LED Lights For Planted Tank Question?

arcab4

The Big Fish
The Big Fish
Oct 22, 2002
1,554
30
48
46
Sunny Southern California
#1
thought i'd toss this out there incase there are some LED experienced people...

currently on my 60 gallon planted tank...i am using two t10 bulbs. kinda weak it seems. tired of having to replace the bulbs and such so i was looking at some LED lighting instead (i use LED for my saltwater tank).

I saw this on ebay...it's a 3watt LED lighting system.

EVO 48" LED Aquarium Light Coral Reef Saltwater 32x 3W 3 Watts Lunar 120 cm | eBay

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hopefully it's an improvement in lighting and not a downgrade. they also have these 1 watt LED but i think it might be too weak...
 

LadyR

Small Fish
Apr 24, 2012
30
0
0
West Bountiful, Ut
#2
I just got one from Amazon after finding the Marineland one not bright enough for my planted freshwater tank. I reallly like it. Its the Ray AL-H24DD here's the specs:Finnex Unibody Ultra Slim High Output LED
Intensive PAR LED to promote corals & plants
20 Watts: 192 HO LEDS
It's only 28" wide, the only issue I can see, but it could sit right on the glass and use 2 of them. It's only $93 bucks, probably cheaper than what you're looking at. I spent $122 on the Marineland one and adding 2 rows only made it I think 9watts. I've only had this one a day and I swear I see a difference with the plants already!
 

arcab4

The Big Fish
The Big Fish
Oct 22, 2002
1,554
30
48
46
Sunny Southern California
#4
i had read that the marineland ones weren't bright enough. i looked on ebay for the Ray AL-H24DD but doesn't seem to have any at this time.

@KcMopar - i'm jealous you know how to do DIY stuff. haha. i think my original lighting is 2x36watt t10 bulbs. i'm hoping these 32x3watt LED will be more than that.

found another version of the LED lights on ebay that don't have the blues which should be better for a planted tank.

linK: EVO 48" 6500K LED Aquarium Light 32x 3 Watts 3W Freshwater Plant Tropical Fish | eBay

thanks for the replies!
 

arcab4

The Big Fish
The Big Fish
Oct 22, 2002
1,554
30
48
46
Sunny Southern California
#6
cool! yea..i had sent the seller an email asking him for more info on the LED he has. instead he just gave me a link to buy a t5 setup instead. haha. if i don't find anything in the next couple of days, i might just go with the led he has and try it out.
 

se-r altima

Medium Fish
Jan 23, 2012
68
0
0
Aurora CO
#8
I have 2 different LED units I use on 2 tanks. 42 hex tank and 10 gallon hex tank.

First LED unit is the expanable AquaticLife 24" 10,000K/ 460nm 9.6W unit. (Expandable they mean add a second unit and ballast. ugh!)
(15 LED 10K white and 15 LED 460nm blues) (0.5 watt bulbs)
Not a super bright LED fixture, but was using it in conjunction with an 18 watt 50/50 T8 Reef Sun.
It made the plants grow in my 42 hex really well and added the high blue spectrum making the cardinals glow intensly.

PUR (photosynthetically useable radiation graph) number was listed as percentages on the AquaticLife fixture. That's nice. (AKA useful light.)
The graph shows a spike in the 450nm, 500nm and one between 590 and 650nm range. (69%, 12% and 5.42%)
Not as much in the high red. Sun light helps with the red spectrum a few hours a day.

The second LED is on a 10 gallon hex
The Ecoxotic Panorama 19 watt 12K LED unit. They are really bright 1.5 watt LED's. Provides plenty of light.
What is most important is they are expandable off a single 24 watt remote ballast. 3 19 watt lights max. (up to 57 watts total)
Was going to use 2 modules on the 10 gallon but that was overkill. Too much light because of algae.

I had the second Panorama module already so I picked up an extra ballast and now it is used on the 42 hex tank (18 inches deep).
It is really bright now even at the bottom of the tank.

With any light, PUR and light intensity are very important and how it degrades over distance. The deeper the tank, the more light, PUR, you will need and the more intense light you will need. Deeper than 20 inches will require a lot of light.

Brightest LED lights available?
These 2 LED units are just sick amounts of light.
ECORAY hi par led lights would be good to use on deep tanks. (100 lumens per watt) 60 watt and 112 watt units.
And the BlueLine 120 VHO LED and 300W VHO LED units are sick for really deep tanks. (3 watt LED bulbs!)

Hope that helps.
42 hex


10 Hex
 

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arcab4

The Big Fish
The Big Fish
Oct 22, 2002
1,554
30
48
46
Sunny Southern California
#9
se-r altima - sorry for the delay. but thanks for the information. i finally went with the EVO lights i posted about earlier. i put them side by side with the lights i have no and they are really much brighter that i think the plants in there are pearling. for future reference, i would've probably gotten TWO of them to really light up the tank eventually. i'll post a picture eventually with the comparison. my tank is in pretty sad shape right now. :(