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Has anyone tried LED bulbs such as Philips for lighting their tank?

castle

castle

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It depends on what you need them to do... brighter doesn't necessarily mean better.
For plant growth, for instance, I would say no...
Beam angle: 200º
Colour temperature: 2700K

But if it's just to see the tank better, why not?
 
You really need a tighter beam angle, generally less than 90º so the light ends up in the tank, rather than spreading around the room.

Also a higher colour temperature say 4000-9000 Kelvin or else the greens of the plants will look drab.

As for lighting your room, these light are very good, as for your tank 0 out of 10.
 
But they'd be in a lampshade ;)

Okay okay, I won't be bothering with these!
 
Most aquarium LED offer a 120* lens, early versions were 90* - some companies such as EcoTech still offer the 90* lens as an optional replacement

If you look through zozo's journals, he's done a good deal of DIY including light options
2nd The Stove
 
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alto said:
Most aquarium LED offer a 120* lens, early versions were 90* - some companies such as EcoTech still offer the 90* lens as an optional replacement

If you look through zozo's journals, he's done a good deal of DIY including light options
2nd The Stove
Click to expand...

:) I'm using the dimmable GU10 Cree epistar led spots 12 watt at the time.. 5 spots at 100% is far to much for my low tech.

But the whole setup will be converted to the 12 volt - 12 watt dimmable MR16 spots with COB led :) also much to strong at 100%..
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ultra-Brigh...hash=item43e2adc5c4:m:mDAKbTMvm8wR_HhmcbFudng

So dimmable is a must, make sure they are if you buy any.

That 60° beam angle is somewhat vague
 
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Ahh, to be honest, I was just thinking making something like this could have been achievable


472273_c4edc683dac0451fb524a6896fbf060b.jpg
 
Unfortunately the journal of this tank has no more pictures. Only this video..

He used ikea spots and looked awsome.. :) You'll see a bit of them in the video.
 
Looks very good, surely those ikea spot lights aren't comparable to high warmth lights we buy for our tanks?
 
Ahh I meant temperature, to be honest, I've only ever bought t8s, and growbeams. Only now looking at other options.
 
Hey dude check out lighting episode by Scapefu. Cara wade I think had very good comments. If it's a bright light, it will grow plants.
 
rebel said:
Hey dude check out lighting episode by Scapefu. Cara wade I think had very good comments. If it's a bright light, it will grow plants.
Click to expand...

Yes that was a nice podcast.. But scapefu.com is offline since some time... :( I'm not able to find anything of it back, dunno..
 
Philips makes a PAR38 led bulb that easily grows plants. I don't remember the kelvin rating(5500 or 6500) but many reef aquarium keepers use them in their sumps to grow macro algae.
 
setting up a shallow and wide riparium and I was hoping to use the Philips par38 led bulbs that are 12w with a 35deg beam angle. ..

i will set up a tight array of 6-8 of them 36-48" above the substrate and I will get good coverage without a spot light effect... that's the plan and at $15 a pop, it won't break the bank... it's worth a try before I commit to any of the ridiculously expensive name brand options like Kessil. .. I could buy 33 par38 bulbs for the price of one Kessil 360

I'll do it and report back... maybe one day I will get a PAR meter to.measure the light
 
Well 2 years later I think I can say they work...

46562735441_8b6a6a83b9_b.jpg


They are dimmed to 55% for 6hrs with dawn and dusk, 75% noon for 30min, and 2hr moonlight at 5% which uses only one of the lights for some reason... I'm a using a Lutron dimmer hard wired and a smartbridge attached to my router...

46510776352_d2cd9e7b56_b.jpg


46510775932_45c7d3dae4_b.jpg


I really need to get a PAR meter... i hate not knowing... 100% and I had too much algae even at 36" above the substrate...
 
Have you see this one yet.. :) The TC423?
https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/TC42...108.1000016.1.619515cb38SSfS&isOrigTitle=true

It's a 5 channel programmable timer/dimmer for VAC 220 also at a $ 40 price it might be a affordable option to get better control of the lights.
It has 1 Amp per channel, that would 220 watt, quite a bit enough for several bulbs per channel if necessary.

Tho i have no personal experience with the 423, but software is the same as the (VDC12/24) 420 i'm using and it works a charme.

BTW your F. Pumila seems to grow rather well!? Looks nice.. :)
 
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