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LED Tank Lighting Experiment with 1st look at results...

Started by Guest_Usil_* , Sep 22 2011 05:34 PM

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129 replies to this topic

#121 Guest_John4ds_*

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Posted 28 May 2013 - 12:25 AM

Interesting..
I would like to lighten up my tank, but I would like to be able to grow low-med light plants. What wattage would work for that? My aquarium is poorly lit and I usually get brown algae(I would prefer green). It's a 125 gallon 6 ft long and 24 inches deep. I want a simple DIY LED lighting

thank you

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#122 Guest_Yeahson421_*

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Posted 28 May 2013 - 07:35 AM

Well, I personally prefer using the individual lights rather than the huge bulbs as they create a more even light. I'd say put one of the warm white leds for every six inches, a cool white inbetween each with a red paired to it. Considering the depth of the tank, maybe two of these fixtures.

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#123 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 28 May 2013 - 07:40 AM

Interesting..
I would like to lighten up my tank, but I would like to be able to grow low-med light plants. What wattage would work for that? My aquarium is poorly lit and I usually get brown algae(I would prefer green). It's a 125 gallon 6 ft long and 24 inches deep. I want a simple DIY LED lighting thank you

You asked this question before. http://forum.nanfa.o...ing-for-125gal/
At the time I said, "In general I find that 8 to 10 hours a day of 100 lumens/gallon of full spectrum or red and blue rich light grows plants well."
I stick with that now. The LEDs you buy should say how many lumens of light they produce. Plants eat red and blue light. You can look at the emission spectrum of the LED to see how much of its white light is broken into red and blue. Green is reflected and useless to plants.

Edited by EricaWieser, 28 May 2013 - 07:44 AM.

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#124 Guest_Yeahson421_*

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Posted 28 May 2013 - 09:49 AM

Actually, it has been found that plants do benefit from some degree of green lighting. Overall, it is good idea to have a balanced light, albeit weighted toward red and blue.

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#125 Guest_John4ds_*

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Posted 28 May 2013 - 01:43 PM

Lumens, is that the same as Luminous Flux.? Would a cool white at 1650lm luminous flux be good for a 125gal or do I need to check out the wattage as well?

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#126 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 28 May 2013 - 03:02 PM

Yes, Lumens is the unit of measure for Luminous Flux... just like inches is a measure of length... or watts is a unit of power consumption.

So no, the number of watts do not necessarily, or not exclusively, have anything to do with the amount of light that is output. That is a mis-understanding that we all got growing up with incandescent bulbs, where, all other things being equal, more watts equaled more light output. And it is also why you will see things on light fixtures at home depot (on both florescent and LED fixtures) that will say things like "as much light as a 60 watt bulb." And then you will look and see it is a 16 watt fixture (or whatever).

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

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#127 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 28 May 2013 - 07:20 PM

Would a cool white at 1650lm luminous flux be good for a 125gal or do I need to check out the wattage as well?

1,650 lumens / 125 gallons = 13.2 lumens per gallon. That is much lower than my recommended 100 lumens per gallon. For a 125 gallon tank, the necessary number of lumens would be closer to12,500 lumens, not 1,650. But I made my 100 lumens per gallon estimation using flourescent bulbs, which have less penetrance than LEDs. Usil, how many lumens per gallon did you find you needed with LEDs to get good plant growth without getting a lot of algae? Say, if the lights are on for 8-10 hours a day?

The nice thing about LEDs is that they produce a lot of lumens for very few watts. They are more efficient (get more lumens from less watts) than incandescent or flourescent bulbs. Watts cost money, so that's good news for us. But unlike incandescents, LEDs are hard to replace (can they be replaced when they're all in a row?) so DIY is a great alternative. You know how you built it, so if it burns out you know how to replace it. I'd much rather do DIY LEDs than buy a fixture that if a few LEDs burn out you can't do anything about it. Just make sure you're ending up with a total of something like 100 lumens per gallon. It's not worth spending time and money building something and getting a tenth of the lumens you need.

Yeahson421, here is the absorption spectrum of chlorophyll. This is what light plants can eat. Notice how the absorbance in the green region of light is near zero. http://en.wikipedia...._spectra-en.svg
John4ds, how do you find out what color light your white bulb has? Use a diffraction grating. They're $5 shipped to your door on ebay. Here's a video showing you how to use it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c44-iiINuVE

Edited by EricaWieser, 28 May 2013 - 07:25 PM.

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#128 Guest_John4ds_*

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Posted 28 May 2013 - 07:55 PM

Thank you

sorry I missed calculated
As long as I get about 100 lumens per gallon

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#129 Guest_Subrosa_*

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Posted 28 May 2013 - 10:53 PM

1,650 lumens / 125 gallons = 13.2 lumens per gallon. That is much lower than my recommended 100 lumens per gallon. For a 125 gallon tank, the necessary number of lumens would be closer to12,500 lumens, not 1,650. But I made my 100 lumens per gallon estimation using flourescent bulbs, which have less penetrance than LEDs. Usil, how many lumens per gallon did you find you needed with LEDs to get good plant growth without getting a lot of algae? Say, if the lights are on for 8-10 hours a day?

The nice thing about LEDs is that they produce a lot of lumens for very few watts. They are more efficient (get more lumens from less watts) than incandescent or flourescent bulbs. Watts cost money, so that's good news for us. But unlike incandescents, LEDs are hard to replace (can they be replaced when they're all in a row?) so DIY is a great alternative. You know how you built it, so if it burns out you know how to replace it. I'd much rather do DIY LEDs than buy a fixture that if a few LEDs burn out you can't do anything about it. Just make sure you're ending up with a total of something like 100 lumens per gallon. It's not worth spending time and money building something and getting a tenth of the lumens you need.

Yeahson421, here is the absorption spectrum of chlorophyll. This is what light plants can eat. Notice how the absorbance in the green region of light is near zero. http://en.wikipedia...._spectra-en.svg
John4ds, how do you find out what color light your white bulb has? Use a diffraction grating. They're $5 shipped to your door on ebay. Here's a video showing you how to use it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c44-iiINuVE

There are two ways in which the emitters are attached to the heatsink in diy fixtures. One is by using an adhesive to attach the emitters to the heatsink, the other by using screws. There are also wiring connectors used in the solderless kits that can be used ease replacement.

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#130 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 29 May 2013 - 07:23 AM

There are two ways in which the emitters are attached to the heatsink in diy fixtures. One is by using an adhesive to attach the emitters to the heatsink, the other by using screws. There are also wiring connectors used in the solderless kits that can be used ease replacement.

Could you make a video or a DIY post about how to take LEDs off of their fixture? That would be so, extremely helpful. I have two different LED fixtures with misfiring or burned out bulbs. If I could replace them I would.