Any One Using Led Lights On Here?

[tribalbrit]

Not seen them on ebay but any electrical wholesaler should be able to supply them. I am very happy with mine, easy to fit can be cut to length and are water proof,

 

[mattlee]

sorry to bring this back up but was just wondering how your led's are working adam?

do the tubes come with starters?

 

[JoshuaA]

sorry to bring this back up but was just wondering how your led's are working adam?

do the tubes come with starters?

I've been looking at those ECO LEDs AFAIK they all come with a starter to plug straight into the wall or at least the advertisement I read phrased it in such a way I believed that was the case.

I'm tempted... I'm also tempted more so to bump the length of tube it would be replacing and just use the plastic mounts that are also included and screw it onto the hood. The only thing that concerns me as well as with my LG LEDs that came with my TMC Nano tank is that they are very directional. In the sense that their light doesn't diffuse much over a period of space where as Fluorescent tubes disperse in every direction (and up). I don't want the single ECO Led tube creating massive shadows and shaded patches in the tank.

 

[Mikaila31]

Thing with LED's is for growing plants you need high powered LED's, generally 3 watt ones, to grow plants and match T5's. You still need quite a few watts of power and they get hot. They are also still expensive to use. The small LEDs in the fixtures and strips mentioned in this thread are not adequate for plant growth.

 

[curlyriff]

Sorry just noticed the reply. I am getting on great with the LED lights. They come with the starter at the price I stated before and are easy to fix to a cabinet if you wish as they have screw eyelet holes and are nice and small with rubber feet. The lead for the lights is 2m long so best to place the starter under the tank if possible to the top of the cabinet or similar.

They have there own individule switches and produce almost no heat. They are fine for planted tanks and I seem to be having good growth with all low/medium plants and a few high ligh plants too.

My running costs over a few weeks has halved compared to a standard Twin T5 unit. The quality of the unit seems pretty good even compared to what I first thought they would be like.

They come with some basic clips that you can either screw to a hood or silicon to glass/plastic etc and are simple to use. The actual colour of the light seems to give far more depth to my tank than the T5 units I have used previously. I am currently getting enough cash together for my larger heavily planted tank now that I am convinced on the quality and ability of the lights. Highly recommended.

The other good think to note about the lights is they can be placed 15mm above the waterline with no issues and heat is disipated upwards through the light unit away from the tank meaning it is easier to keep a constant temperature. Although as said they have produced minimum heat anyways.

When I first got them I ran them for a week without turning them off to see if there where any issues and I can say there were none to report.

Hope that helps a little. Anymore questins just ask.

Kind Regards,

Adam

 

[JoshuaA]

Fancy popping a picture up so we can see these LED lights? I'm being convinced more and more for my new tank setup but it's going to be £50 a pop for a single tube and I feel like I may as well put another £10 ontop of that and go for a size up and remove the light ballast that is in place.

I don't suppose the T8 adapters are included with the tubes are they?

 

[Joshwainwright]

Fancy popping a picture up so we can see these LED lights? I'm being convinced more and more for my new tank setup but it's going to be £50 a pop for a single tube and I feel like I may as well put another £10 ontop of that and go for a size up and remove the light ballast that is in place.

I don't suppose the T8 adapters are included with the tubes are they?

£50 is rather cheap considering they last longer!

 

[JoshuaA]

Yeh if you consider it that way but as we all know products never live up to the manufacturers expectations.

I could buy 5 over priced T8 tubes from the LFS for the price of one LED, never mind if I was to just buy cheap quality ones.

 

[calzone]

I recently bought a small Brilliant LED tube plus LED driver from http/www.aquariumledlighting.co.uk/ for my 60L planted tank. Previously had a 24W PL compact fluorescent which is either knackered or frankly just didnt produce enough light and the difference was huge. I can actually see my fish now, and the 3 LED's in the tube give great glitter lines. There are various spectra available, I have Brilliance Daylight, which is fairly yellow, I would guess 4-5000K (though that may be my bogwood tannins....). Only there for a week, so early to tell how much extra plant growth I'm getting, though I would guess the egeria has put on a n inch or so in short order. Very easy to retrofit - waterproof tubes, comes with sucker clips to attach to your hood or tank side.

Calzone

 

[curlyriff]

I haven't put a picture up because I don't have a camera that is good enough to give a decent picture to show the quality of light. I would suggest trying to find a lfs who can order in or similar and show them you working to see how good they are.

Sorry can't be more helpful. Will see if I can borrow a decent camera at weekend to get some pictures for you.

Kind Regards,

Adam

Edit, the £50 also includes the Starter as they don't sell them without so you would have to buy a single starter and T8 tube to compare price and thats when it looks more reasonable. I don't see any reason to use the current light ballast apart from to attach your lights too if you can't mount them too the hood. They will still need to run of the driver it comes with so the ballast you would currently have is just a very expensive way to support the light.

You would be better selling whatever ballast you have putting money towards the LED's.

If you go for LED you want to make sure the tube is as close to the length of the tank as you can fit because they do not flood the side of the tank in the same way a T8 bulb. The lighting is much more directional.

 

[mattlee]

sorry to bring this topic up again but im still unsure of what to go for

my tank will be here next month so i still have some time to think it through. after seeing the LED lights in action at an lfs they really do look stunning but my only issue is with the lengths they are available in.

my tank is 5ft long and the biggest length LED light available is 1147mm costing about £105, this is about 3ft 9 inches so well short. the other option is 2 x 687mm costing about £75 each, they are 2ft 3 inches long so will almost cover the length of the tank.

both of these options will give the equivalent of 1 light running the length, would i need 2 as most tanks have 2 tubes in?

what do i do?

 

[dayzofspeed]

dont know much about lighting but what about buying say 3 shorter units and run them from back to front with a clip on unit instead of left to right........ just a thought

 

[mattlee]

just fitted a single 4ft LED light the tropical arcadia eco one on my new tank and the result is great

 

[Randomitity]

I am envious now

 

[willsy]

Hope that helps a little. Anymore questins just ask.

Kind Regards,

Adam

Hi Adam,

I realise that you posted this a long time ago, but just wanted to ask you a few questions.

I'm trying to set up a low tech planted tank without C02 injection, so would like to get some comparison of these lights to other lights as far as light intensity is concered. I'm very interested in buying LED's from the get go, but there is very little in the way of reviews or comments for these particular lights.

Do you think these Arcadia LED's give a similar output to T8's or T5's? I'm looking to get 1.0 to 1.2 WPG of T5 or 1.5 to 2.0 WPG of T8. If I know that these lights have a similar PAR or intensity as T8's then I can get enough for the 1.5 to 2.0 WPG level.

Do you use them on their own, or to supplement T5's or T8's?

Best Regards

Will.