anyone use LED lights

sixpack_ey · #1 08-18-2009, 04:05 PM

I am putting together a dart frog tank and am checking out different lighting options. Does anyone have any experience with a light like this?
225 WHITE LED Aquarium Grow Light Panel 120 or 240 Volt - eBay (item 220467389307 end time Aug-18-09 19:50:24 PDT)
It says its great for plants and doesn't produce a lot of heat. I just wanted to see if anyone uses these or knows if they work.

billy_the_kid43 · #2 08-20-2009, 03:58 PM

I would be interested in peoples opinion on led lights as well but more of the little lights with two leds for glow light at night or something.

I'll keeo watching.

sixpack_ey · #3 08-21-2009, 01:36 PM

I know on my reef tank forum someone has a reef tank supported solely by LED lights. I guess I will contact him about it. I'll post what I find out.

MtuPup · #4 09-09-2009, 02:25 PM

do LEDs produce the right spectrum - if this is true it's going to make me feel a lot better about adding a lot of new tanks to my collection without a sky rocketing electrical bill.

Soothesayer · #5 10-07-2009, 11:38 PM

Here, this helped me out a bit with the same problem. http://www.jasonmorrison.net/content...-incandescent/

It seems ultimately they may be a better bet for reducing power consumption without compromising any benefits of the lights itself.

I've been researching for a few months now and I will be constructing my first vivarium with LED boards.

Apparently upon the programing of these boards you can maximize the benefit of the light given. If I remember correctly 82% of the light given off by incandescent, etc... is wasted while LED's can be adjusted to greatly improve efficiency.

Sorry if my sentence / paragraph structure is completely off for my first post, I'm just running on fumes from work this week, haha. No sleep.

While on a light subject; Does anyone know what colors a frog cannot see? I believe red is one but more info would help.

beckdg · #6 10-08-2009, 12:25 AM

you can get led's in different spectrums to construct your board with too.

as for frogs not seeing... red's about it. if you go bright enough to give anything more than a "shadowing" type view it can be too much too.

darc · #7 10-08-2009, 12:33 AM

I don't know anything about LED's for fauna, but I've extensively integrated LED's into Computer Science (my B.S.) and Electrical Engineering (a temporary double major... but abandoned it when the scholarship ran out : ) projects.

So, if you need technical guidance for a build, I can help there.
-darc

beckdg · #8 10-08-2009, 01:27 AM

so you still remember the formulas? i've done some electronics classes, can't remember the formulas to save my life, can build or fix almost anything one way or another but would definitely bet against myself to explain auto mechanics, electronics or computers with the exception of "twist these 2 together" or "click there... and there... now pick a password and go into options..." type instructions. i can't talk shop for the life of me.

MtuPup · #9 10-08-2009, 03:53 PM

Be still my beating heart- another engineer herp nerd, darc? It's been awhile since I posted this and oddly enough when I was doing lighting research I found a great deal on LEDs. Seems they are the wave of the future. I'd post my findings but they're in a book from
a certified energy management class. LEDs can provide the right CRI as cfls/t5 but no UV still. So I might try this out on a 5 gallon I just finished.

Epiphile · #10 10-08-2009, 03:57 PM

Has anyone stuck a PAR meter under one of these arrays? I'd be keen to know the result.