Lighting question. LEDs good or bad?

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IShallNtEatFish

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Sep 7, 2013
Messages
467
Ok so my family owns a few hardware stores and the other day we had a customer bring back some LED light bulbs cause she didn't like them, the box was torn all to shreds, so we couldn't really resale them. I decided that Id take them home and use them in my tank. They are the equivalent of a 40 watt bulb, I have two of them on my tank. Well my question is are they enough light for a 10gallon tank?
 
I don't really know, I can find that out tomorrow. What range should they be in?
 
I think 6000k to 7000k. Im under the impression that 6500k is the most useful for plants. Plants like the reds in the light more than the blues. I got much to learn on this topic as well so dont take my advice as gods word lol. Wait for the more experienced guys to chime in
 
Since they're LED bulbs obtained at a hardware store, you won't be able to find PAR values unless you can rent a PAR meter or care to buy one. Since the latter isn't very practical, you can only guess.. or make best guesses based on lumens and Kelvin (the light measurements usually found on household LED bulb packaging). You'd probably just have to assess how your plants are doing with the light and if any algae is appearing. Then make adjustment in photoperiod. What type of plants are in your 10 gallon? Are you dosing ferts, CO2 , liquid carbon?

See the problem is that not all LEDs are created equal. Using LEDs that aren't specifically made for aquariums makes it tough to figure out your lighting level -- unless of course, you're tech savvy and well studied on the subject. There's just too many variations out there. That's why I like aquarium LED fixture manufacturers like Finnex, Current, and BML... They release PAR data so you as a consumer/hobbyist can make informed decisions... They sort of give us a standard or benchmark to make comparisons from.
 
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I'm not really sure of the names of the plants. I was given most of them from a friend at the pet store. They were just pieces that fell off and he replanted. ImageUploadedByAquarium Advice1391972249.831664.jpgImageUploadedByAquarium Advice1391972263.623179.jpgImageUploadedByAquarium Advice1391972280.118567.jpg

And no none of the other things, no carbon or anything. I've been looking at some but haven't gotten any yet I wanted to get everyone's opinion on which they like the best
 
I think they are all some kind of crypt. If they are crypts, then they will need root tabs as they are heavy root feeders. Also dont like being moved around often
 
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