What's the latest and greatest in planted tank lighting? LED? Please update me!

[Finley]

Hi

I am thinking of upgrading my aquarium lighting and am hoping you guys can update me on developments. What are the current favourite products for energy efficiency, colour rendition, etc?

My tank is 60cm, quite heavily planted, tropical, freshwater. I have been using 1 x Philips Aquarelle and 1 x Philips Aquasky Triphosphor tubes. This produces pleasing natural colours, reasonable plant growth and no nasty types of algae, so it's pretty successful. I have noticed, however, a slight drop off in plant growth lately. This may be unrelated as the triphosphor tubes apparently take years to deteriorate significantly...(?)

Should I be considering other options? How have LEDs for aquariums been coming along? Is it possible to get pleasing colour for freshwater planted setups? Especially, I would love to achieve the 'sunlight streaming through water' effect, which is impossible with fluorescents; is that achievable with LEDs or some other method?

Thanks

 

[allaboutfish]

T5HO

 

[spencerguy1]

T5HO

+1

but really all t bulbs (t5, t6, t7, etc)

 

[spencerguy1]

also hallides and LED.

 

[RNeiswander]

Spencer please show me a fixture that uses t7 bulbs.
Don't listen to the kids up there.

What size bulbs do you currently have and what wattage are they?
Yes T5 bulbs are pretty the standard in planted tanks, both in High output and normal output.

LEDs are becoming more popular, and there are several reef ready led fixtures that are commercially available. I dont believe there are any led fixtures for planted tanks.
However many people build their own for around or slightly more money than a high T5ho fixture.

A quick search for led build threads on this site should get you a lot of info, hope this helps

 

[NB_Aquatics]

+1

but really all t bulbs (t5, t6, t7, etc)

Yeah i would like to know were to get a t7 also... and all t bulbs are good? How about them nice big t12's?

Honestly i have no experience with LED's and no very little about them. But I run t5ho and im very happy with it.

 

[Rbishop]

T7...not on my tanks.....

http://www.lightbulbemporium.com/t7_light_bulbs.asp

 

[NB_Aquatics]

T7...not on my tanks.....

http://www.lightbulbemporium.com/t7_light_bulbs.asp

Thanks for clearing that up! haha

 

[Rbishop]

I'm pretty sure the poster was just throwing numbers out there and didn't have a clue that they existed, not that you would recommend one for the OP's needs.

 

[RNeiswander]

Yeah i would like to know were to get a t7 also... and all t bulbs are good? How about them nice big t12's?

Honestly i have no experience with LED's and no very little about them. But I run t5ho and im very happy with it.

From what i understand T12s are very energy inefficient. But i guess they work. I know they have VHO (very high output) T12 for reefs, but two of those would be way overkill for a freshwater planted tank.
LEDs are the future, just not sure how long before they make an affordable quality planted LED fixture.

And c'mon RB lol.