LED only lighting? (plants)

[perok]

I have a 36 gallon tank I want to turn into a "sissy tank" for the wife and kids but I need to upgrade my lighting to nurture some medium-high light plants. The question is can I go with only LED lighting? I want the LED lighting to show off the fish, but I don't know if that will work for plants.

I need at least 72 watts by traditional standards, 6500K I imagine? How do you measure LED wattage? and will that even work?

 

[joe jaskot]

You can use LED lights for a planted tank, but you need a fixture with the correct amount of red and blue bulbs. These fixtures are not cheap. Easier and more economical to go with T5 lighting. If you are determined to use LED lighting, look up LEDs for hydroponics.

 

[perok]

thanks...... guess I'll just do both, sounds easier.

 

[O2surplus]

You don't need red and blue leds to grow fresh water plants. The resulting "pink" color looks like crap over a planted tank. Cool white, neutral white, and Warm white leds will support plant growth just fine. I've been growing plants under cool white leds for over 2 years now and will never go back to conventional lighting. You can build your own led lighting system on the cheap, if you do a little research first. I built my own led lighting system including the constant current drivers and a fully programmable "sunrise/sunset" lighting controller. Send me a PM if you want more info. I can help you build a nice system with your $80 budget. Here's a photo of my 225 under led lighting, just so you know that I'm not full of BS.

 

[JamesF]

Great looking tank O2.
I've been using cheap LED floodlights on my 6' tank and the plants have been doing great for almost a year now.