# beamworks led freshwater fixtures!



## fresh.salty (Jul 2, 2010)

I don't think you'll get much from...



> Super energy efficient .06 watt LEDs


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## Woody0229 (May 19, 2011)

fresh.salty said:


> I don't think you'll get much from...


I thought watts did not matter with leds thought it was all about lumens?


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## madness (Jul 31, 2011)

Woody0229 said:


> I thought watts did not matter with leds thought it was all about lumens?


You are correct that the 'watts per gallon' rule doesn't really apply to LEDs.

The wattage being used for each individual LED can be used to roughly categorize LEDs into high powered LEDs and cheapy low power LEDs and my guess is that fresh.salty was trying to say that the low wattage (per LED) indicated that they are likely not very good LEDs.

LEDs can be underdriven (run at a lower wattage) so the specific wattage will vary but most of the good high power LEDs (like Cree LEDs) operate in a known wattage range so when an LED is listed with a wattage way below that range it is a pretty good indicator that the high quality LEDs are not being used (it doesn't make much sense to buy high quality LEDs and then really, really underpower them so that you have to put more of them in a fixture....companies don't tend to do that.).


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

I just went through this with a nano tank because I wanted to try LED's for the first time. I don't think I purchased the exact light your talking about but I did get a $20 amazon light that was only 2 watts and very low in brightness and a small area of coverage just to return it and get a Up Aqua light for $40 that was way better, you can see from these photos in a 2.5 gallon nano.

Poor light









Better









I setup the camera to take the low light shot first and then took the second shot without touch the camera setting, you can see the second one lights up the room.


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## Tanman19az (May 14, 2011)

I have a 24 inch Beamworks 77 LED fixture. Got it for $40. I plan to put low light plants and moss. Nothing special. I'll let you know how it goes.


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## Jayme (Nov 27, 2011)

I just got a 54 LED Beamworks light off [Ebay Link Removed] I just put some plants from my other tanks in there a couple of days ago so I can't really say much yet. 

I love the way the fixture looks and the lights look good on my 10 gallon. It's not super bright but what do you expect for $34.95? I just needed a cheap light and so far most of the plants I have in other tanks grow well enough under my other cheap lights. This is my first official LED fixture.

I'm not sure how long it will take to see if the plants do ok or not but I'll let you know!

EDIT: Here is a picture of the tank with the new light. Room is dark, no flash on the phone camera. The light is a more pure looking white but my phone makes things more yellow.


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## Simmie (Nov 29, 2011)

i got one for my 10 gallon and liked it for the shrimp then i got another 24" to try it out on my 30 gallon but the light seems much dimmer in the deeper tank. about a week after i got the led for the 30 i replaced it with two aqueon normal output t5 fixtures and my plants are thriving


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## Jayme (Nov 27, 2011)

Well it's been about a week with the light and I have some new growth on the crypt so I'm going to have to say that despite what I've heard some places the light is just fine for at least a "low light" set up.

I also have banana plants, java moss, marimo balls, and some myriophyllum simulans (pretty sure that's what it is) that all seem to be doing just fine.


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