Lighting

[speedo]

I am going to light my tank with spot lights recessed into the ceiling above my tank and was wondering what bulbs to use ?
Currently they are fitted with GU10 bulbs and I was hoping to change them to led bulbs?
I am in the process of setting up my stingray tank so the lighting does not have to be intense
Any suggestions?

 

[speedo]

Forgot to add that the lights would be approx 4.0 to 4.5ft above the tank

 

[markstrimaran]

Last I looked most of the Leds are 3500k "yellowish" most aquariums us 6500k or higher. For a brighter white.
I have a 5 watt Led of this type, 12 volts 300ma, 3500k, it is cool enough to touch acrylics without burning. Algae will not grow in its spectrum. 10 watts would probably be the minimum, you will get dark shadows with one bulb.

 

[markstrimaran]

g A

 

[speedo]

Last I looked most of the Leds are 3500k "yellowish" most aquariums us 6500k or higher. For a brighter white.
I have a 5 watt Led of this type, 12 volts 300ma, 3500k, it is cool enough to touch acrylics without burning. Algae will not grow in its spectrum. 10 watts would probably be the minimum, you will get dark shadows with one bulb.

I'm putting 3 lights up

 

[Fish Eat Fish]

You can certainly get led bulbs in any spectrum you would want. Be careful though about cheap stuff. Leds have great life but the cheap stuff can burn out pretty quick. Also some of the cheap bulbs actually have exposed wiring! There's a guy on YouTube who shows using a multimeter that some parts of cheap Chinese bulbs have exposed 110V points!

I'm not trying to dissuade you because led is the future but you have to watch out while the tech is still developing.

 

[markstrimaran]

Hours of DIY, burning up 10 watt 9 volt led chips.
When all I needed was mr16 lights, at12 volts. In full spectrum.
Thank you for your post.
I was just at Lowes, 2 weeks ago, asking about them, and was lead astray.

 

[thacarter546]

There are literlly tons of options for what you want to do, Although I would change the gu10 sockets for a e26 socket for more options, unless you dont mind special ordering. CREE brand bulbs offer a very high CRI bulb in a daylight temperature rating fairly inexpensively which would work nice. I would lean towards doing 100watt equivalent spot bulbs if you only plan on using 3 fixtures.

Another option is to do daylight retrofit recessed lights. these mount flat to the ceiling have an integrated bulb and diffuser, come in a daylight color temp (albeit harder to find) and involve no wiring.

This is all assuming you dont want plants. Even floating plants wouldnt do well in this set-up.