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Thread: LED plant lights

  1. #1
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    LED plant lights

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    This has been discussed before unfruitfully, but I found this site that sells LED as the main source of light for plant growth? Interestingly, it says the red spectrum is more important, the blue spectrum has a more subtle aiding effect. Total wattage needed stated as about 20W/ft^2

    I was thinking that maybe can solder the LEDs in a row onto a long narrow circuit board, then stick the whole thing into those long transparent hard pipes. Then paint or stick shiny tape onto the top half of the pipe. Then whole device would be safely waterproof, look almost like FL tube, and can be easily suspended like the usual light fixtures over the tank.

    Not sure about the wiring though. Given 12V DC, at most is 8 red LEDs in series I think. If parallel also hard to squeeze into the pipe. Unless got wider circumference transparent pipes? But maybe can use short pipes each with 8 red LEDs, and then treat them like PL tubes.

    Main advs: Cheap!, especially in bulk. And each bulb should have half-life of at least a few years

    The drawbacks I see is the colour of the total light and all the 12V connections needed. I'm not sure what colour combination will produce the perfect white light for viewing. Plus the large variety of bright, ultrabright, etc are confusing, and different LEDs of the same colour may be needed to achieve the correct spread in the red and blue spectral region.

    PS: There is also this site that talks about an ultra-ultra-ultrabright LED.
    Chk the part about LED torches for pics on its brightness.
    Would any experts like to comment?
    Oh, the rare old Whale, mid storm and gale. In his ocean home will be. A giant in might, where might is right. And King of the boundless sea.

  2. #2
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    any idea what are the prices of lumileds? the other superbright LEDs were running from USD 0.50-1.00 per piece thus putting the cost way out.
    why I don't do garden hybrids and aquarium strains: natural species is a history of Nature, while hybrids are just the whims of Man.
    hexazona · crumenatum · Galleria Botanica

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    Been thinking of using LEDs as night light for my tank...

    Also wanna try out those half ft tanks, LEDs would seem to be a better idea then those Halogen or filament bulb.
    Baby Steel!

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    I checked some specs for Luxeon stars, the brightest LEDs in the world, and lumenwise, luxeon stars costs too much, ( US$13 per 3W LED), and are still just not good enough

    T8: about 100 lumens/W
    3W Luxeon Star: 51 lumens
    1W Luxeon Star: 18 to 27 lumens.

    And each 3W luxeon star needs 700mA, 12.8V. Plus the site doesn't mention lifespan, so maybe the operating specs given is exceeding the optimal so as to produce brighter light for torchlights.



    Oh well, even if LED plantgrowth lights doesn't work, there's still moonlighting. If the transparent tubes are sealed off nicely and with one of those hooked green tubes to encase the wires safely out of the tank, then can suspend the light tube underwater!
    Oh, the rare old Whale, mid storm and gale. In his ocean home will be. A giant in might, where might is right. And King of the boundless sea.

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    using red leds will make your tank look like it’s in ‘battle station’.
    it is not going to be pleasing to the eye as your plants will be rendered red. don’t you want to see healthy green plants?

    leds are directional lights so there is no need for any reflector. if the lens are diffused type, you are looking at 60 deg viewing angle, 30 deg on each side reference to axis of led. if you are using ultra or ultra ultra bright, the viewing angle can be as small as 4deg. this makes the light footprint very small.

    getting a 12v dc supply is easy but one with sufficient current rating may require more work. you may have to build it yourself.

    while red leds are relatively cheap, blue and white leds are not. cheap prices can only be obtained by buying in bulk, in terms of 10’s of thousand pieces per order.

    mixing red, green and blue leds produces white light. however, you‘ll not be able to achieve this easily due to difficulty in colour mixing and spatial positioning of the led chips.
    thomas liew

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    Omcron developed flat LED lights. White, and uniform intensity over wide area.
    Oh, the rare old Whale, mid storm and gale. In his ocean home will be. A giant in might, where might is right. And King of the boundless sea.

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