24 LED flexible bar strip.

FreshyFresh

FreshyFresh

Superstar Fish
#1
Jan 11, 2013
1,337
23
38
East Aurora, NY
#1
In a quest to improve the Marineland LED hood on my 10gal as inexpensively as possible for my low-light plants, I just mail-ordered a flexible 12V LED strip to run in addition to the basic LED hood for this tank.

My plan is to use plastic, stick-on zip tie mounts on the underside of the hood and run the strip parallel to the OEM light and zip-tie it in place.

For $5.99 shipped to the door, we'll see how it goes.

 

FreshyFresh

FreshyFresh

Superstar Fish
#2
Jan 11, 2013
1,337
23
38
East Aurora, NY
#2
Results are in for my ultra-high quality, import LED strip-light hood upgrade. REMARKABLY MEDIOCRE! LOL.. kidding.

Brightness in the tank is actually MUCH improved. To my eye, it's nearly twice as bright. When I was test-fitting the unit, I didn't think it was going to make much of a difference, but once in stalled, it makes a big difference. Will it be a light spectrum that the plants can recognize? I have no idea. Time will tell on that.

I'm not going to post pics, because the install is pretty self explanatory.

The 24 LEDs are encased in a clear, flexible silicone type material, just like pic'd above. I used some self-adhesive plastic zip-tie anchors to the underside of the hood and some small zip ties to hold the unit and wiring in place near the factory LED light on the marineland LED hood. Also needed an outlet adapter for my light timer to allow for 2, 120VAC to 12VDC power adapters. One for the factory light, one for the Chinese special. There's a smoke detector in the room.

 

exhumed07

exhumed07

Superstar Fish
#8
Apr 30, 2006
1,774
0
36
Illinois
#8
i do alot with electronics and i have been planning to do an led lighting project for my tanks this upcoming summer. i have some acrylic pieces cut and taped together at the moment with 20 holes drilled into the bottom of each one for 3mm LED. so think about 20 LED in a 20 and 30 gallon tank and 80 for my 55. alot of lighting. but i plant to buy spectrum specific led and place them all in the trays then fill them with a black epoxy to totally isolate the wiring from any moisture as i found out early on that the leads going into a standard 3mm led are steel and not nickle as expected lol. needless to say they did not last long. now with this setup i am not looking to replace my standard t5 lighting but suppliment it, then maybe later on replace. we will see how it turns out. but i do like the idea of taking an already available product and using it to ur advantage :p
 

FreshyFresh

FreshyFresh

Superstar Fish
#9
Jan 11, 2013
1,337
23
38
East Aurora, NY
#9
The spectrum looks good to my eye. Even the basic zebra danios sparkle under this light. The anacharis like it so much, my bundle of it broke apart and half of it is now floating around the tank.. Ugh.. gotta do some aquascaping. It's tough to tell from pics, but pic one is before the $5.99 LED mod:



 

FreshyFresh

FreshyFresh

Superstar Fish
#11
Jan 11, 2013
1,337
23
38
East Aurora, NY
#11
FishDad said:
Thats a real nice looking tank. I have to admit, I like the muted lighting of the first pic.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Pics are tough in this location though. The first pic was taken at night. That room is very bright during the day. Can't really get a good pic of the tank. The LED strip is sold as "white", but the LEDs are more blue then the marineland "white" LEDs.

I like muted lighting better too, but that doesn't seem to cut it for live plants. I never had luck with plants in the past and it seems to be continuing. Granted most of my low-light plants are only 4-5 weeks old, nothing has died, but nothing has shown any growth either.
 

Last edited:
exhumed07

exhumed07

Superstar Fish
#12
Apr 30, 2006
1,774
0
36
Illinois
#12
it takes a few weeks for plants to really get settled with low light. i'm running high light on my 20 as stated before and it takes maybe a week and i start to notice growth on some plants. and others just melt away within a week. every tank is different though. I don't know anyone who grows with LED though unless they buy spectrum specific LED and build their own lighting. seems to me that all the LED hoods out there are for fish only tanks. that is unless you buy a $200+ lighting system. i personally find t5 to be great. might go through bulbs which are not cheap but seems to hurt less buying bulbs every 6 months for 40 bucks instead of buying a $200 hood. kinda like buying gas when you are down to half a tank. seems to hurt less to put in 40-50 bucks twice in a week instead of 80-100 in one shot lol
 

FreshyFresh

FreshyFresh

Superstar Fish
#13
Jan 11, 2013
1,337
23
38
East Aurora, NY
#13
Yep. Me thinks I'll be going with glass versa-tops and T5 strip lights at some point. :(

I'll see how the 48 LEDs in the little 10gal do after a week or three first.

The stock LED hood on the 29gal looks awesome in the tank, but is useless down at substrate level. It's a shame really.
 

exhumed07

exhumed07

Superstar Fish
#14
Apr 30, 2006
1,774
0
36
Illinois
#14
i'm not overly impressed with the hoods like u showed earlier that u put the flexible led strip on. the saltwater ones are realy bad ass but u also pay out the ass for them lol
 

FreshyFresh

FreshyFresh

Superstar Fish
#15
Jan 11, 2013
1,337
23
38
East Aurora, NY
#15
As far as plastic full-hoods go, I have yet to find one that really impresses me anymore. Like so many things, they don't make them like they used to.

No noticeable difference with the plants in this little 10gal with 48 LEDs glowing away for ~11hrs a day.

Like others have mentioned, I think you really have to use LEDs specific for plant growth. I'm not sure yet that ordinary bluish/white LEDs will do it, even if you've got a lot of them packed into a small space.
 

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