different voltage requirements than Blue, Green, White. I mind as well do a full fledged Light Panel.

We'll see what I can afford. I'm annoyed the panels I bought from Amazon are so weak. They LOOK bright, but lack the power to penetrate. Zero optics.

 

[sudz]

Ok, an update. I've reached out to rapid LED and am going to make an additional fixture, and install optics on my older DIY fixture.

Going with 12 more LED's driven from the same driver, at 1000mah. 6 cree xp-E blue LED's, 4 red, 4 green. This will fill out the missing wavelengths, add more blue/cold white pitch to the tank, and with optics will allow light to penetrate to the bottom. I hope.

I need to source a good heatsync as this driver will be about 50mah above the LEDs recommended maximum.

Here's my numbers:

Looking for. 4-5 inch wide 4 foot heatsink is hard. At this point it looks like I'll be using 4 heatsync from AliExpress and making a frame for them. I'm making a shallow open backed enclosure to hide all the stuff, so it doesn't have to be amazingly pretty.

On a side note: Rapid LED been amazeballs about responding to my emails. Support is amazing. However, are their prices fair? (Excel sheet in USD)

I'm in Canada, so I'll be paying 30%more :-(

 

[Bert2oo1]

That's real cheap if you ask me. My lights cost me close to $450 and my dollar is very similar to Canadian $$. I'm not smart enough to build my own tho haha

 

[sudz]

I'll be working.over another hundred or so for the heatsync, plus optics, but I've got wire solder and such at home

 

[sudz]

Oficially too late to back off now. I've ordered the heatsyncs.

Could not find anything reasonable locally, So I ended up ordering from Aliexpress. Which means it'll take 2 months to get here. assuming it does. I wonder who's powerlines were cut and exported to melt down into this?

Regardless, Plenty of time to plan.

Ordered 2x 60cmx7.6cmX2.1cm (24x3x1 Inches) and will figure out a way to brace them together to make it one long unit. Finding a 4 foot heatsink proved to be impossible. Will probably put in RapidLED order as soon as I see a sale hit my inbox. They're fairly frequent, so we'll see what happens.

 

[Delapool]

Lights (cost a small fortune and you're only getting started!)

 

[sudz]

I think with the 12X5000k white lights + 14 Colored LED's I'll have a medium-high light tank. I'm getting two types of optics - 80 degrees and 60 degrees. I'll do wide angle for the Red and green LED's to ensure they "blend" well. With JUST the whites going I've got pearling and algae growing like crazy. Because everyone wants to grow algae, right?

This is why I'm getting everything running BEFORE I get the discus in there... lol.

I think in total I'll be spending under 200 for the LED lights. I'll be selling the 2 24 inch fixtures, hopefully I'll get about $100 back for them on Kijiji.

 

[Delapool]

That sounds a good deal on lights. Store LEDs are very expensive here.


Lol on the algae