LED Lighting

[Firestorming, posts: 238]

I am looking at LED lighting for my 6x2x2 amazon tank, I like the aquarays atthis stage, does anyone have any experience with these (LED, not just aquray brand)?

[Martin S, posts: 1746]

I know they are really popular in the marine keepers fraternity, from both a running cost and tank temperature - especially when they replace metal halides. Do they do tropical freshwater lights then, as it's important to get the kelvin rating right - 14K would be way too blue for freshwater. I use a 10K MH bulb for my tank and that's a nice colour.
HTH
Martin

[2wheelsx2, posts: 924]

AquaRay carries freshwater full spectrum lighting and works great if you're wanting to grow plants. For just fish it's overkill. Here's my CO2 injected ADA cube garden with the 400 mini tile:



A pic showing the light setup:

[Martin S, posts: 1746]

That's a lovely colour light from those! And the plant growth looks really good too! Got me thinking now!
Martin

[2wheelsx2, posts: 924]

I really like it, and it's supposed to be 6500K. Here's a link to the spectrum they report (it's the 3rd one which is daylight): http://www.jlaquatics.com/manuals/aquar ... pectra.pdf

Very energy efficient at 12 W.

[Firestorming, posts: 238]

Cheers guys, I contacted jla but they don't ship internationally, might be a US order then as the prices are almost half of what they are locally.

I am looking at 3 tiles over a 6x2x2, should make my plants AND fish happy.

[Martin S, posts: 1746]

I've found some on eBay, 6500K white/blue LEDs, and they reckon I will only need one for my tank - 67.9 x 54.6 x 57.8 cm (27 x 22 x 23").
It will reduce the running cost of the MH+twin T8s masively - the MH is 10000K, and I think this will make the tank whiter. I'll just leave the blues off.
Martin

[RickE, posts: 438]

From Hong Kong - should be a good option for Firestorming.

[2wheelsx2, posts: 924]

I've found some on eBay, 6500K white/blue LEDs, and they reckon I will only need one for my tank - 67.9 x 54.6 x 57.8 cm (27 x 22 x 23").
It will reduce the running cost of the MH+twin T8s masively - the MH is 10000K, and I think this will make the tank whiter. I'll just leave the blues off.
Martin

I have 2 sets of the Beamswork lights and they are not really daylight. They may be 6500K since Kelvin ratings are measured differently by different manus. Here's what that same little ADA cube looked like with a 12" Beamswork. It was also too low light for me to grow HC. You'll note a distinct bluish hue, which I didn't like for planted tanks.

[Martin S, posts: 1746]

I found this one as well, and they said 10,000K would be fine for freshwater (which I know it is as my MH bulb is 10,000K) - a lot more money, and will it be any brighter?
I'm only growing amazon swords, and a few other broad leaf type plants.
Martin

[2wheelsx2, posts: 924]

I found this one as well, and they said 10,000K would be fine for freshwater (which I know it is as my MH bulb is 10,000K) - a lot more money, and will it be any brighter?
I'm only growing amazon swords, and a few other broad leaf type plants.
Martin

As long as you are not concerned with the bluish hue, the lower wattage Beamswork will grow plants just fine. The ReefBrite, which is the link you show on EBay, is pretty bright and will definitely be adequate for Swords. My local vendor brought those in and I've seen them. They're also less blue.