LEDs and plants
- Thread starter Kuhlifan
- Start date
Short answer, no.
Just like any other type of lighting, "healthy light" as you term it will depend on spectrum and intensity. Wrong spectrum and plants won't be able to use it and you will promote algae growth. Lack of intensity and you end up with not enough to do any good. Then with LED's you also have to consider lenses for spread/focusing your light source.
Most of the LED work has been done in the SW realm for coral growth. Also, most of the current LED ready made lights made by the major manufacturers just aren't right for planted FW tanks. Either they are wrong spectrum or just not intense enough. Marineland has the most common one out there, and I think the general consensus is that unless your tank is shallow or your plant demands are not high, then its really not a good "plant" light.
DIY seems to be the direction people go FW planted tanks. CREE is the LED brand of choice and unless you are getting 3W diodes, it just isn't worth it.
Just like any other type of lighting, "healthy light" as you term it will depend on spectrum and intensity. Wrong spectrum and plants won't be able to use it and you will promote algae growth. Lack of intensity and you end up with not enough to do any good. Then with LED's you also have to consider lenses for spread/focusing your light source.
Most of the LED work has been done in the SW realm for coral growth. Also, most of the current LED ready made lights made by the major manufacturers just aren't right for planted FW tanks. Either they are wrong spectrum or just not intense enough. Marineland has the most common one out there, and I think the general consensus is that unless your tank is shallow or your plant demands are not high, then its really not a good "plant" light.
DIY seems to be the direction people go FW planted tanks. CREE is the LED brand of choice and unless you are getting 3W diodes, it just isn't worth it.
sorry to hijack this thread.
but would these garden LED's work for a FW aquarium?
http://www.sunshine-systems.com/GrowSpot-LED-Grow-Light-p/gs-spot.htm
or would there be a bunch of useless light spectrum's?and cause algae?
i grow all kinds of cacti with these same lights.but cacti are different than aquatic plants
but would these garden LED's work for a FW aquarium?
http://www.sunshine-systems.com/GrowSpot-LED-Grow-Light-p/gs-spot.htm
or would there be a bunch of useless light spectrum's?and cause algae?
i grow all kinds of cacti with these same lights.but cacti are different than aquatic plants
Without digging into the specifics of the bulbs, the daylight white seems to be in about a useful spectrum. Most aquarium plant bulbs give off a useful spectrum in the 6700K to 10,000K range. You could probably find some useful specialized bulbs in the "red" end of the spectrum, but then you end up with a weird looking fish tank. Most of the data out there shows that the "blue"er lights tend to give off light that pushes algae growth and not plant growth. This is why the SW LED systems just won't do well on freshwater. They may be intense enough (and in some cases -too- intense) but they have too much blue...which is good for photo dependent corals and blue green algaes, but not good for plant growth.
Then there is the concept of PAR. (and for the life of me Im brain farting on what it stands for) This is a measurement of intensity of "useful" light. PAR isn't easily determined, you can't just go to the store, pick up a light, and know what the PAR will be. It is typically measured by placing a PAR meter's sensors at different places within your tank as your PAR measurement will vary with distance from light and angle from light...its main driving factor is "how much water and atmosphere does the light have to travel through to get to a given point."
Blah blah blah, complicated I know. Good news is that there are some really smart and dedicated people out there that have done alot of this work on most readily available FW lighting systems. As a -very- general rule of thumb, unless you are adding ferts and pressurized CO2, most "standard" two tube T5HO fixtures will be too intense for your standard deminsion aquariums. If you are just wanting a few low light plants (java fern, crypts, etc.) then a "standard" T8 or normal T5 fixture will be pleanty.
Unfortuneately, these very smart and dedicated people haven't done a ton of work on the LED front. A few have, but it is very hard to generalize the data because the lights have been DIY. What -can- be said is that, unless you have a -ton- of them, a 1W LED just doesn't put out enough intensisty to be useful. 3W LEDs are pretty darn good, as long as they are in the useful freshwater spectrum. The tricky part is "how many LEDs do I need, and how do you arrange them". This is where the problem remains.
