using LED lights

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gumby1

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Jan 14, 2010
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hey guys currently setting up a new tank and i want to have it moderatly/heavily planted, i was on ebay and saw some Red/blue LED panels for sale, i was wondering if these would work?
i am not to sure about lighting and stuff but was just wondering if they would be ok to grow plants under, i also dont wat my fish to lookto washed out or anything under these lights.
also, is it a purple light or will it just look normal?
help would be good, cheers
http://www.google.com.au/imgres?img...&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:42&biw=1259&bih=548
 
I'll tell you right now that those lights will make ur tank look like crap. Those are purely meant to grow plants so aesthetics isnt a factor. If you want led you can buy light fixtures with led which are meant for aquariums.

But if your new to planted aquariums... why not just go with tried and true, t5 ho.
 
The color of the LED's you are looking at would work, but will not help the plants look nice in the aquarium. You really want a white/blue color to make the tank and plants pop. LED's are awesome, and for really nice LED fixtures for aquariums, you will spend a lot of money up front, but in the long run they pay off. The only problem with LED's right now is that it takes roughly 7 years to break even on the savings of electricity and replacement bulbs. So until LED's become the new t5, I would suggest going with t5 or compact fluorescent. Both t5 and CF really work well with plants and are not limiting at all to freshwater. Until you think about corals and saltwater will you need to consider very strong lighting such as LED's and metal halide.
 
Just go with T5s just like what everyone else has said so far. What size tank is it?
 
mes1234 said:
The color of the LED's you are looking at would work, but will not help the plants look nice in the aquarium. You really want a white/blue color to make the tank and plants pop. LED's are awesome, and for really nice LED fixtures for aquariums, you will spend a lot of money up front, but in the long run they pay off. The only problem with LED's right now is that it takes roughly 7 years to break even on the savings of electricity and replacement bulbs. So until LED's become the new t5, I would suggest going with t5 or compact fluorescent. Both t5 and CF really work well with plants and are not limiting at all to freshwater. Until you think about corals and saltwater will you need to consider very strong lighting such as LED's and metal halide.
Click to expand...
thanks for the help, being an electrician, i could easily wire up a 12 volt LED system to light up my new fish tank, i will use on blue LED for every 2 white ones.
do your think plants will be able to grow under the led lights?
 
to be honest i would be really intereted in this lighting rig. If i were you I would try it out then start a thread on the progress. I'm sure they would work really well to grow plants i think the only problems is they might not make your plants look as amazing as they might under a 6700k and a 10,000 k bulb. I vote to try this. Yes plants can grow under led's but usually it's a more expensive options so that's why people stick with T5HO for now.
 
The LED panels that have been listed are a waste of time and money for planted aquariums.
All use .05 mW LEDs while the current standard for aquariums is 3 watts per. The entire panel is less effective than one of the twenty four 3 watt LED emitters I use on my 75g planted tank.

The original 225 red LED panels were and are used in grow systems for things like lettuce and medicinal herbs. They promote vegetative growth. Most people purchasing them aren't actually interested in vegetative growth, they want blossoms. Hence, new LED mixes. They still aren't worth anything for aquatic plants. Light penetration is very low.
 
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