McTurtle Posted June 8, 2013 Report Share Posted June 8, 2013 Does anyone have experience installing waterproof led strip lighting? (The roll is $12 and is "supposed" to be for remote control helicopters etc.) I'm hoping I can create a high light 65 gallon with it, but I'm having trouble figuring out the equivalency to flourescents. From what I can figure 50cm of the stip lighting is equal to a t8 of about the same length. Any input would be appreciated. Second, I have a 10 gallon with 2 t8s in a homedepot ballast behind my tank. Is it going to help at all? I can't fit it on top. I do need to make a better reflector for it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishclubgirl Posted June 9, 2013 Report Share Posted June 9, 2013 You might want to check the kelvin temperature of those leds first.I'd be curious, what voltage they are too. As for the T8s, same thing and also how old the bulbs are. My thoughts are the bulbs will make a difference if they're new and the right colour temperature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekbottom Posted June 9, 2013 Report Share Posted June 9, 2013 I kind of doubt that those LED strip lights will have enough watts/light to keep plants alive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blink Posted June 9, 2013 Report Share Posted June 9, 2013 People have tried this before and unless you are using a much higher power product than everyone else the consensus seems to be that its only good for providing accent lighting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McTurtle Posted June 9, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2013 The LED wattage is 3.6 for 50 cm which, as far as I can figure is about equal to 8 watts of fluorescent light. One of the 12" fluorescents is 15 watts... So if I have 5 meters, that's about equal to 80 watts of fluorescent light. Or I could be totally wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cainechow Posted June 9, 2013 Report Share Posted June 9, 2013 Unfortunately you can't quite compare watts to watts that way. The small low wattage emitters, as in each individual emitter on the roll, don't have a lot of penetrating power. So even if your total wattage is comparable, the light probably won't make a big impact at the bottom of the tank (inverse square law) unless you can find a way to focus and concentrate that light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McTurtle Posted June 9, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2013 Thanks, that makes sense. I think my only hope is to try to discover someone who's done it already, or I'm stuck with trial and error. The commercial aquarium LED light setups seem to do well, but the bulbs may be significantly brighter and I have no way to measure the ones I'm looking at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blink Posted June 9, 2013 Report Share Posted June 9, 2013 To figure out wattage for the LEDs in the strip you are looking at just count how many emitters are in a 50cm length then divide 3.6 by that number, will give you watts per emitter. Just a rough guide, anything below 1w/emitter is going to have a hard time penetrating much deeper than about 12-16" of water, that is about the same power as the Marineland DoubleBright lights which do work ok on shallow tanks but are pretty useless once the tank gets deeper. (plus they have issues with spotlighting and other problems, but that's beside the point) Even though I think the only way a flexible LED strip light will create high light in a 65 gallon is if lightning hits it, I'm not going to tell you not to do it because sometimes you just gotta experiment. But I wouldn't bother using the LED string for an aquarium when a Finnex Ray2 will do the job for you with proven results. Granted, the Ray2 will run you somewhere between $150-200, but it's also going to give you reliable, consistent and predictable high light right out of the box. Or you could pick up a used T5HO fixture for way less, go get some nice new bulbs from a hydroponics shop for about $6/each (vs. the $20-30/each at a LFS) and not worry about the rather negligible cost of changing the bulbs once a year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McTurtle Posted June 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2013 OK, seems like the LCDs will just be decorative. I'm going to start looking for T5HO fixtures. Thanks for all the input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blink Posted June 10, 2013 Report Share Posted June 10, 2013 Sunblaster brand at hydroponics shop will set you back about $45 for a 36" two bulb t5ho last time I looked Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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