Tell Me About Led Lighting

[tkdjr1186]

I'm curious about LED lighting and if it would be a good option for my cichlid tank? I don't know anything about it so the more details the better.

 

[BigC]

You can make your own...all is available on Ebay
Buy what ever length you need (can be cut), Buy a little transformer and wire it up
simple and cheap

All wired up and ready to go!!!!

30 bright LED's per 2' length of adhesive backed waterproof strip

Now installed...they solve the problem to get lighting into a tight spot...
Regards
C

 

[Ruskull]

If you plan to use LED lighting for your Cichlid tank you can use Marineland's standard power LED fixture, which can be found for cheap on eBay or Amazon. That's assuming you don't have plants of course since those fish tear up live plants. Marineland also makes a "Double Bright" version as well as a "Reef Capable" version, but those are much more expensive. You won't need those if you don't have live plants. What is the width of the tank you're using?

 

[tkdjr1186]

If you plan to use LED lighting for your Cichlid tank you can use Marineland's standard power LED fixture, which can be found for cheap on eBay or Amazon. That's assuming you don't have plants of course since those fish tear up live plants. Marineland also makes a "Double Bright" version as well as a "Reef Capable" version, but those are much more expensive. You won't need those if you don't have live plants. What is the width of the tank you're using?

Fake plants, my measurements are 36x18x24. From my understanding these have different settings for daylight and night right?
Noticeable difference then the standard crap lighting that comes with hood?

If you plan to use LED lighting for your Cichlid tank you can use Marineland's standard power LED fixture, which can be found for cheap on eBay or Amazon. That's assuming you don't have plants of course since those fish tear up live plants. Marineland also makes a "Double Bright" version as well as a "Reef Capable" version, but those are much more expensive. You won't need those if you don't have live plants. What is the width of the tank you're using?

Fake plants, my measurements are 36x18x24. From my understanding these have different settings for daylight and night right?
Noticeable difference then the standard crap lighting that comes with hood?

 

[Ruskull]

If you plan to use LED lighting for your Cichlid tank you can use Marineland's standard power LED fixture, which can be found for cheap on eBay or Amazon. That's assuming you don't have plants of course since those fish tear up live plants. Marineland also makes a "Double Bright" version as well as a "Reef Capable" version, but those are much more expensive. You won't need those if you don't have live plants. What is the width of the tank you're using?

Fake plants, my measurements are 36x18x24. From my understanding these have different settings for daylight and night right?
Noticeable difference then the standard crap lighting that comes with hood?

If you plan to use LED lighting for your Cichlid tank you can use Marineland's standard power LED fixture, which can be found for cheap on eBay or Amazon. That's assuming you don't have plants of course since those fish tear up live plants. Marineland also makes a "Double Bright" version as well as a "Reef Capable" version, but those are much more expensive. You won't need those if you don't have live plants. What is the width of the tank you're using?

Yes, they have a nightime setting that emulates moonlight using 2-4 blue LEDs only. The LEDs do make a nice, bright aquarium. I have a Marineland 10 gallon with an LED light fisture and it works great. Both of the other tanmks have standard florescent fixtures & they don't "pop" as much. The LEDs also give a sort a natural wave effect too. It's hard to explain so you'd be better off just checking a display out at your local pet place.

 

[sheffieldlad]

Hi all,

I read this thread earlier and it got me thinking about using LEDs in my own 90ltr setup and cycling between white light during the day and blue light during the night time but I have a few questions I hope someone can answer.

I have Live plants in my aquarium, will LED lighting provide the level of light needed for photosynthesis to take place?
What sort of light levels should I be looking at ie, LUX?
My tiny knowledge of aquarium lighting and what i read and managed to understand on the subject leads me to believe that the watts per gallon equasion doesn't hold true anymore especially when it comes to LED lighting.

Are there any other considerations I may have overlooked?


I plan to make my own LED setup using strips similar to the ones BigC posted pictures of but I would like to be certain they are plant friendly and more importantly fish friendly before I shell out on the strips, driver and controler.

Before anyone advises me to buy a ready made up kit you should understand the following.

1/ I like making stuff.
2/ I like expanding my knowledge on subjects I am interested in.
3/ I'm pinko after christmas and I don't want to pay 'through the nose' as I see it for something I can wire myself at a fraction of the cost.

I can get drivers and controlers from my local wholesaler quite cheap (I'm an electrician for my sins,) but I need to know their output level would be suited to this type of application.

Many thanks

-Paul.

 

[alexlark]

@BigC Nice post with the pics. I'm interested in doing the same with my marine tank. Apart from fish and live rock i've only got 1 mushroom in there. I was thinking of using a mixture of pure white and blue smd led strips. Yours look like the warm white strips. Very neat

 

[alexlark]

I've just purchased a 5m set of 600 SMD LED's in Blue and a set in Pure White:

SMD LED Blue
SMD LED Pure White

My current setup consists of 2 x T5 46in tubes. 1x Blue and 1x White.

I will take some pics of before and after once I receive them.

I'm planning on cutting the 2x 5m strips down to 8x 125cm strips. I will them decide on whether to use all 8 or a mixture. I will wire the white strips to 1 power supply and the blue strips to another. I can then switch the white ones off independently so the blue strips act as moonlight for the last hour.

 

[alexlark]

Well, had the led's back. They are quite bright but not as bright as my 2 x T5's so I'm sticking with the T5's for now. I'm goona use the blue led's for moonlighting in the next tank i'm planning as they are REALLY good on their own. I will sell the white led's on ebay. As I say though, the blue ones are good for moonlighting, I recommend them

Anyone serious about switching to led's should consider the TMC AquaBeam range:

TMC AquaBeam range

Check out some of the videos on youtube. I'm thinking of getting them for my next tank