Go Back   Aquarium Advice - Aquarium Forum Community > General Aquarium Forums > DIY Projects
Click Here to Login

Join Aquarium Advice Today
Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Please support our sponsors and let them know you heard about them on AquariumAdvice.com
 
Old 06-27-2009, 08:44 AM   #1
gau
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Posts: 15
Walmart LED strip for Lighting

I came across this product on walmart, and thought of using it as a moonlight, or even normal lighting for my 10g aquarium. It has a dimmer as well.

Do you think this will save some power? I do not have any plants in my tank. Has anyone tried this product as a Semi-DIY for lighting?

__________________
gau is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-27-2009, 09:05 AM   #2
SW 20 & Over Club
 
ccCapt's Avatar


 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Northeast PA
Posts: 5,365
Send a message via ICQ to ccCapt
I think it would be too bright for moonlights and I'm not sure it's the right color spectrum for aquarium lighting. It may lead to nusiance algae problems if it's not the proper spectrum.
__________________
/Larry
125g reef
See My Tank Info
Check out The build project
ccCapt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-27-2009, 02:01 PM   #3
Aquarium Advice Addict
 
WhiteDevil's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: 60118
Posts: 2,438
you can tone down the brightness with foil and or electrical tape.



Advantages

Efficiency: LEDs produce more light per watt than incandescent bulbs.[48]

Color: LEDs can emit light of an intended color without the use of color filters that traditional lighting methods require. This is more efficient and can lower initial costs.

Size: LEDs can be very small (smaller than 2 mm2[49]) and are easily populated onto printed circuit boards.

On/Off time: LEDs light up very quickly. A typical red indicator LED will achieve full brightness in microseconds.[50] LEDs used in communications devices can have even faster response times.

Cycling: LEDs are ideal for use in applications that are subject to frequent on-off cycling, unlike fluorescent lamps that burn out more quickly when cycled frequently, or HID lamps that require a long time before restarting.

Dimming: LEDs can very easily be dimmed either by Pulse-width modulation or lowering the forward current.

Cool light: In contrast to most light sources, LEDs radiate very little heat in the form of IR that can cause damage to sensitive objects or fabrics. Wasted energy is dispersed as heat through the base of the LED.

Slow failure: LEDs mostly fail by dimming over time, rather than the abrupt burn-out of incandescent bulbs.[51]

Lifetime: LEDs can have a relatively long useful life. One report estimates 35,000 to 50,000 hours of useful life, though time to complete failure may be longer.[52] Fluorescent tubes typically are rated at about 10,000 to 15,000 hours, depending partly on the conditions of use, and incandescent light bulbs at 1,000–2,000 hours.[citation needed]

Shock resistance: LEDs, being solid state components, are difficult to damage with external shock, unlike fluorescent and incandescent bulbs which are fragile.

Focus: The solid package of the LED can be designed to focus its light. Incandescent and fluorescent sources often require an external reflector to collect light and direct it in a usable manner.

Toxicity: LEDs do not contain mercury, unlike fluorescent lamps.
[edit]Disadvantages

High initial price: LEDs are currently more expensive, price per lumen, on an initial capital cost basis, than most conventional lighting technologies. The additional expense partially stems from the relatively low lumen output and the drive circuitry and power supplies needed. However, when considering the total cost of ownership (including energy and maintenance costs), LEDs far surpass incandescent or halogen sources and begin to threaten compact fluorescent lamps[citation needed].

Temperature dependence: LED performance largely depends on the ambient temperature of the operating environment. Over-driving the LED in high ambient temperatures may result in overheating of the LED package, eventually leading to device failure. Adequate heat-sinking is required to maintain long life. This is especially important when considering automotive, medical, and military applications where the device must operate over a large range of temperatures, and is required to have a low failure rate.
Voltage sensitivity: LEDs must be supplied with the voltage above the threshold and a current below the rating. This can involve series resistors or current-regulated power supplies.[53]

Light quality: Most cool-white LEDs have spectra that differ significantly from a black body radiator like the sun or an incandescent light. The spike at 460 nm and dip at 500 nm can cause the color of objects to be perceived differently under cool-white LED illumination than sunlight or incandescent sources, due to metamerism,[54] red surfaces being rendered particularly badly by typical phosphor based cool-white LEDs. However, the color rendering properties of common fluorescent lamps are often inferior to what is now available in state-of-art white LEDs.

Area light source: LEDs do not approximate a “point source” of light, but rather a lambertian distribution. So LEDs are difficult to use in applications requiring a spherical light field. LEDs are not capable of providing divergence below a few degrees. This is contrasted with lasers, which can produce beams with divergences of 0.2 degrees or less.[55]

Blue Hazard: There is increasing concern that blue LEDs and cool-white LEDs are now capable of exceeding safe limits of the so-called blue-light hazard as defined in eye safety specifications such as ANSI/IESNA RP-27.1-05: Recommended Practice for Photobiological Safety for Lamp and Lamp Systems.[56][57]

Blue pollution: Because cool-white LEDs (i.e., LEDs with high color temperature) emit much more blue light than conventional outdoor light sources such as high-pressure sodium lamps, the strong wavelength dependence of Rayleigh scattering means that cool-white LEDs can cause more light pollution than other light sources. It is therefore very important that cool-white LEDs are fully shielded when used outdoors. Compared to low-pressure sodium lamps, which emit at 589.3 nm, the 460 nm emission spike of cool-white and blue LEDs is scattered about 2.7 times more by the Earth's atmosphere. Cool-white LEDs should not be used for outdoor lighting near astronomical observatories.
__________________
WhiteDevil is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-27-2009, 08:07 PM   #4
gau
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Posts: 15
Well, tried a lot, but couldnt find the details of those LEDs....

Apart from foil/electrical tape, this thing has dimmer circuit, so one can supposedly have dim light as well....
__________________
gau is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-30-2009, 11:56 AM   #5
Aquarium Advice Addict
 
FishEggs's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Upper Marlboro, Maryland
Posts: 2,211
i think if you are just using it for fish view it's a great buy but for use of growing plants it probably wont cut it.
__________________
~Matt~
If you put off what you can do today until tomorrow it will never get done cause tomorrow never comes. It's always today.
FishEggs is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
led, light, lighting

Please support our sponsors and let them know you heard about them on AquariumAdvice.com

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
LED only lighting Bige General Hardware/Equipment Discussion 1 10-20-2009 01:45 PM
LED Lighting clowninround General Hardware/Equipment Discussion 3 09-16-2007 12:18 PM
LED lighting help please AquaJoe General Hardware/Equipment Discussion 3 06-01-2006 02:56 PM
PC Lighting Strip BettWalker Saltwater & Reef - Getting Started 4 08-29-2002 10:38 AM







» Photo Contest Winners







All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:58 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2023, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.