Led Bulb

[56jman]

Will a 5000k crisp blue led bulb from Home depot be enough to grow soft corals such as mushrooms, zoas, polyps, and leather coral???
http/www.lowes.com/pd_321124-75774-LPAR20DM/5K/LED_4294801193_4294937087_?productId=3408204&Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&pl=1&currentURL=%2Fpl_LED%2BLight%2BBulbs_4294801193_4294937087_%3FNs%3Dp_product_qty_sales_dollar%7C1&facetInfo=
would 2 possibly work
look at the color scale closely on the package a blue crisp color

 

[ainsy]

Not sure but either the K rating or the colour scale is incorrect.

at 5000K it would not be crisp blue - it would be much more orange/yellow. I used to use either 12000K or 14000K to get the crisp blue.

 

[DrRob]

Manufacturers often sell 5000K as blue or daylight. Mainly, I suspect, because the warm white is around 3000 in their range and the cool white 4000. As ainsy says, aquarium lighting is generally around 10 to 14 thousand for marine.

 

[56jman]

Could you possibly find a cheap one at the hardware store or just a cheap one in general??? (under $50 if possible)

 

[Donya]

Under $50? Good luck finding a coral-suitable fixture for that price. All of the even very low-end fixtures I'm aware of that are suitable for corals are over $50 (at least while being heat-safe and sticking to LEDs or fluorescents). If $50 is a hard limit, you have a a couple of options:

1. Used fixtures or DIY jobs with T5s, although the bulbs will probably set you back most of that $50 if not more than that. DIY LED jobs are also possible but the parts aren't cheap.

2. Get a cheap, aquarium-safe, low-heat light of any variety (LED, T8, etc.) and forget about corals until you have better funds.

I would strongly recommend option 2 since you seem to be bouncing around from one stocking idea to another pretty fast while not having much expendable cash. And, if you don't have enough spare cash for a good fixture, corals are not necessarily a great path to take. Many frags will cost you half the price of your lighting budget.

 

[StandbySetting]

Build your own LED circuit instead, the parts are dirt cheap on ebay. You'd need 3W LED's (you can combine blue and white for the best effect), 3W LED drivers, wire and transformers dependent on the number of LED's, easy.

 

[56jman]

And how would you assemble it, website or something???

-Jared

 

[Donya]

And how would you assemble it, website or something???

Warning: bluntness ahead.

The question above is exactly why I recommended option 2 in my post (forget corals) and not DIY stuff. You don't seem to be doing research on topics yourself, as things like the above demonstrate. You could have gone to Google easily and started reading tons of stuff about DIY aquarium lighting of any sort you're interested in, but I am getting the feeling from your posts both here and in your other threads that you do not do this. Please don't play with DIY electric things in a wet environment unless you have an experienced friend or family member who can help you out with it or you are willing to educate yourself on the subject thoroughly before starting.