LED Lights for Plants
- Thread starter badisbadis101
- Start date
probably won't be worth the money, I see even a DIY just breaking even.
I wouldn't want to go to the trouble of making huge strips for a 125 planted tank, I would buy a cheap chinese brand t5 fixture first. It's probably not worth it unless you enjoy that kind of thing.
I wouldn't want to go to the trouble of making huge strips for a 125 planted tank, I would buy a cheap chinese brand t5 fixture first. It's probably not worth it unless you enjoy that kind of thing.
I think the appeal for me is being able to control the light down to the nanometer. I've planned for 12 red leds to 2 blue leds to 2 white leds to 2 uv leds. I have around 1800 leds for a 120g planted. I wasn't able to find the light I wanted on the market so I'm building it from scratch. each light cost about 4-6cents and came with free resistors. The power supply for the whole thing was about $30. The circuit boards I'm trying out to see if it's a good fit are 10 for $8. If they work I will probably use 30 2x3" light pads in total. I'm still waiting for some items to arrive at the moment as I changed my design part way through. I will post pictures of the current (trial)setup in about 12-20 hours as it's the middle of the night right now for me.
This is my trial setup. I've used it to trial other things like fertilizer and rooting hormones as well. I will warn you that the red/blue light is not esthetically pleasing at all and if you want to enjoy your fish you probably don't want that light.
I have attached one of the greatest threads I've read about building your own LED fixture. It is a very in-depth thread but worth reading.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/diy/84212-designing-building-led-fixture.html
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/diy/84212-designing-building-led-fixture.html
I've considered trying out one of those higher output lights. I would however try these ones. http://cgi.ebay.ca/50-pcs-3W-Ultra-...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3a58249085
just to curv the cost factor. Also one might loose out on the healing benefits of the red led which nasa seems to be very interested in.
just to curv the cost factor. Also one might loose out on the healing benefits of the red led which nasa seems to be very interested in.
I guess I'm the only one who wants to add LED's to my existing tanklights? It seems like every thread I see is about doing a 100% LED fixture... That does get expensive quick, as evidenced by Chonhzilla's link.
My thought was to cluster 3 LED's (1 IR, 1 UV, and 1 white) together over each group of plants to drastically increase the PAR available in that area. I'm not sure if one white would cut it, as you may need 2 or 3 color temps of white to cover that spectrum, but even using 1w LED's in this manner would be a huge increase in usable light, while not breaking your wallet with a full array of 100's of LEDs. If you stepped up to 3, 5, or 7w LED's it would be spectacular! Anyhow, doing it this way you also keep your existing tanklights for viewing fish or filling in the spectrum gaps & you dont get the wierd red/blue light effects that baos780 was talking about....
My thought was to cluster 3 LED's (1 IR, 1 UV, and 1 white) together over each group of plants to drastically increase the PAR available in that area. I'm not sure if one white would cut it, as you may need 2 or 3 color temps of white to cover that spectrum, but even using 1w LED's in this manner would be a huge increase in usable light, while not breaking your wallet with a full array of 100's of LEDs. If you stepped up to 3, 5, or 7w LED's it would be spectacular! Anyhow, doing it this way you also keep your existing tanklights for viewing fish or filling in the spectrum gaps & you dont get the wierd red/blue light effects that baos780 was talking about....
I'm not sure about his setup of leds. It's not a way that I would build it. But who knows maybe it's the way it was intended to be built. I have relied on this wizard heavily.
Also heres what I did with my $60 229 led light before I trialed it on the 10g. One picture is just the led light on the corner of a 90g. The other is with 2 t5ho light up to the right of it.
during the time that I had it. I noticed very reasonable plant growth that was on par or better than 2 t5ho.
Also heres what I did with my $60 229 led light before I trialed it on the 10g. One picture is just the led light on the corner of a 90g. The other is with 2 t5ho light up to the right of it.
during the time that I had it. I noticed very reasonable plant growth that was on par or better than 2 t5ho.
You should see those same amazing results anytime you blast a plant with that many usable lumens focused in the correct red & blue spectrums. Just a rough estimate/ ballpark figure, but I bet your plants are only able to use 25%-50% of a T5HO's output, so we're talking about much more focused efficient energy. Kinda like a sniper rifle (LED) versus a shotgun (T5HO). They both do the job, but it works much better to have the right tool for the right job...
