LED Strip Heat Rise?

[dlhirst]

I picked up one of these at MACNA:

BlueLine 24" 18w Blue VHO LED Strip :: BlueLine VHO LED Strips :: LED Lighting Systems :: Lighting :: Champion Lighting & Supply

The only real disappointment with my all in one tank is the inability to select only SOME of the lights in the fixture. It's all six (T5s) or none. So I figured I could rig this up somehow. Turns out that adding this in was easy peasy. I'll add a pic soon.

Now, I have two big concerns...

1. What kind of heat rise might I expect? I am at about 80F in summer days without heaters running.

2. To mitigate heat, I was thinking of splitting the light cycle of the LEDs. Few hours in the morning, and then a few hours in the evening. With both cycles overlapping with the T5s for half of the time. Any reason to worry about that kind of intermittent lighting for the animals in the tank?

By the way, the added color is awesome!

[XSiVE]

You shouldn't see any heat rise from that.

[dlhirst]

My hood has two hinged sections, normally the smaller section stays open in the summer to help ventilate the heat. That hinged section is where I mounted the LEDs, so it is now closed. I will get some heat from that.

But, I am hoping that the extra light from 18W of LEDs can allow me to turn down the length of the T5s. Is that a fair assumption?

[jimsflies]

I wouldn't be surprised if the blue leds put out more PAR than one or two of your t5's. So yeah, you could shorten the photoperiod of your t5's.

[iyachtuxivm]

Unfortunately you probably wont see much of a PAR increase from them, they are only 1w LEDs. They will make a great companion light to your set up like a moon light. I have an Icecap one that really lights the tank up, but really no par cant even tell it on with the T5s on. I use mine to watch all the corals glow at night in the "moon light". No heat though.

[MizTanks]

Originally Posted by iyachtuxivm

Unfortunately you probably wont see much of a PAR increase from them, they are only 1w LEDs. They will make a great companion light to your set up like a moon light. I have an Icecap one that really lights the tank up, but really no par cant even tell it on with the T5s on. I use mine to watch all the corals glow at night in the "moon light". No heat though.

Otherwise what your saying is, any led under 3w would pretty much be just for show? I'm asking cause I was thinking of adding a strip light myself.

[iyachtuxivm]

Originally Posted by MizTanks

Otherwise what your saying is, any led under 3w would pretty much be just for show? I'm asking cause I was thinking of adding a strip light myself.

Pretty much.
Everything that emits light will emit some with a par value although that value varies greatly. If you look at the design of the first sunbrites it used 1 watt leds at 90 per foot so a 4foot strip would have 360 leds. As a stand alone light source you needed 5-6 strips to light an average 4 foot tank like a 75g. Hope that puts it in perspective a little. It really has a lot to do with lumens and radiant flux the brightness and the power the light gets "pushed" at to deliver that PAR to the corals. It gets more technical then I know how to explain really. Does the light create PAR? Yes. Would I reduce my lighting schedule because of this strip? No They are great for aesthetics and maybe it will add something to the overall spectrum or PAR levels. I am not saying they are bad.

[MizTanks]

Not taking your info as if your saying anything bad at all. Great simple explanation period thank you.