Led Lighting

[starkie]

hi new to marine and wondered if these and blue lights are any good for the tank as needing to change lighting and these would save a fortune lol
http/cgi.ebay.com/110-V-21-LED-E27-Solar...1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[Demm]

i wouldnt put those in my tank especially if your going to have corals. some of the best advise that people have given me on this forum is the 2 places never to go cheap on your marine tank is lighting and a protien skimmer.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I would want to see the what kind of light spectrum they have and the PAR they put out before I used them. I do think LED lighting is the future for marine tanks though and there are some promising looking units being produced. Dont think this is one of them though

Take a look at http/www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/8/review2

I think I'm definetly going to go for LED lighting on the big tank when I get it going. Its an expensive initial cost but I worked it out to be cheaper then 3 300W MH after just 2-3 years. Add in the fact that they dont heat the water like MH and that the new units that are coming in can be programmed with "sunrise", "sunset", "moonlight" and a million things inbetween and I think they are well worth the money.

 

[SkiFletch]

I've yet to meet the 2.7 watts of LED lighting that actually output any usable PAR. That ebay bulb is just a bunch of cheapo quarter or half-watt LEDs crammed together in a reflective socket with a relatively low color temp. Prolly not all that great for growing corals. If you want to light a FO tank, would be really good. Fixtures that put out significant light (like that Polaris barney linked) have 25x3 watt lamps... Big difference

 

[Musho3210]

i would wait a while before using LED for tanks, to A. Wait until its cheaper, and B. Wait until more effective units are released. Remember when windows xp first came out? And how it was full of glitches and holes, and a few patches were needed to fix that up? Or when the apple iphone came out and was sold for like i think 500 dollars, then lowered to 400 after a few months?

 

[chrissaysyes]

i wouldnt put those in my tank especially if your going to have corals. some of the best advise that people have given me on this forum is the 2 places never to go cheap on your marine tank is lighting and a protien skimmer.

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, even those PFO lights only use 3watt LEDs. Meanwhile, lighting industries and automotive idustries are developing 7watt and higher individual LEDs. Only a matter of time before those advances trickle down into the aquarium hobby and make the technology truly affordable and more mainstream. I'll wait till then

 

[Lynden]

Furthermore they're dreaming if they expect people to pay $2000 for a two-foot Solaris.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Furthermore they're dreaming if they expect people to pay $2000 for a two-foot Solaris.

If it works I would pay that (actually I'm waiting to see what the TMC one tests out like). The reason being that if they work as they claim to the costs are equal to MH within two-three years and they apprently have an 11 year lifespan.

I wouldn't spend that kind of money out on a smaller tank that might be upgraded in a year or two but on a large tank that you are planning on keeping going for ahwile it is a good investment.

All that being said though I'm still not parting with any money until I see some very detailed independent testing done.

 

[SkiFletch]

Heh, I guess the re-coup costs (from energy savings) depends on how much your cost of electricity per kilowatt hour is.

 

[chrissaysyes]

Agreed in that- that is a really good investment.

 

[Musho3210]

remember, just because they dont heat up the tank, doesnt mean that they dont cause heat. The heat just goes away from the tank, in the air, which makes your air-con work more, which uses electricity. So take that into consideration when you are calculating costs.

 

[starkie]

in the uk where electricity is expencive and the weater normally quite chiily thats a good thing as we dont have air con lol

 

[SkiFletch]

remember, just because they dont heat up the tank, doesnt mean that they dont cause heat. The heat just goes away from the tank, in the air, which makes your air-con work more, which uses electricity. So take that into consideration when you are calculating costs.

Ummm, not really. Lets look at currently available products. A PFO Solaris system which is 25x3watt LED is 75watts of electrical energy. No ballast, and 98% efficient, meaning 9% of the energy makes light while 2% makes heat. So 1.5watts of heat is produced from one of those PFO fixtures... Drop in the bucket. Meanwhile the light it's meant to replace (a 250watt metal halide) is only about 80% efficient (at best) at turning electricity into light, and has a ~50watt ballast which is similarly efficient. So 20% of 300 watts of electricity is wasted as heat, aka 60watts of heat. That's 40 times more energy than the LED fixture creates. Wonder why halide lights get so hot? A typical soldering iron is 15 watts of heat and we know those burn on contact.

Long story short, the LED fixtures do not output anywhere near the amount of heat the halides do

 

[Musho3210]

i dont know where you got the 98% efficiency, and LED lumen per watt count is close to that of MH. Currently, the strongest LED is 115 lumens per watt, but i really doubt solaris uses that. And MH efficiency is around 24%, near that of fluorescent, incandescent has a 15% efficiency. If we could get ourselves a 98% efficient light source, then i think everyone would get one. But as for now, that confidential military work.

I am not saying they produce the same amount of heat as MH, it is considerably less, but that doesnt mean none is created.