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Ceiling pendants + e27 LED bulbs - Advice needed

AshRolls

AshRolls

Member
Joined
4 Sep 2012
Messages
126
Location
Cornwall, UK
Hi, I plan to move to low tech from my overly bright T5HO juwel internal lighting over my Rio180L. I will be removing the rim of the tank to make it an open top, as described in this excellent thread here at UKAPS Removing the rim on the Juwel Rio 300 | UK Aquatic Plant Society

For the new lighting I would like to use ceiling pendant lights from Ikea as they have nicely styled lamps

FOTO Pendant lamp - aluminium, 25 cm - IKEA

I can wire these through the roof and stud walls so it should look pretty slick.

I would like advice as to the amount of pendants (2 3 4?) and the type of bulbs I should use.

I do NOT want to use these cheap CREE bulbs you can get on amazon/ebay,...I bought two for a small propagator tank in the garage last year and both broke within a couple of months.

Ultra Bright XE-CREE E27 3*3W 9W Dimmable LED Light Bulb In Cool White (5500-6000K) Energy Saving Spots Perfect Replacement For 50-60W Halogen Bulbs: Amazon.co.uk: Lighting

More expensive bulbs often come with a warranty so I'm happy to spend a bit more...

Freshwater Aquarium, Vivarium, Domestic Cool White 6700k 15w LED Bulb - LED Pacific Aquarium Lighting Supplies - Fish Light | Reef Lighting | Aquarium Led Lighting | Aquarium Supply | LedPacific.com

They also do 21W and 27W versions of this lamp (60deg lens), but I have been unable to find the Lumen of this to try and work out how many I would need.... any ideas?

Lots of other options out there....
This was inspired by Troi's DIY led lighting for his tank here ... The Dark Side or What Lurks Beneath | Page 3 | UK Aquatic Plant Society . The 20W lamps he uses are 1600 lumens, so a total of 3200 lumens over his high tech 70L tank.

Additionally in this thread Too much LED lighting ? Help needed | UK Aquatic Plant Society it is stated that between 35 to 50 lumens per litre is best for a planted tank (hi tech). If I half that for low-tech (rough guesstimate!!) that also would equal just over 3000 Lumens for my 180L tank.

As such I am aiming for 3000 Lumens over my 180L low tech tank... though of course it's made much more complicated by how focused that light is as to what PAR readings I would actually get.... argh :bookworm:

Alastair's thread here Help with my new led lighting | UK Aquatic Plant Society is useful, but the bulbs considered and used don't look as powerful as some of the ones I have linked above. Obviously because I'm using pendants I am limited by the total number of bulbs I can use. Three bulbs would be ideal really. Two bulbs would be kinder to my lean wallet.

etc etc... I'm going around in circles a bit here :crazy: Any advice appreciated!
 
How are you getting on with this?

I have been thinking of doing something similar but was unsure on the correct temp rating for the bulbs - is 6000k the right one? I was going to order cool white as I thought it would give a crisper look to the tank without a yellow-tinge, but does warm white simulate sunlight better?
 
Welcome to UKAPS Paul.

The two bulbs arrived from China a few nights ago and they are pretty hefty and well made. They come unmarked brand wise in plain white boxes, but there is a sticker with a model number on. A quick google revealed the following youtube video...



6000K (or 6500K) is the 'cool white' colour that most LED planted setups use. The reef keepers throw in some more blue into their setups, but really it's not necessary for planted tanks. The plants will adapt to whatever spectrum of light you use so go for one that matches your aesthetic preference. Personally I prefer the cool whites and additionally I think the 6000K LED's throw out more PAR per Watt than the warmer whites down in the 3000K range. No LED get's anywhere near sunlight's broad spectrum output!

Having said all the above I've actually given up on the idea of the pendants and have decided to go all in on building my own DIY LED luminaire. There are a few reasons...
  • I'm worried about the 'spotlighting' effect that may occur with just the two bulbs
  • The bulbs are quite pricey and I'm not confident as to how long they will last (especially considering my past experiences with the cheap cree led bulbs). With a DIY setup it will be easy to fix any problems.
  • I'm still not sure these two bulbs would kick out enough light for the 180L tank (even at low tech levels). The DIY approach allows me to more easily adjust lighting levels so that I can get my tank balance just right.
  • I can adjust the lenses on a DIY solution so that I can place the bulbs high above the tank with a focused lens (40deg). With the bulbs I have no control of the optics so could end up with a lot of light leakage around the room if they are hung too high.
  • I'm a geek and I started reading about DIY sunrise/sunset arduino controllers, LED specs etc. Now I've read more, the DIY approach isn't so daunting and I think I can cobble together something that the wife won't mind hanging in the living room! Until last week 'black anodised extruded aluminium heatsink' wouldn't have meant much to me, but now I can't get enough 🙂
I think the bulb/fitting approach would work with certain footprint tanks (square etc), I'm not sure how effective it would be with the standard ones though. The bulbs are going on eBay so hopefully I'll only be a few quid out of pocket.
 
Thanks for the welcome and the response, seems to make sense to me. From looking at a few of the youtube videos myself there does seem to be quite an issue with these bulbs being quite focused. So I think that there would be good growth in certain areas, but lacking in others - might not be the best solution...

Good luck with the DIY project though, I'll be interested to see how you get on. 🙂
 
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