Would a DIY strip light system like this actually provide enough for a planted tank?
- Thread starter Itsadeepbluesea
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^ without knowing anything about the actual LED lights itself, i'm going to say you maybe able to grow low light plants and not much else, since you won't be getting much spread of light or even a high amount of light considering most of the lights are wrapped around a single tube inside with no reflector...
The light itself is also being pointed all over the place because of the way its wrapped, rather than being pointed directly over the plants like most LED fixtures for plants would be... so overall, depending on what you are after, maybe using a standard T5 Shop light from some hardware store would work better than this LED setup for a planted tank???
The light itself is also being pointed all over the place because of the way its wrapped, rather than being pointed directly over the plants like most LED fixtures for plants would be... so overall, depending on what you are after, maybe using a standard T5 Shop light from some hardware store would work better than this LED setup for a planted tank???
Thanks for the response. I really hadn't made any plans of what to use this for, I just happen to run across it in my wanders and wondered if it would actually work, and what kind of plants it would work for.
Yeah, for purely viewing of fish i don't see there being too many problems, but to grow plants properly, you would probably be better off using T5 Shop light setup, since you would get better spread of light, and have more control over the actual lighting 
there's a lot of wasted light the way he built it. I would have attached the strips to the gutter directly that way all the LED's would be pointing in the right direction.
plant growth depends on the spectrum of light as much as it's intensity so the types of LED's he used is going to matter as much as how bright it is. the same rules apply to fluors too. just because it looks bright to you doesn't mean it's going to grow plants. halogens are really bright, but are junk for growing plants. try googling spectrum aquatic plant growth for lots of info.
my 50 watt LED is bright as all get out, but with it being 7000k it grows some very nice purple algae, but plants?
not so much.
plant growth depends on the spectrum of light as much as it's intensity so the types of LED's he used is going to matter as much as how bright it is. the same rules apply to fluors too. just because it looks bright to you doesn't mean it's going to grow plants. halogens are really bright, but are junk for growing plants. try googling spectrum aquatic plant growth for lots of info.
my 50 watt LED is bright as all get out, but with it being 7000k it grows some very nice purple algae, but plants?
not so much.