aquafrogstuff
Sun Jun 17, 2012, 10:36 AM
Hi all - so I've taken the plunge and splurged on LED lighting to replace some Metal Halides and hopefully reduce my electricity bill. After doing a bit of research, I’ve come to realize you can go cheap (even DYI) or spend thousands. There’s serious money in marine!! Thankfully I have a 6ft planted discus tank so I went for 6,500K LED tiles made by Tropical Marine Centre (their AquaRay range). One of the main benefits with these units is they don’t have cooling fans (that’ll probably fail before the LEDs/drivers do). The LEDS are mounted to a solid heatsink which is warm during normal operation.
Relevant data and results below.
- Tank: 6ft x 2ft x 2.5ft
- Supplements: CO2, Seachem Excel and 50% water changes every weekend.
- Metal Halides: 3 x 150W, 6,500K Sylvania globes running 3hrs/day in a composite fitting (a DYI project I completed 3.5yrs ago). T8 fluorescents (4 x 36W) on 9hrs per day.
- New LED Lights: 3 x GroBeam 1000 ND suspended 100mm from water.
First impressions – notable difference and surprisingly good LUX (PAR) at the substrate level. Mind you the MHs were well overdue for a replacement. At the moment I have the LED tiles suspended with string so I can play with the height before I lock in a suspension system. Camera shots below of the LED lighting show distinctive light columns from the tiles that are not so noticeable when you’re looking at the tank yourself. I suspect this is a function of the camera’s sensor which was an HD Sony Camcorder.
Anyway, for those of you looking to do the same, hope this helps. I’ll post updates to give you an idea of how the plants react and the expression on my wife’s face when I tell her how a bunch of LEDs can cost.
NOTE: This particular LED lighting system comes with controllers that simulate dawn and dusk as well as lighting strikes. I’ve opted to have the lights come on/off with a timer, just like aquarists have been doing for many years. I figured my fishes didn’t really give a rats about dawn and dusk.
Relevant data and results below.
- Tank: 6ft x 2ft x 2.5ft
- Supplements: CO2, Seachem Excel and 50% water changes every weekend.
- Metal Halides: 3 x 150W, 6,500K Sylvania globes running 3hrs/day in a composite fitting (a DYI project I completed 3.5yrs ago). T8 fluorescents (4 x 36W) on 9hrs per day.
- New LED Lights: 3 x GroBeam 1000 ND suspended 100mm from water.
First impressions – notable difference and surprisingly good LUX (PAR) at the substrate level. Mind you the MHs were well overdue for a replacement. At the moment I have the LED tiles suspended with string so I can play with the height before I lock in a suspension system. Camera shots below of the LED lighting show distinctive light columns from the tiles that are not so noticeable when you’re looking at the tank yourself. I suspect this is a function of the camera’s sensor which was an HD Sony Camcorder.
Anyway, for those of you looking to do the same, hope this helps. I’ll post updates to give you an idea of how the plants react and the expression on my wife’s face when I tell her how a bunch of LEDs can cost.
NOTE: This particular LED lighting system comes with controllers that simulate dawn and dusk as well as lighting strikes. I’ve opted to have the lights come on/off with a timer, just like aquarists have been doing for many years. I figured my fishes didn’t really give a rats about dawn and dusk.