general lighting ? for the veterans!

[juice28]

ok kep it short and sweet, whats a betterlight, 7000k with total output of 450 lumens, or 6000k with total outputof 650 lumens...in regards to a tall, not wide tank,

im dong some research on LED light compared to MH and CFL's

[ccCapt]

Better for what?
K is kelvin degrees and relates to the color of the bulb.
A lumen is the measure of the total power of light emitted.

What are you trying to compare? A bulb may have a high lumen output, but only a small % of that light is photosynthetically usable. Compare bulbs using PPFD - Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density. That is the amount of photosynthetic light emitted in a defined area.

[juice28]

ive been reading about the use of LED lights for aquariums as opposed to the standard of norm, mh and cfl's, you know everything is going green now plus if it is possible, it might bring my electric bill down, specially in the summer!

[krap101]

Well, the led lamps that they sell for fish tanks are like 2,000$, so...

[juice28]

yea if buy the prebuilt kit, I have a slight hood up, a friend of mines dad makes signes.. 90% use led lights all colors.. i just dont know which led bilbs to use...or do i use like 225 smal bulbs or like 7-10 big bulbs..I currently have an led 6000k "sun" light that is actually for hydroponic plant growth, and a small blue one that is for night time which was the basis of my search, if it grows plants under water, what is the reason it wont grow corals if enough light is forced through the water. LED's have diffenrent ratios the standards so its almost like comparing apples and oranges in some aspects..but how much does a 400 wat mh cost...4-600...then replacement bulbs which arent cheap, then the chiller for using itin the summer time and the pure wattage on the bill...your not too far off from 1500 to 2000 in a couple years, my plant LED which is too small to use on my reef tank but i have it on my 20 gal f/w tank, fish only and it is actually very brightly lit and the fish seem to be doing better than when I had my reg flourescent bulb on it and they cost me 40 bucks a piece and there good for close to 70,000 hours but they are only 13 wats combined...