Tropical Fish Forums

[azadean]

Hello all

I'm beginning preparations for a reef marine tank and am wondering if anyone has heard of LED (light emmitting Diode) type lighting for a marine tank.

I know that individual led's have a very narrow colour spectrum, and variable viewing angles but am thinking if you had some sort of Led board that had multiple different colour spectrum leds with a wider viewing angle in clusters then this could be a feasable option.

In addition the reduced heating and running costs would be of great benifit to us fiskeepers. I think that it would take a bit of experimentation but want to know others thoughts.

[Pete Harcoff]

PFO Lighting makes LED light fixtures. Apparently they can produce the same lighting as MH, but with half the power. They also offer considerably more control over illumination then your traditional bulbs.

But they are currently expensive given the technology is relatively new.

[azadean]

Phew, youre not wrong there, they are very expensive. I have worked in the electronics industry in the past and think that I may investigate making my own.

Would be a great project on its own.

[Michael L.]

I looked into this a while ago and decided it wasn't worthwhile if you are looking to solve heat and power consumption issues.

If you ran an LED fixture next to a MH fixture that puts off comparable amount of light, it would take close to 10 years to offset the initial costs of the fixture, including power savings and replacement bulbs (don't quote me on that: it's been almost a year since I was researching it). This means it would take 10 years to even equal the affordability of a metal halide if you bought an LED fixture. Most people don't even keep a tank running that long.

As far as heat goes, a $15 computer fan will solve almost anything. I have 500 watts of metal halide 6 inches over my 90 gallon and the single stock computer fan wasn't enough. I would have 5 degree F swings when the lights would go on and off. I simply installed an extra fan and now there is no temperature difference between day and night.

On the other hand, if you were able to design an affordable an efficient heatsink for the LEDs and you found a supplier for high intensity LEDs at a reasonable price, you might be on to something. I would love to see some of the commercially available fixtures come down in cost.
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[art_of_war]