# Marineland Reef or Double-Bright LED for 50 gallon?



## majordude (Jun 26, 2011)

I have a 50 gallon acrylic tank (36" x 15" x 20"). I want to have plants (easy to grow). I think I am on the borderline. Do I need the Reef or Double-Bright LEDs? (see attachment).

I called Marineland and they weren't sure. The lady said she has a Double Bright but only has low light plants. Medium light plants don't grow so well (she has a 36 gallon tank). But a customer with another 36 gallon tank said the Reef model grew algae.


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## DaveK (Jul 10, 2010)

LED lighting is seeing a lot of improvements recently, but it's still comparatively expensive.

Depending upon the options chosen, you could spend about $212 to about $297 for the Reef Capable Lighting. The double bright lighting is priced at about half the reef lighting, which makes sense sine it has about half the number of LEDs.

Normally, when we are talking lighting for a SW reef system, extremely bright lighting is used. It's far more than you would get out of the "Reef Capable Lighting". On a reef, this is considered low level lighting. 

For a planted tank things are a lot different. Much less light is used. So in the planted tank world this would be considered high lighting. With high lighting you usually also want a good pressurised CO2 system, which is another big investment.

While the Marineland LED fixtures don't seem to have this feature, may LED fixtures can be dimmed. It's something desirable to look for in LED lighting.

If it were my money, while I'd desire the LED lighting, I think I'd go with T5's due to the lower initial investment, and because you have a wide selection of bulbs for them. In planted tanks you don't necessarily want the typical white and blue LEDs. They would work OK, but may not give you quite the color your looking for.


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## sevenyearnight (May 1, 2011)

The kelvin rating on the reef lighting does just grow algae, it's not the correct spectrum for plants


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## majordude (Jun 26, 2011)

LOL!

Perfect. So the more expensive system sucks more.

So maybe the double bright LEDs or just T5s?

I am NOT trying to grow a reef. Just a planted fresh water tank. Micro swords, cabomba, water sprite. 20" deep minus 2-3" sand...

I LOVE the low profile of the LEDs versus something like http://www.aquacave.com/current-usa...ture-br-2x39w-10kfreshwater-br1128-2372.html# whick i only $110 but thick and ugly.


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## sevenyearnight (May 1, 2011)

Look up on ebay 36" T5 quad planted light, seller is topdogsellers
I don't feel as though it is thick or ugly, and you can set timers to make sunset and sunrise because the lights have separate cords.


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## fishin4life (Jan 21, 2010)

I have the double bright 36 inch fixture on a 33 long with no pest algae problems to speak of really. I have been running this fixture now for about a year. I really like it actually but it is not as bright as I expected. I will say that I supplement with a PC 50/50. I will see if I can round up a picture of the tank. I keep really easy growing plants in it though, like swords, ferns, anubias, moss and a couple of crypts. I actually see a pretty good growth rate on the ferns and swords. I rarely dies much in this tank and I do not use CO2. For my 180 I have run the gamete as far as lighting.  Started with MH's that I had from my reef and now using standard bulbs along with 2 t5 bulbs for supplements. This tank is supplemented with pressurized CO2 and I use a dry fert mix. I am thinking of trying the new led floodlights on this tank.


Edited to post a pic of the tank. This is just after a total re-scape. Nothing fancy and I really have not had any fish in this over the last year with the exception if two cories. I had it bare bottom as I had planned to use it as a breeding/rearing tank for my discus, until just this past weekend when I added some substrate, took out lots of plants and redid the hard scape on it. Now to decide what type of fish to put in it. Anyway maybe it will give you an idea what the double brights look like. Keep in mind this is a 48 inch tank with a 36 inch fixture plus the 50/50 PC ( you can see the silver reflector )


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## cggorman (May 9, 2009)

sevenyearnight said:


> The kelvin rating on the reef lighting does just grow algae, it's not the correct spectrum for plants


ANY visible light can grow algae and both algaes AND higher plants love the blue spectrum.


