# LED Growlights for an aquarium?



## Remmy (Jan 10, 2007)

You can use a variety of light sources for your planted tank including the light you posted.
LED floodlights and screw in bulbs, CFL screw ins and tubes, LED light strips etc ... 
You can compare the different solutions for flux to get an estimation of output


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## Kubla (Jan 5, 2014)

vigilanterepoman said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I have a 40g running 2 Finnex planted+ 24/7 models, which by my estimation puts me at a low-moderate lighting range. I was hoping to get it up higher, as many of plants seem to be lacking certain color spectrum,



Low light range refers to intensity and has nothing to do with the color spectrum. IF you need more light, have you considered a 3rd 24/7? If I had there capability I'd want them to work together. 

Maybe you should post a little more about what your plants are doing. There are some amazingly knowledgeable people here. It might not even be a light issue.


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## elusive77 (Sep 27, 2016)

I personally recommend the T5HO option. I had a Finnex planted+24/7 on my 36g. I added a Beamswork Fspec and didn't notice much of a difference in the plants. Then I added a small 2 bulb Odyssea T5HO with a powerveg 660 and ATI Purple Plus bulb, and I immediately noticed a difference in the plants. Much more color, especially in the red plants. And it wasn't too expensive either. I ended up removing the Beamswork altogether and colors were still better despite much less par. Just my personal experience and opinion though.


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## Surf (Jun 13, 2017)

> my question: would an LED grow-light be at all more beneficial than a standard LED light?


The answer depends on the plant. Some do better, others don't, and other plants wouldn't show any benefit or harm. I observed this with my orchids. They didn't do any better under a grow light. They did much better under white light. 

The idea for grow light is to reduce cost of the lighting while growing plants with minimal natural light. Since plants absorb red and blue light most strongly green, yellow , and orange light is not provided by grow lamps. While plants need red and blue light some plants also use other colors of light to help direct plant growth. So some plants may grow slowly or not at all with just red and blue light. 

I have read about a great house made with transparent solar panels. The color panels absorbed the green, yellow and orange light to generate power while the blue and red passed through to the plants inside the green house. That way the farmer would get two befits from the green house. Plants he could sell and reduced power consumption. while many plants did well a number of others didn't do well. 

No one can tell you which aquarium plants do well under grow lamps. Not enough research has been done and what research has been done is mainly for farm plants. So your best bet is to use a white full spectrum light. high CRI (color rendering index lamps have the best spectrum.


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## Kubla (Jan 5, 2014)

elusive77 said:


> I personally recommend the T5HO option. I had a Finnex planted+24/7 on my 36g. I added a Beamswork Fspec and didn't notice much of a difference in the plants. Then I added a small 2 bulb Odyssea T5HO with a powerveg 660 and ATI Purple Plus bulb, and I immediately noticed a difference in the plants. Much more color, especially in the red plants. And it wasn't too expensive either. I ended up removing the Beamswork altogether and colors were still better despite much less par. Just my personal experience and opinion though.



I think your T5HO light should be considerably higher par than the Fspec.


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## gus6464 (Dec 19, 2011)

elusive77 said:


> I personally recommend the T5HO option. I had a Finnex planted+24/7 on my 36g. I added a Beamswork Fspec and didn't notice much of a difference in the plants. Then I added a small 2 bulb Odyssea T5HO with a powerveg 660 and ATI Purple Plus bulb, and I immediately noticed a difference in the plants. Much more color, especially in the red plants. And it wasn't too expensive either. I ended up removing the Beamswork altogether and colors were still better despite much less par. Just my personal experience and opinion though.







10par at 12inches, so yeah...


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## elusive77 (Sep 27, 2016)

gus6464 said:


> Beamswork FSPEC Aquarium LED Light Freshwwater Plant Extendable - YouTube
> 
> 10par at 12inches, so yeah...


Wrong Fspec.......the DA Fspec......the one tested here...

https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/...-fspec-dhl-6500k-par-lux-kelvin-pur-data.html

It was giving me around 50 PAR. I doubt my little 24" 2 bulb T5HO puts out any more par than that at my depth. Especially with the much lower par bulbs I'm using. So it was not just more par. I believe spectrum plays a big part in it.


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## Kubla (Jan 5, 2014)

The chart here https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/10-lighting/ shows the 36" version of your T5HO, with "standard" bulbs puts out over 80 par at 16".


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## elusive77 (Sep 27, 2016)

But notice with that chart at 18", which is what I'm at, it drops off to 55. Which is basically the same as my Beamswork. And both of my bulbs are lower par bulbs than standard bulbs. So if anything it's equal par. Yet I saw much improved color.

He asked for opinions and experiences. I'm giving mine. That's all.


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## varanidguy (Sep 8, 2017)

I'm personally kind of disappointed in my Planted + 24/7 CC. I recently got a Seneye meter and measured 30 PAR the substrate in my 40 breeder - 16" of depth. I think that's extremely underwhelming for the price of the light. Alternatively my Finnex Fugeray Planted + was putting out about 60-65 PAR at 14" - much better. I run both lights in conjunction and the PAR meter measures 80-90 PAR at the substrate in the middle of the tank so both of them in tandem is acceptable, however if I knew then what I do now, I would have probably went with two Fugeray Planted + lights or maybe considered T5HO more thoroughly. I will say that in my tank, they do well with red plants though so I have no reason to replace them at this point.


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

W/ out an "accurate" PAR meter we could go back and forth on this..
Note though that most older or cheaper PAR meters under-sample @ 660 nm

























as you already know, there is more pigment and more light of a certain wavelength to reflect the pigment..


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## gus6464 (Dec 19, 2011)

You have the answer in front of you. It's that T5 is always best.


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## Kubla (Jan 5, 2014)

elusive77 said:


> But notice with that chart at 18", which is what I'm at, it drops off to 55. Which is basically the same as my Beamswork. And both of my bulbs are lower par bulbs than standard bulbs. So if anything it's equal par. Yet I saw much improved color.
> 
> He asked for opinions and experiences. I'm giving mine. That's all.


I realize that and wasn't trying to be argumentative. I was just surprised that there would be less par from the T5HO. I think the chart shows it at a little above 60 at 18" but it is a bit of apples to oranges and not that much different. You won't get any argument from me about the color. I have a few Beamswork lights and don't care for the color at all.


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

Kubla said:


> I realize that and wasn't trying to be argumentative. I was just surprised that there would be less par from the T5HO. I think the chart shows it at a little above 60 at 18" but it is a bit of apples to oranges and not that much different. You won't get any argument from me about the color. I have a few Beamswork lights and don't care for the color at all.


But that's Beamworks....
Just add one of these.. 


> USED 474 LED 36 Plant Pink Freshwater Aquarium Light Beamswork117x Asian Red


LED's can do just fine..










https://www.advancedplantedtank.com/light-t5vsled.html


> Finding a good spectrum selection can take effort though. Examples such as these fully dispel the notion that "LEDs can't grow aquarium plants" or that "LEDs can't grow red aquarium plants well".


Blink and there is something new...
https://buceplant.com/collections/aquarium-lights/products/aqua-worx-crystal-48-led-light


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

Suntech said:


> Do you guys know different functions of grow light with different colors on plants?


As far as I know nobodys really studied exact effects if different wavelengths on aquatic plants.

There is a bunch on land plants.
Typically for " us" intensity is more important.

From some limited experience some aquatics grown in blue heave red short lighting have morphological differences. Short internodes, highly dissected leaves, that sort of thing


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