# LED Floodlights? Enough?



## MRBLUBS (Sep 10, 2011)

Ok so Ive been wanting to get a 30 watt Led floodlight for my fishtank... But Ive been reading some mixed reviews about there ability to grow plants. I have a 20 gallon and plan to grow Java fern, Anubius, Giant hygro, Red ludwigia, Dwarf Sagitteria, Crypt, Amazon sword, frogbit, wisteria, banana plant and Lermina. I fertilize with Seachem flourish and root tabs. Would one of these be enough to grow them? Or do I some how have to get a T5-HO system and whatever.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00CBZ3BGM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=A2H6SBQ985X5CE
Thanks


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I'd look on ebay for LED floodlights. Don't buy anything that is aquarium brand. They will just charge you more for the same item you can get elsewhere. I bought one of the daylight colored 10w LED flood lights and it grows my emersed anubias, HC, and moss very well. 

I think the main issue with LED floodlights is light coverage. You'll probably need 2-3 lights to cover the entire tank with light. You don't really want to buy just 1 and raise it up extremely high to cover the whole tank. This will drop the intensity too much.

3x30w should work well for a 20 gallon. Buy the 120V kind and then buy a few plugs so you can wire them up, or look for the slightly more expensive corded ones. They should cost about 20-30$ each including shipping.

A T5HO light for a 20g tank will probably cost you about $50 (look up the 2 foot hydroponics T5 HO lights on ebay they are fantastic). Though I suppose long term replacing the bulbs will cost more. T5 HO setups give the best light coverage and make sure the entire tank is lit equally.


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## MRBLUBS (Sep 10, 2011)

Thanks for yhe quick reply!
Woukd three of these work well? 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B007H...200_QL40&qid=1401063422&sr=8-1#ref=mp_s_a_1_1
Oh and I have gift card for amazon thats why Im looking there


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

They look like the right type but make sure the color temperature is daylight not those blue ones. They make things look weird and might not grow plants well.


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## MRBLUBS (Sep 10, 2011)

Under colour temperature it says only that it's cool white. And on the image it says cold white
Is there a difference in cool white and cold white?
It says they have 6000k. And that's all they give me. I did find though another add with the exact same light and it had a picture of them up on a ware house and it looked pretty white.
I found another ad with 20w floodlights that are pure white. Would that be better? If I got 4 of those? Cause there pretty cheap (15.99)


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

6k bulbs are probably ok. The other bulbs might grow plants but they are too blue for my taste. Though everyone has different tastes. The company doesn't have any spectral data on them?

The T5HOs are probably the safest option because you can change the bulb when you like vs. the LED bulbs which you are stuck with forever. They also hit a much broader light range.


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## MRBLUBS (Sep 10, 2011)

Ok so I found a good deal on the T5-HOs on Amazon but there's two of them....
http://www.amazon.com/Odyssea-Aquar...id=1401070544&sr=8-9&keywords=T5-HO+dual+hood
http://www.amazon.com/Odyssea-Aquar...id=1401071294&sr=8-5&keywords=T5-HO+dual+hood
One has 10000k and the other has 6500k.
Now which one would be better? Sorry for all these questions I'm just so clueless

Wait... Or are they just exactly the same except that ones for marine use and that's why it has the high amount of kelvins and a blue light... I think that's it. Shoulda read it more carefully! I guess I'll be getting the one with plant in its name!
Thanks for the help!


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## TropTrea (Jan 10, 2014)

I'm having issues balancing the color spectrum on my planted tanks using HOT-5's. The ideal I know would be a combination of a Daylight bulb which is 6,500K and a 5,000K bulb but I cannot find any available any more in 5,000K.

As far as Color temp and names are concerened there is no hard range with these names. But usually warm whites range from 2,400K to 3,700K, Neutral Whites are from 3,700K to 5,300K, cool Whites are between 5,300K and 8,300K, Cold White are occasionally used to indicate a anything over 6,700K. As far a as pur white is concerned in indicates the bulb has a very high CRI factor but can be any Color Temperature. The highest CRI bulbs are usually in the warmer color temperatures. 

With LED lighting your much better off building your own system. I have build my own for Reef tanks for the last 5 years and I'm starting to convert my fresh water to LED's. I would recommend a split between the Cree Neutral White and Cool White Chips as the ideal. My experience it that all Cool White LED'[s before I gett good plant growth the algae starts growing wild. With all Neutral Whites I need more total wattage to get good plant growth.

For plants growth wise the secret is getting a good balance between the red and blue photosynthetic wave lengths. The Cool Whites produce more than enough blue light but lack red. The Neutral Whites produce enough red light but lack in the blue. 

For the last 3 week I'm running 2 watts of Neutral White and 2 Watts of cool whites on my 10 gallon live bearer tanks and have both myophilia and hornsworth growing like crazy with nearly no algae.


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## MRBLUBS (Sep 10, 2011)

I was going to build an LED lighting system but I just dont have the time and knowledge to make one. 
Im having trouble just trying to Find T5-HO bulbs in general. T5's arnt the same as T5-HOs right? I guess I'll be lookin for a 5k. Hopefully there are some out there somewhere. 
Well Ill just go with the T5'HOs if it at least keeps my plants alive and lookin good then its fine with me!


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## acitydweller (Feb 14, 2012)

The bonus in running T5HO's are the option to use varying color temperature bulbs.

I encourage mixing and matching 3000k and 6500k.


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## TropTrea (Jan 10, 2014)

MRBLUBS said:


> I was going to build an LED lighting system but I just dont have the time and knowledge to make one.
> Im having trouble just trying to Find T5-HO bulbs in general. T5's arnt the same as T5-HOs right? I guess I'll be lookin for a 5k. Hopefully there are some out there somewhere.
> Well Ill just go with the T5'HOs if it at least keeps my plants alive and lookin good then its fine with me!


