Need Some Led Help!

[greenmumma141]

Hey guys, I need some help, I am a bit confused.  I want to upgrade my lighting on my tank for Xmas 

.  I have a couple options in mind, but I just want to make sure they have enough wattage for my tank. I don't want something that just looks nice, it has to be enough light for my plants. I'd actually rather they be MORE than enough muahaha... Here's what I've got:
 
60g tank (48in long)
it's heavily planted with swords, wisteria, crypts, etc. Nothing fancy
Right now I've got 94w going from my T8's, so about 1.5wpg
 
One of the options I'm looking at is 30w and the other is 35w. Is this going to be enough? what is the exact ratio/difference/whatever between reg lighting like T8's and leds?!?
 
 
Any help is really appreciated guys, thanks

 

And I realize this isn't the exact right place for this thread, I had to move this from the lighting section as no one seemed to be there lol

 

[ech0o]

LED's unfortunately are not very measurable by watts per gallon.  Also, the wattage means very little with LED, as you can have 100 x .5w  LED's, be drawing 50watts of power, and still not achieve anywhere near the intensity of light you would get from 15 x 3w led's.   It is all about photo-synthetically active radiation, or PAR. 

What fixture exactly are you referring to?

 

[greenmumma141]

Here are a coupe links:
 
I'm not really attached to any of them really. I just want something that isn't super high light, as I don't run pressurized, but something more than what I have now. I also have to stay around $130.
 
http/www.amazon.com/Marineland-Double-Bright-18-Inch-24-Inch/dp/B00325575S/ref=sr_1_5?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1384098512&sr=1-5&keywords=led+aquarium+light
 
http/www.amazon.com/Current-USA-Satellite-Freshwater-Aquarium/dp/B00C7OTEVS/ref=sr_1_10_m?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1384098512&sr=1-10&keywords=led+aquarium+light

 

[ech0o]

I advise against the marineland light, they are notorious for cheaply manufactured  lighting.  Had a marineland fixture and within months all of the leds were different brightness, personally will never buy marineland lights again.  
 
The current fixture you listed has some REALLY cool light settings, a cloud flyby setting that mimics cloudy skies, all in all is a very feature rich fixture.  It provides great light visually, although is only good for low light plants which I believe is everything you listed.  It should look significantly brighter then the fixture you have in there, while providing somewhere around where your light currently sits.  If your plants do fine now, they should continue to do well.
 
I can also suggest a couple lights, maybe slightly over what you listed for max price, that is about 9 steps up from either of those fixtures quality wise.  One that will do a good job and continue to do a good job for a long time to come. 
 
http/www.amazon.com/Finnex-Monster-Aquarium-Enhancing-48-Inch/dp/B00BP6QHUA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1384100852&sr=8-2&keywords=finnex+48%22  this has the "colormax" range of lighting, if you are familiar with colormax T8's and T5's, they make your fish look REALLY nice.
 
http/www.amazon.com/Finnex-FugeRay-Aquarium-Moonlights-48-Inch/dp/B009IRL1UO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1384100852&sr=8-3&keywords=finnex+48%22  this one is within your price range, has the blue nightime lights too, unfortunately does not have the cloud settings like on the one you listed, but all in all is a better built unit.

 

[greenmumma141]

Thanks a lot, I really appreciate the help! What would you say the brightness of the bottom unit be? I would like to be a bit higher than where I am now, I have to start most of my plants in my 10g to get them really gowing well before putting them in my 10g. I noticed there is a couple higher priced Finnex units... I wish they would include the PAR/PUR rating in the description!

 

[ech0o]

Yea it is brighter then the first one i listed for sure, and it should be far more than the T8's

"The 35 gallon tank I tested was filled with water but other then the substrate it was empty. The tank's footprint is 30" by 12" and it stands 23" tall. I cleaned the glass on the tank and took the readings in the darkness of my basement.
I recorded 70 mmols of PAR at 14 inches and 58 mmols PAR at 20 inches . It might be important to note that this was a 36" light sitting on top of a tank only 30" long.

The other tank is a planted, 30 gallon tank. Its footprint is 36" by 12" and it stands 16" tall. This tank is also in the basement. All the other lights were turned off during the test but the glass was not cleaned this time.

I recorded, 89 mmols of PAR at 8" from the light and 50 mmols of PAR at 15 inches."  

took this from http/gwapa.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5636
 

 

[ech0o]

Current TrueLumen Pro LED StripLight
PAR Data(Source) PAR Vs. Distance from source
350 PAR @ surface
96 PAR @ 6"
57 PAR @ 12"
42 PAR @ 18"
31 PAR @ 24"
 
This testing information is via plantedtank

 

[ech0o]

Seems T8 is actually fairly close to those values.
 
If you are looking to achieve a higher PAR, you can run a beamswork fixture, I have been running one for months now with no issues, I did open it up and clean up some glue and make it what I deem completely safe, although it was put together exceptionally well for the price, much better than marineland and such.  Mostly everyone who comments badly about these units are people who have never used one personally.
 
http/www.ebay.com/itm/LED-48-3300-Timer-6500K-Aquarium-Light-Freshwater-Plant-Tropical-Fish-54x-1W-/300922601310?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4610627f5e
the 1w LED's with the focused lenses are going to provide much more par value.
 
http/www.ebay.com/itm/LED-Quad-1W-Aquarium-Light-6500K-Freshwater-Plant-Tropical-Fish-24-36-48-New-/300973932142?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item461371be6e
quad fixture, has 2 units packed into 1

These are bare bones units, they lack features, and also are not dimmable, some things to consider, although i've used mine with great success.

 

[greenmumma141]

LoL, those look exactly the same as the first ones to me! But so much cheaper ....... I'm going to search for one with a moonlight setting too, hopefully I can find one. Good ole Ebay....

 

[ech0o]

The one with moonlight is actually designed for corals, so instead of having 6500k lights for the white, it is 10k color temp.   You may be able to find something with them and the freshwater color temperature, but keep in mind, anything less than 1w for the bulbs, you start to venture back into the lower light bracket.

 

[greenmumma141]

Okay... so I want to find something with 1w bulbs and a decent Kelvin... Ill post whatever I find on here
 
Thanks for all the help, I would have went with something completely bogus

So i probably don't want to go with 3w bulbs do i???

0o0o0o0o0o0 I think I found it:
 
http/www.ebay.com/itm/48-Aquarium-LED-Light-Lunar-Double-Bright-Reef-Capable-BeamsWork-54x-1w-watt-/380458497982?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item589517f7be#ht_1050wt_642

 

[ech0o]

wala, looks good!!   yea 3w is pretty intense LOL, that is like for high lighting enviornments, i know i use a 10 x 3w over a tall 26gallon bowfront, and it is enough to grow high light corals LOL