# Smart bulbs



## Andy265 (31 Jan 2022)

Hi has anyone used smart bulbs to light a low tech planted tank? I am at the planning stage of changing my 5ft marine tank to a planted tank and like the idea of having individual pendants suspended from the ceiling with smart bulbs in so i can fade in/out and have a blue evening light all controlled via Alexa.


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## MichaelJ (31 Jan 2022)

Andy Dean said:


> Hi has anyone used smart bulbs to light a low tech planted tank? I am at the planning stage of changing my 5ft marine tank to a planted tank and like the idea of having individual pendants suspended from the ceiling with smart bulbs in so i can fade in/out and have a blue evening light all controlled via Alexa.


Hi @Andy Dean,  I haven't but I like the idea. I suppose you could make a nice big fixture with smart bulbs much cheaper than a dedicated aquarium fixture.  You don't really need (or want) much light over a low-tech tank anyway.

Cheers,
Michael


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## Andy265 (31 Jan 2022)

MichaelJ said:


> Hi @Andy Dean,  I haven't but I like the idea. I suppose you could make a nice big fixture with smart bulbs much cheaper than a dedicated aquarium fixture.  You don't really need (or want) much light over a low-tech tank anyway.
> 
> Cheers,
> Michael


That was my thinking, but not sure what to go with GU10 spot bulbs or just E27 type and what sort of wattage ? although i suppose the brightness can be controlled on individual bulbs anyway. Looking at using something similar to this  





						Lindby Holgar hanging light, wood and metal 3-bulb
					

Hanging lamp Holgar - thanks to the combination of wood and metal a real eye-catcher The pendant lamp Holgar shows how two materials, which could not be more different, are combined excellently. Th...




					www.lights.co.uk


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## MichaelJ (31 Jan 2022)

Andy Dean said:


> That was my thinking, but not sure what to go with GU10 spot bulbs or just E27 type and what sort of wattage ? although i suppose the brightness can be controlled on individual bulbs anyway. Looking at using something similar to this
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I like the hanging lights depicted there - As for bulb choices and proximity to the water surface etc. (light falls off by the inverse square of the distance, so you don't want to hang them way too high or way too low) that will take some experimentation to make sure you get good coverage.  As long as you have the ability to control the intensity and - for mostly aesthetic reasons - the color temperature, you should be good. The good thing is if you get a set of bulbs that doesn't fit the bill you can always use them around the house 

Cheers,
Michael


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## arcturus (1 Feb 2022)

Andy Dean said:


> That was my thinking, but not sure what to go with GU10 spot bulbs or just E27 type and what sort of wattage ? although i suppose the brightness can be controlled on individual bulbs anyway. Looking at using something similar to this
> 
> 
> 
> ...



The decision between GU10 or E27 depends on the fixture you want to use. The fixture you provided will probably use E27. What matters is that you use a reflector type LED bulb because they have a lower beam angle. You will have more choice with this type of lamp in GU10 form. You can get a GU10 to E27 adapter to add them to the fixture. Since it is a planted tank, you can get a wider spectrum lamp or combine warmer lamps (~2700K) with colder "daylight" lamps (~4000K). The lamp output depends on the size and depth of the tank and how high the fixture will be. But you should aim at +2000 lm every ~30cm of tank length so (you can later reduce the output with a dimmer if needed). As a very rough estimate. this would translate to ~20W of LED light every ~30cm.

I would not suggest using smart lamps in this scenario. You will pay more for the smart lamp, will have less choice in terms of spectrum and power, and you will get all the features you need if you connect a conventional dimmable LED GU10/E27 lamp to a dimmer and a timer.


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## ScareCrow (1 Feb 2022)

arcturus said:


> I would not suggest using smart lamps in this scenario. You will pay more for the smart lamp, will have less choice in terms of spectrum and power, and you will get all the features you need if you connect a conventional dimmable LED GU10/E27 lamp to a dimmer and a timer


I'd echo this or if you're not set on e27/GU10 you could look at flood lights. I recently got some RGB smart floodlights. They have very good control over colour but were not as bright as listed. So I'd definitely go higher and you can always reduce the intensity as arcturus says. I've run normal 6500k flood lights, e27 par38 bulbs and all have worked ok. With the par38 bulbs you could change or remove the lenses to get more spread or shimmer, which was a nice option.


