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At least the last thing that would fail would be the aquasky LEDs themselves so I think its safe to use.

From my experience, Cree 6500K LEDs alone will turn red plants green, even at a really high PAR. Check out one of @clone journals - http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/mini-l-and-diy-led-light.28842/. He uses a mixture of whites, reds and royal blues to create a very nice aesthetic and nice red...

I don't know why. Clone's LEDs are a mixture of neutral white, warm white, red and royal blue. Mine were just neutral whites.

Adding my own experience into the mix. My 60cm tank was planted with Rotala rotundifolia red. It had 45W worth of Cree 6500K LEDs making about 80-100 PAR at the substrate. The stems grew, but never turned red. Only very slightly pink just under the water surface. I then changed the lighting to...

Kelvin doesn't matter to plants, but matters to you. Too warm and your plants won't look green enough. Too cool and everything looks dull.

I think I just answered my own question - we'll need Viktor and George's help for this since they have the capability to experiment with different units ;)

One LED fixture is already expensive enough, I don't know how you'd test multiple LED fixtures on the same tank LOL. LED colour rendition index (CRI) is still not quite to fluorescent standards. I use Cree XR-E and XM-L LEDs (can't remember what bin, but they're neutral white) and red plants...

This is pretty normal in order to meet the lifespan targets of LEDs. More to do with heat dissipation I believe, but I could be wrong. The reason why I asked the penetration-per-watt question is because I'm thinking of re-doing the LED fixture on my 300L. It currently has 10x 10W Cree LEDs...

I agree with you that chinese made electronics in general may not meet all the FCC/CE/C-tick/BSMI/VCCI requirements in other countries. And there is a huge amount of brands and models and bins and lot codes of LEDs on offer. My statement is mine alone, and its based on my experiences and those...

Supercoley! Great to see you back. I knew you'd return at the mere whiff of LED conversation ;) Chinese LEDs have pretty good reliability. I personally haven't tested them, but a friend of mine did at the same time we started playing with LEDs over planted tanks and his are still kicking while...

Really? I have 15x Cree XR-E LEDs being driven at 1A with 60 degree lenses hung 34 inches over the substrate of my 60L tank and the PAR reading is 100 over the substrate. Design and choice of LEDs is very important.

Thanks, I've had no experience with Bridgelux. Where I live, I have easier access to Cree and other china-made unbranded LEDs. I would like to try others one day.

I'm glad to help. I run two tank with DIY LEDs right now so please feel free to ask away. Rule of thumb for LEDs, based on personal experience, is to ensure good coverage. Because LEDs produce collimated (highly directional) lighting, the beam is quite narrow. Think spotlight or flashlight vs...

Only 0.99p... what a bargain. You can connect it up like any AC device, brown is live, blue is neutral, green/yellow is earth. Please make sure the kettle lead is fused and there is no exposed wiring (the brown/blue/greenyellow wires) when you're done.

Hi, the LEDs you're looking at only emit 2.5 lumens. That is very very low and I cannot recommend at all for a planted tank. For a fish-only tank it should be fine. As you can see from the youtube video you linked, each 5W LED he used produces 556-1952 lumens. He also mentiones that a 100W...

Yes of course. Remember that a T5 tube throws light at 360 degrees. You need reflectors to reflect it back into a tank. That looses some PAR. LEDs beam PAR in a small arc. I think its called collimated light. So less waste and more efficient.

LEDs have advantages in PAR per watt power consumption, heat dissipation (heat is not transmitted into the tank, important for folks in tropical climates like us), lifetime (50,000 hours), directional lighting for high tanks. Disadvantages are initial startup costs, colour rendering index (CRI)...

Thanks Darrel, good info.

Hi Darrel. Does your chart consider breaking the water surface as well? Have a look at this YouTube video. PAR is around 490-500 but once it breaks the water's surface it drops to 350-400.

I prefer the colour rendition of the ADA NAMH-G, greens look nicer and the photo has a nice cool environment which compliments the green. The warm look of LEDs are hard to get rid of, even with custom made 6500K DIYs. I've also tried a lot to get rid of the yellow tint post processing but its...

I have the seneye reef but haven't been able to borrow an Apogee MQ200 to confirm its results. It does have to be completely level in order to get a stable reading and due to its size, its hard sometimes, especially if you tank is heavily planted/scaped.

Great comparison Viktor. I've been waiting for something like this. When Aquasky was first announced I thought it wouldn't work well since I'm a high power LED man. Wasn't sure that 0.6W per LED would be able to penetrate the 50 or so cm of a 60P. But I thought its ADA so pretty darned sure it...

The NAMH is more pleasing to the eye from the pic but I guess it'll be radically different once water and plants hit the tank. Thanks a lot for the comparison, first time I've seen such a simple yet effective comparison side-by-side. I can't imagine how much fun you'll get out of an LED...

Don't forget that light spread is equally important with LEDs. LEDs are very directional and using too little LEDs will cause darkness in certain parts of the tank. I've recently (like last weekend recently) raised my DIY LED fixture to 60cm above substrate and attached 60 degree optics to it...

That is SWEET dude! Very slick and definitely complements your home furnishing. How I wish I had woodworking skills and tools now!

I bought the round ones (same price here in Malaysia) and stuck it into my tank. I placed it above a bunch of Rotala rotundifolia sp Green and Didiplis diandra later on. Can't say it did anything extra. My tank is quite tall though, about 20 inches from the lights to the substrate.

I remember reading someone's journal about this. That person measured the spread of the halide by suspending it over the floor. He was trying to figure out how high to suspend 2 halide lamps in order to ensure full coverage of his tank. For the life of me, I can't remember where I read that now...

I think with more light come higher maintenance and less margin for error. Having lots of lights should *not* be a problem if the other factors are non-limiting, i.e. fertilisation and CO2. I for one, find Glosso easier than HC. On my 2nd try with HC now with no success :lol: