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Aqueon modular LED

63K views 48 replies 22 participants last post by  Clint 
#1 ·
Anyone heard of these in a planted setting yet?
Only reviews I've seen are from fish only guys.

Thinking of running one with two daylight and one colormax on my 46 bow.
 
#3 ·
Will do, still haven't decided yet.

It will be $121 for the Aqueon 36" hood + 2 more light strips.

Also looking at a Ray 2 for $147, but only uses 7000k leds.

Ray 2 says the leds last 40,000+ hours, can't find info on the aqueon's lifespan.

Seen quite a few negative reviews on the marineland lights, so I'll probably avoid those.
 
#4 ·
Well, I bit the bullet and decided to be a guinea pig.

So far i only have 2 of the three light strips in my unit, the colormax one is still on backorder.
With the two daylight bulbs in it the colors seem a bit washed out (I'm use to the warmer color tones), so I'm running my t8 florasun bulb along with them.

I'm seeing a lot of new growth on the sword and red lily plants, the crypts are looking fine, no melt off and have a healthy appearance. The wisteria is growing a lot faster than it had been and is getting a bushier appearance.

(before this hood I was using a corallife t5 hood that was constantly giving me issues, never worked consistently.)

The moonlight option on this hood is really nice looking, it isnt "too blue" and has a nice look over all.

The main downside to this hood so far is it's size, it is pretty wide but it isn't very tall, so it looks nice over the tank still.
 
#5 · (Edited)
I have the 36" with 2 Daylight and 1 Colormax on a 92 gallon corner (it's 24" deep). I have a glass lid over the top of this since I have some jumpers in the tank, and I think that was causing some nasty reflections when I had light just sitting on the glass with the legs provided. I felt I was losing as much light off the top of the glass and getting a bad glare when looking at it, so I unscrewed one end and slid the legs off and now the LED rests directly on the glass. I've seen a lot of growth from it, in the week I've had it over this new tank.

Edit: forgot to mention, I disagree with the OP on the moonlight, I can't even tell they are on in my tank. Not nearly powerful enough.
 
#42 ·
hi, newbie here.

just purchased 2 day led and 1 colormax on a 36" aqueon hood. my tank is a 44 gallon bow front. have bunch of parrot and oscar and plan to introduce anubias, jungle val and amazon swords into tank. how many hours per day would you guys recommend running?TIA.

View attachment 57413

Photo of my tank with the light on. Taken on a iPhone 4 non-HDR


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#9 ·
I got a 48 on my 55 long with one colormax in the middle port and two day light on the out side ones. My te well growing the handfull of plants I have. The shimmer looks cool and it has made the colors on my gbrs look great. did make a mod to it so the day light and moon light are on seperate timers. If anyone is interested in how let me know, its not to tough.
 
#12 ·
I called Aqueon to get some info on the 36" Modular LED. This seems like the place to post it.

Each diode is .22w. The 36" light uses 30" strips with 22 diodes each for a total of 5W. I guess the blue account for the missing wattage.

3 light strips rate 41 PAR at 12". They estimate about 20 PAR at 24".

Interestingly that's slightly less than the Marineland Doublebright per the LED Lighting Compendium (http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=160396).

They come with a 1 year warranty.
 
#13 ·
Did you ask about the white strips or the colormax?

I ordered a 30 inch with 2 extra colormax. I have a 37 gallon heavily planted low light plant tank. I am looking for medium to low light coverage. I don't want to have to get into the use of CO2.

It looks like I should be ok, right?

(This is to replace a single T8 plant spectrum that didn't seem to be quite cutting it.
 
#14 ·
I think it is fine for low light. They recommended 2 white and one colormax but I have a deep tank and a little more lighting needs. The colormax are, according to the rep, 2/3 white and 1/3 red LEDs so you are still getting mostly white. It will probably look great. Please keep us posted.
 
#22 ·
The tank I am trying them out on is a 37 gallon, so 30 x 12 x 22ish. I am aiming for a cost effective way to get medium/low light. I don't want CO2/high light.

With the 2 colormax and 1 white it seems to work well. Some may prefer what Aqueon recommends of the 2 white, 1 colormax.

I may go that route for the 46 gallon 36" setup.

I do wish the bulbs went to the end and weren't just 24"s.

I would have went with the buildmyleds but at double the cost, then having to add a dimmer seems a bit silly. Sure I could someday switch it to a high light/CO2 setup if I wanted but I highly doubt I will ever want to go that route.
 
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