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## Andy265 (1 Feb 2022)

Thanks for all the replies, the fixture I was planning on building myself so can put whatever bulb you think is best in it, will have a shade to reduce light glare in the room and really liked the idea of the fixture shown being able to wrap the pendent cords round the fixture which looks like it was designed like that but also serves the purpose of being able to adjust the individual pendant height to the water surface to adjust intensity.
Wanted really to be able to control a sunrise/sunset and even a moon light function which was the idea of using smart bulbs rather than a dimmer, buy I suppose this could be achieved by having individual lights come on and off on their own.


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## arcturus (1 Feb 2022)

Andy Dean said:


> Wanted really to be able to control a sunrise/sunset and even a moon light function which was the idea of using smart bulbs rather than a dimmer, buy I suppose this could be achieved by having individual lights come on and off on their own.


To simulate sunrise and sunset and moonlight you can use a dedicated low power RGB or WRGB light. Since you are building the fixture, you can include two light bulb sockets inside a few reflectors: one of them would be used for the smart light for these effects and the other for the main light. Instead of overhead lights you can also consider using an RGB backlight or LED light strips for such effects. But during the photoperiod you want to use lights that provide sufficient power within a specific colour spectrum. You will find more options (and at a significantly lower price) with conventional low beam/reflector/par LED lights.


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## zozo (1 Feb 2022)

I'm using one smart bulb in a terrarium setup, already for over a year now...  





						Journal - Hermetosphere
					

Mystery solved! The small plant that looks like a small Hydrocotyl is a Utricularia pubescens.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utricularia_pubescens



					ukaps.org
				



And this works pretty well... It's a cheap China one from eBay.
The opaque bulb cover can easily be pulled off and or clicked back on. Using it for aquarium purposes might be a tad brighter and more bundled light with the cover pulled off.

I'm not controlling it via Alexa but via Magic Home Pro Android app, in this app, a number of bulbs can be put in a group to all function simultaneously on the same settings. The timer settings with sunrise/sunset are pretty accurate it updates time via the internet time protocol over WIFI and all settings are stored in the EPROM.  Thus if switched off from the main power it will contain its settings.


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## The grumpy one (1 Feb 2022)

I looked into smart GU10 LED but could not find an app that allowed on off timer with ramp up. Maybe someone here can write an app for this?

I use 6 of these GU10, 38° 450lm 6400k. With these lanterns. I use one of these for dimmers. All controlled with a time switch.
data sheet with spectral ratio.
I only run them at about half and turn them up to take pics.
They are 500mm above substrate in my 30l, 494mm long x 258mm wide x 265mm high tank. With a 38° beam angle the beam is about 340mm wide at the substrate and 170mm wide at the water surface.
There is spill into the room but it is a nice brightness and comfortable to watch tv by. You could always get these to cut down spill.
At present it is hard to get daylight LED with beam angle less than 38°.

Have no trouble with low tech plants.


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## Andy265 (1 Feb 2022)

Probably should have given tank sizes, the tank i have on order is a marine tank with sump and is 1500mm x 550mm x 600 

After some more research and  working out costs of Plan A and B now at Plan C ! I have managed to get a good deal on 4x AI prime freshwater lights ( i had the marine versions on my marine nano tank) so i am now thinking that i will fabricate a way of mounting them in lamp shades to get the pendant look i am after  but as they are controllable can sort the sunrise/sunset function and evening dimmer viewing as well as running them at low intensity for low tech plants. However as we are all aware my plan of low tech planted tank will soon progress into harder plants and CO2 etc  further down the line so i will have the ability to increase lighting if/when needed to grow with the tank.

Does anyone see an issue with my plan ? I was thinking the the shades would need to be large enough to allow air flow round the light but other than that i think they tick the right boxes.


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## Andy265 (1 Feb 2022)

The grumpy one said:


> I looked into smart GU10 LED but could not find an app that allowed on off timer with ramp up. Maybe someone here can write an app for this?
> 
> I use 6 of these GU10, 38° 450lm 6400k. With these lanterns. I use one of these for dimmers. All controlled with a time switch.
> data sheet with spectral ratio.
> ...


