LED Grow light for macro algae

Raidendex · May 27, 2013

Anyone used these to grow stuff like chaeto? I'm thinking to use two of these over a half of 55g tank that is set up as area to grow macro algae. It looks similar in colors to what I was going to build with cree leds, but this is quite a bit cheaper so decided to try this first.

New 225 LED Hydroponic Plant Grow Light Panel 14W Dual Band Blue Red 2012 | eBay

Thanks

Mike J. · May 27, 2013

IMHO I'd say, a waste of money. My son is big into hydroponics and I'm big into aquariums. My electric bill was a major expense when he lived with me. That little ramble just to let you know I know a little bit. Back before we had all these new fangled LED's and T5's and such we used standard florescent bulbs, T12's. My son had fancy 500 watt metal halides to grow tomatoes, he actually used two different spectrums for when they're young and when they're bearing fruit. I set up a standard 4 bulb shop light with 6500K T8 bulbs and had the same growth. Well, here's the point: I've found nothing better to grow algae than a 6500K florescent bulb. But now I've got a little fancy and I have a 6500K CFL bulb in a shop light over my chaeto. I think I'm running a 150 watt bulb right now. It's cheap and actually works the best.

Raidendex · May 27, 2013

Possibly, although so is buring a 6500k bulb over it. Reason I want to go with blue and red LEDs is to provide just the spectrum algae needs. CFL bulbs produces a lot of light that is pointless to the algae.

Main question I have is if the fixute I linked would produce good amount of light to grow algae well. At only 14w it looks really nice to me, definetly do not want to burn 150w bulb

yanks1 · May 27, 2013

I use 2 of them in my sump and keep them on 24/ 7,, work great for me

c_healy · May 27, 2013

Tomatoes eh mike?

Lol

Sent Via the R2R Forum APP

Raidendex · May 27, 2013

Cool. Good to know. I really want to do some tests with them to see how they compare to CFLs or other LEDs I have in the sump.

On my main system I light same area ( half of 55g tank ) with 16 Cree XM-L U2s with 40 degree optics lol. Didn't buy it for this purpose just had them left over from the planted tank, so I dim them down quite a bit. But algae grows like crazy. Have little ulva leaves ( or something similar ) growing right off the glass along with different hair algae and macros. While the display portion has nothing.

Color wise these are probably close to 6500k CFLs, just a tad stronger heh. Of course this produces some light that is not being used by algae so some energy is wasted.

ReefLEDLights · May 28, 2013

I know someone is going to counter this with "Red Is Best" but I have had great results with the 450 nm Royal Blue and Cool White Mix.

I export about 3 Gal of Macro Algae every month.

The reason I like the 450nm is The Red is blocked very quickly in the ocean and with the intensity of the Cree XT-E Royal Blue I feel you are getting more for your watt.

As you can see the 450nm beats the 650-660nm slightly on efficiency. Given the greater intensity of the Royal Blue at the same wattage I feel its a better choice. I also feel that Royal Blue mixed with Red or Warm White would be interesting to try and a must do for an algae scrubber. I plan on experimenting with this this summer but have not tried it on my personal tank as I do not want to promote the nuisance algae commonly found in shallow tidal pools.

Bill

kracer1025 · May 28, 2013

I use these 2 utilitech pro led lights from lowes in a clamp light housing. They are 1400 lumens and 5k color temp. I must say I have never had cheato grow as fast as it has with these 2 par 38 lamps with a 38deg flood. Here is my sump after 3 weeks. Sump is 18 gallons, I started with 2 tennis ball sized chunks of cheato. Now the sump is filled edge to edge.