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Thread: LED Lighting

  1. #1
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    LED Lighting

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    Hi,

    I am not sure whether I should post my question here or in the planted tank forum.

    Anyway, here it goes:

    I am looking to set up a planted fish tank again with all the new nice looking LED lights coming up recently. I have question about life span of such lighting.

    In the past, I used to have PL lights and I changed them every six months. So similarly, do I need to replace the LED bulbs frequently or can they last forever (until the bulb blows).

    Hope that some experts on LED light can advise me.

    Thank you.

  2. #2
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    Re: LED Lighting

    LED may not last as long as it advertised.

    There already have report of dimming of LED TV which they claimed 20 years of lifespan. I wonder since LED TV (Oh, it's LED backlight LCD TV) comes out just years, how do they know it will last decades? Did they check it out at 2030 on a time machine?
    Rules for Aquarium
    Rule No.1: Do change the water weekly, not the fish.
    Rule No.2: Do your responsibility: take care of the water.
    Rule No.3: Do not take care of the fish. Fish will take care of themselves.

  3. #3
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    Re: LED Lighting

    Hi,
    I am not an expert. But here is what i know from reading online articles on led lighting. I have been thinking of DIY-ing a moonlight led for my tank as well.

    1. LEDs in theory should last longer than normal tubes. this is assuming that the led is not over-driven. lower MCD leds should not be overdriven to produce more mcd.
    2. for planted tanks, selection of LED is impt. need to match the light frequency of natural light. may need to mix LEDs for this as well.
    3. calculation of Wattage Per gallon does not apply. This i am not very sure why.

    Hope it helps.

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    Re: LED Lighting

    so estimate around how many years can a led light last?

    before the need to change into another

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    Re: LED Lighting

    Depend on the brand actually those branded LED expected life time can be as long as 50000 hours. How the come up with number? Normally they will do accelerate life test, basically put into the chamber and do temperature cycle hold-cold-hold-cold... as well as humidity cycle. From they they tabulate the lifespan. It may not be accurate but should be close.

    The cheap china brand on the other hand lifespan depend on your luck .
    -Robert
    Aquascaping is a marriage between Art and Farming
    My Blog: http://aquatic-art.blogspot.com/

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    Re: LED Lighting

    Quote Originally Posted by Erctheanda View Post
    Hi,
    I am not an expert. But here is what i know from reading online articles on led lighting. I have been thinking of DIY-ing a moonlight led for my tank as well.

    1. LEDs in theory should last longer than normal tubes. this is assuming that the led is not over-driven. lower MCD leds should not be overdriven to produce more mcd.
    2. for planted tanks, selection of LED is impt. need to match the light frequency of natural light. may need to mix LEDs for this as well.
    3. calculation of Wattage Per gallon does not apply. This i am not very sure why.

    Hope it helps.
    where did you read all these from? pls provide links.

    i like LED lighting because they are cooler than PL.

    Btw, how do you check that the light frequency matches natural lights? How about those LED lights used for saltwater tanks? Do they match?

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    Re: LED Lighting

    Quote Originally Posted by Shadow View Post
    Depend on the brand actually those branded LED expected life time can be as long as 50000 hours. How the come up with number? Normally they will do accelerate life test, basically put into the chamber and do temperature cycle hold-cold-hold-cold... as well as humidity cycle. From they they tabulate the lifespan. It may not be accurate but should be close.

    The cheap china brand on the other hand lifespan depend on your luck .
    but do LED lights lose the intensity like PL light such that need to change ever so frequently?

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    Re: LED Lighting

    Hi Fireball,

    If you are looking at doing LED lighting for a planted tank you need to pick the lighting unit carefully as most of the generic brands do not support plant growth. Most of the good LED lighting units are designed for high end marine tanks at the moment and I do not believe you will easily find one for planted aquariums. So while they may look nice they may not be practical in the long run.

    If you have the know-how and also the money you are probably better off making your own. At the moment the best recommendations seem to be the high end 3W LED's but these are about $5-10 each and you will need to buy several depending on how large your tank is. Compared to a normal tube the LED' s will last a lot longer but like any piece of electronic gadget they are still subject to failure, so while some people may have no issues that may not be the case for you.

