considering LED lighting

[Thomas Autry]

55 Gallon Deep tank... want to grow baby tears so need light that will penetrate all the way down.. currently have a hood that houses a single florescent, have a 36" T8 in right now... one of my LFS suggested LED to me. Fluval Sea Marine and Reef full spectrum. I'm not too concerned about price, but would like some suggestions for the best bang for my buck,, or just best overall performance.. it will be a heavy planted tank.

 

[Affordable Aquatic]

You should be looking at the kessil lights. They make a 6500K light which would give you more light in a usable spectrum for your plants. Most other LEDs are going to be designed for corals

 

[jwh0818]

I would check out www.buildmyled.com they have any option you can choose from and you have just plant option's. You can make it as cheap or expensive as you would like

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

BuildMyLED is a good choice as jwh recommended. They have optic options for choosing the beam angle to help penetrate deeper tanks. Plus, they use higher watt diodes. I'd either get the Dutch or iwagumi spectrum.

 

[Nothing]

I'm in the same boat you are, I'm setting up a 55g heavily planted tank. I'm going with the Dutch 6300k XB light with a 75 degree beam angle. You'll want the 75 degree angle because it's not a very wide tank, and the XB version so you get all the light you need guaranteed. I'd also suggest the manual dimmer with it just in case.