t-8 led look to grow coral w/o expensive fixtures!!!

[carlitofish]

just bought 2 led t8 fixtures that can fit to any old shop light. they look to be 50/50. I'm very excited about the possibilities.:propellerhead::propellerhead:


has anyone else tried them out yet?

[larryandlaura]

Got any pics?

[BeakerBob]

Sounds good...who makes them. Any links for more information?

[carlitofish]

AgroLED T8 LED Tubes | Sunlight Supply, Inc. - Indoor Gardening Supplies, Grow Lights, Hydroponics, and Lighting (http://www.sunlightsupply.com/p-14182-agroled-t8-led-tubes.aspx)

look at the 50/50 ones. they are real brite!

[pjr]

just bought 2 led t8 fixtures that can fit to any old shop light. ......

WARNING!!!!!

Do NOT put these in a shop light unless you like explosions, fires, and electrocution!

It says right on their page that it is for use in their fixtures only!

These are almost exactly like the old Sunbrite Gen 1 bulbs. Ballasts are internal to the tube; 90 low powered LEDs per foot.

[carlitofish]

WARNING!!!!!

Do NOT put these in a shop light unless you like exposions, fires, and electrocution!

It says right on their page that it is for use in their fixtures only!

These are almost exactly like the old Sunbrite Gen 1 bulbs. Ballasts are internal to the tube; 90 low powered LEDs per foot.
just hooked them up. they are sweet as pie. you are right about plugging them in as it popped my fuse. sorry no explosions. they are extremely bright. whole thing would cost around 150.00 if you want two. would easily grow coral in up to a 90 gallon tank with two. you definitely do not want to plug them in without rewiring the shop light to accommodate the led bulbs. the problem with shop lights is it has too much equipment in the guts...

---------- Post added at 08:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:34 PM ----------


WARNING!!!!!

Do NOT put these in a shop light unless you like exposions, fires, and electrocution!

It says right on their page that it is for use in their fixtures only!

These are almost exactly like the old Sunbrite Gen 1 bulbs. Ballasts are internal to the tube; 90 low powered LEDs per foot.
just hooked them up. they are sweet as pie. you are right about plugging them in as it popped my fuse. sorry no explosions. they are extremely bright. whole thing would cost around 150.00 if you want two. would easily grow coral in up to a 90 gallon tank with two. you definitely do not want to plug them in without rewiring the shop light to accommodate the led bulbs. the problem with shop lights is it has too much equipment in the guts...

ps. would be :smash::big_grin::highfive3:around 80 bucks if you want only one.

---------- Post added at 08:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:35 PM ----------

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/399813_3089339402095_1522265729_2946079_1799480281 _n.jpg

[carlitofish]

nice pic of the light

[pjr]

Are the cases metal (with heat sink "fins") or plastic?

Sunbrite sells clips that attach to the ends for about $5 per tube. They would work on these too, so you could "retro" them if you do't want to add a fixture.

These will work fine on LPS; if you want to grow acros, you'll need a bunch of them to get sufficient PAR.

[carlitofish]

i would say on a 40 gallon breeder many acros could easily grow and flourish with two bulbs. there are 288 leds I will set up a few tanks with this. I would say they will out last and out perform t 5s, pc's, and the ho leds i am now using smoke halides completely. so far, in all the tanks i have switched, i aM REAL pleased with led performance. this is simply a light that will out perform t5, pc and vho pound for pound every time.

i just got 6 300 watt leds delivered and they seem way brighter than a brand new 1000 watt bulb

[carlitofish]

here is a tank with 4 leds tank is only at two weeks old. now i have 12 variety of sps the tank is 10 x 3 x 3. all coral growth is insane. there a 6 leds now total.


this is only the live rock so far. this stuff came with all kinds of life on it. (there is a tiny acan in the bottom right.)

[carlitofish]

Are the cases metal (with heat sink "fins") or plastic?

Sunbrite sells clips that attach to the ends for about $5 per tube. They would work on these too, so you could "retro" them if you do't want to add a fixture.

These will work fine on LPS; if you want to grow acros, you'll need a bunch of them to get sufficient PAR.

all plastic. it looks to me.

[Tom@HaslettMI]

They certainly look bright but until I see some PAR values I will remain a skeptic.

As an aside... is your tank really only two weeks old?

