# LED:Good or Bad



## s0mt1nf1shy (Mar 14, 2005)

I've searched the forum to know if LEDs will work for a planted tank and got different answers...some said it worked Great and some said it was useless. So which is it?


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Using LEDs to grow plants is still a very new idea. There are a few complanies that make grow lights for terrestrial plants that work very well. The problem is that they are designed to work at a height of 18" or lower so a deep tank is out of the question to try these on.


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

Emperical evidence showign that they work well.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...ghting-via-luxeon-stars.html?highlight=luxeon

LEDs arent cost efficient now. However, Lumileds did come out with some new K2 LEDs that I am a bit excited to try.


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## s0mt1nf1shy (Mar 14, 2005)

Do normal LEDs work too or does it have to be Luxeon Stars or other LEDs designed for plant growth?


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

as long as spectral overlap and intesity are high enough, then you are fine. KNowing the answer to those questions takes a little leg work though.


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## TetraFreak (Mar 15, 2006)

Gomer said:


> as long as spectral overlap and intesity are high enough, then you are fine. KNowing the answer to those questions takes a little leg work though.


OH MY! #-o

That sounds like more confusing math & meaningless formulas & calculations!


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## kekon (Aug 1, 2005)

I don't think LED diodes would be a good choice. As I'm electronic designer I can simply say that nowadays LED diodes are mainly used as optic indicators rather than any kind of lighting. They have poor efficiency. If you wanted to use ordinary LED's as your tank lighting you would have to use dozens of LED's and it would end up in high energy consumption and low efficiency.


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## taekwondodo (Dec 14, 2005)

LEDs are very effective - you can get "VHO" quality (term used very loosely) LEDs on ebay.

I had ~100 of them over my 5G for a while and they worked OK. They used less than 2W of power. I'm sure if I would have upped the power I would have been more pleased. I believe however I needed at least double, and didn't have time (or money, "VHO" LEDs are still quite expensive) to build another one (yet) so I switched to 2x13W PCs. 

I think they are much more efficient, but not quite "there" yet...


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## kekon (Aug 1, 2005)

I was thinking about ordinary LED's used in electronic equipment such as TV, radio, etc.


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