# new 250 gallon aquarium setup - lighting



## nostradamus (Sep 19, 2016)

Hi,
I'm relatively new to this forum, but have kept numerous aquarium setups. 

I'm planning on converting my deep 250g tank (L=72" x W=24" x H=33") to a planted aquarium with low and medium light plants.
1) Can you please suggest what type of led lighting I should get?
2) How much PAR I would need?

Note: Would this work with good results?
Ten 18w led lights (ATV/truck spotlights), hook it up to AC via a LED power supply driver transformer (two units 100w).
I want to spread the lights out along the aquarium canopy where I can turn on each of the lights individually - would be great if I can have them come on and off on a timer, but don't know how.

Thanks!


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## DutchMuch (Apr 12, 2017)

Welcome!


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Welcome to APC! If you want low to medium light plants you should try to get 40 - 45 PAR at the substrate level in the tank. Ideally you would want the lights to be at least a foot above the top of the tank, to reduce the difference between the light intensity at the top and bottom of the tank. That makes it hard to get enough light, so I have been ignoring that second part.

If you want the colors of the plants and fish to really look good, your lights also need to include a substantial amount of deep red, around 660 nm wavelength, and the white lights should have a high Color Rendering Index (CRI), about 80 is usually good enough. I doubt that headlight LED lights would meet that requirement. For something to think about see http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...1917-diy-led-light-coralife-biocube-32-a.html


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