Candymancan21
Question for you guys.. Been in the hobby for 20 years now. And I currently gave a 92g corner bowfront a 30 gallon long tank and a 135g 6 foot tank which is in my bedroom.
All the tamks currently use a mixture if lights mainly because its what I had and I didnt want to spend 400+$ upgrading them all.
The 92g tank uses a 65 watt power compact light, this I will need to upgrade sooner then later as they don't make the bulbs and no one has them not even amazon or ebay. The 30 gallon uses a duel T5 normal output light and its original T8 hood because the T5 fixtuture can't cover the top of the tank very well in the front top or rear top as it sits directly on the glass hood make sense ? But it works great and algae is at a min..
I dabbled into LEDS in 2009 and bought a 36 inch fluval LED light bar its just the basic white leds with 6 blue leds. Was 90$ and on using it on the 30 gallon tank it just caused stupid algae growth.. On the 92g tank.. whatever it touches it grows black beard algae.. but oddly for the 92g tank its wayyy too dI'm to really make the tank light up like the power compact does so I just shelved it.
My 135g I have two 48 inch duel T5 Normal output lights.. due to the tank being 72 inch long I put one light in the front right and it entends only to the middle and the other ligjt starts in the rear left and both meet in the middle sligjtly passed eachother.. which covers all 72 inches but it left dark spots in the two corners the lights miss the rear right and from left.. So I put two T8 24 inch hoods I have one in each corner and it worked out good.
The T5s pen the depth and tank perfectly all my plants grow it isn't too bright.. and I just replace the bulbs every 1 to 2 years. They are super cheap on amazon. I don't need high output fixtures.. the bulbs are all high output these days they dint make normaloutput but HO works in NO fixtures they just don't run at HO.
The setup just plain works.. but its a little messy. It only uses 142 watts total.. Looking at 72 inch LED light bars they are all mostly .5w per led and 174 leds.. which is 87w of power so id save onky 60 watts of power. Which isn't a lot of power to be honest.
And I'm afraid one LED light bar may not be enough for a tank like this as the back and front will probly have dark spots like it did with my t5 lights and my 30 gallon tank.
Using the legs will raise it up of course and fix that but the tank is in my room and leds go into your eyes which you all know so ill need it laying on the glass top.
Plus I keep reading led light bars usually all go bad after 1-3 years.. unless you spend 200$ or more..
Soo 60 watts of power savings vs 200$ or **** 75$ for the aquaneat one which has defective power supplies so ill have to spend 30$ on a power supply.. so 100$ I wouldnt save 100$ in probly 7 years of 60 watts less power.. I might with bulbs though.. as just gettting two t8 bulbs costed 20$ yesturday
So why LEDS ? if my tank is lit up just fine has 0 algae plants all grow why have people switched ? I can see maybe if you habe High output t5s and 4 of them which uses like 216w of power.. youd ssve over 130w of power that's a good amount but still to me 100w is nothing my lava lamp uses a 100w bulb for crying out loud lol.
Also don't LEDS look too aritifical to you guys... The fluval light I jave makes it look crystal clear and all shimmery on the surface but that gets old quick and looks fake to me..
And doesn't blue light in fresh water cause algae.. Why do the full spectrim lights have an even amount of BLUE leds to white LEDS.. and why are a lot of them 10k white... So its ligjt you got 10k white which is a blue spectrum and then actinic blues all I can ever see happening is algae growth everywhere like green spot algae.
I forgot to mention I do use two 65w power compact lights positied to point behind my tank. they are actinic bbs.. they make the wall blue and it looks awsome here isa pic.
If I gey an led light bar.. I can get two t8 actinic lights for my 24 inch hood and thays only 30w of power vs 130w.. So savings in wattage would be like 130w total then with the led.. so I guess its a good savings on power but still.
Here is my tank... My plants look terrible because I medicated my tank for a few weeks due to my discus getting ill so it wiped out my tank but you get the idea.
All the tamks currently use a mixture if lights mainly because its what I had and I didnt want to spend 400+$ upgrading them all.
The 92g tank uses a 65 watt power compact light, this I will need to upgrade sooner then later as they don't make the bulbs and no one has them not even amazon or ebay. The 30 gallon uses a duel T5 normal output light and its original T8 hood because the T5 fixtuture can't cover the top of the tank very well in the front top or rear top as it sits directly on the glass hood make sense ? But it works great and algae is at a min..
I dabbled into LEDS in 2009 and bought a 36 inch fluval LED light bar its just the basic white leds with 6 blue leds. Was 90$ and on using it on the 30 gallon tank it just caused stupid algae growth.. On the 92g tank.. whatever it touches it grows black beard algae.. but oddly for the 92g tank its wayyy too dI'm to really make the tank light up like the power compact does so I just shelved it.
My 135g I have two 48 inch duel T5 Normal output lights.. due to the tank being 72 inch long I put one light in the front right and it entends only to the middle and the other ligjt starts in the rear left and both meet in the middle sligjtly passed eachother.. which covers all 72 inches but it left dark spots in the two corners the lights miss the rear right and from left.. So I put two T8 24 inch hoods I have one in each corner and it worked out good.
The T5s pen the depth and tank perfectly all my plants grow it isn't too bright.. and I just replace the bulbs every 1 to 2 years. They are super cheap on amazon. I don't need high output fixtures.. the bulbs are all high output these days they dint make normaloutput but HO works in NO fixtures they just don't run at HO.
The setup just plain works.. but its a little messy. It only uses 142 watts total.. Looking at 72 inch LED light bars they are all mostly .5w per led and 174 leds.. which is 87w of power so id save onky 60 watts of power. Which isn't a lot of power to be honest.
And I'm afraid one LED light bar may not be enough for a tank like this as the back and front will probly have dark spots like it did with my t5 lights and my 30 gallon tank.
Using the legs will raise it up of course and fix that but the tank is in my room and leds go into your eyes which you all know so ill need it laying on the glass top.
Plus I keep reading led light bars usually all go bad after 1-3 years.. unless you spend 200$ or more..
Soo 60 watts of power savings vs 200$ or **** 75$ for the aquaneat one which has defective power supplies so ill have to spend 30$ on a power supply.. so 100$ I wouldnt save 100$ in probly 7 years of 60 watts less power.. I might with bulbs though.. as just gettting two t8 bulbs costed 20$ yesturday
So why LEDS ? if my tank is lit up just fine has 0 algae plants all grow why have people switched ? I can see maybe if you habe High output t5s and 4 of them which uses like 216w of power.. youd ssve over 130w of power that's a good amount but still to me 100w is nothing my lava lamp uses a 100w bulb for crying out loud lol.
Also don't LEDS look too aritifical to you guys... The fluval light I jave makes it look crystal clear and all shimmery on the surface but that gets old quick and looks fake to me..
And doesn't blue light in fresh water cause algae.. Why do the full spectrim lights have an even amount of BLUE leds to white LEDS.. and why are a lot of them 10k white... So its ligjt you got 10k white which is a blue spectrum and then actinic blues all I can ever see happening is algae growth everywhere like green spot algae.
I forgot to mention I do use two 65w power compact lights positied to point behind my tank. they are actinic bbs.. they make the wall blue and it looks awsome here isa pic.
If I gey an led light bar.. I can get two t8 actinic lights for my 24 inch hood and thays only 30w of power vs 130w.. So savings in wattage would be like 130w total then with the led.. so I guess its a good savings on power but still.
Here is my tank... My plants look terrible because I medicated my tank for a few weeks due to my discus getting ill so it wiped out my tank but you get the idea.