With your smart GU10 bulbs can you not connect them to Alexa (using the Alexa app) then set up routines in Alexa so that at 9am the bulbs come on at 20% then at 11am they go to 40% and so on to get the sunrise effect and then the opposite to allow them to do sunset ? i am no expert but i have a lamp in the front room (E27 smart  RGB bulb) that comes on at a specific time at 80% and a set colour intensity then dims later in the evening to 50% before turning off.


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## zozo (1 Feb 2022)

The grumpy one said:


> I looked into smart GU10 LED but could not find an app that allowed on off timer with ramp up. Maybe someone here can write an app for this?



They all contain a chip /hardware with a program named Firmware... This program contains options and the app that comes with it is software with the commands to manipulate the Firmware. Nobody can write an app/software with options to command Firmware that doesn't know what to do with the given commands.

Sorry! Ain't easy to get to that darn chip in your lamp... 

Next time, look at the app and its options and buy the one with the options that suit your desires.


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## arcturus (1 Feb 2022)

Andy Dean said:


> Probably should have given tank sizes, the tank i have on order is a marine tank with sump and is 1500mm x 550mm x 600
> 
> After some more research and  working out costs of Plan A and B now at Plan C ! I have managed to get a good deal on 4x AI prime freshwater lights ( i had the marine versions on my marine nano tank) so i am now thinking that i will fabricate a way of mounting them in lamp shades to get the pendant look i am after  but as they are controllable can sort the sunrise/sunset function and evening dimmer viewing as well as running them at low intensity for low tech plants. However as we are all aware my plan of low tech planted tank will soon progress into harder plants and CO2 etc  further down the line so i will have the ability to increase lighting if/when needed to grow with the tank.


You are planning to have around 4 light fixtures, right? This means each lamp would need to illuminate a ~40x55 area with a water depth of 60cm (plus the distance from the lamp to the water).

For this purpose you can have a look at HQL, HPL, HQI LED lights in reflector format, for example from Osram or Philipps (examples: Philipps Trueforce, Philipps LEDspot, Osram Highbay, Osram Parathom). These are high-density LED lamps that are able to pack more than enough luminous flux in 4 light bulbs. With a total of ~150W you can get a theoretical raw output of ~12.000 lm, which would surpass the output of most 120cm long aquarium LED lights on the market.. As alternative to light bulbs, look at floodlights. These would also enable you to pack more than sufficient output in 4 fixtures. If you are looking for a "smarter" solution in pendant format look at options like <this>. Note: you probably wouldn't need such amount light output in a low-tech setup (but this would need to be calculated properly due the dimensions of the tank). Since these lamps are quite expensive, IMO it would be preferable to have some legroom, especially if CO2 injection is a future option.



Andy Dean said:


> Does anyone see an issue with my plan ? I was thinking the the shades would need to be large enough to allow air flow round the light but other than that i think they tick the right boxes.


What is important is to have openings or a grille on top of the shades/reflectors to let the hot air escape via convection. A large closed shade will not work.


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## Andy265 (20 Feb 2022)

Just in case this helps out anyone else, i got a good deal on x3 AI freshwater prime HD and decided to retrofit them into some lamp shades to hang above the tank. Have added some photos and will continue to update on my journal rather than here so i don't double post.
Thank you for all the suggestions

Lights can be seen sitting in the tank ready to hang.


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## Stu1407 (20 Feb 2022)

That looks really good. How close to the fan are they for ventilating heat, bearing in mind that they normally vent into the room. I've just spotted that Arcturus had a similar question.


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## Andy265 (20 Feb 2022)

The foam on top of the light spaces it away from the shade, how ever until i get them up and running it will be difficult to tell, i figured that the shape of the shade if heat dissipation becomes an issue i can drill holes around the neck as the light fits against the lower rim of the neck, these are also metal shades so will also act as a form of heat sink. I haven't been able to find anyone that has done something like this before so will be a bit of trial and error. I did research the lights and apparently they have a overheat safety circuit where the light will turn off if the fan gets stuck and the light gets too hot.


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## Andy265 (10 Mar 2022)

Final update on this thread as I have my journal going now 6ft Shallow "ish" tank
but in case anyone wants to see how it turned out, the lights have been mounted and hung now and running for a couple of weeks with no issues. I did drill some holes around the top part of the shade just in case but so far I am really happy with how it turned out.
Using the AI prime freshwater lights has allowed me to set a lighting schedule with sunset/sunrise with a blue moonlight late evening, also if I get ny algae issues the light intensity can be adjusted accordingly.


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