# 6 ft long DIY LED



## niko

Cost $270 total.

Oversized aluminum heatsinks (the rails could be 2"x1", these are 3"x1")
Dimming on two channels (each rail dims independently).
60 watts per rail.
50/50 Cool White/Neutral white
Adjustable bracket - 3" to 20" above the tank.
Solderless LEDs
Optics - 60 degrees
Room to add 1 more rail.

https://picasaweb.google.com/111646...DBuildJune252015?authkey=Gv1sRgCOKoodSys97kVQ

Compare to any commercial LED clown company - $900-1000 without dimming.

Will publish PAR later (through 24" of water, unlike commercial readings always made through air).

Will improve the rough looking parts later when I'm happy with the heat exchange/PAR/whatever.

I could never build this without the advice or TropTrea. Thank you!


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## Michael

Cool! Even I am moving into the LED age with some Finnex fixtures. Are you coming to the meeting on Saturday at my house?


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## niko

Oh, your house, this is something. I will come, yes!


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## ObiQuiet

Oh, nice. When you post the PAR can you also post the LED part #s?

(I admire a man with full bookcases.)


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## digital_gods

If you need any warm whites 2700k , you are welcome to them. Your build looks great.

I've used a 150w 50/50 cw/ww stunner strip over 75g at previous lfs job and it had medium lighting.


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## mooncon

Following this thread very interested in what the par readings are going to be on this and also all part numbers.This is something I may want to do in the very near future.I will look you up Saturday at the meeting and pick your brain.


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## niko

Got all from here:

http://www.rapidled.com/24-led-plug-n-play-retrofit-kit-dimmable

You have to write in the notes your preferred LED colors if you do not want the standart Royal Blue + Cool White. They sent me the wrong colors two times. Not the greatest service in the world. If you read up about Rapidled the company you will find that they started with about $4k and today, about 4 years later gross 1.5 mil. But the operation seems to work because of a niche they are using. Service is not the best although fast response is always there. And if you try to find cheaper quality LEDs you won't. All the parts are very easy to connect so overall the value is great.

TropTrea suggested different drivers but I did not understand why. If I wanted them I'd have to order it from a different company. It was just easier to order everything from one place.

The solderless part is great. My first LED build was pretty ugly mainly because of the soldering job. Even with nice looking soldering it will look like something that should be inside a box. The solderless LEDs look just fine and no need to have a soldering iron, cut wire, strip, etc.

For about $70 or so extra you can get a controller (but also you will need different drivers) that allows you to adjust the light intensity based on the local weather, make lightning effects, sunrise, sunset... Arduino compatible so you can rig it up to your phone or internet page... Geeky stuff that will not make plants grow but will make the heart of a nerd happy. In my opinion it would be more useful to have a gizmo that shuts the entire system down if it heats up above certain temperature. These things can get super hot if something is off with the rig and that is why I used an oversized heatsink (rail). Some of the LEDs have a pad where you can solder a temperature probe. But that only assumes that the system will be monitoring the temperature of the LED itself. Not sure if that's enough (what if there are faulty wire connections, etc). And not all colors LED have that temperature monitoring option.

Either way - as you see this LED stuff can take a life of its own. Far from what brought us to this hobby: Just about every morning I go to a local creek and watch schools of tiny fish drift between the shadows and the morning sunlight. After some time it becomes all one - sunlight, water, shadows, fish... That fills your soul with something. Pure natural impressionism. There are no colors other than green and muck. It is beyond anything that any mercantile mind and all his fans can muster up and repeat every day as "beauty".


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## niko

Here are the PAR readings:

Installed 2 rails. Each rail is 60W if the dimmer is set at maximum. Optics are 60 degrees.

Rails are 9" above the water.
Center of rail 1 is 8" from the front glass.
Center of rail 2 is 14" from the front glass.
Gap between the two rails is 3".

Water column is 20" to the gravel.

PAR measured on bottom - 9" of air + 20 inches of water.

Sensor placed at:
4" from front glass - PAR66
6" - PAR 97 
9" - PAR 108
12" - PAR 106 <--That is the spot on the bottom where the light from the two rails overlaps the most.
14" - PAR 99
15" - PAR 66
18" - PAR 33

Moved the two rails closer together. Now rail 1 is 8" from front glass and rail 2 is at 11" from front glass (gap between the rails is 1")
At 10" from the front glass PAR is 120. <--That is the spot on the bottom where the light from the two rails overlaps the most.

