How's this light?

Dec 14, 2011
229
0
0
WI
#1
I'm looking to upgrade my lightening in the upcoming months from the standard fluorescent lightening to some LEDs. I want to be able to grow more plants than my anubias, but I'm not too concerned about the high light requirement ones. I don't really know a lot about the lightening thing and I've been trying to find something simple that's already set up. I've been looking at this system and I'm wondering what you guys think of it:

Marineland Aquatic Plant LED Aquarium Lighting System with Timer, Aquarium LED Lighting for Sale Online | PetSolutions
 

FreshyFresh

Superstar Fish
Jan 11, 2013
1,337
23
38
East Aurora, NY
#4
Dec 14, 2011
229
0
0
WI
#7
Forgive me for being completely ignorant... I'm on the website you bought yours from, and I've got tabs open for all of the 48" freshwater fixtures. They all have different numbers of LEDs and they have different lumens. Does the number of lumens mean the better the fixture? This one has the most for the freshwater plants.

EVO Quad 48 LED 6500K
 

FreshyFresh

Superstar Fish
Jan 11, 2013
1,337
23
38
East Aurora, NY
#8
Not sure on the lumen thing, but that's a TON of watts for an LED fixture @ 192 watts. I know the high dollar marine LED setups can consume that many watts. Never saw a freshwater one use that much. Mine is 72 LEDs x 0.5watts, so it uses ~35watts total.

What size tank is this for? IMO, that EVO quad would require CO2 injection, high light plants and lots-o maintenance to keep algae at bay.
 

Last edited:
Dec 14, 2011
229
0
0
WI
#9
I guess I'm just confused as to what makes an LED fixture good for plants. I'd like to be able to grow an array of different plants, especially tall growing ones for the back of my tank.
 

Newman

Elite Fish
Sep 22, 2009
4,668
0
0
Northern NJ
#10
what size tank is this for? to grow most plants you will want an even distribution of light from 3wpg-4wpg. carbon supplementation is a must with that kind of light.
 

Dec 14, 2011
229
0
0
WI
#11
It's a 60g, 4' long. And yeah, feel free to let me know what else I need to do to keep less hardy plants. Like I said before, all I've got are a couple of anubias and they could pretty much live through the apocalypse.
 

FreshyFresh

Superstar Fish
Jan 11, 2013
1,337
23
38
East Aurora, NY
#12
Any lighting that puts out significant PAR/PUR and at a color/temp range that the plants can use will grown plants, be it fluorescent or LED for FW.

IMO, something like a standard 55-60g tank would be a nightmare with more than a twin-tube 48" T5HO fixture or a high output LED. You'd really have to stay on top of it to keep algae at bay.

I grow easy stuff like wisteria, water sprite, amazon sword (all three grow big and tall), java fern and anubia. I supplement with a glutaral product for CO2 as well as occasional seachem trace and seachem comprehensive.
 

FreshyFresh

Superstar Fish
Jan 11, 2013
1,337
23
38
East Aurora, NY
#14
I wouldn't go with a 10000K color/temp for typical freshwater plants, although it might work. Hopefully some more experienced plant keepers will chime in on that. Most stick with 6500K color/temp. Looks like impressive wattage for LED, but the old generic watts per gallon doesn't apply with LEDs like it did with fluorescent.

IIRC, that "TopDogSellers" is where I bought my Odyssea 48" 6500K T5HO fixture over a year ago. It's been used 8hrs/day for a year now. I probably should think about re-lamping it at this point.
 

Dec 14, 2011
229
0
0
WI
#17
What I really want to end up with is something similar to yours, Newman, although I don't know what species of plants you've got and they don't need to be the same. I just want lots of green with no visibility of the back of my tank and bits of driftwood peeking out in different spots.