Future lighting project

Hi there,

So, I am back in the country and already my mind is going ape about fish.

So I have this idea about doing a D.I.Y lighting system for my small tank (60L)

Now I am completely new on all of this stuff. I tried reading up but just about all of the research I read just blows straight over my head. So naturally I want to turn to the experts at TASA.

What I have determined so far:

...and please do correct me if I am wrong...

1. I would need a colour temperature of about 6,700K - 10,000K to grow plants. I heard lower is a bit better but then you get a very yellowish light colour.

2. Does the wattage of the bulb matter even if the bulb produces 6,700K - 10,000K? So taking the informal formula of about 2-5 watts per gallon and say the calculation for my tank ends up at 80W. Would it still be fine if my bulb is say 40W and still produces the same colour temperature?

3. Lumen - Is this important for plant growth or for the fish health? as far as I can gather that is only the brightness of the light us humans will experience.

4. If I have say 2 X 4,000K bulbs, does that give me a total of 8,000K?

I am speaking under correction here, so please go easy on me :cheesy:


Regards,
Ernst

 

Good questions I am also gonna wait on these answers...

 

Hello

I am busy starting a project using high powered LED's, specifically 6500k, with additional blues and reds.

6.k is the sweetspot for growing plants.

Colour Temp is also important


http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/BIOBK/BiobookPS.html

You can see that reds and blues are neccessary for efficient photosynthesis.

As for light output, Lux would probably be a much better measurement, as this is a measurment of the intensity of light. Plants need enough intensity to photosynthesize.

With my project, it makes sense. 1 led is 1 watt, but the light output is far greater than a flourescent. My fish would suffer from Arc eyes with a 108w of LED lights. Measuring the desired output of 2 x 54w t5's in lux and then recreating that into a led package. based on the wavelenth in the diagram above, with a sunset, sunrise period and night lights all on with one set of LED's



Thats the challenge


2 x 4000k = brighter 4000k

 

@ernstb you have some of the word soup but need to do some more reading. I am sure that many links, internal to the forum or other sites could be posted here. This one does an OK job of answering some of your questions.

Later Ferdie

 

Seems that you and me are on the same page about the project. I am also digging into the whole LED idea and funny enough... I was also thinking about doing a controller for the led's to do a sunset / sunrise effect.

Guess great minds think alike


@f-fish I came upon that page... But I am afraid that is a bit heavy reading for this time of the night. Think I will give it a go when my brain isn't like noodle soup from a day's work


Regards,
Ernst

 

hey Gilbertr14 i would be very interested in your findings regarding the LED's. they seem to be quite an interesting lighting option with the advantage of not being to as bulky as pendulum lighting with T5's. i'm looking at using them for my new tank.

 

Some more reading

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/lighting/38014-lighting-spectrum-photosythesis.html

 

Guys checkout the sister site masa there is tons of info about LEDs ,controllers etc.

 

I've also been looking at LED's but can't find a reasonably priced local source for good SSC or CREE LEDs. And DealExtreme shipping can take weeks. I've been playing with SMD 5050 LED strips and they work on my nano, although the low light output means I get very small leaves on my plants.

As for the light colour, warm white which has a bit of a yellow or orangey tint is usually in the 4200K range, and pure white or cool white is 6500K. The higher the colour the closer it is to blue.