# Hydroponic LED lights



## mbargas (Apr 19, 2009)

Has anyone used hydroponic lights for growing FW plants. They tend to have mostly red and some blue wavelengths. They appear to be much more intense than the typical aquarium lights.


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## mbargas (Apr 19, 2009)

Considering the resounding response, I am sending a link showing a grow light that I recently purchased.

http://www.amazon.com/MarsHydro-Mars300 ... B00XC3LBI2

This is just an example. There are numerous other led grow lights out there.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Let us know how it works out...particularly algae growth.


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## zimmy (Aug 13, 2010)

That unit may be too much light for most aquariums. It might be better to hang it above the tank rather than place it on the glass lid to reduce the intensity and deal with the fact that the unit is not likely to be water resistant.

What size is your tank? Is it a high tech tank (with CO2 and ferts added)?


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## mbargas (Apr 19, 2009)

DJRansome said:


> Let us know how it works out...particularly algae growth.


I'm currently only using it in a recirculating overflow tank that has mostly floating plants. And of course there is algae growth as well.
The light is mostly red and some blue, which appears to be the preferred lighting for hydroponics.

In my main tank I have current USA strips. They promoted adequate plant growth as well as algae. I was able to control the algae by introducing Siamese algae eaters and American flag fish.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

With regular LEDs I have almost no algae!


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## mbargas (Apr 19, 2009)

DJRansome said:


> With regular LEDs I have almost no algae!


What are 'regular LEDs'?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Not hydroponic and not slanted toward the red spectrum as you describe.


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## mbargas (Apr 19, 2009)

DJRansome said:


> Not hydroponic and not slanted toward the red spectrum as you describe.


Do you believe that the choice of light spectrum will preferentially affect algae growth?

My main tank has Current USA 8000K LEDs which are the ones recommended for FW plant growth. They promoted just as much if not more algae growth than the hydroponic lights. Not necessarily a problem since the algae quickly disappeared with the addition of the appropriate algae eaters.The only issue was that I found that the light intensity was not enough to get the lush plant growth that I wanted.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

It is said that certain spectrums will encourage algae. I thought 6700K and 6500K were the preferred plant spectrums. It is an interesting experiment.


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## Aaron S (Apr 4, 2015)

So the kelvin rating is not necessarily providing the information you need to determine if it will promote plant growth. Recall 6th grade science class when talking about light. So If a plant appears green that is because it is absorbing all the other colors. So plants do not utilize green light very well and thus reds and blues are better for growing algae. BUT that isn't the whole story because your 8000K light (which is white light - meaning it has the entire spectrum of visible light in it) may have more lumens which measures light per second. So if your grow light produces light at the correct spectrum to encourage plants but does it at a much lower lumen rating then it is feasible to have equivalent amounts of light that feeds algae.

I am not sure if links to other websites are OK (if not the feel free to remove it DJ), but this website has a TON of info on the topic that I just summarized. http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/foru ... hesis.html


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## wryan (Dec 6, 2015)

Fascinating thread Aaron, bookmarked for later reading.

Thanks for sharing :thumb:


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