# LED lighting



## aquaticsnerd (Jan 29, 2011)

If you are in the market for LED lightning, I would recommend Current USA TrueLumen Pro LED strips. They come in a variety of sizes (12", 24", 36", 48") and four different color spectrums. If you are looking to retrofit any existing lighting, then you can also get the TrueLumen LED strips.


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

What if I just want a single blue LED moonlight?


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## aquaticsnerd (Jan 29, 2011)

[email protected] said:


> What if I just want a single blue LED moonlight?


You can try this. It's what I use.
Other prices here.


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## kaleidoscopekitty (Mar 25, 2011)

i want an led setup like this one just different colors

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TYoKSSI2mVM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

I was thinking more like just a single LED, since it's for a 10 gallon.


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## aquaticsnerd (Jan 29, 2011)

You can try these guys also
www.LEDwholesalers.com


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## jerichodrum (Mar 23, 2011)

Have a question about the marineland double brights. 
do you have any experience with them? If so what do you think of them as far as plants?
good, bad, they dont matter?

I got one. reading the box.. 8 individual, 1watt lamps.. Makes me think Im underpowered for my plants.


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

if you want a single LED, then just buy one and find a power source that matches the power it uses and throw a switch on it. You can get them almost anywhere if you want a single. Just google it. Off the top of my head, good ones are Cree and Luxor i believe. A 3 watt Cree will run about 5 bucks from reefledlights.com


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

jericodrum, how big is your tank?


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

jerichodrum said:


> I got one. reading the box.. 8 individual, 1watt lamps.. Makes me think Im underpowered for my plants.


With LEDs, the Watt-per-Gallon rule is completely useless, since LEDs are so power-efficient and there are several other factors involved. With LEDs, the true measure of a light's effectiveness for an aquarium is its PAR measurement at depths into your tank. PAR = Photosynthetic Active Radiation, and is measured in light intensity (photons per second) per unit surface area. It's a very difficult and math-intensive thing to understand, unfortunately. The Lumen rating of an LED, coupled with a good reflector and lens to direct as much of the Lumens into your tank as possible, are the next-best thing to determine the effectiveness of an LED light, in conjunction with the light wavelengths emitted (since plants don't really enjoy anything outside the visible spectrum, and some LEDs emit infrared or ultraviolet in addition to some visible wavelengths).

I could tell you more if you're interested and point you in the direction of some good resources on the subject, but in general, look for a Lumen rating of around 1000 Lumens and a Kelvin rating of around 6400K, coupled with a good reflector and lens for each LED used.

Note: The Kelvin rating of a bulb (any bulb, not just LEDs) refers to the black-body temperature rating of a bulb, and for our usefulness translates into the wavelengths of light emitted. Anything above 10000K-12000K is ultraviolet, and anything below 5000K is infrared. Plants love 5000K-7000K Kelvin-rated bulbs that emit a pink-red colored light.


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## jerichodrum (Mar 23, 2011)

[email protected] said:


> I could tell you more if you're interested and point you in the direction of some good resources on the subject, but in general, look for a Lumen rating of around 1000 Lumens and a Kelvin rating of around 6400K, coupled with a good reflector and lens for each LED used.
> .


This thing is just a 600 lumen. Damnit. 

well. Im gonna keep it. I like the light. Annndddd all the tanks dont have to be planted. So I can still use it on the thirty


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

The source I looked at mentioned 1000 Lumens, but it didn't mention if that was the total Lumen amount needed to classify as medium light. If that's the case and you have, say, 4 600 Lumen LEDs then you're well within range. However, if the article was in fact talking about each LED needing 1000 Lumens of output to be effective, then yes you will be short. There are other resources out there that lay down better Lumen requirements for LEDs, but I don't have the motivation to hunt for them tonight.


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## jerichodrum (Mar 23, 2011)

No idea. The box says 600 lumens
the manual says. 
_*24 - 36” - (8) 1W 6000K White & (4) .06W Blue LEDs 600 Lumens*_

either way. Im not taking it back. I like the look


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

You box is only telling you the total lumen output of the fixture. The only LEDs out so far that can produce 1000 lumens per LED are the brand new Cree led's that need to be run at 3 amps each. Most 1 watt LEDs will only output a max of 100 lumens each. 3 watt leds will output upwards of 400 lumens each depending on the power supplied to them. You can easily look at the average lumen output of another bulb as long as you divide that by the length of the bulb so you can get a lumen per square foot or inch depending on your measurements. Then you can further go through and look at how much the LED spreads and do the same calculations. You'll need to figure out how high the fixture is and what not for each thing but you can get a usable number. 
The other thing with LEDs is the wattage and light output is concentrated over a smaller wavelenth coverage than most fluorescents and metal halids. So that means those lumens are more effective at those wavelenths and brighter at those wavelengths. They also correspond better to the photosynthetic response of plants and coral. This means you have more light where you need it. 
And yes, i think once people understand the effectiveness of LEDs, they'll be able to better describe lighting in terms of watts per gallon again (its never been that descriptive though). So currently, what I've seen (which is the numbers posted before) were based on these thoughts and measurements as well as initial effectiveness in a tank.


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## samfox (Jun 28, 2009)

[email protected] said:


> With LEDs, the Watt-per-Gallon rule is completely useless, since LEDs are so power-efficient and there are several other factors involved. With LEDs, the true measure of a light's effectiveness for an aquarium is its PAR measurement at depths into your tank. PAR = Photosynthetic Active Radiation, and is measured in light intensity (photons per second) per unit surface area. It's a very difficult and math-intensive thing to understand, unfortunately. The Lumen rating of an LED, coupled with a good reflector and lens to direct as much of the Lumens into your tank as possible, are the next-best thing to determine the effectiveness of an LED light, in conjunction with the light wavelengths emitted (since plants don't really enjoy anything outside the visible spectrum, and some LEDs emit infrared or ultraviolet in addition to some visible wavelengths).
> 
> I could tell you more if you're interested and point you in the direction of some good resources on the subject, but in general, look for a Lumen rating of around 1000 Lumens and a Kelvin rating of around 6400K, coupled with a good reflector and lens for each LED used.
> 
> Note: The Kelvin rating of a bulb (any bulb, not just LEDs) refers to the black-body temperature rating of a bulb, and for our usefulness translates into the wavelengths of light emitted. Anything above 10000K-12000K is ultraviolet, and anything below 5000K is infrared. Plants love 5000K-7000K Kelvin-rated bulbs that emit a pink-red colored light.


 Thank you for the information, it is very enlightening.


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## xhming (Jul 16, 2011)

wholesale led lighting


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