LED fixtures

[limige]

looking to upgrade my lighting on my 5ft long (120g) angel tank. mostly swords in it right now using standard T8's (4)

what kind of LED fixture is up to the task and maintains proper lighting. hard to find stuff to fit 60" tanks

[DiscusPunk]

I'm using True Lumen 8,000k LED strips on my 72" long 125g. They come in 12", 24", 36", and 48" but you can connect multiples. My plants are loving it. Here's their info link:
http://www.current-usa.com/aquarium-led-lights/truelumen-pro-led-striplights

Best deal I found was on amazon.com.

[limige]

How many rows are you using?

[DiscusPunk]

I have four 36" strips set up in two rows. 2 in front, 2 in back.

[limige]

heres what i saw on ebay so far

the marinland fixture is 1 watt LEDs and the EVO is 3 watt LEDs. since i have a deep tank depth i may have to get the 3 watt fixture.

they also make a 24" quad row, maybe two of these
http://www.ebay.com/itm/EVO-Quad-24-LED-Aquarium-Light-Saltwater-Coral-Reef-Cichlid-28x-3W-3-Watts-/290745750653?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43b1cc147d

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EVO-60-LED-Aquarium-Light-Marine-Coral-Reef-FOWLR-Cichlid-44x-3W-3-Watt-Lunar-/110916399626?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19d321f20a

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Marineland-Reef-Capable-LED-Aquarium-Light-48-60-inch-/221067531927?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3378a6d697

[limige]

What's the dimensions for depth and hieght on your tank? Mine is 22" high.

The 3 Watt fixtures come in at 132 Watt for the 60" two row or 168 Watts for the 2 24" quad row fixtures.

If I went with the truelumen they are 30 Watt each so 60 Watt total 2x48"
All are about the same pricing. Issue is coverage, the true lumens I can space apart for even light. The 60" fixture is only 5" wide for a 18" wide tank. I think I would have to run two for coverage but then price and light become too high.

I see there are Retro fit options that look a Tad hooky. Hmmm I hate to spend over $300. I'm concerned if two rows of the true lumens will be good.

[limige]

OK think I found the answer, they look awesome and are cheaper!

http://www.ecoxotic.com/catalog/product/view/id/144/s/stunner-led-strips-24-watt/category/17/

[DiscusPunk]

My tank is 18" deep and 20' tall. I initially just had 2 MarineFusion from True Lumen and that wasn't enough, my plants were dying, only the banana plant was thriving. I added the 8,000k sun white LEDs and they all started coming back within a week. The 2 sun whites give more light for all the plants and I still have the 2 marine fusions plugged in front. Once I get my tank more heavily planted I'll probably ditch the 2 marine fusions and add another 2 sun whites. I keep the marine fusions now to give some blue light to reflect off of my blue discus(not sure what she is just that she's a gorgeous blue color).
Wow those lights from the link are a lot cheaper. $79 bucks for a 36" strip and the cheapest I found my TrueLumens was for $130 for a 36" strip. Let me know if you go with these and how well they do. I'd like to try them out. I plan on eventually upgrading to a larger tank so I'll need more lights and if these work great I'll def go with ecoxotic instead of the TrueLumen. I noticed they have the magenta lights, I saw that TrueLumen has T5s with magenta light, its supposed to be good for plants.

[krislewis3]

I hope you dont mind me jumping into your thread. I am also looking to upgrade my lighting, in my 60 gallon tank....48x24 inches and the hood takes 2 bulbs!. right now I have 2 t-8 i think. its supposed to bring out the colors in the fish. Ive recently planted some anubias, which are not doing much!!! Is there a magnificent bulb available that does it all??

[limige]

Not sure about the magentas, blues are mostly for our eyes and bringing out colors on fish. Plants like the 6-8000k range. Ill have to look into the magentas.

Color shift from old bulbs causes issues. Hoping Leds wont do that. My tank has gone from bad to worst, plants grow for a week then algea starts in.
When I lived in softer water I never had a. Issue. They liked VHOs but those suck a lot of juice and heat up.
Plan is to upgrade lighting then hit them with CO2..

Also need to rework my Hood so I can hinge it instead of lifting the entire thing off.

As of right now I intend on ordering those lights. I was trying to decide how many I might need. I may go two 48" centered and a 12" bar on each end.

[retiredsailor]

my 2 cents... i wanted to do the same thing and looked and looked. i ended up with 2 36" LED strips, one on each side of the tank. I found Big Als had the best pricing at $100 each. I know we should go through the sponsors here but that was a great price i couldn't resist.

ian drennan
drums, pa

[gliebig]

I bought two of the Marineland double brights for my 125gal. I didn't like them. They had a spotlight effect on the bottom of the tank which was visually distracting.