These numbers are exactly what TropTrea told me I will get - PAR of 80-100 which as we all now know is enough to run a stable tank, nothing high speed has to be chased all the time to stay clean.

The above numbers mean that each rail provides a 6 ft long area which is 10" wide and the PAR is 80 by the edges and 100 in the center.

If I add another rail and move all the rails closer - 1" apart - I can get PAR of 120 in the center and 100 in the edges. There is room for a 4-th rails if I want to add it because TropTrea said that the gap between the rails can be 1/2 inch for ventilation purposes.

An interesting observation - my 160W T5HO seems way brighter than these 120W LEDs but provides only PAR of 25-30 on the bottom. The placement of the LEDs 9" above the water provides nice shimmer on the bottom where the surface of the water is agitated.

This is a beautiful diagram of the above for future reference:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111646...hkey=Gv1sRgCOKoodSys97kVQ#6164886782557802146

Yes, PAR at the surface, just below the water surface is 270 straight under the LED. Meaning that halfway up the water column it is about 150-170.


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## TropTrea

the reason you have more PAR and less visable light with the LED's is because with the LED's your focusing the light downward rather the scattering it out in all directions. Changing the optics to something wider than 60 degrees will make it look a little brighter but decrease the PAR by spreading it out even beyond the tank.


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## niko

Ok, the other day I got around to hooking up the light to a power source. 

What I really wanted to see is how hot the rails get. Remember, instead of using aluminum that is 2" wide and has 1" walls going up I used rails that are 3" wide and have 1" walls going up. TropTrea told me that was an overkill of a heatsink but hey, I want to be safe.

Safe it is. After running the lights at 100% intensity for 5 hours I checked the temperature. The rails are barely warm. I literally kissed one of them to see if I can do it. Barely warm.

That maybe exciting to some but what was more interesting to me was that the fish that I have in that tank all of a sudden came to life. It feels like until now I may have kept them in light conditions equivalent to an overcast day. Depressed or something. All of a sudden they show colors, spread fins. 

I will be adding a third rail. The coverage over a 6x2' area is not enough with 60 degree optics.


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## fishyjoe24

so I've seen stuff about t5 vs mh vs leds and I got to say this. I'm talking about my nano reef tank, but still have a freshwater tank too. I had a mh 150w over my tank, it heated up my tank to much, to where I had to use a clamp on fan to cool the tank down. it was to bright for my liking. (think a deer stuck in high beans at night).

now with me having leds (ai sol white). this is what I got to say about leds, and why I like them. 

Color control (for systems that have that feature). I can adjust to where *I* want the color to be with a few programming settings. as in I can program for more or less white/blue. which leads too #2. 

Intensity control, allowing me to adjust the white/blue levels where *I* want them for my environment. (how much blue/white I want, and at what time I want). 
Easy timer control (and AI is really good at total timer control) of color and intensity.

Power efficiency...LEDs are WAY more power efficiet than MH and flourescent for the light they produce. the par I get at the bottom with the leds oh my. 
Wide variety of possible spectrum choices (this goes to the first point as well), allowing us to adjust (should we choose to do so) spectrum with the turn of a dial or a few programming clicks instead of changing out expensive bulbs, as I've done this paying 20-25 to find the right mix of color. 

the Heat issues induced by hot MH lights are a thing of the past as I no longer have to use a fan.
Noise. Other than fans (which are very quiet and low CFM), LEDs are dead silent. No more MH hum and my fan hasn't even been turn on as I only use about 5-15% of my white, and no more then 35-40% for my blue. 

Lifespan. While the jury is still out on how long the bulbs last, we do know it's much, much linger than MH (years longer). I'm guessing I'll get around 10-20 years. 
Size...LED systems tend to have an overall smaller footprint.


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## TropTrea

if you want to read an article I wrote on LED lighting please check here on page 26 of Splash.

http://milwaukeeaquariumsociety.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/Splash-Sept2015-noMinutes.pdf

The reason I had not published it here is because I promised my local club the article first.


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## niko

So I installed a third LED rail. The PAR jumped up more than I thought - 30 instead of 15. But the visual brightness of the tank is still less than that of T5HO. 

Turning on the T5s I can see how much light spill the T5s have. The back glass of the tank is completely lit while with 3 rails of LEDs (60W each rail) the back glass does not get much light. So the T5 looks way brighter because it spills light all over and that light bounces back and forth inside the entire tank.

The most brightness and the most PAR is achieved with the T5 in the middle and two rails of LEDs being on on both sides of the T5s. The tank looks super bright and nice, but the PAR is about 90. Which really is a high light. I just don't like that the back glass gets all exposed. Just personal preference.