Tom

[carlitofish]

They certainly look bright but until I see some PAR values I will remain a skeptic.

As an aside... is your tank really only two weeks old?

Tom
yes. the tank in that pic is only two weeks old. the live rock was form a lr farmer who overnighted the rock the same day he dove and got it. i was a skeptic. now it is a complete fact. i have about 100 fixtures working already and more on the way. LED is the future until something better comes along...

[carlitofish]

They certainly look bright but until I see some PAR values I will remain a skeptic.

As an aside... is your tank really only two weeks old?

Tom
yes. the tank in that pic is only two weeks old. the live rock was form a lr farmer who overnighted the rock the same day he dove and got it. i was a skeptic. now it is a complete fact. i have about 100 fixtures working already and more on the way. LED is the future until something better comes along...

lots of stony stuff too

[pjr]

You have 100 of these fixtures? How many tanks do you have? Are you a LFS?

The unit appears to be physically very similar to the early gen 1 Sunbrites, which used a plastic case and the mega-quanitiy of LED approach. However, Sunbrite used higher end, true color LEDs (Edisons I believe) and were all a sole spectrum in a given tube: options were 10k, 12k, 16k, 22k, 470nm, or 440 nm. I still use a pair of late Gen 1 bulbs in my system (same approach but metal case and improved power supplies in the ballasts).

Your bulbs used a 50/50 mix of 440 nm with a yelow spectrum 5.5k LED. Keep your eye on algae growth with that 5.5k spectrum.

On my 135g (18" across) with early Gen 1 bulbs, I needed 6 to 8 tubes across the tank to keep acros happy long term. However, YMMV! :-)

[carlitofish]

You have 100 of these fixtures? How many tanks do you have? Are you a LFS?

The unit appears to be physically very similar to the early gen 1 Sunbrites, which used a plastic case and the mega-quanitiy of LED approach. However, Sunbrite used higher end, true color LEDs (Edisons I believe) and were all a sole spectrum in a given tube: options were 10k, 12k, 16k, 22k, 470nm, or 440 nm. I still use a pair of late Gen 1 bulbs in my system (same approach but metal case and improved power supplies in the ballasts).

Your bulbs used a 50/50 mix of 440 nm with a yelow spectrum 5.5k LED. Keep your eye on algae growth with that 5.5k spectrum.

On my 135g (18" across) with early Gen 1 bulbs, I needed 6 to 8 tubes across the tank to keep acros happy long term. However, YMMV! :-)
i take care of peoples fish tanks around town. the leds do create algae, but also good coral growth. i only have two tanks. and about ten in my garage that need to get set up lol.

[Tom@HaslettMI]

I totally agree that LEDs are where it's at.

However, I'm officially confused :hypnotized:. I think you're posting (and talking about) two different fixtures (a T-8 style and a "box" style fixture). Can you break down the details of each fixture and provide PAR measurements for either or both fixture?

Thanks,
Tom

[Sir Patrick]

Waiting for PAR ratings......

[carlitofish]

will post a pic here.

[carlitofish]

Waiting for PAR ratings......
does anyone have a meter i can borrow?

Aquarium Lighting; Reef, Planted Light Information. PAR, Bulb, Watt, Kelvin, Nanometers, MH, LED. (http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.html)

im thinking pur is more important.

I am showing off two fixtures. an expensive one and a easy made cheap one that can make coral keeping more available to anyone with a few bucks.

If I had a meter i could get you the info...

anyway i will post pics with my camera phone. to show it on a tank. looks to be every led is like 1 1/2 vho t5.

[Tom@HaslettMI]

The link you posted sums up my main concern with these fixtures. Check out the "More about emitters" portion of the LED section of the link. Here are a few quotes:

"...not all emitters are equal..."

"Worse would be the cheaper no name emitters used by manufacturers such as BaiSheng & others and sold under a plethora of other names for so-called aquarium use; these use daylight emitters that can vary from 2000K to 6500K and are in reality totally useless for aquarium use other than just plain light!"

"There is a reason many LED knock offs utilize 100 plus emitters (often 1 watt each although the SkyLED is ONLY .06 watt per low PUR output emitter). These older technology LEDs use a shotgun approach to achieving aquarium lighting (similar in principle to my use of a dozen low end T12 fluorescent light tubes 30 years ago to achieve adequate lighting)."

