# Is this too easy?



## wastewater (Apr 5, 2010)

What type/size diodes are on the strip, and how many? What is the beam angle? What is the lumen rating?

Some of the better quality strips are very bright to the human eye {e.g., Flexfire's Industrial Ultra Bright (3014 chips, 671 lumens/ft, 62 LEDs per/ft, 12 volt d/c) and Superbrightled's quad row high power (3528 chips, 885 lumens/ft, 138 LEDs/ft, 24 volt d/c)}.

What type of light are you aiming for (low, medium, high), along with your desired PAR... a major factor in the equation when choosing your lighting. Most of the LED strips I've researched list the lumen data, but give no PAR data. 

Is your mirror idea being used specifically for a reflector? I don't think you really need a reflector when using the flexible strips. I would suggest attaching the strips to some sort of aluminum flashing, bar, or channel to act as a heat sink. Some Led strips do get warm/hot ~ may help to dissipate heat and prolong the life of the strips.

I am using a DIY LED strip fixture on top of a 10 gallon aquarium (set up vertically, 20"H). This tank is non-aquatic and used for terrestrial plants. A total of 4 ft. (each strip is 6" long) of double row LED strips that utilize 3528 chips @ 24v d/c, 475 lumens/ft, 73 LEDs per/ft, 5.5 watts/ft were used. It is very bright to my 'eye', has a good spread, and penetrates to the bottom of the tank. More importantly, the plants flourish under this light. Was using a 20w LED floodlight before it crapped out after five months (on for 11 hours a day everyday). To 'my eye' the strip light is much brighter, and has a better spread, than the floodlight that died.

Pictures of the empty tank (with plants removed) showing the light penetrating through air:


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## gardenman (Jun 23, 2013)

*Thanks for replying*

The LED strips are a 5050 size and have a 120 degree beam angle, there are 60 LED's per meter (300 overall) and the temp is listed as 7000 K. They don't have a lumen or PAR rating. The 5050 LED's are said to be brighter than the 3528's and with a 72 watt power draw I'm assuming they'd be plenty bright, at least to the human eye. 

I've been looking at pre-made LED lighting fixtures like the Marineland Aquatic Plant Lighting System where a 36 inch long fixture has 36 one watt 6500 K LED's and 6 three watt RGB LED's as a comparison. The total wattage draw of that fixture is around 54 watts as opposed to 72 watts for the strip I'm looking at. (There's also a price difference of around $250 with the premade light retailing for around $300 and mine costing around $50.) 

As to the mirrors lining the box, there's apparently some debate in the LED flexible light strip trade about the wisdom of mounting them to a conductive surface. You can buy aluminum mounting channels for LED strip lights, but several manufacturers now strongly recommend mounting them to a non-conductive surface. (Apparently there is a failure possibility of the lights shorting out if the backing becomes damaged and they're on a conductive surface.) Glass is the best of both worlds. It'll dissipate heat and is also non-conductive. If I'm using glass I might as well use mirror and reflect any light reflected from the surface back into the water.

As to the light I'm aiming for, I'd like medium to high. I'm currently growing tons of java fern and I'd like to move up to some more light hungry plants. Java fern is nice, but a little more variety would be better.


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## wastewater (Apr 5, 2010)

You are right. In theory, 5050 chips (5mm x 5mm) are supposed to have about three times the output of a 3528 chip (3.5mm x 2.8mm).

I'm not an expert on lighting either, but if my rough calculations are right (12v d/c?), the 5 meter strip you mentioned has approx. 20 LEDs/ft - drawing approx. 4.4 watts/ft -with approx. 240 lumens per foot. 

You mentioned in your post that you were looking at upgrading your existing light. An important question that I forgot to ask: what are you using as your present lighting system? If you are trying to upgrade to a higher degree of lighting, I'm sure you don't want less light than what you have presently. Maybe you could add the strip fixture to your existing fixture to increase intensity (if you don't plan on replacing your original fixture).


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

gardenman said:


> The LED strips are a 5050 size and have a 120 degree beam angle, there are 60 LED's per meter (300 overall) and the temp is listed as 7000 K. They don't have a lumen or PAR rating. The 5050 LED's are said to be brighter than the 3528's and with a 72 watt power draw I'm assuming they'd be plenty bright, at least to the human eye.
> 
> I've been looking at pre-made LED lighting fixtures like the Marineland Aquatic Plant Lighting System where a 36 inch long fixture has 36 one watt 6500 K LED's and 6 three watt RGB LED's as a comparison. The total wattage draw of that fixture is around 54 watts as opposed to 72 watts for the strip I'm looking at. (There's also a price difference of around $250 with the premade light retailing for around $300 and mine costing around $50.)
> 
> ...



Hmm.. i placed 5m on a tank that I had 50w of 5=10W LED's and the output didn't put a dent in the color... Was like they weren't even there..
Buying 1w LEDs / driver and aluminum bar stock was as cheap and much higher visual output..That said you don't get the fun part of those little controllers to adjust everything.. BTW: The little Chinese co that sold me the strip light (pretty sure they were 5050's in name) tried to sell me a 4A switching power supply.. Whole 5m runs fine on an amp.. but may be one reason the light output was dim.. Sure is bright around my porch though.. 
I suspect you should get the waterproof ones/ some joiners so you don"t have to bend the bar (I believe you can cut them every 3rd "group" of
LEDs..) 

YMMV

A "kit".....Like what I bought sans power supply.....and joiners.. BTW: are you tslking about a single "color"???
SUPERNIGHT (TM) 16.4ft 5M Waterproof Flexible strip 300leds Color Changing RGB SMD5050 LED Light Strip Kit RGB 5M +44Key Remote+12V 5A Power Supply - Amazon.com



http://www.ebay.com/itm/5050-RGB-le...arts_and_Accessories&var=&hash=item3a7e54b403


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## 0live (Jun 8, 2013)

SMD 5050s output a max 19 lumen per LED

Or at least that's what my spec sheet says.


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## wastewater (Apr 5, 2010)

0live said:


> SMD 5050s output a max 19 lumen per LED
> 
> Or at least that's what my spec sheet says.


Hope the OP does not think I am out of line and derailing the thread with my reply (if so, my apologies). Thanks for pointing that out, Olive... definitely does make a difference in total lumens (342 lumens with 18 LEDs/ft). I was using a lower lumen rating for my approx. figures. I presume there are even higher lumen ratings for SMD 5050's ?


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## 0live (Jun 8, 2013)

wastewater said:


> Hope the OP does not think I am out of line and derailing the thread with my reply (if so, my apologies). Thanks for pointing that out, Olive... definitely does make a difference in total lumens (342 lumens with 18 LEDs/ft). I was using a lower lumen rating for my approx. figures. I presume there are even higher lumen ratings for SMD 5050's ?


You know, I'm not sure. I haven't looked around much. I think you'd have to overdrive the strip to do so. These specs are on white LEDs and not RGB. Your mileage may vary.

It's easy to hit 2k lumen with these things. 108 LEDs in 4 strips of 27 mounted close to one another is about the same size as a under cabinet 18" florescent fixture. How they do as far as PAR goes is another question. I'm hoping to pick up one of Hoppy's homemade PAR meters to test so I can get the answer, but if someone wants to save me the $50 and test for me, that's cool too.

Here's mine. 

View attachment 164609


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## Tmuck44 (Mar 17, 2013)

I'm thinking about doing this but using this http://1000bulbs.com/category/led-tape-light-profiles/


_Posted from Plantedtank.net App for Android_


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## gus6464 (Dec 19, 2011)

Tmuck44 said:


> I'm thinking about doing this but using this http://1000bulbs.com/category/led-tape-light-profiles/
> 
> 
> _Posted from Plantedtank.net App for Android_












Ran those on top of a Fluval Edge 6g for 6 mos connected to a dimmer. Strong light and had to dial down dimmer to 50%. If you got a small tank it's not a bad way to go.


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

gus6464 said:


> Ran those on top of a Fluval Edge 6g for 6 mos connected to a dimmer. Strong light and had to dial down dimmer to 50%. If you got a small tank it's not a bad way to go.


Out of curiosity , what kind of dimmer?? Pot or voltage or PWM???


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## gus6464 (Dec 19, 2011)

jeffkrol said:


> Out of curiosity , what kind of dimmer?? Pot or voltage or PWM???


It's just a basic PWM pot in between the 12v power supply.

Ledwholesalers Inline PWM 12 Volt 2 Amp Dimmer for LED Strips with DC Jack, 3318 - Amazon.com

I'll take a picture of the setup when I get home so you can see the whole connection.

This is where I got the strips.
http://www.superbrightleds.com/more...power-led-flexible-light-strip--nfls-x3/1465/

The 7600k is pretty white so I would do one 7600k and one 5600k right next to each other.


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

gus6464 said:


> It's just a basic PWM pot in between the 12v power supply.


Tricksey these hobbits.. 

https://www.circuitlab.com/editor/#?id=c8m48y


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## gardenman (Jun 23, 2013)

Thanks for all of the feedback. So a maximum of 19 lumens per LED with 300 LED's leads to a maximum lumen count of around 5700 lumens? Interesting. That's almost five times the lumen output of the Marineland double bright fixture. Their 36"-48" fixture puts out 1200 lumens. I think for $50 I'll give it a shot and see what happens. Thanks again.


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