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LED Lighting

1316 Views 10 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  dubloco, 
D
Hello every one.

I am in the process of building a new viv (gather materials and supplies). I am interested in LED lighting and need your thoughts on this matter. I am considering building a 18x18x24 viv and the low heat and power use of LEDs makes them very attractive to me. I am in AZ and heat is an issue in the summer. First question is a LED light source sufficient for good plant growth? Will one 12" LED unit be sufficient to light my viv and promote plant growth or will I need two? Here are the specs of the unit I am looking at:

Panorama LED Module 8K White:

LED Module Dimensions 12.75L x 1.5W x 1.75H inch
12" - 8,000K White Daylight LED's
8K White Color Spectrum
Watts consumed: 13w
Mounting Bracket
12v Power Supply Included

There is another company on the forum selling LED 12" lights that can be linked together. Similar in light quality but different design. The unit above can not be linked and is designed for marine use.

I appreciate your help.

Thanks.
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B-NICE
I have some of the same questions about LED's as you. Only thing I can say, is that most ppl use 6500k lights. I got good plant growth from 2700k 13w cfl's, but I just upgraded to 13w 5000k DAYLIGHT cfl's which look way better. the other lights I used looked yellow compared to the DAYLIGHT bulbs.
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BethInAK
i have one LED from light your reptiles that fits in the regular socket and exo terra hood on my 18x18x24 and its brighter than the two CFL's on the other hood. I'm getting pretty awesome growth on that tank. I have another bulb (same kind) on a 12x12x18 vivarium and its the only light the tank has and it is also getting good growth and good color.
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Venutus1
BethInAK said:
i have one LED from light your reptiles that fits in the regular socket and exo terra hood on my 18x18x24 and its brighter than the two CFL's on the other hood. I'm getting pretty awesome growth on that tank. I have another bulb (same kind) on a 12x12x18 vivarium and its the only light the tank has and it is also getting good growth and good color.
Click to expand...
Hi BethInAK...Thanks for mentioning me and I am glad you like them. :)
Todd
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Greasy
I've been looking at the lightyourreptiles, wondering if two of the 15w ones would be bright enough for a 36" tall tank and color up broms...

From what I understand not all emitters are equal. Cree emitters of the newer XP, XR and XG series seems the be "the" emitters for aquarium and hydroponic uses. They are super expensive atm tho. And I can't find too much info on Epistar. Maybe Todd can get some Cree emitters for those standard screw-in LEDs. =)
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D
Venutus1 said:
Hi BethInAK...Thanks for mentioning me and I am glad you like them. :)
Todd
Click to expand...
Todd,

Well you got the mention :) How about your thoughts on this matter. I was looking at your 12" units and liked the idea that I could link multi light units with one power trans. My main concern is plant growth. What are your thoughts?

thx.
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Venutus1
B-NICE said:
I have some of the same questions about LED's as you. Only thing I can say, is that most ppl use 6500k lights. I got good plant growth from 2700k 13w cfl's, but I just upgraded to 13w 5000k DAYLIGHT cfl's which look way better. the other lights I used looked yellow compared to the DAYLIGHT bulbs.
Click to expand...
Yes. Good move B-Nice.
The other thing to at notice (if they publish it on the package) is the "CRI" of a light.
Color rendering index.
That is a scale that tells you how close the light comes to rendering colors as our eyes (= human eyes) see them in natural sunlight.
The higher the number, (up to 100) the more natural and "honest" the colors will appear.
For instance, Art Museums, high end stores, etc. go for bulbs with the highest CRI.
Now, whether a high CRI has benefit to the frogs, that is debatable, because their eyes view the world differently than human eyes.
But a "naturally" lit tank looks pretty good to my eyes.:cool:
Todd

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Venutus1
dubloco said:
Todd,

Well you got the mention :) How about your thoughts on this matter. I was looking at your 12" units and liked the idea that I could link multi light units with one power trans. My main concern is plant growth. What are your thoughts?

thx.
Click to expand...
Hi dubloco,
..."My opinion".... Now I am flattered.:)

The TrueLmen Pro LED bars by Current are cool because they have a light silicone "skin" over the LED diodes to make it somewhat moisture proof.
I like that.

And the 8k one (that's the "whitest" one they make) is fairly bright.
(The pic it looks kind of purplish, but it is "whiter" in person)

And you can use one 24v transformer to string them together.

And another good thing is they are "minimal" and very unobtusive.
I do like that about them.

But, having said all that....
And I am being honest...
I am discontinuing them from my line-up.
I have decided that personally I am not crazy about ANY LED light bars I have seen so far.
Probably I would like them better if were used in conjunction with something else, like spots or something.

Anyway, that's my humble opinion.
Cheers.
Thanks.
Todd

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BethInAK
IceDragon said:
I've been looking at the lightyourreptiles, wondering if two of the 15w ones would be bright enough for a 36" tall tank and color up broms...

From what I understand not all emitters are equal. Cree emitters of the newer XP, XR and XG series seems the be "the" emitters for aquarium and hydroponic uses. They are super expensive atm tho. And I can't find too much info on Epistar. Maybe Todd can get some Cree emitters for those standard screw-in LEDs. =)
Click to expand...

my tank is only 24" tall, and I have one 15w LYR led lamp and two cfl's on it and the brom is coloring nicely at the bottom (its in a pot in the growout until i make a viv big enough to plant it in). I suspect that most broms would be off the surface and not much further away than my brom is. I think you'd be happy with the brightness of them. I was very pleased when they arrived.
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A
BethInAK said:
my tank is only 24" tall, and I have one 15w LYR led lamp and two cfl's on it and the brom is coloring nicely at the bottom (its in a pot in the growout until i make a viv big enough to plant it in). I suspect that most broms would be off the surface and not much further away than my brom is. I think you'd be happy with the brightness of them. I was very pleased when they arrived.
Click to expand...

I would be skeptical towards a 100% LED dependent bromeliad vivarium unless you dump some serious $$$ into higher wattage LEDs.

The 14/15W LED from Light Your Reptiles looks and sounds awesome, but I haven't seen any data on it regarding actual lumens or lux output. Two of them would probably do fine on a lot of plants. But, Bromeliads might require more lumens than 2x15W LEDs. I believe around 2200-2500 lumen is minimum for supporting bromeliads.

As stated by BethInAK, even s/he used a combination of 2 CFLs and 1 15w LED.

I'm not advertising for Venutus, but if you have the money and heat is a real issue, i would seriously consider putting 3-4x 15W LEDs from LightYourReptiles.com on your 18x18x24 tank. ;) You have the space for it.
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D
Thank you everyone for your input.
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