Has anyone ever made an LED hood from standard LED Light Bulbs?

[enrique4jc]

I know this thread is a few months old, but I'd recommend looking into the BeamsWork LED lights. You can find them on Amazon. Probably cheaper than buying a bunch of screw-type bulbs and already set up for your aquarium. I'm running one on a 10-gallon set up that I am very happy with.

 

[apastuszak]

You get 4400 Lumens out of a 48" Beamworks LED strip light. Two Flourescent 48" bulbs gives me 6600 lumens.

The nice thing with LEDs is that you don't have to change the bulbs. They should easily last 10+ years.

I'll need to see how much an LED light that can grow plants would cost.

 

[Cowie]

I am not sure if this would work or not. It would definitely require some research to determine how many of which color light would néed to be programmed on with the remote. I was going to get some and test 25% blue 25% red and 50% white. Would hook up easily under an existing hood as it has an adhesive side and is waterproof. The price is right to.... They also have 5050 strip but 3528 produce more light.

http://www.amazon.ca/SODIAL-Waterpr...450834952&sr=8-60&keywords=led+aquarium+light

 

[FreshyFresh]

I was looking at various LED lighting projects and most of them are rather expensive. I've seen nothing less than $150 or more.

I was wondering if anyone has ever tried to use Edison Screw LED bulbs like the Cree 100W equivalent in a hood?

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Cree-100...ght-Bulb-BA21-16050OMF-12DE26-1U100/205054836

The only issue I could see when trying to fit one of these lamps in an incandescent aquarium light is with overall size of the lamp. If the aquarium light is intended to use the thinner hotdog shaped incandescent lamps, the LED lamp will have to be thin or it's going to force the bulb socket at an angle.

There's plenty of other options though. You can use those cheap aluminum reflective clamp on lights to fit with a higher wattage daylight LED lamp, or go with an LED plant fixture from AquaTraders if low cost is a must.

I had horrible luck with a 48" ~6500K LED BeamsWork fixture from AquaTraders, but it was their first generation product from 2yrs ago. I've since stopped using it.

 

[pbeemer]

there has been a fair amount of research published on what spectrum is "best" for growing plants. it is not the normal solar spectrum, which peaks in the green, because most terrestrial plant chlorophyll can't use yellow through green light. plant leaves are green to reflect away that part of the spectrum which they can't use and which would only add waste heat to the leaves.

the LED systems sold specifically for "indoor plant growth" do not have a significant amount of green light, and instead use a mix of red, IR and blue LEDs -- usually ~3/4 red and 1/4 blue as a base -- which look like they would make the room and tank be a pretty ugly magenta. for example:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/E27-38LED-1...hash=item1c53f34a1f:m:mPlSsggrOJvqXitTm-UPl2A

some add a few white LEDs to make working less unpleasant:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SunSpect-30...715881?hash=item419e3dab29:g:Kw0AAOSwhcJWKEtw

you could probably get much the same effect by using stripes of the appropriate color, and adding a couple of stripes of white LEDs so you can actually enjoy looking at your setup.

for the OP, they have LED arrays set in a standard E27 edison screw-in bulb -- the first link goes to one such -- although those are as wide or wider than a conventional incandescent bulb and would definitely not fit into a hood designed for the long "hot dog" type bulbs.