[limige]

I bought two of the Marineland double brights for my 125gal. I didn't like them. They had a spotlight effect on the bottom of the tank which was visually distracting.

that doesn't suprise me. that was one concern i had with those ebay fixtures.
1W and 3W LEDs are commonly used in flashlights. while they have a very high lumen rating i was worried they would spotlight. add that to the power consumption of 44-88 of those buggers and you'll wonder why your using LEDs in the first place.

i really liked the look of the truelumens, more even lighting, nice bars to install but the price was steep.

if you look around you can get rolls of LED lights in different size leds. i even found some that were labeled 8000k. they come with an adhesive backing and you can cut them every 3 leds or so and trim the plastic to install power connections. they come in both 12 & 24V and are waterproof. and they are dirt cheap, $22 for 5meters.
i'm really curious how these would work on plants. i know they work excellent for boat interior lighting and car lighting, also can be used easily on fish only tanks that use a canopy. there are brackets available so you aren't relying on the adhesive backing. at some point someone is going to have to try this compared to a high dollar bar and see how they compare, because i would really like to know!

here is an aussie action on one, they come in 150/300/600/1200 leds per 5 meter, here is the 1200 version
http://www.ebay.com/itm/5M-1200-LED-Strip-Light-SMD-3528-Epoxy-White-Waterproof-/300669203793?pt=AU_Lighting_Fans&hash=item460147f551

if you google 8000k LED stip lights youll come up with a mess of shippers selling them. all dirt cheap compared to these light bars marketed for our tanks. question is are they any different?

[limige]

my 2 cents... i wanted to do the same thing and looked and looked. i ended up with 2 36" LED strips, one on each side of the tank. I found Big Als had the best pricing at $100 each. I know we should go through the sponsors here but that was a great price i couldn't resist.

ian drennan
drums, pa

do you have plants? if so how did they respond to the leds? if not how is the overall appearance? color, shimmer, even light?

[DiscusPunk]

Not sure about the magentas, blues are mostly for our eyes and bringing out colors on fish. Plants like the 6-8000k range. Ill have to look into the magentas.

Color shift from old bulbs causes issues. Hoping Leds wont do that. My tank has gone from bad to worst, plants grow for a week then algea starts in.
When I lived in softer water I never had a. Issue. They liked VHOs but those suck a lot of juice and heat up.
Plan is to upgrade lighting then hit them with CO2..

Also need to rework my Hood so I can hinge it instead of lifting the entire thing off.

As of right now I intend on ordering those lights. I was trying to decide how many I might need. I may go two 48" centered and a 12" bar on each end.

I still get some algae growth but it's not too much of a problem as long as I wipe down the tank every couple of days or so with a mag-float scraper. I also plan on getting some shrimp to help with the algae issue.
I like the LED because of the very reason they don't get as hot or suck up as much energy. I'm looking into adding a CO2 unit in my tank next as well. Debating over a 5 or 20 pound tank. Thinkin 5 is all I'll really need.
I was going to suggest a 48" connected to a 12". Sounds good. I hope those lights work out for you.

[DiscusPunk]

I hope you dont mind me jumping into your thread. I am also looking to upgrade my lighting, in my 60 gallon tank....48x24 inches and the hood takes 2 bulbs!. right now I have 2 t-8 i think. its supposed to bring out the colors in the fish. Ive recently planted some anubias, which are not doing much!!! Is there a magnificent bulb available that does it all??

Depending on which type of Anubias you have, they're one of the slower growing species. As far as they T-8 bringing out the colors, every maker has a bulb for plants. Coralife, Zoo Med, Philips, GE. I'd be more likely to go with a manufacturer like Coralife or Zoo Med since they specialize in aquarium lighting but plenty of people use typical fluorescent with success. Read up on the different makers and see which seems to fit your needs. :)

[krislewis3]

DO THE LED LIGHTS PUT OUT AS MUCH LIGHT AS FLOURESENT?

[bonghapster]

LEd are more focus directional light depending on the reflectors. I have them on my planted discus tank and reef tank.

[limige]

been doing some homework and found this post googling. the stunner led strips may not be the best for large tank plant growth

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=179080&highlight=magenta+light

[DiscusPunk]

been doing some homework and found this post googling. the stunner led strips may not be the best for large tank plant growth

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=179080&highlight=magenta+light

How many did you plan on using? On True Lumens site they recommended 4 36" strips put in 2 rows, one in front, one in back for adequate light for the plants.

[limige]

I was planning on two 48" strips with later adding 12" strips on the end

I just got a good deal on a 60" marineland fixture in the 10 k range. I want to check that out possibly add stunners with that. Or I may do a dyi build with Cree lights off rapidled.com or the like

[vq5]

I was going to use 3w Green Element fixtures on my 120. I had them on in the start produce very bright white light. I had planned to just grow lower light plants but then later wanted to grow some ground cover plants that needed higher light. The LED seem bright enough but the light would not spread enough for me. So i ended up going back to T5HO.

[james1234]

Just my 2 cents but i use TMC grobeams on my 100g and they light it up nicely, bought a twin pack but am only using one as they are pretty bright and are meant to be ok for growing plants also