I'm not sure if your fixtures are "good" or "bad"... that's why people want to see some data on them. Without that information I tend to stick to the "if sounds too good to be true" adage.

Tom

[carlitofish]

im with you there. the bulbs appear to be high quality grow lights for hydroponics. This does not appear to be any crappy shot gun fixture. maybe the manufacturer can stick in the appropriate leds if there is a market for them. I would say, with my humble experience that this light is the Shiote in low budget reef lighting applications. the front is plastic and the back is aluminum. here is a tank lit with only one og these led bulbs dont mind the duct tape. this is just a storage tank.

[carlitofish]

here is a view from the top. please notice if you can the two 4 month old ho t5 bulbs in the back vs the led in the front.


I hate the too good to be true stuff myself. i dont think this is the case here.

[Flynnstone]

i have just installed 2 of these lights in the invert system at the store (Reef Solutions).
the existing lights were the T-12 bulbs. massive improvement. not only in the amount of light produced, but color quality too. So out came my par meter(Apogee). without a doubt the par in the 6" water depth was increased by 3x compared to the T-12 bulb.
what really amazed me is when i took the par meter over to the fish system tank that had 1- 65k GE t-5 bulb and 1-ATI Blue Plus t-5 bulb running, both bulbs being 4 months old, and had the exact same par readings at 6" water depth as the LED tubes.
i plan on testing more at deeper water depths. but the LED tubes were already installed on the invert system, so that limited me to 6" depth. i would assume the LED would penetrated deeper. more testing will prove this, and will be coming soon !!

[pjr]

it's tough to compare these to other bulbs directly... The T12 bulbs that were replaced could have been d, which would diminish their output, for example.

Having said that, I would surely use these over vho and other alternatives! As mentioned before, these are similar to early gen 1 sunbrite tubes. A gen 3 tubes has at leat 4 times the output.

[Tropical Buff]

I am going to follow this post. I am definitely interested, I have a pc fixture that I need to replace bulbs on soon. I just can't seem to justify it on old technology, but my wallet is telling me otherwise. I would love to update with minimal out of pocket

[Tropical Buff]

i have just installed 2 of these lights in the invert system at the store (Reef Solutions).
the existing lights were the T-12 bulbs. massive improvement. not only in the amount of light produced, but color quality too. So out came my par meter(Apogee). without a doubt the par in the 6" water depth was increased by 3x compared to the T-12 bulb.
what really amazed me is when i took the par meter over to the fish system tank that had 1- 65k GE t-5 bulb and 1-ATI Blue Plus t-5 bulb running, both bulbs being 4 months old, and had the exact same par readings at 6" water depth as the LED tubes.
i plan on testing more at deeper water depths. but the LED tubes were already installed on the invert system, so that limited me to 6" depth. i would assume the LED would penetrated deeper. more testing will prove this, and will be coming soon !!

Any updates???

[binford4000]

It's important to understand that PAR is reading the phytosenthasis emitted spectrum.These LED's are probably beblow the 430nm level but most likely put more LUX out which is good for plants.I would be willing to bring both meters over and give you a comparison if you want.Like PJR stated these things would probably host LPS just fine.Are those AI's that you have on the new tank pic's?? If you raise them up 12 inches you would get great spread just a suggestion.They are desigened to be atleast 12 inches above the water line.Pretty cool idea tho and very cost effective.

[carlitofish]

I have been using them in tanks with zoas and anemones. they look great! all are happy three weeks later.

[binford4000]

I have been using them in tanks with zoas and anemones. they look great! all are happy three weeks later.

good to hear!! lighting prices are getting crazy so it's nice to see a product for the budget minded that really works

[Tropical Buff]

good to hear!! lighting prices are getting crazy so it's nice to see a product for the budget minded that really works

Thats my concern exactly I need to do something with my lighting in the next couple months I am currently running PC's and for the money I spend on bulbs I am either going to switch to T5 or a cost effective LED system.

[carlitofish]

If you are going t5 I would not!!! The cheap t8 leds are a better bargain than those. It is way more bang for your buck!!!

[Tropical Buff]

Thanks for the input sounds like this is the way to go will now have to figure out color combinations

[grumpy]

you say that your tank is 10x3x3. exactly how many of these lights do you have over it ?