Kind of disappointing...

Mike4155

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Feb 15, 2011
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Mike "Captain America" Houston
So, I bought a new marineland LED light for my 55 gal tank and I'm not that impressed by it. It seemed like the LED lights were really bright at the store but once on my tank they were just kinda of ehhh. They didn't pack much punch. So here is my perdicament; they were also selling a T5 set up that I was debating on buying instead of the LED. Could somebody help me and tell me what are the pros and cons of each are. Should I return the LED's and go w/ the T5's? Also are there t5 lights for night time like the blue LEd's?

tank 3.JPG tank 1.JPG tank 2.JPG
 
Query: did you buy the single or double bright? What where they demonstrating in the store? And did they have one closer in length to your tank? The longer it is, the more LEDs it has, also the DoubleBright has more than the single (obviously). These variations may explain why it's not as bright as you expected. I have a 36" singlebright on my 40 breeder and it works pretty good, although I may upgrade to the double when I have the money.
 
I'm pretty sure it the single bright and it was the biggest size they had at the store. I don't have any live plants in the tank so I wasn't sure if T5 was necessary but I def do what it to be a little brighter in my tank. I'm just in love with the blue nighttime lights. So, i'm kind of stuck.
 
I'd take the lights back to the store, tell them I want double brights in a longer size (closer to your tank length, the better), and if they can't help, get my money back and get the LEDs online. The blue night lights are really nice, and I have plants in my 40 and they're doing fine with my 36" single (tank is 36" long). Never used T5s so I really don't know anything about them but I do know that the electric usage of LEDs is essentially nil.
 
Alot of t5 fixtures have nighttime blue moonlights

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t5's
pros-more light, different bulbs for different lighting effects, help plants alot, somewhat cheap Sometimes

Cons-> somewhat expensive sometimes, bulbs can burn out, favors ALGAE GROWTH, uses more energy

leds
pros- can find cheap ones but cheap quality as well, long lasting, little energy use, blue leds for night viewing
cons- newer to the hobby so not as easily available for DIY, not as bright for cheaper models, good ones are expensive, dont help live plants much

Just some of the pros cons i can think of while in clASS LOL
 
Yea, I'm going to head back to the store tonight and see what I can do. Hopefully they have what I want. Thanks everyone.
 
Just looking at your water clarity as well, are you using any form of UV filter? seems that your water is quite green, I would recommend looking into a UV filter if you have not used one yet, and getting a larger one if you do, will deal with a lot of your water clarity issues.

I use a combination of T5 HO with my 120 gallon freshwater, I have t5s and led on a 30 gallon Crystal Red shrimp tank- for plant growth I use two different spectrums- 6700k and 10,000k, the 6700 are proper spectrum for plant growth. I have a led light bar that attached to the front of the canopy or the lip of the tank, aimed down- brightens up the tank nicely for viewing. So using a combination of lights for the effect you are wanting is essential. I would suggest only using leds for brightness and not plant growth so keep that in mind. the cheap LED's do not have the red spectrum to offer plants what they need. but they are brighter for sure, aaannnddd the power savings is very good as well as the longevity of the lights far surpass the t-bulbs by far.
 
I don't have any comment on your predicament, but I did want to throw this bit of information out there for others who may be reading.

I was concerned as to whether LED would be enough for my tanks. I purchased the Marine Land double bright that's sized to a 10 gallon tank. I've actually been impressed as to plant growth. Don't get me wrong, you're probably not going to get away with high light plants, but crypts, anubias, most of your mosses, java fern and things like that will all love it.

However, I'm guessing LED effectiveness has a lot to do with tank depth. For a relatively short 10 gallon tank, the double brights are perfectly fine. Perhaps for deeper tanks, you need something more powerful than the double brights.
 
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