New Marineland lighting at Drsfostersmith

[CatsMeowww]

Has any one bought these?
http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=21973



http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/images/Categoryimages/larger/lg-72409-52995-52996-fish.jpg


Just curious how well they work. Anyone have experience with them yet?

It says the smallest has six 1 watt bulbs...that doesn't seem like nearly enough to grow anything, right?

[Chrisk-K]

I'm interested in it, too. The LEDs are supposed to last for 3 years. What I don't know is whether one can replace the LEDs later.

[vampie]

I'd imagine they're just for general aquariums that don't have plants, coral, etc.

[DoctaQ]

good call vamp, just in lumens 450 lumens is equal to about 8w of cfl, but led par tends to be higher, so maybe 10w of cfl? throw in that its directional, i wouldnt say its anymore than a 18 inch t8, maybe low light plants, im definateley overexaggerating the amount of light too

[CatsMeowww]

Yeah, that's about what I thought. I've heard of people using LED's on planted tanks, but a lot more than 6...

[DoctaQ]

o 6 on a planted could do, depends on the size though, i plan on putting 6 on my 20 gal in my signature, but the leds are going to be much more powerful each one is going to put out 75% as much light as this whole fixture

[CatsMeowww]

How does the calculation work with LED's? Like with CFL, it's the actual wattage you go by. Is there some trick to figuring out LED's?

It seems like that fixture is very pricy for it's output.

[DoctaQ]

for freshwater its something that im still trying to figure out.
theres a recent post by a guy named nova i think he put 12 leds on a 55gal and looks like crazy growth.

depending on the driver that you use to power the leds which seem to power 6 or 12 leds for the most part you think in multiples of that. seems like 6 leds can cover 2ish feet by a foot but the guy said he did have dimmer spots on the sides of his tank.

[stephcps]

I just recently bought some of these for my low light tanks. They produce very bright light as compared to my flourescents. It is perfect I think for my 20 long. I'm worried about the depth of my 20 tall though. It doesn't penetrate as well. Too early yet to know...it's been about 8 days. The plants are not suffering, they all look good. Just don't know what growth I'll have. The look is nice though and they are cool running that is for sure!!

[DoctaQ]

keep us posted id be interested, there isnt a lot of leds out there, and just about none for non-reef

[stephcps]

I'm impressed so far. I'll keep everyone up to date.

[Chrisk-K]

How would you rate the brightness compared with a T5 fixture?

[mellowvision]

that other new marineland fixture looks cool too, the t5 one with built in timer... http://www.marineland.com/sites/Marineland/products/productdetail.aspx?id=2054&cid=3617&mid=3228

[stephcps]

I honestly just got my first T5 fixture. I've been using regular old fluorescents. The one I just bought is a double coral life for my 55. In comparison...the leds on my 20 long are just as bright. On my 20 tall definitely dimmer, but a much nicer quality. As before...the plants are looking good so far.

[stephcps]

There is practically no heat production though...much different from the T5!

[Chrisk-K]

There is practically no heat production though

This is why I'm interested in LED lighting.

[nc0gnet0]

I have got the 36-48" light currently running on a 90 gallon. I like it, but I don' think it has enough light for any kind of plants. The one drawback I see is that when using it on a 48" long tank it leaves you will dark corners (the actual lightstrip is only 34") on either side. The shimmering effect is nice, as well as the moonlighting.

[Squawkbert]

Anyone got PAR values of these vs. T-5 vs. PC bulbs?
I've been looking but haven't found anything useful.
I think that I could swing a conversion from 96W PC to LED based on bulb & electricity savings but I'd want to know more about how my plants would do before taking that sort of plunge.

[stephcps]

Based on the few weeks i've had them on a regular 20 gallon and a 20 long...low light plants do great and I have had much less algae if any at all. So, I have really liked them.

I use the ecoxotic stunners on my 150 as dawn/dusk l;ighting and love them,

[Squawkbert]

Here's an interesting link... http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.html

Looks like LEDs may have a huge advantage or two -
given the right emitters, they can be an excellent mimic for chlorophyll growth wavelength preferences and they last a long time, not to mention that they produce minimal heat and use lots less energy.
These emitters are running $7-$9 ea. though...

[PsyKick]

Hi there, just thought I would chip in my 2 cents,
These LED's from Marineland produce light in the 5500 Kelvin range, not ideal for planted tanks.
I was also curious about these fixtures, so I emailed Marineland asking about them, and they responded with the color temp and a recommendation to not use it on a planted tank.

[DoctaQ]

color temp isnt really that important, its mostly for looks, a spectral breakdown would be more useful but i think its moreso the issue of intensity here.

[PsyKick]

I may be missing something here, but isn't color temp extremely important? My understanding is that the farther from 6500K you get in either direction, the less use the plant gets out of it. Is this different for LEDs?

[DoctaQ]

the plants use specific wavelengths of light, not K
it happens that certian wavelengths of light tend to be higher in certian K ratings for most bulbs.
ive used a 5.5k bulb to grow riccia before and also a 12k bulb that was able to keep dwarf sags under an inch tall (although it might be the species)
i would almost be inclined to say that warm white cree xr-e might grow plants better than a cool white (3k vs 6.7k)

[Squawkbert]

Kelvin ratings are also just a composite value for a bulb and say little about the spectral output. This is why you can have 10-14K bulbs that are either fairly white or very blue looking...