The PAR readings at 100% LED intensity:

(160W of T5HO with individual reflectors: PAR 40)

180W of LEDs (all 3 rails ): PAR 140
120W of LEDs (Front and Back rails): PAR 80
120W of LEDs (Front and Middle rails): PAR 110
120W of LEDs (Middle and Back rails): PAR 70
60W of LEDs (Middle rail only): PAR 100

The sensor was placed 24" below the water surface.
The sensor was in the middle of the tank (back/forth middle)
The air gap between the water surface and the LEDs is 10".


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## kyle2088

HI Niko,

Great Article and DIY with Trop Trees help. PLease keep us updated and show some plant growth

What attaches the led to the rail? IS it glue, sticker or a thermal paste?


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## niko

I use two small sheet metal screws. They press the LED star (the aluminum funny shape piece of aluminum on which the actual emitter is glued) to the aluminum rail. There is a small amount of thermal glue too. That glue is basically epoxy saturated with very fine metal dust so it conducts heat very well.

The two small screws do not need to be tightened very tight. Note that the screws are not the ones with domed heads. You can not use those - they touch the square golden contacts on the LED star. You have to use countersink screws and not domed.

Good:









Bad:









How it all looks, not my fixture but the same thing:


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## kyle2088

Thanks Nico and what power supply and dimmer switch did you go with?

Is the power supply running all 3 bars?


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## niko

This is what I got:
http://www.rapidled.com/12-led-plug-n-play-retrofit-kit-dimmable/

So each group of 12 LEDs is run by one driver. Meaning that I have 3 drivers running 36 LEDs total. 
If I wanted I could use 3 separate timers and turn on/off 12 LEDs at a time.

Or for about $80 I can get a controller that allows for some crazy control over the light - on/off cycles, emulating the weather conditions in my area, lightning strikes (bursts of very strong light), and so on. Stupid stuff mostly but why not.


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## Virc003

what would be a recommended set up to replace a 36 inch dual bulb t5 set up? Mine burned out and rather than deal will locating a ballast, I think I would rather mod the fixure into an led set up. 

Having said that, other than being permenant, what cons are there to the thermal epoxy?


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## niko

Nah, the epoxy is not permanent. You can remove the LED star by pushing it to the side so it shears the epoxy. If someone found I glue that can permanently hold two pieces of metal I'd like to know about it. Especially if you use just a tiny dab of the thermal epoxy.

For a replacement of a 36 inch dual T5 you can get the $100 solderless kit. You will find your own aluminum rail but at the 36" long that will cost you maybe $10. The light will be way more than your 2xT5s so do recommend getting the dimmer for an additional $10.


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## Virc003

Thank you, Niko! I am planning to remove the old wiring from a coralife fixture and epoxy the diodes inside where the t5 bulbs would normally be. The old frame looks good and is extruded aluminum. Considering it was desigbed to dissipate the heat from t5's, the leds shouldn't be a problem at all.


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## niko

if you are using the aluminum housing from the old T5 as a heatsink then you must remember to provide enough square inches of aluminum surface for each LED so it actually gets cooled.

What TropTrea told me was that one 5W LED needs at least 2 inches of area to the left and to the right of the LED. And that is if you mount it on a rail that also has 1" tall walls on the front and the back (A square U-channel basically). So if you add up all the areas this is: 4"x2" (flat surface of rail) + 1"x4" (wall 1)+ 1"x4' (wall 2) = 8+4+4= 16 square inches for each LED! 


The $100 kit that you can buy from RapidLed has 12 LEDs. And you need 16 square inches for each LED... So if your T5 aluminum housing is 4" wide that means that every LED will need a 4" long section of that housing to cool off. Meaning that 12 LEDs will need to be mounted on a 48" long area...

But if you do not run your LEDs at 100% (dim them with a dimmer) the heat is way less.

Consider all those things before buying anything. You maybe better off with a ready-to-go commercial fixture that is pretty mediocre but for the depth of your tank will be just fine.


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## Virc003

Hmmm....overheating you say? When I first looked at them I wanted to get the $70 kit, but seeing that the $100 kit doubles the number of diodes for such a minimal additional charge, well I couldn't resist. That particular power supply can power as few as 9 leds as well so I will wire in a rheostat to lower the power output of course. This is going to be an experiment more than anything for me. I want to get an arduino to control it too so I can practice my coding on something negligible before I get to doing what I really want with a microcontroller. I will certainly attempt to do some flux calculations to see what the max power output would be using my frame without over heating the system. This will be a fun project indeed! If needed I will install a fan or even upgradethe heat sink. 

