Will the 18-24" Aqueon LED fixture grow plants in a 16 gallon?

dereks

dereks

AC Members
Mar 7, 2006
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This is a bow front so it's a couple inches deeper.

I can't find a lot of info on this fixture online, all it says is "ideal for freshwater aquariums or marine aquariums with low to medium light level corals".

I see no wattage info, lumens, or kelvin info on the box or in the manual.

What do you guys think? I'm not going after anything crazy, just swords and wisteria.
 
Very hard to say with no technical specs on the fixture. I'm assuming this is about as high as a 10g? Shallow depth helps in terms of getting proper lighting intensity down low.
 
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Yea, I know, lol. It's funny how bare the packing and manual is, the one product where they don't give you too much info.

Na, it's a little deeper than a 10 gallon, otherwise I'd be a little more confident. Know what I mean?
 
Not familiar with that fixture and without details it's really hard to say how it will preform. Is there a sticker on it somewhere with specs? Tried looking up the model number?

Swords do prefer moderate lighting. A 16g bowfront is about 18" tall yes? Most low end LED fixtures would give you low light at that depth, maybe just barely though.
 
I see item 15681, that brought me to a youtube video, not a lot else. Only thing anybody really says about it there is that it's 6500k, so that's good.
 
lol well that's something! How many LEDs does it have? All white? Even then it's hard to say, they could be 0.1 watts or 1 watt which would make a big difference. BTW I am just learning about LEDs myself. Don't want you to think I'm versed in LED or anything. :)

But if it is something you have already, try it out!
 
Ok, there are 36 total. I see the moon lights are blue, the others are white but there are a handful of red here and there when you turn the daylight setting on.

So LEDs are measured in wattage also? I mean does the same wattage per gallon recommendation apply?
 
Watts is just a measure of the electricity being consumed. It's really got nothing to do with light output, it's just something we're used to from incandescent bulbs.
 
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Ok, I'll call them and ask them how many lumens this lamp is, what would be a sufficient amount for a 16 gallon bow front? I think it's like 17" deep.
 
Lumens doesn't necessarily mean it is good for growing plants either. Lumens is brightness as registered to the human eye. It's weighted to the spectrums that the human eye picks up best. What you really want is PAR value. PAR stands for Photosynthetically Available Radiation and is all light that can be used for photosynthesis.

Fortunately, I have the PAR value for the Optibright fixture. At 12" from the light, over a 16" x 24" area the average PAR is 12.7. The peak PAR (in the center, directly under the light) is 24. It's not really bright enough for high light plants. It's higher than a single T8 fluorescent lamp but not as bright as two T8's.

I wouldn't recommend sword or bunched plants. But Anubias, java fern, vallisneria, java moss, and taller cryptocorynes should be fine with it.

If you want something with brighter light the new Coralife Aqualight S was just released. It's a brighter version of the Optibright but with a remote control with built in timer and color changing ability.
 
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