Fresh Water LED Units

[Juice44]

I have been in the hobby for some years know and have noticed recently the buzz about LED units. I have come across a few companies that sell fresh water LED units. I was curious if anybody has these running on any tanks. Looking to make the move but wanted some input first.

[ericatdallas]

I think you'll need to know mention what your goals are ... i.e. planted, display, etc.

[captainandy]

I run them on a 65 gal planted tank and 150 wild discus tank - also on a 300 reef. Best bet is the current pro led bars cause they contain 8000k LEDs. Most LEDs are for marine reef applications (12-20K). I like them very much. Prices have dramatically come down in the past year

[Darrell Ward]

While I appreciate the effort that went into designing low wattage lighting, personally, I don't like them. A friend in the trade let me use one to try out some months back. I found it to be a very weak lighting source, and it takes a whole lot of them to create lighting equal to a T5 fixture, a power compact, or a good 70 watt MH.

[CajunAg]

Maybe give this a lookover: http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&Page2Disp=%2Flight_bars-rigid.html

At least the price is right...

[ericatdallas]

I can't speak much about botany or aquatic plants, but I am pretty familiar with LED technology (at a core level, not the range of available products). Assuming there are 'sweet' spots for plants, LEDs are very good at targeting the wavelengths that are the best for plants. However, people prefer more than blue and red lights.

Also, LEDs emit light in a beam versus all directions. This is useful for some applications (cluster of plants), spotlight, certain types of displays, etc but not ideal for room lighting. Depending on your setup, you might desire that look though.

That means THEORETICALLY they are SHOULD be very efficient for hydroponics or artificial grow environments.

What you have to watch out for are cheap products that claim to have certain device characteristics. A deviation of a 20nm might still be "red" to you but not quite the 650-670nm that is ideal or the 550nm for the 'perfect' blue.

I have mixed feelings about white LEDs. They've made huge improvements. I still prefer the look and 'feel' of an incandescent. I would like to replace my lights with LEDs but I'm still not sure it's cost-effective.

I am also highly skeptical about the lifetime of the devices when evaluating the cost of when they "pay off". There's shady statistics and very controlled conditions in going to calculate this ... You would have to know if the mfg meant 50% or 75% of the original intensity. Also, are they accounting for wavelength shift. Also, the LED may have operating characteristics, but what is your LED controller "driving" the LED at? Would 75% of the original light intensity and a 10nm shift in the light's wavelength impact the growth of your plants? It's possible. So when would it hit 90%? It's hard to tell a lot of this stuff without looking directly at the mfg datasheet and then even then, it's not always obvious or available.