Neptune Aquatics

Question for the LED "Gurus"

xcaret

xcaret

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I've noticed in showcases, particularly for jewelry; some LED stripes are being used now, like for instance Costco has them over the jewelry. They seem pretty cool white to me; not sure on the Kelvin nor the PAR which would not be of so much importance.
Question is Can they be used over a fuge?

Thanks
 
Well I'd say no*

*YMMV

LEDs are a really are a tricky beast, 5mm LEDs are so crappy compared to the newer Cree LEDs. You can't even really tell how powerful the light is by how much power it is. So figuring out how powerful they are would be your first goal

I don't think those strip lights would be of any power, they're used to really make the jewelry pop, but probably not very bright. Now I got a LED spot light from costco with a ton of those 5mm LEDs in them, uses 3 watts or something, now it keeps my ball of chaeto alive but it doesn't grow much.. (at all), the upside is that absolutely no other algae grows as a result (cyano in particular) which I would notice when I used a more powerful CFL bulb. That said you absolutely can use LEDs for a fuge, it just depends what you want out of it. If you want to keep the macro alive and have it as a pod paradise you probably could use those strip lights, maybe a few of them, if you want to grow macro algae like crazy as a nutrient export, you'll need a much more powerful LED setup.
 
Macro normally vanishes in my little sump but I got some from Erin and is doing great in the frag tank, at home is where I have no success, running a 24W PC ~10hrs.
The LED strip came out of my sister's shop, from a display thing for hair products, really bright and as I stated, seems cool white. They are not the old type LED, rather the newer diminutive ones.
It consists of three linked strips roughly 12" each.
I found a different use for it already; I was just curious if it could be used as fuge light.

Thx
 
the color temp should be fine, remember this is "plant" form (though technically not a plant) so the reds and what not of the spectrum are actually beneficial.
 
xcaret said:
Macro normally vanishes in my little sump but I got some from Erin and is doing great in the frag tank, at home is where I have no success, running a 24W PC ~10hrs.
The LED strip came out of my sister's shop, from a display thing for hair products, really bright and as I stated, seems cool white. They are not the old type LED, rather the newer diminutive ones.
It consists of three linked strips roughly 12" each.
I found a different use for it already; I was just curious if it could be used as fuge light.

Thx
Click to expand...

I assume by diminutive you mean they are the little SMD ones?
 
Good god, $80 for a refugium light? I'd suggest simply getting one of those ones Jake mentioned at the meeting and screw it into a socket, although I happened to be at HD the other day and actually saw a few LED bulbs too and the actual high powered ones not the ones that jam a ton of 5mm ones into one fixture.
 
I've seen the Philips LED Par bulbs too at HD but they are in the lower Kelvin warm white; maybe City Lights would have a broad selection of Par LED lamps I'll swing by one of these days to check what's new that can be appealing for a reef/fuge application.

John that's a nice looking fuge light, bit out of my league for a fuge light. I need to come with a cheap, energy efficient solution for my tank; re-thinking the wattage to be able to run possibly couple MH without worrying a fuse blows while we are not home. I'm running a PC24W bulb that will be swapped out for a 14W twisty bulb from Costco; they have the cool white 65K available for a bit more than the warm white. I tried the LED Par Mike mentioned and those things suck big time.

I'm working on a sump to have an Eheim 1262 as return and feed for the media reactors; at 80W is not bad compared to a Velocity T3 external I had in mind @140W if I remember correct; then I found among things in the basement, couple Iwaki pumps MD20...something one is pressure rated and the other one is flow based; read the sticker on both and power consumption is 53W !! so going with an external pump might be the best option then again, in-sump pumps generate heath which IMO are a good water heather replacement *if you have no temp. issues; at home I have had no issues with rocketing temperatures and in my 46-ish gallon tank I use a 100w heather only.

Gresh I have no idea what SMD are but they are ~1 or 2mm in size
 
Ok I take back what I said about HD lights, I'm so getting irritated at the way the lighting industry giants (Phillips, etc) are trying to gouge consumers by releasing a product with last generations lighting technology for a premium of today's technology. $80 was a 15W LED with 600 lumens, and to give some reflection, 13W CFL gives ~900 lumens.. and of course cost much less.
 
Yup CFL's have a great market, fuge market. They pack the punch needed to grow the macro and for about $2 can't go wrong with that.
 
Yeah, I have a 23W CFL in the shop reflector over my fuge, stuff grows like crazy... the only downside is the spectrum is very cyano friendly... so I wanted a light that was more directional and just went straight down... but not at $80 ... to get a light that is 1/3rd the brightness!
 
Hey Mario!
I bought this one and am waiting for it to come.
http://www.nanocustoms.com/product_info.php?cPath=17&products_id=27

I think it was Gresh's idea...... :party: My tank's "too clean" to grow chaeto, but the mangroves are doing well!
 
Update: MFG discontinued the fuge light I ordered so I had them credit my Paypal account. Funny how things work out, guess I'll just leave the CF reflector light ($8) until I find a simple, small LED fixture that will work. Mike subtley pointed out that I probably paid too much anyway! :bigsmile:
 
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