LED lamps for 36" tank

[Charles-P]

I have been using this LED lamps 36" for almost 9 months,
The coral & fish grew much better than when I used T5HO.

Also, I would like to find out the comments from others who are using LED lamps for their tanks, thanks

[Ninong]

Hi Charles-P,




Nice tank!

I'm not familiar with that particular fixture. Can you tell us anything about it?

[Charles-P]

this is the led aquarium light which has total 3 strip of leds: 2white, 1 actinic blue & moon light. frankly speaking it is fantasic! energy saving and this LED lights makes my coral outstanding growth, and the most important is that i don't need to put the chiller after I use this led light because the heat is radiated up away from the water.

[califjewls]

I just started my first Nano Reef (20 gallon long) and we chose LED lighting also. We purchased a 30" strip light and modified it basically unhooking the ballast because the SunBrite LED lights we chose have a ballast built in.

We don't have much time using these lights, but all I can say is all our corals respond great to this lighting. I have no doubt that our corals are going to flourish, and just as Charles said there is NO heat whatsoever, low energy use, no need for a chiller and these SunBrite LED lights will last 5 years, so they are extremely cost effective also. :-)

Charles, where did you purchase your LED lighting? Whats the brand name?

[Ninong]

Hi califjewls,

[califjewls]

Hi there Ninong! :-)

[edward_cullen]

hi there, I got one of this LED lights too. I bought it from eco-lamps, it was so cool!!
anyway califjewls , where did you get yours light?? and what is the brand? is it called sunbrite? how much did it cost?

[Charles-P]

Hi Charles-P,




Nice tank!

I'm not familiar with that particular fixture. Can you tell us anything about it?

Hihihihihihi...........

[Charles-P]

I just started my first Nano Reef (20 gallon long) and we chose LED lighting also. We purchased a 30" strip light and modified it basically unhooking the ballast because the SunBrite LED lights we chose have a ballast built in.

We don't have much time using these lights, but all I can say is all our corals respond great to this lighting. I have no doubt that our corals are going to flourish, and just as Charles said there is NO heat whatsoever, low energy use, no need for a chiller and these SunBrite LED lights will last 5 years, so they are extremely cost effective also. :-)

Charles, where did you purchase your LED lighting? Whats the brand name?

Are you making the light yourself ? I bought it from eco-lamps's online shop.

[califjewls]

We bought an inexpensive twin light strip, unhooked the ballast that was built in and wired our SunBrite LED lights (ballast built into light) to the fixture, we added 1 16000k and 1 12000k and placed in onto my glass top, its plenty of light throughout the reef for my corals. They are responding great!

[CharlotteSteve]

Can't seem to find eco-lamps on the net, maybe their site is down. Thats a good looking fixture though. I am assuming that it is multiple tubes of thru-hole LEDs. I am using about 100w of power on my LEDs and the heatsink gets toasty. Also are you just putting sun-brite tubes in this fixture?

[califjewls]

I am assuming that it is multiple tubes of thru-hole LEDs. I am using about 100w of power on my LEDs and the heatsink gets toasty. Also are you just putting sun-brite tubes in this fixture?

I believe that is how it is manufactured. Yes we are only placing Sunbrite tubes into this fixture, I may add moonlights but haven't decided on which ones yet. Each tube uses 10watt! Its great!

If you go to this website there is an experiment using these tubes on SPS, LPS,etc... Go to www.exotic-aquarium.com and click on SunBrite LED in the index, its interesting.

[Charles-P]

We bought an inexpensive twin light strip, unhooked the ballast that was built in and wired our SunBrite LED lights (ballast built into light) to the fixture, we added 1 16000k and 1 12000k and placed in onto my glass top, its plenty of light throughout the reef for my corals. They are responding great!

I have used same kind of this LED tube before, but the light came out not very good, It because this kind of LED out put too weak, it is 12W each & I put 4 tubes on the top of my tank, total has 48W on my 48" tank, this kind of 5mm LED lamps just good enough for the x'mas light only, not good enough for the tank for sure. but the colour is very nice.

[Charles-P]

Can't seem to find eco-lamps on the net, maybe their site is down. Thats a good looking fixture though. I am assuming that it is multiple tubes of thru-hole LEDs. I am using about 100w of power on my LEDs and the heatsink gets toasty. Also are you just putting sun-brite tubes in this fixture?

I searched eco-lamps by google, it is there.

[CharlotteSteve]

Yeah I finally got the site to connect, was being slow for some reason. Where do you buy these things? And the website says that they use 80w of power per 24" tube, I;m interested to know how they keep the heat down.

[califjewls]

I have used same kind of this LED tube before, but the light came out not very good, It because this kind of LED out put too weak, it is 12W each & I put 4 tubes on the top of my tank, total has 48W on my 48" tank, this kind of 5mm LED lamps just good enough for the x'mas light only, not good enough for the tank for sure. but the colour is very nice.

You have used the SunBrite LED tubes? Ours are 10w each. The light output in our 20g is great. The LED output on our bulbs is very strong. Our corals respond wonderfully, we have LPS and soft.

[califjewls]

Where do you buy these things? And the website says that they use 80w of power per 24" tube, I;m interested to know how they keep the heat down.

Im not sure if you are asking me or not. But I bought the lighting at Exoctic Aquarium. Im not sure where you read that information about 80w per 24", my 2 24" tubes are labeled 10w, maybe that is the actual measure or light output per tube. My lights have been on for 3 hours I can grab the tubes while on, they are semi warm, not hot at all.

[CharlotteSteve]

Sorry, I was still on the eco-lamps fixture that Charles-P was speaking of, are these using sunbrites as well? If so than eco-lamps have a really ineffecient driver, the driver uses 80w of power but only uses ~20w for lighting purposes, the rest being let off by heat at the driver (Heat is directly proportional to power). Those lights look really good though.

[Charles-P]

You have used the SunBrite LED tubes? Ours are 10w each. The light output in our 20g is great. The LED output on our bulbs is very strong. Our corals respond wonderfully, we have LPS and soft.

No, I was using the one with 12W each it is a bit bigher than the one you are using, but still not bright enough, that's why I change this one more powerful. And your tank look too white, isn't it.

[Charles-P]

Im not sure if you are asking me or not. But I bought the lighting at Exoctic Aquarium. Im not sure where you read that information about 80w per 24", my 2 24" tubes are labeled 10w, maybe that is the actual measure or light output per tube. My lights have been on for 3 hours I can grab the tubes while on, they are semi warm, not hot at all.

There is one more thing, more powerful LED should get more heat,
The one you are using is very weak so that's why no much heat on it.
And it does't need any fan or heat sink.