diy LEDs for plant growth

[austinpetemo]

is there an LED i can use to grow plants in a 30. im interested in possibly making an LED array rather than use flourescents

[Mgamer20o0]

search cory keeper he made one.

[captmicha]

I've got a dumb question. Why LED instead of compact fluorescents?

[austinpetemo]

yea, i think itll be cheaper to do CP. i found a CP fixure for $40 at lowes. its 65w and is extremely bright. i figure one ought to be enough. if not, than i could add another. its made for outdoor purposes. so i suppose it would work

[DoctaQ]

leds last longer, more upfront cost but between energy savings and bulb changing youll save yourself money over the long run, plus you get shimmer like metal halides.
no heat either, but thats really more of a benefit for reef tanks since you need halides to reach the light levels you need but with leds you can do it for much less power and heat

[captmicha]

R u saying you can use LEDS instead of halides for a reef?

[austinpetemo]

yes. it can be done. its expensive and a little impracticle at the moment but eventually LEDS will be the way to go. i do like the shimmer effect. but im on a small budget. the CP bulbs im looking at are only $9 for a new bulb so replacing bulbs is no biggie. how much would it cost if i WERE to do leds?

[DoctaQ]

check out my led reef i guess

im experimenting with the number of leds for freshwater, its all about coverage when youre talking about numbers with leds, what dimensions are your tank?
i am going to try 8 leds on a 20 gal long

depending on driver it would probably cost over 100, and its going to be a very high light tank
the general consensus for a planted tank is that its not really cost effective yet since you dont need as much light as the leds produce.