LED for high demanding plants

**ne0matr1x** · 2nd Jan 2011, 20:12

Hi,
I have FL lighting and thinking of changing to LED as it's energy saving, cool and have very slim designs. However I'm not sure about the brightness and the minimum requirement for growing high demanding plants with LED.

The general rule of thumb for FL is 3wpg. What about LED? Understand LED also has many types. Which one is the best for plants and lighting?

2ndly what is the difference between FL and Pl and their benefits?

**griffinkid** · 2nd Jan 2011, 21:59

Hi! Indeed LED is more energy saving and longer bulb life, but if you are looking for sufficient light for plant growth, then i will suggest to switch to fluoroscence. As for which one PL or Fluoroscence its actually quite similar just that PL has a longer bulb life- been using mine for 1.5 years and its still good and bright! In fact i tried using 32 bulb LED by Aquazonic for my planted tank but the plants could not grow as well as when i switched back to PL lighting. But generally 3W per Gallon is a rather good estimate. In fact 2W per Ga is also acceptable since mine is a 6Ga planted tank running only on a 11W PL lighting. Hope this helps!

**Wolfgangs246** · 2nd Jan 2011, 23:38

You may also consider contacting some of the customers of the Forum merchant InLED. They have been selling their stuff here and if you look at the merchant forum thread, you can probably easily identify some bros who have actually bought light sets from them.

Might be worth your while to ask them their opinions on the difference in quality if any. Alternatively you can ask the merchant directly, he's been very helpful recommending combinations of his two types of LED strips depending on the individuals needs. Just a suggestion. I'm still awaiting my partners approval before trying to change my lighting from FL to LED cause of the high entry cost.

**eviltrain** · 3rd Jan 2011, 09:38

bro Adrian, just go ahead. since you going for a mossy scape, you don't really need such high power lightings. And some more the InLED guys having promotion on their 4 LED T8 light tubes. I'm going to get 2 of them for my DIY project next

.

**Wolfgangs246** · 3rd Jan 2011, 21:21

Neomatrix is also named Adrian? Holy cow. Thats 3 Adrian's in this forum. I'm totally shocked. Thats more Adrian's than I've met in my entire life.

**eviltrain** · 4th Jan 2011, 09:13

Bro Wolfgang, i mean you. Hahaha

**Wolfgangs246** · 5th Jan 2011, 15:07

Bro Eviltrain. Dun think I'm not tempted. Just that now all excess funds are being channeled to wedding budget. Think my partner would give me sever penalties if I anyhow spend this year. ;-p So must endure until after Oct. After that, then resubmit for approval. LOL.

**ne0matr1x** · 6th Jan 2011, 15:54

Thanks guys for the advise. Guess I'll be sticking to FL. But led is tempting as it's cooling and I'm keeping
crs and us Fissidens but cooling using only fan.

LOL! I'm not Adrian.

**sheng** · 6th Jan 2011, 16:07

Have anyone try the LED light tube from N.A LFS?
What your review on that?
Thanks

**rainboy** · 8th Jan 2011, 16:22

I am using LED for my 2ft tank and so far so good. But heard that for bigger tanks, LED may not be able to reach the bottom plants.

**ne0matr1x** · 13th Jan 2011, 13:36

Originally Posted by rainboy

I am using LED for my 2ft tank and so far so good. But heard that for bigger tanks, LED may not be able to reach the bottom plants.

Hi rainboy, do you have light demanding plants like HC in your tank? Do they grow well?

Anyone here tried LED lights on these high demanding plants with success?

I'm still curious as I really want to try out this cool lights.