AddictedToFish Posted October 17, 2015 Report Share Posted October 17, 2015 Hello everyone, hope all is well with yourselves and families, as well as your aquatic buddies too I've recently purchased a used National Geographic Programable LED light (18"). I have done some research online looking into how well this light will promote plant growth as this light is to be used on my 10G shrimp tank. So far, I haven't found any conclusive or reliable info on how this light performs, so I was curious to see if anyone has used this particular lighting system and how it resulted. Any info on this light would be greatly appreciated, and I hope it will work well with my plants as it provides a beautiful light stream and shimmer to my shrimp tank thanks in advance for your time, and hope everyone is staying warm out there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckmullin Posted October 17, 2015 Report Share Posted October 17, 2015 Shimmer is snail oil for plants as well as the moon light effect, don't buy into those consumer eye candy effects. Standard T5HO trumps led especially led's at that price point! From a light you need 6000 range K and light penetration to the substrate. From what I hear of that fixture...people recommend not to use it for live plants! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AddictedToFish Posted October 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2015 Thanks for the reply ckmullin!! This seems to be the general consensus as far as review goes for this product. Initially, I run T5HO on all my planted set-ups, and have great results. The thought of LED grow lights was intriguing at first, but is seeming more and more like a headache/bank breaker! I think I'll agree with you and stick with the T5's. As they say, why fix something that isn't broken.. Thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corrosionjerry Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 Try and find a planted finnex led fixture, I have had great success in growing all of my plants with these led lights... I have a rich carpet of glosso in a 20inch deep tank as an example... Finnex are very reasonably priced and you dont have to change the bulbs every 6 months....as you have to with the T5HO setups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckmullin Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 Isn't Finnex illegal for sale within Canada? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjerrom Posted October 23, 2015 Report Share Posted October 23, 2015 Yes as they don't have UL or CSA approvals and won't do it due to market size. You can order them and if they are flagged they will not be allowed in but a lot of times they are not caught. What actually flags them is the fact that they don't have Bilingual packaging! Anyway I have a lot of the 48" Finnex fixtures (Monster, Fugeray, Planted plus 7k) and T5's from Grow It on Edmonton Trail (6500's) upside is that operating costs are lower for LED's. The T5's have huge heat transfer which can be easily fixed by raising the fixtures. The LED downside is with tanks over 24" depth you'll need 2-3 48" LED strips which increases the costs significantly. The T5's are cheap to replace now so that cost is understandable but not nearly as high when you have to replace a full LED strip. The manufacturers of Finnex say 50000hrs but I've already had multiple issues with transformers and light strips dying in the 3 yrs I've owned them. They are made in China - that says most of it! Short matter is get the LED light with the highest output (lumens) and with the 6000 plus spectrum and add more as needed until you see the plants thriving. Another thing that most people overlook is a clean glass lid which should be cleaned every water change as well and replaced once the mineral build up hazes the glass. Huge light transfer loss occurs here alone! As well ensure that all the light is reflected into the tank and the heat is taken off the fixtures to help increase bulb and fixture lifespan. Everything has maintenance. Fishclubgirl (AMT) works for a company that builds good LED lighting in Calgary that is supposed to rival T5's so maybe we can put some pressure on her for a speil at a meeting to get LED efficiency with T5 Horsepower. And they will be locally made! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AddictedToFish Posted October 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2015 Thanks for the great insight cjerrom!! I actually just realized the difference a clean glass lid will make, as a few mo tha ago I noticed the light in my 55G was gaining a slight green tinge to it, which was caused by some algea buildup on the glass. Since then, I've made sure to monitor this on all of my set ups. Interesting to know there is a locally made LED system that competes withT5, and I'm excited to hopefully hear more on this design thanks again for your thoughts and info, much appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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