    My normal tubes generally last for a year or so, if you are having issues with them blowing all the time it could be that you maybe have a faulty electrical circuit as 6 months seems a little short? I plug all of my items into a surge protector board just in case

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    Re: LED Lighting

    Quote Originally Posted by Tucker View Post
    Hi Fireball,

    If you are looking at doing LED lighting for a planted tank you need to pick the lighting unit carefully as most of the generic brands do not support plant growth. Most of the good LED lighting units are designed for high end marine tanks at the moment and I do not believe you will easily find one for planted aquariums. So while they may look nice they may not be practical in the long run.

    If you have the know-how and also the money you are probably better off making your own. At the moment the best recommendations seem to be the high end 3W LED's but these are about $5-10 each and you will need to buy several depending on how large your tank is. Compared to a normal tube the LED' s will last a lot longer but like any piece of electronic gadget they are still subject to failure, so while some people may have no issues that may not be the case for you.

    My normal tubes generally last for a year or so, if you are having issues with them blowing all the time it could be that you maybe have a faulty electrical circuit as 6 months seems a little short? I plug all of my items into a surge protector board just in case

    Thanks for your response. Actually i was looking at these:

    http://www.aquariumartist.com.sg/pro...par38_60d.html

    but then i saw these:

    http://www.aquariumartist.com.sg/products_200300.html

    however, they are for marine tanks. so i was just wondering whether i can use for normal planted tanks.

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    Re: LED Lighting

    Hi Fireball,

    You should not use Marine Lighting for a planted tank, you will end up with many headaches over algal blooms and plant growth. Although I have only had a quick look at that website it seems to specialise in Marine products only so I would stay away from them.

    For the same price it would cost you to buy enough of those LED lights for your tank, you could also buy a fantastic tube lighting unit instead which would do a better job for your plants.

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    Re: LED Lighting

    Quote Originally Posted by Tucker View Post
    Hi Fireball,

    You should not use Marine Lighting for a planted tank, you will end up with many headaches over algal blooms and plant growth. Although I have only had a quick look at that website it seems to specialise in Marine products only so I would stay away from them.

    For the same price it would cost you to buy enough of those LED lights for your tank, you could also buy a fantastic tube lighting unit instead which would do a better job for your plants.
    What do you meant by "tube lighting unit"? Is that a LED setup?

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    Re: LED Lighting

    Quote Originally Posted by Fireball View Post
    What do you meant by "tube lighting unit"? Is that a LED setup?
    Sorry by that I meant the normal PL lights.

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    Re: LED Lighting

    May be you can take a look at this :

    http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...abour-Day-2011!
    ********
    Andrew

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    Re: LED Lighting

    Quote Originally Posted by Tucker View Post
    Sorry by that I meant the normal PL lights.
    I see. In the past, I used PL lights before. They tend to heat up the water, so I don't really like to use them.

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    Re: LED Lighting

    Quote Originally Posted by sheng View Post
    May be you can take a look at this :

    http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...abour-Day-2011!
    Thanks for the link.

    I just posted there to ask whether they have 1 ft tube because I am thinking of setting up a one ft cube tank.

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    Re: LED Lighting

    Quote Originally Posted by Fireball View Post
    Thanks for your response. Actually i was looking at these:

    http://www.aquariumartist.com.sg/pro...par38_60d.html

    but then i saw these:

    http://www.aquariumartist.com.sg/products_200300.html

    however, they are for marine tanks. so i was just wondering whether i can use for normal planted tanks.
    For plant LED, most people are heard from somebody said on internet who is heard from another somebody said....

    I have 1st hand material...I started my 4ft tank with LED texture.s
    They are not big brand like somebody suggested, they made in China.
    They are not high wattage which is at least 3W/B, they were actually LCD PCB.

    Spec: 0.058W/4V per bulb, white color, 120 bulbs per board, 12V DC drive.
    Totally I used 12 pieces of board. I estimated luminous are same as 3x39W T5HO.