If everything goes well, I will over design the final set up to replace all the lighting on this tank. Thanks yet again!


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## niko

Good to hear that you have realistic considerations and that you see that as a project to learn something new. Actually I too wanted to experiment with Arduino but a friend of mine told me that Rasberry is a better, more serious way to learn about such devices. And in the last month I have pretty much learned the foundation of Python and clarified some things about Object Oriented Programming that were never too clear to me. So you see why I like that you are starting on a similar path with a start line with aquariums 

Keep in mind that such traits of learning one thing because of another can take you far. For me, personally it started with being studious at an early age and learning Russian just by reading. Later that skill of learning from zero lead me to learning English through literally memorizing random words from a big dictionary. Which lead to an interest in learning photography and the darkroom processing because photographs that impacted me had English captions. The photography lead me to aquarium photography which lead me to the library to look for German aquarium books that at that time had the best photographs of aquarium fish. Which lead to me trying to learn German... And at one point, being lucky, I come to America and all of these things came together... I was hired as a computer programmer with very little knowledge only because I had started to self-educate myself about programming from zero just 8 months ago...

So you see how an interest in one thing leads very far. Keep on learning


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## niko

Since the whole idea of building these LED lights is to grow better plants here's an update.

No added fertilizers. Root tabs in the brand new AquaSoil. CO2 to hell and back (tiny bubbles all over the entire 6' tank). PAR 110 on the bottom, remember.

On day 4 I ran tests:

NO3 =30
PO4 =1.64.
TDS = 104
GH = 3
Ca = 51
Ca:Mg ratio very bad: -3:1, (not nearly enough Mg, too much Ca)

Day1:









Day6:









--Nikolay


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## digital_gods

I'm in the process of moving and thinning out my diy electronics parts and stuff. Did you need anything?


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## digital_gods

I got an extra Intel galileo board with WiFi Bluetooth.


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## niko

Oh yes, I'd buy it from you. Let me know how much


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## niko

Day 1 6, 8, and 10


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## Virc003

Here's what mine looks like. It's twice as bright as the t5's but those were NO bulbs. Turned them way down and they stay so cool that I don't think I will have a problem with my cat trying to get warm on top of the glass top anymore.


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## niko

This looks very nice. And it was easy to make, wasn't it? 

Since you have a single line of LEDs - does the light cover the tank bottom well?

And where is the driver? Inside the fixture?


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## Virc003

That part looks nice...haha....and it was very easy to make! The driver is under the tank. Its a wad of wire nuts and electrical tape. I used the old power chord and the female end of an extension cord to connect the leds to the driver.

The spread on the bottom of the tank if perfect as far as I can tell especially if I turn the amps and rheostat up. This is not the only fixture I have though. This one is only used for the front half of a 40b. The only ever so slight nuisance is the lack of spread at the top of the tank. It looks like a row of search lights BUT that's because the fixture sits within an inch of the surface of the water.

I am most interested to see how much of a reduction in algae there will be on the glass since most of the light is focused instead of scattered now.

Here is the driver. The white plug is where the leds connect to the driver (outputs dc voltage). I might consider options for preventing someone else from plugging the leds directly into the wall later. I the only one who messes with it so I think it's safe for now.

Thanks for your guidance niko!


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## niko

Oh I see that you are hooked now. Between the results and the little effort that goes into making one of these I will never understand why someone would buy a ready to go and always inferior fixture. With the dimmer you paid what? $130 (shipping included in that)?

In my tank I still can't tell of the LEDs are really providing great light spectrum. My tank is hit by the morning sun on one side and I noticed that all the plants are looking that direction. As if the sun is a better light than my fancy-shmancy LEDs. How weird is that?.....

Now I have to say that to this day my LEDs have been on only 5.5 hours a day. That's way short of a light period and the plants still grow well. I increased that today to 7 hours and maybe the plants will not turn toward the sun for their missing light needs.

So my plants do grow well but I really think that the best combination is LEDs with some Giesemann Midday bulbs. As I said before - the color of such mixed light is utterly amazing.

Yes for 12 days now I have not even wiped the glass. I see some vague algae on it but nothing that would make me stick my hand in the tank and wipe it. And that is with P = 1.64 and NO3=30 plus a severely messed up Ca:Mg ratio. Today is the day when the Ca:Mg will finally get adjusted to 4:1 (I've been doing that very slowly to avoid stress). And the plants pearled visibly for the first time last night. When plants do that it is game over - the tank is now running full speed.

