Okay. So here are some details. If you feel you need more details feel free to pm me or email me personally at
[email protected] As Campbell and others have hinted too, we want to give out as much information as possible, but being the first commercially produced light system specifically for vertical dart frog vivariums you can see why we're proud of the products, and the work and research that went into them was quite a bit more than I think I would have liked.
One: watts pertains to power drawn, not light output. IE: a 15W cfl may be the equivalent to a 60W normal incandescent bulb in light output. LUMINOUS INTENSITY pertains to the output of light, and light temp or spectral peak (nm) is where the LEDs wavelength peaks on your spectral graph.
So in our LED light systems we use 3 different LEDs (in the 10gal version there are 20x 5mm LEDs.) Some warm, some cool temps. SO different nm peaks. (there are many threads through out dendroboard that go into different spectral peaks and what you would want for plants.) IE: 430-450nm, 630nm-660nm.
The Luminosity mcd (thousandths of a candela) rating on the bulbs we use range from 1400 to 15000. Keep in mind that the viewing angle will effect what this really means to you. IE: a 2000 mcd 30° LED puts out just as much light as am 8000 mcd LED with a 15° viewing angle. We played around with viewing angles A LOT in designing this as that is the problem w/ Lighting a vert tank. Not the temps, not the light out put, thats easy that can be done w/ any lighting type. But getting the light to fill the depth and height of a vert is where the trick is. BUT then you have to worry about shadows, and the array as far as placement of the LEDs becomes a factor.
and we do not need or use heat sinks. The only reason you would need a heat sink is 1: You're using LEDs that would blind any living creature (ie: ssc-p7 leds lol) or two you're using ac power and having the transformer in your hood. 1: stupid, 2: stupid and hot, 3: why? Using a DC adapter (Like what your phone charger uses) seems safer yeah? And again, LEDs-no heat. Temps in the 10gal we used for testing remained at room temp. nice.