# TMC Grobeam - some questions



## punky (7 Nov 2010)

Hi I have been in the aquascaping and planted tanks for about 4 years now and I am used to handling high tech tanks with high lighting.

I currently have a 120cm x 50cm x 50cm and have 4x54W of T5 lighting on it.

However in my country (not UK), power bills have risen quite high and I am either restricted to cut the lighting by half or else invest in LED lighting which will in the long run hopefully become worth it.

I estimated that 3 x Grobeam 1000 tiles should be enough to cover most of the tank. However I still have the question .. will I be able to grow plants the same plants that I am growing right now (high light ones)?

Moreover do I need the control unit or are the tiles supplied with/can be connected to a low voltage transformer? If the transformer works I can reuse my digital timers.


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## sanj (10 Nov 2010)

You will be able to grow most plants incl many high light plants although im not sure what the ones you have are. I dont have grow beam tiles but i have seven strip s (500's) on my 80cm x 68cm x 68cm set up. five of these are marine whites from an older reef set up and 2 are grobeam 500s. PAR readings at the substrate (about 27" from the light) is 30 which is adequate and I would expect will be higher in your tank. 

I only have the control unit on the grow beams. They are sold seperately.


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## punky (11 Nov 2010)

Thanks sanj for the reply. 

Do you have any pictures of the tank please? Moreover since the colour temperature of marine whites is high, I though I would stay clear of it. Do you recommend it?

Thanks.


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## sanj (11 Nov 2010)

I have not got any pics on my computer yet (beacuse it is not particularly a well scaped tank). However i will try and get some up shortly.

The Marine Whites are 10,000 k which is fine for planted tanks, but it is more about how the colour looks to you. 10,000k is a 'colder' looking light than the 6,500k grobeam, but if you combine the two you get somewhere inbetween.

I only used 10,000k because that is what I already used on my reef. 

Anyway i will try and get some pics up for you.


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## punky (11 Nov 2010)

I thought they were 14000K. There seem to be no 10000K tiles though. Lately they release the 9000K wide angle but I am a bit concerned about light penetration if I decide to opt for it.

Thanks a lot


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## sanj (11 Nov 2010)

Cooler higher specs penetrate deeper hence bluer light in deeper water environments. The marine whites I have are v1 aquarays. The marine spec tiles are indeed 9000k which kind of concerned some reef keepers, but they leds are not the same as flourescent lighting.

In terms of penetration, for your tank depth any of them will be fine.


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## punky (13 Nov 2010)

Thanks for the info sanj.


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