LEDs for planted tank?

[Ilovecichlids]

Hi all! I was thinking about switching to LEDs in my 55 gallon planted tank... Are LEDs good for plants? Are bulbs better? Do they produce enough light?
Thanks for your input, I'd hate to spend all that money if they aren't sufficient.

 

[GoldsGuy]

I don't think they are good enough yet other than low-light plants. I love the look and would prefer LEDs too.

I did research before since I have plants in my GF tank. I ended up getting T5HO fixture.

Most LED fixtures are geared toward coral and marine which have different light wavelength needs than plants.

Marineland came out with planted LED fixture but is crazy expensive and currently the T5HO fixtures are better than existing LED.

Hopefully an LED fixture will be introduced that is sufficient for medium plants and priced the same as those for coral.

 

[fort384]

There are plenty of very good fixtures out there that are very capable of growing plants with the highest lighting requirements. The marineland fixtures would not be on that list with their wholly under-powered 0.3W diodes.

What is your budget? They are not cheap. Even building your own fixture will be $100-$200.

 

[bevoholic]

Hopefully an LED fixture will be introduced that is sufficient for medium plants and priced the same as those for coral.

There are plenty of LEDs out there already that can satisfy even high light plants.

 

[GoldsGuy]

Well I know there are capable LEDS out there, but I haven't seen any in an aquarium fixture. They are as DYI and very expensive compared to the T5HO fixtures available.

 

[fort384]

There are many, many fixtures.


Yes t5hos are cheaper up front. No question. In the long run it can even out though since there are no bulb replacements and energy consumption is lower.

 

[GoldsGuy]

Hi Fort


Can you provide a link or names for such fixtures?

 

[DanTheGuppyMan]

I use LEDs on all of my tanks now, my latest is my 60g- runs a double t5ho fixture with 2 TrueLumen Pro LED strips and the 6g i am building will run the finnex ray 2. The led's on my 60 actually grew plants a lot better and added a lot of light and colors my t5ho fixture could have never brought out.

 

[fort384]

AquaVibrant

TrueLumen Pro Series LED StripLights | Current-USA

SkyLED 36" Aquarium Light for Planted Tanks

TaoTronics TT AL09 Dimmable Coral Reef Tank Light LED Aquarium Light 120W 55 3W | eBay

Here are just a few examples of fixtures capable of growing a wide range of plants.

There are many more out there as well.

I personally use the truelumen pros on my only planted tank that I am currently running.

 

[greenwater]

I run six AquaRay Globeam 500's that i'm very happy with. Use to have two T5 HO lights. (Really i had four T5's but was way to much light for a 100 gallon tank).

 

[Ilovecichlids]

Thanks so much for your input! I will look into the ones you guys listed! I my limit is probably $200 max...