Question regarding using indoor plant lights

[Lmuhlen]

These Indoor Plant Lights are much cheaper here where I live than aquarium lights and I want to try them on a farm tank. Is there any problem in using them?

They are mostly red and blue LEDs with a few white, UV and IR LEDs scattered. I expect the tank to look weird without white lights, but for this particular tank I just want the plants to grow well, I don't care if the tank is all red and ugly.

They don't provide any metric like PAR, only the power in watts. It seems like each LED is 0,33W, the one with 75 LEDs is announced as having 25W. What would be your best guess as to how much power of indoor lights like these I should add to a 40cm cube tank to get a high intensity for fast growing plants?

 

[Allwissend]

They work well. SB Reef etc are at the core of it also adapted grow lights. I would look for dimmable models with a wide footprint as opposed to spots. It's good that it has at least some white LEDs to help you asses the health of your plants.

I would look closely at their description as many many unfortunately still advertise a) max rated power for each LED and their sum b) equivalent W of halogen lamps . These are irrelevant, no manufacturer will/should drive their LEDs to the max. So look for actual power consumption figures. If the 25W are actual power draw I would FEEL it gives medium to high light levels over a 40cm cube. Feel because you would actually have to measure but as a general approximation it will be decent.

 

[Lmuhlen]

Thank you for your reply. I have some of those "inteligent" plugs that measure consumption to a questionable precision, I'll get one of these 25W lamps and measure the power draw and see if it is trully 25W.

 

[Lmuhlen]

Well, your concerns were valid, the 25W lamp actually consumes around 7W

That being the case, they are not that much better cost-wise when compared to aquarium lights, if the aquarium lights are actually informing the correct power.

 

[Allwissend]

sorry to hear that., Weird marketing win I guess. SB Reef Lights are doing the same switch. I tested nicrew, chihiros and ada light and they are pretty accurate in their power draw, so I would be more inclined to say the aquarium lights are true to their label.

 

[Lmuhlen]

I'll try again, I bought a 2000W light that apparently is extremelly efficient, since it only consumes 34W of electric power. It will take a while to arrive, but since the manufacturer was so happy to anounce the actual power, it will probably be correct. Still a bargain if it works.

 

[Allwissend]

I bought a 2000W light that apparently is extremelly efficient, since it only consumes 34W of electric power

LOL, 6000% efficiency. Yes, for most of them the price is good and they are plenty powerful for our applications. Usually 'actual power use' is also pretty accurate to what we can measure. Once that trick didn't work they moved to other exaggerated numbers.

 

[jeffkrol]

I'll try again, I bought a 2000W light that apparently is extremelly efficient, since it only consumes 34W of electric power. It will take a while to arrive, but since the manufacturer was so happy to anounce the actual power, it will probably be correct. Still a bargain if it works.

Just for fun...