Aquarium LED fixtures

[DelawareJim]

Many of us reefers and planted tank fans have been following LED's for a number of years waiting for the right time to "pull the trigger" for both their tanks and orchids.

A friend of mine in GWAPA, Greater Washington Aquatic Plant Association posted a link to two beautiful setups I'm considering for my orchidarium. Check out the Atlantik and the Nilus.

Aquarium LED Lighting Reef LED lights | Orphek

Cheers.
Jim

[Ray]

Jim,

Are the wavelengths appropriate?

Seems to me that the attenuation of some of the wavelengths passing through water forces an adjustment of the spectrum to compensate - specifically boosting the blue - and that may not be great for plants. (Most of the aquarium LEDs I've seen are VERY blue).

[DelawareJim]

Ray;

I'm still researching that. You're right that the reef lights run heavy on the blue end and I've seen some LEDs at 40,000'K which I think is crazy. Ideally, I'm looking for something more in the 5500'K - 10,000'K range and they have a 6500'K pendant I'm looking into. Right now I'm running a pair of 175 watt 10,000'K metal halides in an old aquarium fixture hanging in my basement that I've been pretty happy with.

Since they do a bit of customizing with their fixtures, I plan to shoot them an email and inquire what a fixture like what I mentioned above in my desired temp range with a couple of red LEDs would cost.

Cheers.
Jim

[DavidCampen]

Originally Posted by DelawareJim

Ray;

I'm still researching that. You're right that the reef lights run heavy on the blue end and I've seen some LEDs at 40,000'K which I think is crazy. ...
Jim

All the more evidence that color temperatures, as they are commonly used, and especially for LEDs, are meaningless. Color temperature applies to blackbody radiators not LEDs. A blackbody radiator with a temperature of 40,000degK would have its peak radiation in the far ultraviolet - around 70 nm, an extreme hazard to all forms of life, if it were true, but no LEDs radiate anywhere near 70 nm.

LEDs are not blackbody radiators. Each type of LED radiates in a specific narrow wavelength range. Manufacturers of these fixtures should specify the specific wavelength for each type of LED in the fixture not some bogus, useless "color temperature".

[DavidCampen]

Commercial grade LED grow lights:
Horticultural Lighting (incl Horticulture LED Grow Lights)

[salamandra]

This topic I talk about something, you can look at the graphics that wavelength does chlorophyll. This is expressed in the unit "nm".

Compare these graphs with providing these LED bulbs.

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...rum-chart.html

With these operating wavelengths chlorophyll.


And these are the wavelengths provided by LED bulbs that you propose.

ORPHEK ATLANTIK





It looks a great deficiency of red, between 600 and 700 nm.

Orphek DIF 100 XP


All models are too few red colored LED bulbs.

This is the configuration of my LED spotlight, especially for growing plants, prioritizing green correct visualization of plants.


This is the one of these aquarium lights.






In short do not think are suitable for the cultivation of land plants, either orchids or any other plant than an algae.

I hope it's for your help.

A hug.

[DelawareJim]

Originally Posted by DavidCampen

Commercial grade LED grow lights:
Horticultural Lighting (incl Horticulture LED Grow Lights)

David;

Thanks for the link. Looking at the brochure quickly, I didn't see any mention of the wavelengths for these lights. Have you used them?

Thanks.
Cheers.
Jim

[DavidCampen]

I haven't used the Philips fixtures. I built my own so that I could utilize one of the principal adavantages of LEDs - that they are nearly a point source of light and thus can be tightly focused.
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...your-home.html

Yes, unfortunate that even Philips neglects to mention the LED wavelengths. There aren't that many LED colors available, all of the manufacturers have the same color set. So when the Philips literature says blue they mean about 460 nm (Cree has some at about 450 nm that they call Royal Blue), deep red will be about 660 nm and far red about 740 nm.
These LEDs are the standard color set:
LED Engin

[DelawareJim]

Originally Posted by DavidCampen

I haven't used the Philips fixtures. I built my own so that I could utilize one of the principal adavantages of LEDs - that they are nearly a point source of light and thus can be tightly focused.
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...your-home.html

Yes, unfortunate that even Philips neglects to mention the LED wavelengths. There aren't that many LED colors available, all of the manufacturers have the same color set. So when the Philips literature says blue they mean about 460 nm (Cree has some at about 450 nm that they call Royal Blue), deep red will be about 660 nm and far red about 740 nm.
These LEDs are the standard color set:
LED Engin

Thanks again for the links.

A couple guys in my aquarium club have/are building their own fixtures so they can pick the specific LED's and wavelengths they want with Cree's being the LED of choice. I'm really hoping to not have to go down that road as I am no electrician by any stretch and most of whaty is currently commercially available for non-aquarium use has a fairly small footprint.

So, the search continues...

Cheers.
Jim

[DavidCampen]

LED grow lights are still so expensive per watt compared to MH, HPS or fluorescent that they can't really be cost justified unless you need one of the specific properties of LED lights that the others don't have. LED fixtures will cost you $4-$5/watt whereas you can get T5 fluorescent for less than $1/watt.

If you are willing to use mostly deep red LEDs in combination with a few blue LEDs then perhaps you can get a bit better efficiency but if you want your plants to be illuminated with something that approximates white light then you might as well use MH, HPS and fluorescent.

One of the few other reasons for using LEDs at this time is if you want to take advantage of the very compact form factor of LEDs.

Once the price per watt of LED fixtures comes to within a factor of 2 of the price of MH, HPS and fluorescent then they will completely displace the MH, HPS and fluorescent fixtures.

My latest lighting purchase was this 4ft. X 6 bulb T5 fixture:
Rainforest Wet Location 6 Lamp T5HO Grow Light
Over 300 watts for $200 and the fixture is water resistant.