Lighting advice

[Ilminded]

I was wondering if anyone has used LED lighting with planted tanks? Like not a DIY set-up, but bought one. I am looking to buy lighting for my 45 gallon, which will be a dirt tank, and was thinking of going out and buying lamps from Home Depot and putting CFLs in them. But then I was thinking that LEDs are better and since I have the money why not. So I am also looking for recommendations on LEDs for purchasing. Another thing is that I will be using tanked CO2. I'm also looking for something that might simulate sunrise and sunset.
Another question is that I see these saltwater tanks with actinic lighting, would having something like that to show off the fish be detrimental to the plants?

 

[fort384]

Actinic is generally considered to not be beneficial to plants, but it won't hurt if you want to add some blue tint to the tank.

What is your budget for the project? Controllable LEDs that will let you fade in and out can get very expensive. (unless you want to build a fixture yourself, which wouldn't be all that difficult)

 

[Ilminded]

Budget is whatever as my second job is funding this project now, I was thinking of getting reef lighting and using actinic lighting for when I'm home but not have them on while sleeping. I figured I will reduce the photo period. With that and CO2, I shouldn't have much an issue with alega.

 

[Old Scales]

Just be sure an research lighting for planted tanks. A lot of what's out there claims to be but not. I know, I'm just now having to rebuy lighting for my 30g becuase of not knowing all the details of what makes a good light. Also, picking the right bulb light spectrum in critical. When choosing, note that it is alot easier to reduce light on a fixture by dropping a bulb or screening LEDs than it is to add light. T5 HOs and GOOD plant specialized high output LEDs(ie. 3 watts each) are the most popular. Metal Halides are REALLY strong for larger,deeper tanks. ALso, if you can go the extra price, programmable fixtures are great as you can precisely control your photo period. However with higher light comes the demand for higher, more balanced ferts and CO2. Also, just watts per gallon, I learned, is not a good way to determine good light. Quality of the reflector, bulbs, and frequency in kelvin are more important. Look up Aqua-chem and/or Rivercats in here as they are a couple of the most knowledgable on anything about plants.
Good luck, hope I help you avoid some of the pitfalls I fell into. OS.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

What kind of plants are you trying to grow?

I've had success using Finnex Ray 2 LED fixtures. Depending on the plant selection, a single fixture might suffice. If you're looking to grow high light plants, you may need two of these fixtures. To get more red spectrum for more difficult red plants, you can use one Ray 2 along with Finnex's new Monster Ray that has RGB LED's.

To mimic a dawn/dusk, you can buy some linkable lunar lights. I use the Current Truelumen LED lunar lights and like them. You should probably get all white ones to look more natural. They also come in blue or you can mix the colors. Just put them on a timer to come on before and after the main lighting.

 

[Ilminded]

I appreciate the info scales, I have a 10 gallon at my office with CFL's and DIY CO2 and had to deal with the effects of too much lighting recently (real bad breakout of BBA). Since I'm trying to have a nice tank at my home, I just want to get the best possible for everything. The tank I got off Craigslist, holds water and has a stand for $30, just need to clean it up with some bleach. The top is useless, I was gonna make a wire mesh top with clamp lights but am deciding to spend the money to get LED's. the reason for the post is to get info on set-ups people have used.

As for the last response, I'm not sure what plants I'm going for yet. I'm looking at ~20" from fixture to top of substrate. Right now I'm trying to get ideas with PAR numbers at that depth to find out what to go for.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Here's a good resource to aid in researching PAR vs. Distance

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=160396

 

[Ilminded]

Lol thanks Brain, I was looking at that last night and got overwhelmed with the number of pages. I'm sorry for beating around the bush, bust I'm looking for products people actually are using on the forum with how they like them.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

No prob.. If you further explore TPT you'll notice A LOT of builds use the Finnex Ray 2 LED fixture. My only concern is that the light penetration in taller tanks (especial reds) limits ability to get higher light demanding plants to turn reds (i.e. Rotala rotundifolia, colorata, etc.). That's not to say that this light is still very capable of growing a lot of plants, even in taller tanks, because it is. For instance, my 26g bow front is 21" tall, 18" from light to sub.. A single Ray 2 fixture still grows everything in the tank -- even the carpeting DHG (e. parvula) that's at the lowest depth. That's why i asked what you're trying to grow. My expectations are a little higher as I'm trying to get a lot of my stem plants to color up other than green. So therefore, (as i suggested) I'm going to be adding a second fixture to increase the PAR and bumping up my co2 and ferts. With a single Ray 2 I'm at 40 PAR which puts me in the lower part of medium. I'm going to try a second Ray2 at first. I might get the Monster Ray as it has red, green, and blue LEDs. The latter is fairly new and PAR data was just released. Its meant to be more of a color enhancing light for fish.. But due to the red LED's this might prove to be effective in getting red plants happy.

 

[Ilminded]

Still trying to figure out what exactly I want, but I will be tying down Anubis on rocks and moss on drift wood. Looking at maybe free floating wisteria. So ATM low light.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Well certainly take a look at other lighting solutions. DIY LEDs are nice as Fort suggested. I'm not very much a DIY guy (yet) so i opt for ready made solutions. I'm also more of a form over function type and that's probably why I'm a sucker for LEDs over T5.

Anyway, for your needs, a single Finnex Ray 2 would be more than adequate with some room for expansion. Your tank is only 3"taller than mine so you could kinda get an idea of the Ray 2's effectiveness and limitations by checking out my thread:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...irst-dutch-inspired-scape-journal-235192.html

 

[Ilminded]

Well certainly take a look at other lighting solutions. DIY LEDs are nice as Fort suggested. I'm not very much a DIY guy (yet) so i opt for ready made solutions. I'm also more of a form over function type and that's probably why I'm a sucker for LEDs over T5.

Anyway, for your needs, a single Finnex Ray 2 would be more than adequate with some room for expansion. Your tank is only 3"taller than mine so you could kinda get an idea of the Ray 2's effectiveness and limitations by checking out my thread:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...irst-dutch-inspired-scape-journal-235192.html

Thanks for the advice. I am a DIY guy but I'm in the middle of remodeling 2 bedrooms with a baby on the way. I would rather spend the money then deal with creating a light canopy.