    It's like this:


    It perform awesome than I expected, the glosso spread fast which we know make lives on strong light.

    But I changed to T5HO after 3 weeks. I could not find a good way of water-proof, they fell down into the tank!


    PS: Actually there's no white LED, all diodes can only emit one of its color. White LED is an UV light indeed. We can see the yellow color of the bulb in my photo above, it's the phosphors which will emit white light when triggered by UV.
    The LED lifespan is upon to the phosphors, not the diodes. The advertised lifespan (50000Hrs) is diodes, not the phosphors----it's shorter remarkably.

    My Conclusion:
    1. So best LED for planted tank, ought to be RGB.......(I would say, OMG).
    2. Most white LED will work for planted tank. My experience, 40W for 4ft tank is enough. It's a shame to say only those high-out LED are for plant, especially specified for aquarium----it's kind of a better business only, not the real.
    Rules for Aquarium
    Rule No.1: Do change the water weekly, not the fish.
    Rule No.2: Do your responsibility: take care of the water.
    Rule No.3: Do not take care of the fish. Fish will take care of themselves.

  17. #17
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    Re: LED Lighting

    Quote Originally Posted by ladygaga View Post
    For plant LED, most people are heard from somebody said on internet who is heard from another somebody said....

    I have 1st hand material...I started my 4ft tank with LED texture.s
    They are not big brand like somebody suggested, they made in China.
    They are not high wattage which is at least 3W/B, they were actually LCD PCB.

    Spec: 0.058W/4V per bulb, white color, 120 bulbs per board, 12V DC drive.
    Totally I used 12 pieces of board. I estimated luminous are same as 3x39W T5HO.

    It's like this:


    It perform awesome than I expected, the glosso spread fast which we know make lives on strong light.

    But I changed to T5HO after 3 weeks. I could not find a good way of water-proof, they fell down into the tank!


    PS: Actually there's no white LED, all diodes can only emit one of its color. White LED is an UV light indeed. We can see the yellow color of the bulb in my photo above, it's the phosphors which will emit white light when triggered by UV.
    The LED lifespan is upon to the phosphors, not the diodes. The advertised lifespan (50000Hrs) is diodes, not the phosphors----it's shorter remarkably.

    My Conclusion:
    1. So best LED for planted tank, ought to be RGB.......(I would say, OMG).
    2. Most white LED will work for planted tank. My experience, 40W for 4ft tank is enough. It's a shame to say only those high-out LED are for plant, especially specified for aquarium----it's kind of a better business only, not the real.
    Do you have a picture of your LED setup before it went into the water?

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    Re: LED Lighting

    I used to have one of those par led bulb..2 went out on me (flickering with burnt smell) 60degree spread,6500k and with 5 3watts diode. The operating temperture seems to be at the higher limit of 30degree C, our local climate might not be able to sustain its lifespan.
    I have on the bulb like 4hours>siesta of 2hours>4hours on daily basis.
    The role of master and servant begin to cloud in the water..

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    Re: LED Lighting

    Quote Originally Posted by Fireball View Post
    Thanks for your response. Actually i was looking at these:

    http://www.aquariumartist.com.sg/pro...par38_60d.html

    but then i saw these:

    http://www.aquariumartist.com.sg/products_200300.html

    however, they are for marine tanks. so i was just wondering whether i can use for normal planted tanks.
    For planted tanks, either LumenAqua Sunshine, LumenAqua 200/300 or LumenAqua Mini. I am using the Mini for my Nano and HC are creeping. Ansell is using the 200 and you can find his post on it at http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...t=ansel+garden

    I feel that with high Watt per LED, you just don't need as much LED to give a specific brightness while the lower Watt per LED make up for the same brightness by using more LED. Definitely more energy efficient, lower heat and last longer than FL or PL tube.

  20. #20
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    Re: LED Lighting

    LEDs turn yellow after 3~4 months of usage, and are no longer bright, not a good light source for plants
    Ariel

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