This isn't to discourage you from looking into LED and following it. The field is changing practically monthly, and it is only a matter of time before someone comes out with a good off the shelf LED for freshwater. If you have some DIY skills and can handle a soldering iron, I would encourage you to dig into it. Right now, you are probably looking at more investment into a DIY LED (housing, LEDs, heatsinks, drivers, wiring) than you would just buying a quality T5HO or T5. However, long run, factoring bulb replacement and energy costs, LED is the direction to go.
Then there is the concept of PAR. (and for the life of me Im brain farting on what it stands for) This is a measurement of intensity of "useful" light. PAR isn't easily determined, you can't just go to the store, pick up a light, and know what the PAR will be. It is typically measured by placing a PAR meter's sensors at different places within your tank as your PAR measurement will vary with distance from light and angle from light...its main driving factor is "how much water and atmosphere does the light have to travel through to get to a given point."
Blah blah blah, complicated I know. Good news is that there are some really smart and dedicated people out there that have done alot of this work on most readily available FW lighting systems. As a -very- general rule of thumb, unless you are adding ferts and pressurized CO2, most "standard" two tube T5HO fixtures will be too intense for your standard deminsion aquariums. If you are just wanting a few low light plants (java fern, crypts, etc.) then a "standard" T8 or normal T5 fixture will be pleanty.
Unfortuneately, these very smart and dedicated people haven't done a ton of work on the LED front. A few have, but it is very hard to generalize the data because the lights have been DIY. What -can- be said is that, unless you have a -ton- of them, a 1W LED just doesn't put out enough intensisty to be useful. 3W LEDs are pretty darn good, as long as they are in the useful freshwater spectrum. The tricky part is "how many LEDs do I need, and how do you arrange them". This is where the problem remains.
This isn't to discourage you from looking into LED and following it. The field is changing practically monthly, and it is only a matter of time before someone comes out with a good off the shelf LED for freshwater. If you have some DIY skills and can handle a soldering iron, I would encourage you to dig into it. Right now, you are probably looking at more investment into a DIY LED (housing, LEDs, heatsinks, drivers, wiring) than you would just buying a quality T5HO or T5. However, long run, factoring bulb replacement and energy costs, LED is the direction to go.
There are quite a few options ready made that are totally plant capable. They are, however, quite a bit more expensive than your standard T5 or PC light fixtures.
Just off the top of my head, Orlando over at GLA has a number of fixtures that are great - and also have the option of being on a controller so you can dim them to where you think they need to be(based on growth, etc).
I've grown a few tanks out on LED. As long as the spectrum is right, and you are using high quality LEDs such as bridgelux, Cree, Osram, etc.. with the right optics, they will grow plants like crazy.
One word of caution from my own experience using LED; The light given off by them is less saturating than Fluorescent lighting, so it's hard at first to get an idea of how intense the lighting really is without access to a PAR meter. LED setups can look less intense, while in actuality they have much higher PAR ratings than seemingly brighter fluorescent fixtures. It's a good idea for plants to be slowly acclimated to LED fixtures for this very reason, as you can get yourself into trouble in a hurry if you aren't paying attention.
Just off the top of my head, Orlando over at GLA has a number of fixtures that are great - and also have the option of being on a controller so you can dim them to where you think they need to be(based on growth, etc).
I've grown a few tanks out on LED. As long as the spectrum is right, and you are using high quality LEDs such as bridgelux, Cree, Osram, etc.. with the right optics, they will grow plants like crazy.
One word of caution from my own experience using LED; The light given off by them is less saturating than Fluorescent lighting, so it's hard at first to get an idea of how intense the lighting really is without access to a PAR meter. LED setups can look less intense, while in actuality they have much higher PAR ratings than seemingly brighter fluorescent fixtures. It's a good idea for plants to be slowly acclimated to LED fixtures for this very reason, as you can get yourself into trouble in a hurry if you aren't paying attention.
