# LED light, how many lumens?



## Chris2500DK (Feb 15, 2006)

So I'm thinking about using a LED bulb to light a tanganyikan tank. No plants (maybe a few abubias) so it's just to see the fish.

I've found a 6000K bulb that uses 3 1W LEDs and delivers 160 lumens, I've no real idea of how much light that is though. Would it be sufficient?


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## Jerseyfish (Apr 16, 2008)

160 lumens isn't much at all. Here's some comparisons

Incandescent Bulbs
15 watts: 122 lumens, 8.1 lm/w
25 watts: 210 lumens, 8.4 lm/w
40 watts: 460 lumens, 11.5 lm/w
60 watts: 890 lumens, 14.8 lm/w
75 watts: 1180 lumens, 15.7 lm/w
100 watts: 1750 lumens, 17.5 lm/

Flouresent (sprial cfl)
9 watts : 425
15 watts : 950
20 watts : 1200

So i'm going to say that 160 lumens wouldn't do much for you, unless you are lighting a nano tank.

I've seen aquarium bulbs like life-glo rated in lux. A 48" lifeglo2 bulb has 320 lux, which isn't a very useful term since they doon't tell you what size tank that is on. On a 75 gallon, that is about 1350 lumens, where on a 55 gallon its 1640 lumens.


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## Narwhal72 (Sep 26, 2006)

It's not a lot of light but it may be good if you are looking for a different effect than the typical fluorescent lit aquarium. Depending on the type of LED and the optics involved you may get a bright but very narrow beam or a dim but wider dispersion. You still won't get as brightly lit a tank as you would with fluorescent but the shadow and highlight effects you can create can look really cool. If your only using it to show fish it's worth experimenting. I would suggest a 5 or 7 LED lamp though. The 3 LED lamps are really dim and not much good for anything except desk lights.

Andy


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