LEDs and planted tanks?!

[myjohnson]

Who's rockin LEDs on their planted tanks?

Can we get pictures of said set-up and a little description?

I was wondering who the spread on LEDs would effect the scape or growth of FW plants, particularly stem plants.

[eklikewhoa]

I ran two marineland single brights on a mini L and it did decent, kept the anubias nana petite and moss alive.

[Totenkampf]

i was looking into these aquarays:

http://americanaquariumproducts.com/LEDLights.html

they are advertizing a 24" x 24" spread if the fixture is 6-12" above the aquarium but it still looks a bit patchy to me, i think that i would want to even it out with T5HO or T2VHO unless you were to run alternating courses of the linear type grobeams. unfortunately, most of the example planted tanks that i have seen them on did not have demanding type plants growing in them but they can grow the heck outta java fern

[Kiko]

i think stunner strips will produce the amount of growth... will it?

[myjohnson]

They will grow plants.

I think they would be considered low light...depending on how many strips you had.

[Kiko]

what other led would do HT planted..

[aquabee]

A marineland single bright on a 20L did really well with keeping anubias, crypts, and christmas moss alive and growing... But regular baby tears and dwarf baby tears and narrow leaf chain swords died. So yeah, definitely low light.

[Totenkampf]

from the research that i did / am doing the stunners are not so great for HT plant nor are the marineland single brights. i took my 48" fixture back but the double bright may be better. the best results seem to be coming from fixtures or DIY that use the CRee 3W emitters which come in a 6500k. The first gen Cree arent so good and their are many inferior chinese knockoffs so you have to be careful with DIY and ensure you get 2nd gen brand name. The sunray fixtures that i linked above have 3rd gen that are only available to TMC and are supposed to be superior but i havent find an unbiased comparison review to support that yet.

[eklikewhoa]

I've been following another thread where the person is using the 10w chinese knockoffs and it seems to be efficient enough to be categorized as HT but for the money and time I personally would rather stick with T5HO or even dabble with MH

[myjohnson]

Leds bulbs last like 7-10 years with very little drop off.

Fixtures normally cost more but over time maybe cheaper bc you not have to replace bulbs.

[eklikewhoa]

I don't know about the others but I don't remember keeping a single setup for longer than a few years if that and since I've started there's been several "upgrades" in the lighting department. I'm sure there will be a new and improved light coming out and it'll cost even more which most would upgrade to and then that would give the whole justification of lasting longer a wash.

[Totenkampf]

I've been following another thread where the person is using the 10w chinese knockoffs and it seems to be efficient enough to be categorized as HT but for the money and time I personally would rather stick with T5HO or even dabble with MH

wow 10W LEDS! even bad ones would be pretty bright, where plant usable spectrums available?

to me, the longevity isnt the perk so much as applying them to nano tanks, where small scale plant lighting is limited to PC or MH (maybe even T2VHO) or the fact that they emit little heat so they would be great for built in aquariums or canopy retrofits. They also have been reported to have a PUR value only rivaled by T2VHO according to the info that I have read. They may be really good for deeper tanks where you dont want the heat from MH.

I hate replacing bulbs, and i do change my setups more often than 7 years like EK points out, but I do tend to reuse fixtures so that would be a nice perk but not the main one

[myjohnson]

My currently LED fixture has two 15w LEDs.

It's just a little brighter than the normal 3w LEDs I have on there.

It's not really about what we can see...it's more about the actually PAR numbers.

[myjohnson]

I don't know about the others but I don't remember keeping a single setup for longer than a few years if that and since I've started there's been several "upgrades" in the lighting department. I'm sure there will be a new and improved light coming out and it'll cost even more which most would upgrade to and then that would give the whole justification of lasting longer a wash.

One person may not use a fixture for 7-10 years but a fixture can be in use for many years being resold time and again.

Point is...you pass the savings to the person that buys your fixture and you can charge more for your used fixture.

[eklikewhoa]

Not gonna argue on that one seeing as though the only LED fixtures I own I paid close to nothing for and only using them to grow algae.