LED advice

R

rainforestexp

Members
Has anyone used this product? It has great reviews but sound very difficult to install. Just want to know what I've got myself into lol.

Maxspect Mazarra P-Series MZ-P01 Complete LED Lighting System - 3 LED Modules
 
Tony

Tony

Alligator Snapping Turtle/Past Pres
Pretty darn fancy. Seems to be more a high-end reefer toy than something for lighting up cichlids.

Doesn't look too terrible to setup...
 
R

rainforestexp

Members
well since the 300 is 30" tall and customer is wanting to grow babys tears at the bottom I need some serious lighting that wont produce a lot of heat
 
Prince

Prince

The ONE who is The ONE
I don't think all of the LED will provide the proper spectrum to grow plants. The 10K LED's yes. The 420nM maybe. The blues definitely not.
 
scientist0724

scientist0724

Members
With a 30 inch deep tank, you're going to need enough lighting to reach the bottom of the tank. The problem with deeper tank is that you are probably better off with something that is a high output. The only way you can really tell if you are getting enough light is by using a PAR meter.

Do you know which baby tears your client wants, because there are a couple of types, baby tears (Hemianthus glomeratus) and dwarf baby tears (Hemianthus callitrichoides)? HG is a little easier to grow and HC is a pain to start. Both need high light to stay compact because it tends to get leggy. Also, HC could use CO2 for rapid growth or else you would need a lot to a nice carpet of it. Also, the best way to start HC is by doing a dry where you let the plant grow in either wet substrate or very, very shallow water and letting the plant fill in before filling the tank to the top. This allows the plant to get a really good root system and spread. Because once you fill the tank, a lot of the HC will float to the top and with a 30 inch tall tank, it will be a pain to replant.

Also, in the planted tank community, LEDs with enough light to grow the higher demanding plants are falling short of expectations. One of the best ways to make sure you are getting enough light for certain plants is to build your own lighting system with a huge heat sink. One company that is showing some promise is Rapid LED.

Arlene
 
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P

PGK

Members
Is to can grow sps corals it can grow plants especially baby tears just make sure to run CO2 with a diffuser

Sent from my DROID X2 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 
scientist0724

scientist0724

Members
PGK said:
Is to can grow sps corals it can grow plants especially baby tears just make sure to run CO2 with a diffuser

Sent from my DROID X2 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
Click to expand...

Not really. In order to grow plants you need some bulbs to run at a specific Kelvin (K) rating. Most aquatic and terrestrial plants prefer a K rating of 5500K to 7000K.

Most bulbs used in growing coral are in the 10000K and use atinic lights, which if used, will cause a huge algae problem in your tank.

Also, most reef lighting systems are used to grow coral, which are animals who use plants ie algae for their survival.

When looking to use reef lighting for growing aquatic plants, you are looking for the proper PAR amounts to have the plants photosynthesize.

When looking for a decent LED light, you really need to look at the PAR readings. PAR, stands for Photo Active radiation, in it's simplest form, it is a measure of the amount of light that is usable to the plants for photosynthesis. It's important for that very reason, it shows how much stimulus the plants have to grow, around 30-40-50 par is sufficient to grow anything.Without a par metre to show you just how much light you have it's very difficult to judge indeed.

This article is one of the better ones out that talks about Lumens, PAR, and using LED lights.
http://www.tiebiz.net/knowledge/led-lighting.html

Read it and see what you think.

Arlene
 
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