LED lights - any good for this freshwater tank?

[Finley]

Hi

I am thinking of trying some simple LED strip lights to illuminate a small tank... Should I . I have no experience with LEDs.

The tank is just 14" long, water depth 7". Any other lights heat up the water too much, but will LEDs be bright enough? How many will I need to make that tank look good, and to support decent plant growth?

As for colour rendition, how do 'white' LEDs look when shone into freshwater tanks? Any good?

My alternative is a small 11W fluorescent. How would that compare?

...or, any other recommendations?

Thanks,
Finley

 

[jmhart]

For non-planted tanks, LED lights are a nice alternative. "white" LEDS would be the way to go.

For a planted tank, inexpensive LED lights barely meet the minimum requirements for a low light planted tank. LED lights powerful enough for a high light tank are currently prohibitively expensive(I think one of the better manufactuers just had a major setback).