Plants slowly dying with LED hood.
- Thread starter FreshyFresh
- Start date
I believe it takes many years for them to degrade to the point the plants would notice. Something like 10+ yrs.
Depends on the fixture. Individual LEDs either work, or they don't work. They don't linger past their useful life like flourescents, so it comes down to the design of the individual fixture. Obviously diy fixtures can be pretty easy to replace LEDs on, whereas getting into a fixture like a Marineland without trashing it might not be practical.
You should see some real growth now! Those are the same bulbs I have! The temp went that high?
My water temp been the same temp since the beginning.
Yeah, I think it's the nature of the beast with 10ga tanks. Things can change quickly on you.
After reading some posts in different threads on this forum today, I decided that the 7 yr old, T12 40Watt bulb I had in our 125G. Bowfront probably wasn't gonna cut it for the health of the plants I recently put in, first time we've tried live plants.
I went out to two different LFS stores today and couldn't find a single bulb in that size, and wasn't positive if I could do more than 40W rating anyway, so I started looking at different hood options.
I had previously looked on Amazon at the Marineland 48" LED model (for $177....was $409 at the first LFS) and didn't read glowing reviews.
I opted to try the Aqueon 48" LED style as it was $100 and the bulbs were interchangeable if one went bad (unlike the Marineland), the unit cost was cheaper, and it had up to 3 slots for lights. I read the reviews for it on Amazon while I was at PetSmart and decided to give it a whirl, bought a 2nd Day White light right away as I wasn't sure how powerful the lights were gonna be, especially plant growth wise. I read a few people on there even put one of the colormax style bulbs in the 3rd slot, which I may do at some point, especially if the plants seem to take off with this lighting.
The wattage on the overall 'bulb' is 7 watts (x2), so I'm not sure its gonna be the best solution but we shall see. I like the idea of far less energy consumption and heat, and have been converting all of our Xmas lighting outside to LED, so why not here as well?
I also purchased 3 products that should act as fertilizers, based on my readings here today. Hopefully the combination will lead to good things, I'd noticed the Amazon sword was browning in the leaves but the other two I purchased a couple of weeks ago look OK just not growing.
I went out to two different LFS stores today and couldn't find a single bulb in that size, and wasn't positive if I could do more than 40W rating anyway, so I started looking at different hood options.
I had previously looked on Amazon at the Marineland 48" LED model (for $177....was $409 at the first LFS) and didn't read glowing reviews.
I opted to try the Aqueon 48" LED style as it was $100 and the bulbs were interchangeable if one went bad (unlike the Marineland), the unit cost was cheaper, and it had up to 3 slots for lights. I read the reviews for it on Amazon while I was at PetSmart and decided to give it a whirl, bought a 2nd Day White light right away as I wasn't sure how powerful the lights were gonna be, especially plant growth wise. I read a few people on there even put one of the colormax style bulbs in the 3rd slot, which I may do at some point, especially if the plants seem to take off with this lighting.
The wattage on the overall 'bulb' is 7 watts (x2), so I'm not sure its gonna be the best solution but we shall see. I like the idea of far less energy consumption and heat, and have been converting all of our Xmas lighting outside to LED, so why not here as well?
I also purchased 3 products that should act as fertilizers, based on my readings here today. Hopefully the combination will lead to good things, I'd noticed the Amazon sword was browning in the leaves but the other two I purchased a couple of weeks ago look OK just not growing.
I know what you mean about the awkwardness of those glass tops. I usually take advantage of the fact you can place two light strips on there and use it accordingly - with just a small space in the back for feeding. It's easy enough to move both strips when you need to maintenance the tank.
Definitely the easiest thing is to go with a typical black, full hood setup, but the glass tops allow you to expand your lighting options to allow for more light if needed. However black hoods work much better if you're only planning on using one light strip, I can't stand the way they allow so much light to peek out right at the hinge! I would maybe cover that with a strip of black duct tape bent halfway down and allowed to stick up, as a sort of shield.
Definitely the easiest thing is to go with a typical black, full hood setup, but the glass tops allow you to expand your lighting options to allow for more light if needed. However black hoods work much better if you're only planning on using one light strip, I can't stand the way they allow so much light to peek out right at the hinge! I would maybe cover that with a strip of black duct tape bent halfway down and allowed to stick up, as a sort of shield.
I recently checked out Dr. Foster and Smith and found that they had different plant-specific LED systems that used RGB LED's alongside some 10,000K LEDs. Maybe you want to find a light that combines these elements for growing plants.
Just got a response back from Aqueon. The LED package I bought is apparently new to the market, which is why it doesn't show on their website or PetSmart's (I was concerned it was discontinued). Here's the specs they sent me:
The 7 Watt bulbs (48") are 9000K. Two tubes will give you 27 PAR when measured at 12” from the bulbs. If you use all 3 tubes then you will get 41 PAR (at 12” from bulb).
To get down to the roots of my plants/substrate, its more like 21" but I like the looks of it and will report back on plant growth in a couple of weeks if anyone is interested.
The 7 Watt bulbs (48") are 9000K. Two tubes will give you 27 PAR when measured at 12” from the bulbs. If you use all 3 tubes then you will get 41 PAR (at 12” from bulb).
To get down to the roots of my plants/substrate, its more like 21" but I like the looks of it and will report back on plant growth in a couple of weeks if anyone is interested.
Sounds like its about equal to a low light setup with T8's, or marineland double bright.
