Getting Familiar w/LED Lighting

[Mr. fish]

I'm familiar with normal lighting, T8's/T5's/CF's but new to the LED scene. Just got a Marineland LED fixture on a good package deal today and wanted to get more familiar on identifying the light ranges from low to high.

Whats considered low lighting and whats considered high?

Do plants thrive the same compared to a 6,700k bulb? I'm assuming hour duration's are the same?

Thanks

[arch aquatics]

Well LED's have opened a lot of debates an i am a fan of them.

The problem with LED's is that they take away that old wpg rule stick and have made us look at PAR values and such.

6500k LED's are most of what is produced by the big companies so the color temp for your plants should be perfect.

Bear in mind that an LED penetrates the water better then a traditional tube bulb and 100% of its light produced is aimed at the water not 33% like the old tubes.

Of course if you venture into the salt side of the hobby there are even LED's that produce the same light as a metal halide. But thats a whole different monster!

[grogan]

I am hesitant to use them because there simply isn't enough data on them. I have not found any par charts to compare them with. On my 33 long I am able to grow vals with leds but on my main plant tanks... I am happy with my t5's and extra wide reflectors.

[funlad3]

Which Marlineland fixture did you get? Some of them should be a bit more than adequate for plants, others are just a joke. If you really want to use LEDs to grow plants with, I found a great supplier in China who uses brand name diodes at a fraction of the price.

[Fuzz]

There's 2 kinds of Marineland LED fixtures that I know of. The regular(cheaper) one, which are kind of crappy(like a stock, original bulb from a hood) are pretty cool because they have the "night" feature(blue LEDs for an actinic look). This one has pretty low lighting and it would take up the whole top of the tank to get half decent lighting. The cheaper one works pretty well for shallow tanks, but I don't know how good they are for growing plants.

The other option would be the "Marine/Reef/Saltwater" version, which is the one Arch Aquatics mentioned. It imitates metal halide bulbs, but doesn't get super hot. They pump out a lot of light and still have the "night" feature. This would be a pretty good option to try. Unfortunately, the "Marine" one that I've seen cost a LOT of money. Of course it takes up less electricity and looks nice because it is flat and doesn't take up a mess of space...but not everyone is concerned about that. I bought a dual T5HO fixture for $250-ish. Shopping around online just now shows that the "reef" LED fixture by Marineland costs about $100 more...and we still don't know what kind of light it puts out. What temp? What PAR?

[emc7]

LEDs are the future, there is no doubt. But whether the ones on the market now are good enough yet is an open question. Here's the link for the marineland chart. http://www.marineland.com/uploadedFi...LLEDCharts.pdf Maybe someone can interpret the par/LuX/lumen data. They certainly look beautiful on tanks. They do not have replaceable bulbs so when they go, they go. Only 1 year warranty. They save a lot of energy and they don't heat up the tank and room. But do you save enough to be worth the upfront cost? Metal halides are so expensive and hot, LEDs will replace them first. But I think it will be a while before they can compete with T8 or T5 florescents in low light tanks.

[Fuzz]

if you go by PAR, my dual T5HO fixture is a LOT better than those. I only need one bulb in my fixture to get into the high light range. My bulbs are roughly 16" away from the substrate and one T5HO bulb from that distance is right around 100 PAR. According to that chart, their Cadillac "reef" light is 130 PAR at 12" away, which means it is probably around the same as a single T5HO bulb...Thing is, you're still paying $100 more for half the potential(a dual fixture would have over 200 PAR at the same distance). A GLO brand single bulb T5HO costs $125, which is 200 bucks cheaper than the LEDs.

[grogan]

On the plus side they do give the shimmer like halides. The shimmer is beautiful..

[funlad3]

Let put it this way, LED hoods will sustain low light plants, single or double brights will take care of most of the moderate level plants, and their reef capable will be more than enough for any type of underwater plant. Done.

[grogan]

Or get these :
http://www.marineland.com/sites/mari...l.aspx?id=4653

[emc7]

50,000 hrs vs. 17,000 hrs for the others.

[grogan]

Now I want to try one out :/ im going to order one for the store and test it on one of the store tanks.

[grogan]

Might have to call Frank and order one if these too:
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/aq...led-light.html

ada prices are scarry though. I am I need to stop buying new light fixtures 3 times a year lol

[Fuzz]

those plant fixtures by marineland sound pretty sweet. i'll have to keep an eye out for them

[emc7]

I hate to keep referring to other forums, but this is where you need to look. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/li...ompendium.html PAR values for many LED fixtures from many makers. Looks like most are "low-light" but people are doing things like using 2 marineland "doublebrights" on the same tank.