Epiphyte
Member
I'm a bit of a DIY fan so the idea of building a light instead of buying one seems fun. I understand the light is unlikely to compare to something like a Twinstar or ADA light but my tanks aren't growing the most difficult plants if I'm honest.
I'm currently running my first DIY light which is 3x 25w LED flood lights, 6500k, which equates to approx 7500lm. I know "lumens are for humans" but it's the only quantifiable number available easily, PAR is hardly advertised as we all know.
The 3x 25w lights give a nice looking tank, lots of bright and shadow but I feel with a 60cm deep tank they're just not reaching the bottom too well for the carpeting plants. Also, given the beam spread, I'd like to raise the current lights a few inches but this will cause the light to become even dimmer, or should I say spread out wider and thus reducing the penetration through the water column. I'd like to up the lighting with some brighter lamps. Going by Tropica's advice, I should be looking circa 40lm per litre, so in my case 14,000lm in a 350L tank.
Does this sound right? Seems awfully bright to me? Given Something like a twinstar 1200 SA is less than half of this? Yes I know all light is not created equal, but as figures go, this is significant.
So DIY aquarists, what is your advice with this?
I'm currently running my first DIY light which is 3x 25w LED flood lights, 6500k, which equates to approx 7500lm. I know "lumens are for humans" but it's the only quantifiable number available easily, PAR is hardly advertised as we all know.
The 3x 25w lights give a nice looking tank, lots of bright and shadow but I feel with a 60cm deep tank they're just not reaching the bottom too well for the carpeting plants. Also, given the beam spread, I'd like to raise the current lights a few inches but this will cause the light to become even dimmer, or should I say spread out wider and thus reducing the penetration through the water column. I'd like to up the lighting with some brighter lamps. Going by Tropica's advice, I should be looking circa 40lm per litre, so in my case 14,000lm in a 350L tank.
Does this sound right? Seems awfully bright to me? Given Something like a twinstar 1200 SA is less than half of this? Yes I know all light is not created equal, but as figures go, this is significant.
So DIY aquarists, what is your advice with this?