Cool LED lights

[CACAdmin]

I was recently looking at these cool 'Marina' LED lights. I know Blaine set up some LED moonlights (http://www.canadianaquariumconnection.com/forum/showthread.php?t=111) (fantastic effect) but that was on a large scale. These are submersible and come individually or you can buy a hub and connect 3 lights to it. Lights come in 3 colors (white/red/blue). I don't know that I'd care for the red but I think a combo of white & blue or just blue placed in select locations of the tank would give a cool effect. I'm just not sure how much light they would give off. I was just wondering if anyone has tried these and if so, do you have any pics you could share.

[mykiss]

HHmm.... that's intersting. I was going to use the white LED Christmas lights for my tanks because 1) it's cheap to buy 2) it uses little power, and 3) you can adjust the string of lights according to size. The only problem is that it may not be intense enough to light the tanks.

I don't plan to have them as planted tank, just tanks with some light to see the fish. If I have the time to do it I'll let you know.

[blainep]

I have seen those lights in stores, but I have not yet tried them out.
They look like a good idea, for a single tank. Low voltage, submersible, and (somewhat) expandable.

I have noticed, with my setup, that they don't appear to put out much light until the room is dark.
The first day mine were set up, I was a little disappointed with them until the fishroom was dark.
Then I realized that they did exactly what they were meant to do, create a moonlight effect.

If you decide to try them out, post a couple of pictures, I'd be interested to see how they look.

[mixixe]

I've tried them out, they have this central connector thing where you can hook up to 3 lights and use them together, however, the lights become dimmer if you use the connector thing and it's very low wattage. I had to return mine. I'm using a coralife LED light now but it's a 1 watt mini LED light. Someone in another forum used thise stick LED lights from ikea ?? maybe that would work

[thegrandpoohbah]

I have one of the LED strips from Ikea. It comes with four strips of them which you can connect together in series or you can run them seperately on different tanks. They all run off the same switch though. I think it was $40.

[CACAdmin]

Thanks, mixixe. I was thinking that if I connected (as you did) 3 lights, it would be brighter but never considered that because they're all hooked the the hub they're probably sharing the total wattage output. Good to know! :Think:Maybe then, just one light would be better.

Too bad, because what had appealed to me was that they were submersible. However, I'll check into the 'stick LED lights' from Ikea.

[thegrandpoohbah]

Here's the link to the Ikea ones: http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?topcategoryId=15579&catalogId=10103&storeId=3&productId=11158&langId=-15&categoryId=16082&chosenPartNumber=90098177.

[CACAdmin]

Thanks Mr. GP. Believe it or not when I read the ad, I had to get out my ruler to figure out what 31 cm. was... you can sure tell I'm from the dinosaur generation. :laugh:

Not sure which way I'll go, but if I do add some sort of LED lighting, I'll be sure to post pics.

[BC_Kron]

I have a strip light that has 3 LED blue moon lights built into it...in the beginning I thought it was really cool, cuz it gave an opportunity to view some of the night dwellers in action. The mistake? Allowing this light to remain on in the night while the others were off...that minimal amounts of extra light caused a HUGE amount of algae growth in a very short period of time, less than a week of using it each night. I have to say it is a really cool look and as I said before you can see plecos, loaches, in my case glass cats really active, just remember not to leave them on all night or maybe just not every night. Anyone else out there have any similar experiences? I haven't used my moon lights in many months outta fear of this happening again.

Jackie

[thegrandpoohbah]

I was concerned about algae as well. I think I'll be buying another timer to run my moonlights so they don't get left on all night.

[CACAdmin]

Thanks for the heads up Jackie about the extra light causing additional algae growth. I would never have thought about that. Maybe, if I do set up LED lights, I'll just turn them on when I want to observe the 'night time' activities in the tank.

[crazeycat]

:D Hi, I have the marina led lights in my 65g ,one blue for moonlight it calms the fish down at night so they are more active all day because they get a good nights sleep. I have one green too enhance the plants colours and one red to enhance the colours in the fish and enhances air bubbles. I have had no problems with algae in the tank and I keep the leds on 24/7. I will try too get some pics up soon. I love the lights so much I'am going too put them in all my tanks.
crazeycat
:smile: :yes:

[CACAdmin]

I'd love to see pics of your tank when you get a chance.

[blainep]

I find in my setup that there is no (noticeable) extra algae growth, although, my lights barely throw any light into the tanks.

It looks almost like a moonlit night, not enough to see anything more than silhouettes .

[crazeycat]

Hi, thats what the blue light is for,when you turn off your full lights one night seat in front of your tank and watch the fish they will become calm and relaxed in a matter of minutes and find there night spot in the tank. The first night after putting in the light I noticed the fish calmed down a lot quicker when it was time for bed.
crazeycat(robert&alison)
:smile: :yes: