Re: [APD] LED Lighting

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

There's nothing to stop one from using the new super bright
LEDs for lighting a tank.  There are a varitety of color
temps to satisfy diff tastes. The problem has been the cost
of the LEDs and the assembling a suitable array of the
devices to light a tank.

It's not impossible to make such an array, just a pita. And
if one doesn't get the voltage right, the LEDs burn out
very quickly.

Try running them at a bit below the rated level. If you use
diff colors (red, blue, green), then put the diff colors on
different circuits back to the power supply -- the reason
is that diff colors heat up and draw current at diff rates
and the LEDs will tend to last longer if you yu keep them
separate.

Scott H.
--- Andy Lavery <wagoneer78 at hotmail_com> wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I must say, I've truly enjoyed reading the archives of
> this list though I 
> didn't find specifically what I was looking for; So I
> joined so I could ask 
> a question.
> 
> Has anyone tried to use LED lighting to light a planted
> tank? I've been 
> researching this for the last couple weeks - I can't find
> anyone who's done 
> it (Well, there might be some dutch/germans - but my
> knowledge of those 
> languages is lacking). But I've found plenty of LED
> moonlights in fresh and 
> saltwater aquaria.
> 
> To test the theory, having an array of 6 luxeon star
> 470nm lights - I put 
> them on my 2g planted tank. The tank glowed well beyond
> what the current 2 x 
> 13w power compact could ever do. The fish definitely
> didn't appreciate it... 
> I hope that was just the intensity & color.
> 
> I'm going ahead and ordering 20 ultra bright white
> (6500Kelvin) 5watt, 20 
> degree 10,000mcd LEDs, in order to truly test whether
> this could work.
> 
> Of course I've got doubts running through my mind, I have
> to wonder if 25w 
> of LED light is too much in comparison to the power
> compacts currently on 
> the tank. How best to space the LEDs to get good coverage
> (I'm sure that 
> will be trial an error - but the 20degree 'spotlight'
> like output is going 
> to make things difficult). I don't suppose of the
> lighting guru's here - I 
> might have some answers?
> 
> Andy
> 
>
_________________________________________________________________
> MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months
> FREE*  
>
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Aquatic-Plants mailing list
> Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
> http://www.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/aquatic-plants


=====
S. Hieber

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing.
http://photos.yahoo.com/
_______________________________________________
Aquatic-Plants mailing list
Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
http://www.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/aquatic-plants