24 LED flexible strip-light

In a quest to improve the Marineland LED hood on my 10gal as inexpensively as possible for my low-light plants, I just mail-ordered a flexible 12V LED strip to run in addition to the basic LED hood for this tank.

My plan is to use plastic stick-on zip tie mounts on the underside of the hood, run the strip parallel to the OEM light and zip-tie it in place.

For $5.99 shipped to the door, we'll see how it goes. Obviously I don't expect miracles for the bank-busting $6, but it's worth a try!

I'm just looking to give my basic low-light plants a little oomph.

The standard LED hoods on my 10 and 29gal are keeping these plants alive, but the only plant that appears to be growing slightly is the anacharis in the 10gal, because it's tall enough to be within an inch or two of the LED pod in the marineland 10gal LED hood.

I'm thinking you'd need something that would singe your eye-balls to make plants grow in the 29 it's so tall. It's gotta be a miracle to grow plants in a 37gal, or take a 1000watt metal halide.

Results are in for my ultra-high quality, import LED strip-light hood upgrade. REMARKABLY MEDIOCRE! LOL.. kidding.

Brightness in the tank is actually MUCH improved. To my eye, it's nearly twice as bright. When I was test-fitting the unit, I didn't think it was going to make much of a difference, but once in stalled, it makes a big difference. Will it be a light spectrum that the plants can recognize? I have no idea. Time will tell on that.

I'm not going to post pics, because the install is pretty self explanatory.

The 24 LEDs are encased in a clear, flexible silicone type material, just like pic'd above. I used some self-adhesive plastic zip-tie anchors to the underside of the hood and some small zip ties to hold the unit and wiring in place near the factory LED light on the marineland LED hood. Also needed an outlet adapter for my light timer to allow for 2, 120VAC to 12VDC power adapters. One for the factory light, one for the Chinese special. There's a smoke detector in the room. :uhoh:

The spectrum looks good to my eye. Even the basic zebra danios sparkle under this light. The anacharis like it so much, my bundle of it broke apart and half of it is now floating around the tank.. Ugh.. gotta do some aquascaping. It's tough to tell from pics, but pic one is before the $5.99 LED mod: