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flood light LED's

145K views 217 replies 51 participants last post by  sotosmac 
#1 ·
I'm going to take the plunge in LED's for 3 of my planted tanks, hoping to get some advice. Been reading alot about the Finnex on here and that seems to be one route alot of people are choosing. I came across a post on my local fish forum from someone who purchased LED floodlights from China. This company doesn't specialize in aquariums, just regular lights. He posted a video of his reef tank here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0otFIEkWzw&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

The company he bought from was http://zxl-lighting.com/

Has anyone tried this company for LED lights?
 
#5 ·
I got a 30w of this type of light, from a US seller with a plug. It's spectrum is around 5k, but it's pretty nice to look at. I did add a 2-3" aluminum foil shroud to cut down on what Hilde is talking about. I hung it high over a 20L, it should be bright enough to grow whatever plants I want. I'm still setting up the tank though, so I can't tell you how the plants grow, but I do plan to start a thread on here for it.

The 10w version, from what I gathered is around 900 lumens, so mine should be cranking over 2500.
 
#6 ·
I got a 30w of this type of light, from a US seller with a plug.

I did add a 2-3" aluminum foil shroud to cut down on what Hilde is talking about.
I had to splice a 3 prong cord, which was from a PC, onto mine. If you have to that let me know and I'll help you match the colors.

I would like to see a picture of the aluminium shroud. Seems something that could be done in a short time. Working 2 jobs my time is limited.
 
#8 ·
Here's the tank pre setup.


Mine says 4-4500k on it. it was sold as white, but for a 30W with a plug it was the only option, it's actually not very yellow. I'd try to get one sold as "cool white" should be close to 6500k. The shroud, was taking some "great value" aluminum foil, folding it over ~3 times-in the desired width, trimming it to the right length, then scotch taping it to the fixture. It doesn't get very hot so it should be fine for now. IF you rest it right on the tank, the spread won't be an issue though. I plan to have an emersed grow box behind the tank(the black thing), plus it's just one light and a 30" tank-that is why I hung it up high.
 
#9 ·
#11 ·
im debating on whether 10w will be enough or 20w will be too many lumens on a 10g.

most of these auctions on ebay show a 3 wire setup and i noticed some are also DC only (likely for car and boat applications).

Was it as simple as wiring up the black/white and red cables from the lamp to a power plug or did you have to use a transformer
 
#12 ·
im debating on whether 10w will be enough or 20w will be too many lumens on a 10g.

most of these auctions on ebay show a 3 wire setup and i noticed some are also DC only (likely for car and boat applications).

Was it as simple as wiring up the black/white and red cables from the lamp to a power plug or did you have to use a transformer
The 10w should be enough, but if you can spring for the 20w, you can always raise it, or add floating plants.

I suggest filtering the results to US sellers, and maybe add the term plug to the search terms. The plugged 10W should be around 25 bucks total, and the 20W should be around 35.
 
#21 ·
This post from last year motivated me to try them out.

Planning to use the one I have on a new 10gal. Never quite got around to wiring mine up. Thanks for motivating me, folks.
Nice link, that takes the scary out of wiring up the plug. If you order the sans plug model, these things are the cheapest lighting option hands down, as the 10w costs around 10 bucks, you cant even buy a clamp on light with CFL bulb for that.
 
#26 ·
That is a 17" deep tank, and standard aquarium glass will block about 15% of light allegedly. If you have a deeper tank, I would buy the highest wattage you can afford, and hang it high/shade it out as needed-although I don't think you would need more than the 50W in a planted tank.

From looking at that tank though, that is not low light, at least medium in my eye-but I suppose a par meter is better than the eye test.
 
#27 ·
yeah, i was going to say, it certainly looks at least medium to high but sometimes the camera can be be decieving due to the quality of the light sensor.

I intend to test the 10W on a 10gallon (12" height) and test 2 20w on a 30 gallon (36"wide x 16" height).
 
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