Sorry to resurrect this ancient thread but I have related questions . I’ve got the EA 900 too; with 1 extra EA LED bulb. I don’t have a PAR meter but still feel like the lights are insufficient.
Anyone got any other LED recommendations? Would Fluval Plant 3.0 be a good idea? Calculating its lumens per litre of water, only comes out to 9 which is below the Tropica ‘easy’ category.
Evolution Aqua have no idea what lumens their bulbs are, so I can’t calculate what they’d be in addition
And how do I know at what point liquid ferts and LEDs aren’t enough (easy plants); and I’ll need CO2?
Any help would be greatly appreciated, cheers !
So you have 3 tubes @ 16 watts each.
I take it these are no longer available?
Rough estimate of lumens for each is about 1360 based on wattage.
249 litres
16L/litre/3 tubes
Now the catch is the LED delivery is better so less lumens are needed in a sense.
Less wasted lumens
Many calculations have shown 2W t5 = 1W LED and "efficiency" (Lumens/Watt) is close to equal.. well in the recent past.
So real PAR would be double for leds vs equiv. wattage t5.
Both are about 90 Lumens/watt
Example 54W t5ho 4850 lumens = 89.8 Lumens/watt
Buy the linear fluorescent Philips 13510-3 tube for your smaller fixtures. Find the type of lighting you want at 1000Bulbs.com!
www.1000bulbs.com
Since most current leds have dimming functions I'd err on the side of 1.5W/1W
So say you want 30 lumens/litre
249L x 30 (target value) = 7470 lumens
7470 x 1/1.5
4980 LED lumens.
So you are only 900 lumens away in Led's w/ 3 tubes
You can figure the Fluval out from here..
13.5 should be the "effective" lumen/watt number based on your orig 9
20 is the new 30 based on LEDs.. (30 x 1/1.5)(9+11 = 20 =30)
11 x 249 = 2739 LED lumens plus Fluval will get you "30"
2241 (fluval) + 2739 (added) = 4980 = 7470 T5ho
So 2 of your tubes and a Fluval will push you to "medium" light
Choose the right light for your tank
tropica.com
Or close..
Hopefully.
Note lumens are measured in an integrating sphere capturing ALL photons (but scaled to the lumen range, ignore for now)
Tubes have reflector losses, restrike (photons bouncing back into the tubes), and maybe other things which is why a lumen = lumen.
Leds have some of these but generally in much smaller quantities.
And why lumens isn't a very good measuring stick.