Unfortunately there do not seem to be any 5,000K T-5's around any more. I used to love mixing the GE Chroma50's with there daylight 6,500K. But I cannot find anyone that stocks the Chroma's any more. At least not in the HO T-5's.

I had tried lower K bulbs like 3,400K and there was just too much red light in them to please me.

As far as the LED's for me a fixture like yours would take at the most 2 hours to build. If you don't have any soldering experience add an extra hour to that or you can spend a little more for the solder less LED's sold by Rapid LED on line.

You can always message me if need advice on a LED fixture.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

MRBLUBS said:


> Im having trouble just trying to Find T5-HO bulbs in general. T5's arnt the same as T5-HOs right?


Home depot sells T5 HO bulbs. I bought several at 6500 K, they also have other temperatures, if I'm not mistaken I remember seeing they had 5,000 K as well.

T5-HO and T5 bulbs are not the same. They use different wattages.

The hydroponics T5 HO systems they sell on ebay are great. Though custom made LED systems like TropTrea mentioned are another good way to go. Either option would work well. Out of interest I'd love to see you make your own LED light


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## MRBLUBS (Sep 10, 2011)

I think Ill just go with the T5-HOs. It just seems easier and just yeah. Maybe sometime down the road I will attempt to make my own LED system. I think I just need more knowledge and experience with aquarium lighting and such.
I'll check Home depot!
Thanks for all the Help!


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## TropTrea (Jan 10, 2014)

Zapins said:


> Home depot sells T5 HO bulbs. I bought several at 6500 K, they also have other temperatures, if I'm not mistaken I remember seeing they had 5,000 K as well.
> 
> T5-HO and T5 bulbs are not the same. They use different wattages.


 This must vary by the individual store. I have tried getting them at Menard's as well as Home Depot and even Lowes with no luck. I can get them a local lighting wholesaler if I want to buy a case each variety I want that he does not stock. He does stock some low K bulbs though I can buy individually.



Zapins said:


> Though custom made LED systems like TropTrea mentioned are another good way to go. Either option would work well. Out of interest I'd love to see you make your own LED light


I will be building a LED system for my 2 30 Gallon tanks and for my 120 gallon tank eventually. When I do I'll start a build tread so everyone can see how I build them.


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## barclaya (Apr 14, 2011)

how long should We change T5 HO bulb. because after six month used some of my foreground plant not growing so well. my tank is 75 gallons. so it is deeper than 20 or 30 gallons. now I mixed with current satellite Fresh water LED + so far so good. its come with remote controler. so you can change/program the color.


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## TropTrea (Jan 10, 2014)

barclaya said:


> how long should We change T5 HO bulb. because after six month used some of my foreground plant not growing so well. my tank is 75 gallons. so it is deeper than 20 or 30 gallons. now I mixed with current satellite Fresh water LED + so far so good. its come with remote controler. so you can change/program the color.


For reef lighting the normal recomedation is changing them between every 9 and 12 months. This is where the quality bulbs like GE, ATI, Gman start shifting there spectrum to increase red light and decrease the blue part of the spectrum. There are also low Quality bulbs out there on the market that start shifting there spectrum much sooner and even initially have much less total light generated these are usualy best changed at about 6 month intervals.

I personally do not change all the bulbs at the same time. I space the bulb replacements so I'm only swapping out a max of 2 bulbs at one time and at least a month between bulb changes. However plants are not a critical on there light needs as some coral are. But different plants do better under different spectrum especially when some have different color pigments in them.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

TropTrea said:


> I will be building a LED system for my 2 30 Gallon tanks and for my 120 gallon tank eventually. When I do I'll start a build tread so everyone can see how I build them.


Looking forward to seeing your build thread. The more photos the better.

I've always been interested in the electronics as well. The power supply type and the controller.


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## TropTrea (Jan 10, 2014)

Here are some pictures of a LED Light I built for a Reef tank. The fixture is on a 75 gallon tank but was designed for someone elses 90 gallon tank. You will not that as Reef fixture it is much bluer than you would want for a planted tank. As well as much brighter. It produced a PAR 170 at the substrate.

The LED combination for this fixture was with a Dawn to Dusk setting as pictured on the table top with 8 Watt's of 454nm Royal Blue LED's, 8 Watts of 470nm True Blue LED's, and 8 Watts of near UV 430nm LED's. 

The back two rails contained 80 Watts of 454nm Royal Blue LED's and 40 Watts of Neutral White 4,500K LED's which would be used for midday lighting. In the picture of the full tank with the lights on there are also 2 39 Watt HO T-5 bulbs running ATI Blue Plus Bulbs. When installed on the final 90 gallon tank a pair of 54 Watt T-5's were used and the total yielded 170 Par at the substrate and 720 PAR 4" below the surface of the Water. 

If you observe the picture of the fixture on the table you can see how the basic Aluminum Channeling I prefer to use is assembled. Note the LED's are epoxied directly to the Channeling with Artic Heat Transfer Epoxy.

If I get a chance in the next few days I'll send some pictures of my fresh water breeding rack I just started rebuilding. Yes it will be light up by all LED's eventually but is not designed as a primary planted tank. The plants will be concentrated on my 120 gallon tanks .


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## TropTrea (Jan 10, 2014)

Well I'm presently working on a Rack with 6 20 High tanks in a row. These are for breeding fish rather than plant tanks so I'm going low wattage on these. Actualy I'll be runnng around 1/10 to 1/5th of a watt per gallon hoping it will be just enough light for floating tanks. But I'll start a build thread on that system as soon as I get some free time.


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