LED's as a Primary Light Source

Well so far from playing with these LED's that I have they seem very bright, bright enough that I think they will light up the tank nicely. What I know is that the light seems visibly bright enough to my eyes but does it have what it takes to supply life giving light to the corals and their symbiotic partners??? I will have 38watts of led lighting on this 26gallon bowfront tank which is 24"longx12'-15'deepx15" of water depth to penetrate through. I am using the 3 5watt blue leds, 3 5watt white leds, and 8 1watt white leds. I will post pics when I have the tank running, Im just working on building the acrylic sump and hooking up the plumbing.

If these leds sustain my corals and put out enough light then I will have spent a little over $300.00cnd on all my lighting and will have very very small electricity bills with little heat generated and they will last about 20years running them 12hours a day. Or I could buy a 175w MH ballast bulb fan and reflector package for around $600.00 from JL Aquatics and pay $125.00 every year for 20 years replacing bulbs and end up spending $2975.00 +increased heat problems and high electricity costs to run the MH.

I really hope this works!!!!!!!!!

[ron101]

Mal is right Bev. Light wattage is a measure of electrical energy going into the bulb not a measure of the light energy coming out.

The laws of physics dictate that energy in a closed system must be conserved, meaning if you put 400W into a bulb, 400w worth of (various) energy must come out. Since MH bulbs run really hot, much of the 'wattage' that goes into the bulb is lost to thermal energy while LED's run really cool.

Wattage is really for electrical information not for optical. Like Mal said a 250w Iwaski has the same PAR as a 400w radium. Classifying them as 116 PAR bulbs would not tell you what ballast to use.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by deepblueaquatics

Ive done alot of research on them and have found that everything points to them working very well. The only thing I cant find is any actual use on an aquarium with corals.

There is a guy at RC that has them on a reef tank ... do a search and you will find him ... if I have time tonite I will look as well and post the link.

EDIT : ... here is the link ...

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...&highlight=LED

Cheers

[StirCrazy]

they are no good yet. as I have stated befor the only one that comes close is the luxton star 5 watt and it is still at a level below NO lights. they do use them for plants and such on the space shuttle but they have a special rack that maintains them 1" above the plants.

so not only is this type of system not practicle in a reef tank but at 17.00 each for a luxton star I would estamate 8 to 12 of them for every 2 square feet of surface area for a even coverage. to compare apples with apples that would be a cost of 408.00 + tax just for the bulbs, still have to make a holder and a power supply. in the end this will compare to a 70.00 NO set up
so price wise they are still to high and thr afordable LED's are nothing more than night lights at a cost of 2 to 5.00 each.

Steve

Well Ill be using 6 luxeon star 5watt LED's along with 8 1watt luxeon star LED's. Hopefuly they will be bright enough, if not Ill have to add some more 5watt ones. Oh well, we will soon see.....
If they dont work I will have some cool effect lighting for some of my terrariums.

[Nullig]

The exciting thing about LEDs is the ability to control them electronically, to simulate the movement of the sun/moon from east to west over your tank. I read once about a US aquarium lighting company working with a German company to develop a fully programmable LED aquarium lighting system. I haven't heard much lately about their progress, but they did estimate that it would cost about $800 initially, however you would see substantial savings in electricity usage and bulb replacement costs over the life of the unit.

Noel

[hw]

where do you buy these locally?