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## Miira (Feb 15, 2011)

I use the Reef capable on a 29gal tank. It grows plants really well, but algae grows really fast if the CO2 is off for even a few days.(The husband was left to tank watch while I took kids to visit family, came back to a massive GHA mess)


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## speedoflife (Jun 12, 2011)

I've got a Double Bright 48-60" on my 72g bowfront. I supplement with a Hagen Power-Glo 40 watt about 6 hours a day. I'll get some pictures when the sun goes down. It provides PLENTY of visible light and the corners aren't dark at all. Also, the LED light looks far more realistic than many fluorescent lights; the shimmer and shadow effects make a big difference.


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## majordude (Jun 26, 2011)

speedoflife said:


> I've got a Double Bright 48-60" on my 72g bowfront.


Nice! Post pics!


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## speedoflife (Jun 12, 2011)

This was taken at night with the exposure as negative as my camera could go. I am not a photographer, and I adjusted the exposure to get rid of glare. The tank is brighter in person. If anyone is actually interested in the product I'll take a video. Just ask.


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## majordude (Jun 26, 2011)

Nice!!!


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

I like the like cave action you have going on there speed. Glad to see this post. I have a 20g long that I am going to start up and was considering the same Marineland LEDs. I was hesitant to go with the bigger setup because I do not want high light and then have to go CO2. I want to avoid all of that so maybe the single or dual for anubias, javas and crypts. I have a single 11w LED on the nano in my sig and you can see it grows really really well. I have to trim weekly now and it is a pain. I wanted slow and that is out the window.


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## majordude (Jun 26, 2011)

demonr6 said:


> I like the like cave action you have going on there speed. Glad to see this post.


I like that cave action too. Looks nice.


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## speedoflife (Jun 12, 2011)

Thanks! I appreciate it. The tank is newly set up. I'm very shy about putting up pictures of my tanks... I'm waiting for the algae (dare I say) to grow on the new rocks and the background. It looks all mismatched with half aged and half new rocks. Also my plants need to grow! That java moss should cover almost the entire right side of the structure in time.
As far as the light goes, I wouldn't go for the single bright. I don't think that would be enough visible light. The double bright really does look nice and provides plenty of viewable light. The moonlights are nice as well. I'll take a video and post it up tomorrow showing the moonlights and the actual brightness of the tank. The stats on these LED's aren't bad at all.









The shimmer and shadow effects really can't be described. I've ran T8 and T5 fluorescents before this, but I really didn't know how much the LED's would add to the realism of the tank (which is important to me). As long as the water is pretty clear, you won't notice the columns of light either.
Something I don't think is advertised that many DIY LED setups don't have is the reflector on the bottom of the structure. Maybe it's just the 60" version, but the part of the light where the lenses are mounted is polished metal, not black plastic. This helps spread out the light more evenly.

Just for fun, the tank a week ago with only the Hagen Power-Glo bulb on:









And a video. I can't really get the shimmer effect on my high quality camera (/sarcasm), but it's kind of something you would have to see in person to believe. It's pretty cool!

video


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

I calculated what I would expect the PAR to be from the Marineland double bright, 48-60 inch LED light, assuming the LEDs would be 22 inches from the substrate. It should be between about 15 and 35 mms of PAR, depending on whether the LEDs have 90 or 60 degree optics (all LEDs have a lens, which acts as the protective cover for the diode junction.) That is much better than I thought it would be, but I'm assuming they are correct with their claims of how many lumens the light emits.


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## speedoflife (Jun 12, 2011)

The 35 mms seems to be right on with what Marineland claims at about 2 feet from the light. Not too shabby, although the spectrum isn't quite optimal, there is a good amount of light for sure.


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## sevenyearnight (May 1, 2011)

When I looked up information on the reef lighting, such as 18000K, the anecdotal information was that it just grew an ungodly amount of algae quickly. The explanations were that it wasn't the correct spectrum for plants. Perhaps they meant some plants, or maybe even most plants, either way, this is just what I've read on other's experience. Most people would not intentionally want to grow algae and not grow plants. Unless they are growing algae for bio diesel Lol.


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