# LED lighting for my 125



## redthumb (Apr 17, 2014)

I have a 72x18x23 planted and I am trying to figure out what is the preferred brand of LED lighting taking in cost and life span....... And wondering if anyone has used upaquatic brand LEDS


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## TropTrea (Jan 10, 2014)

redthumb said:


> I have a 72x18x23 planted and I am trying to figure out what is the preferred brand of LED lighting taking in cost and life span....... And wondering if anyone has used upaquatic brand LEDS


I'm not super fond of most of the commercial LED's fixtures. They generally center on using cool white leds which as strong in the blue spectrum and weak on the red end of the spectrum for plants. Besides that many add additional blue LED's so they can be used on coral tanks as well.

All my tanks in my Fish room are lighted with DIY LED's. I have found an equal split between neutral white (4,500K) and Cool White (6,500K) LED's give me the best overall results for most plants. If you use quality LED's like CREE or Philips you should be able to light up your 125 gallon tank with somewhere in the range of 1 Watt per gallon and get the equivalent to some of them moderately lighted florescent tanks using a lot more wattage. So in the long range you will be saving on electricity. But if you go with some of off brand LED's some only produce as little as 1/2 the light per watt used as the top brands do.

Over all cost estimate for a simple quality DIY LED fixture for a 120 watt output would be $160.00 for the LED's, $50.00 for the Drivers, and about $40.00 for a pair of 6' 2" X 1" aluminum channeling for your heat sink. Beyond that you can go fancy with dimming capabilities etc for additional cost

As far as life span on LED's I have had some LED fixtures running 8 years now flawlessly. But they rate most quality LED's around 40,000 hrs. which relates to about 11 years of normal aquarium use. Another advantage of DIY is if you loose a LED you could replace it which is not possible with most commercial fixtures. My first LED fixtures did not use all quality LED's and some did not even last a year.


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## redthumb (Apr 17, 2014)

Not all that great worth electrical and I've heard stories is the leds going out early due to moisture and I don't have tops on my tank do you have a favorite video of how it's done or did you make one


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## TropTrea (Jan 10, 2014)

redthumb said:


> Not all that great worth electrical and I've heard stories is the leds going out early due to moisture and I don't have tops on my tank do you have a favorite video of how it's done or did you make one


I have submitted an article for publication in a local Aquarium groups newsletter that was supposed to come out in December. But they have not gone to print yet. Once it is printed then I'll post it here.

As far as the moisture goes there are two variable here. First is the quality of LED used. Then the second on how high they are above the surface. Keeping them about 4" over the surface of the water is what I do. The thing that gets them is when they are constantly be hit with the splashing from air bubbles from air stones or sponge filters. If you watch your placement of these items it is not an issue with the quality LED's.


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