LED Lighting?

katana1200 said:
This is very interesting to me as well, not to hijack the thread but does anyone know right off hand how the useable spectrum of LED lights is measured? I know that a 6500K flourescent is in the right range for plants but are LEDs measured the same way? (I know that is heat not color, but I'm trying to squeeze a few ideas together....its the way I think lol)
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The color spectrum output for LEDs fall within the range of 400-700nm which plants use. I've done PAR tests on them and they perform better than fluorescents for the amount of energy used.

In terms of color temps, they are different per LED. The Luxeon III Cool whites are 5500k while the Crees and Luxeon K2 are 6500k.

Crat said:
So what would be the best Kelvin rating for plants? I've read that 5600k-6700k was the best for plants. Is that about right? What would you guys reccomend? I just want my plants to do well so if I spend the $$, I want to make sure I get the right thing.
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There is no best kelvin rating for plants. Kelvin is primarily a measurement of light color to the human eye, plants won't care as long as the lightsource emits light within the 400-700nm wavelengths.
 
Thank you PHANMC. I have been researching this a bit and it all seems quite confusing to a newbie like me. Now I have a better idea what to look for.
 
Arkangel77 said:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...2BS%2BIA&itu=FICS%2BUA%2BUCI%2BIA&otn=4&ps=10
I am using 6 of these on my 180 and so far I love them! I had to get a power adapter from the seller because I was burning up fixtures at first but once I got the adapters in place they started doing great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS - there are many different colors availabe! from 5K up to ??? 10K for sure
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Well I went ahead and ordered four of these. It said 2 for 1 on the ad, we'll see how that goes. If they do well I'll probably order at least 2 more. I'm assuming your 180 is planted correct? Will I be looking into pressurized Co2 soon with this light? I'm still having a hard time figuring out how many I'll need. Thanks for your sugestions I hope these work out well.

Peace,
Caleb
 
Is there any general rule for the number of LED's for a planted tank? I want to make a lighting fixture out of LED's but do not know how many to use. I have a new 125 gallon tank that I want a high light planted tank. Suggestions? How many lumens? or Watts? Thanks-

Travis
 
Crat said:
Well I went ahead and ordered four of these. It said 2 for 1 on the ad, we'll see how that goes. If they do well I'll probably order at least 2 more. I'm assuming your 180 is planted correct? Will I be looking into pressurized Co2 soon with this light? I'm still having a hard time figuring out how many I'll need. Thanks for your sugestions I hope these work out well.

Peace,
Caleb
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I responded to a bunch of questions on this topic threw a PM. Not sure who it was. He will make a "deal" on multiple orders (if you ask). ALSO you may want to request the power adapters which drop the voltage from 110 to 80. I was burning out tubes at first and the adapters were the solution. Once I had problems he supplied them to me. The adapters will cause a reduction in the intensity of the LED's but they wont Burn out prematurely. My Tank is a Discus Tank First - plans come in second. The LED tubes work great for me. Let us know how they work for you?

Arkangel77
 
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