How much light is needed for plants? LED

I have a little 8L pico tank that has 28LED clip on light unit. Is this sufficient for plants or should I buy a second clip on (total 56LED lights)?

 

well i'm busy riggin 2x 250 watt MH's over my tank

 

Henk: This is a tiny 8 litre pico tank. I could perhaps buy another clip on like this one if its necessary?

 

I think that is more than enough light, but I could be wrong. I think Doug could shed some extra light on this subject... He has more experience with LED lighting.

 

hey matt. Guess it depends what you want to do in that tank. I doubt you need another light. It is a very shallow tank so penetration would be pretty good. It can also be easily moved close to a window or to a lighter room. I have seen those LED clip on lights and thought for larger tanks would make good moon lights. Lastly to assess how much light they emit would be very difficult as they are using normal LEDs which use a different unit of light measurement, the candela "The candela is the luminous intensity, in a given direction, of a source that emits monochromatic radiation of frequency 540 × 1012 hertz and that has a radiant intensity in that direction of 1⁄683 watt per steradian." ...taken from wikipedia... those leds range from a few hundred candela to many thousands.....so final answer...i dont know lol, but educated guess is it would be enough for that particular tank!

The newer higher power leds that im using are measured in lumens once again from wikipedia "
1 lm = 1 cd·sr That is, a light source that uniformly radiates one candela in all directions radiates a total of 4π lumens. If the source were partially covered by an ideal absorbing hemisphere, that system would radiate half as much luminous flux—only 2π lumens. The luminous intensity would still be one candela in those directions that are not obscured."


Let us know how it goes!

 

Um... a bit of a stoop question? Whar are you going to do with an EIGHT litre tank?

 

zoom: haha Its mainly for plants! Perhaps a small group of whiteclouds but i'm mainly wanting to set up a little underwater garden

 

I've seen one of these tanks used as a marine tank with a soft coral and a shrimp...maybe just coral would have been cool but the shrimp had no hide aways. Could make a very nice garden!

 

think i might go pick up another light (same as current one). Think it's a good idea?

 

Where did you get the tank itself? It looks like the perfect addition to my desk at work

 

Start a Fire in the little pico with this lights.............

 

VIP Pets Northgate or Cresta