# LED Lighting System



## charlieB (Aug 5, 2014)

Hello, I'm sure this will be the first of many questions regarding my project, but I have recently taken apart one of my old reef systems and would like to set it up as a freshwater planted tank. Though I am quite certain the corals I was growing in this set up had far greater light demands than typical plants, I am not so sure how well the wavelength/spectrum of the lights is appropriate for plants. The system is a 29 gallon biocube that has had just about all of its parts retrofitted, including the lights, which is now an 84W high power LED set-up. Set-up consists of 28 Philips Luxeon ES 3W LED's, 18 of which are Royal Blue (about 420nm), and 10 of which are full spectrum 5k. I am really not sure how to go about managing this lighting for a freshwater planted set-up, my two main concerns being correct balance of color and not frying the plants. The blue and white LED's are on separate dimmable channels and I'm already kind of assuming I will want the full spectrum LED's to provide most of the light. Even with some of the most light demanding SPS corals I never ran these lights at more than 60% power. For those unfamiliar with LED wattage this 84W system is about equivalent to one 250W metal halide bulb. Any input would be greatly appreciated, as far as balancing the channels, a good starting point for output, or if this lighting even makes sense for growing freshwater plants. I will have many more questions but figured I would start here since I would likely use this tank for something else if the lights would need to be replaced.

-Charlie


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## pandragon (Jul 10, 2014)

Those lights sound fine since plants use blues and reds. Maybe a bit overkill in wattage though if you have them set up for full brightness all the time. I could see algae loving the light.









As long as the whites cover around these wavelengths it should be fine. You could add some reds if you felt absolutely necessary, but I owuld see how well te plants grow before spending any extra money on it. I guess it also depends on if the plants look good to you or if everything has a blue cast or otherwise looks of for green and/or red plants.

Hope this helps


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