Please post here with an update how you think your plants do under this new LED setup. Gadgets or not we are doing that because of the plants. If they grow so-so then there is more work to be done.


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## Maryland Guppy

niko said:


> Cost $270 total.
> 
> Oversized aluminum heatsinks (the rails could be 2"x1", these are 3"x1")
> Dimming on two channels (each rail dims independently).


What did you choose for dimming?
PWM I hope.


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## niko

No. I didn't know if I could make a fancy dimmer work. Turns out that 2ManyHobbies made a better choice and got one of these do-it-all gizmos. He says it is super easy to rig up.

What I got is this:
http://www.rapidled.com/3-color-manual-dimmer


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## Maryland Guppy

If you decide to move to the Dark Side of PWM.
12 bit PWM dimming should be considered.
It will truly dim to zero and super smooth for ramping.

Dimming 1-10 volt signal controls the mA output of the driver, thus changing the spectrum.
PWM's square wave always delivers peak driver mA when it is on.

I too am on a new LED project at this time.
Building some 42watt puck style sort of.
3 of these on a lo-tech 75 gallon.
Using a StormX & LDD-H drivers


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## niko

I didn't know about certain dimmers changing the spectrum. So far I've used all 3 of my rails at 100% intensity.

I wonder if dimming and changing the spectrum can actually be beneficial - more shift towar warm, red. No matter how we look at it plants like warm white, the warmer the better.

Your design uses fans because all these LEDs will produce too much heat in one small area. Does this have any kind of temperature cut off protection? You know - if the fan dies to shut off the light so the LEDs don't overheat and die.


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## Maryland Guppy

Already performed a 4 hour test, the fans are fluff.
No thermal devices yet.
I've got dozens of them so one goes on everything.
They are 12 volts and I run the wires, still haven't turned them on.

When lumens are reduced some of the spectrum shifts.
Some nm ranges for the good and some for the worse.

I will try to find the last graph I was comparing output with.

*Article from DigiKey*

How to Dim an LED
By Steve Leibson
Contributed By Electronic Products
2010-04-05
There are two major approaches to dimming LEDs: PWM and analog. Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages. PWM dimming greatly reduces color changes in the LED with varying brightness levels, because the LED essentially runs at a constant current when it is on and at no current when it is off. However, this advantage comes at the expense of additional logic to create the PWM waveforms.

Analog dimming can use a simpler circuit, but the variable current supplied to the LED means that the regulator supplying the current to the LED must soak up any power not supplied to the LED. This additional power arises from the difference between the raw supply voltage powering the LED/regulator subsystem and the voltage across the LED. That power is wasted as heat. In addition, analog dimming may be inappropriate for applications that require a constant color temperature. An LED's color will change depending on the current driven through the device.

*Another article from Lutron.*
http://www.lutron.com/TechnicalDocumentLibrary/048360a_PWM_vs_CCR_LED_App_Note.pdf

There are many articles explaining on the web comparing the differences.

PWM dimming also reduces the heat applied to the heatsink.
Duty cycle is greatly reduced.

Sorry maybe I lied a little, the change is in color temperature.
This is what in turn changes the spectrum.


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## Maryland Guppy

niko said:


> Day 1 6, 8, and 10


Any more growth updates?
I kind of like the time lapse thing.


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## niko

Yes, lots of progress. Will take a picture when the lights come on.

It appears that the organics removal resin works very well. It does need to be changed every 3 days. Since in a freshwater tank we can't use a skimmer resins should be way more popular. Or rather - biofiltration should be way more discussed.

On today's picture of the tank you will see how much stronger is the right hand side. Once again - that is the side where the morning sun hits the tank. Unless the two groups of Swords had other differences one could say that and LED light with a huge PAR is not better than the sun. At least the one I made. Yes, it will grow plants but apparently there could be something missing.

The biggest change as far as lighting is concerned that I made about 5 days ago was to increase the light period from 5.5 hours to 8. I believe that made a very big difference. Now the Swords make one leaf and before it is fully developed there is another one coming. That happens every 2 days.


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## niko

Here it is.

On day 21 I did a big trim on bottom leaves that were starting to deteriorate. I guess when the Swords grow fast they decide that small old leaves don't matter any more.










On day 22 note how some of the tips of the Swords that are angling back enter the shade zone. The 60 degree LED lenses do not illuminate the front and back glass. But there is also a shade zone - which you can see here as if the leaves are dark or disappearing in the distance.


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