[dcholvin]

I am in process of building a 180 gal. planted tank and was wondering what everyone thought of running 3 Beamswork LED 1W 6500K on a 180? I want to try and get some carpeting plants going in the foreground and not sure what all i will put in the rest. I am going with dirt and eco-complete for substrate and i have a FX6 for filtration. Still looking at what i should do as far as CO2.

thanks

 

[clownplanted]

I am in process of building a 180 gal. planted tank and was wondering what everyone thought of running 3 Beamswork LED 1W 6500K on a 180? I want to try and get some carpeting plants going in the foreground and not sure what all i will put in the rest. I am going with dirt and eco-complete for substrate and i have a FX6 for filtration. Still looking at what i should do as far as CO2.

thanks

The Pent's are better par wise. 3x Would be perfect for a 180 gallon in my mind. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KYELCL...olid=1BDG13ZW993N6&coliid=I1GDJ77RYJEASJ&th=1

Check the info @jeffkroll posted here. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/10-lighting/1148394-beamswork-40-gallon.html

The DA Fspec would even be better but no par data for that one but am sure would even be better than pent. Do not have the 48" for vspec yet but couple weeks out is my guess.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LFF07EC/ref=twister_B01LFF08QO?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

[jeffkrol]

One word of caution Re: the 1W model. It uses an odd 21V power supply. Thought 15V was bad...
Main failure point of all these type lights is the power supply. 15V can be found on eeeek bay.. 21V not so much.
There are voltage adj. power supplies out there though at reasonable prices..
Just an FYI..

Oh and 72" models are available..so I assume your tank is 72"..
You would only need, at most, 2.
Might want to go "upscale" w/ the Beamswork quad 3w... Lensing helps for deeper tanks..
But get the 6500k model, unless you like blue..
https://www.amazon.com/Green-Element-Aquarium-Light-Fixture/dp/B00AT3T28Y

 

[dcholvin]

I looked at the 3 watt ones but figured with the tank being 6'x2'x2' the 3 would give better coverage, and if 1 were to fail I could get a replacement and not be completly down.

 

[jeffkrol]

I looked at the 3 watt ones but figured with the tank being 6'x2'x2' the 3 would give better coverage, and if 1 were to fail I could get a replacement and not be completly down.

good plan but the "big-uns" have dual power supplies..so unlikely to fail on both sides..
9" wide and 90 degree lenses are removable to get 120...........

W/ some DIY diodes are replaceable "fairly" easily.
Downside.. Less efficient..and would be a fix vs replacement..
You will probably get more overall PAR w/ 2 1W units..

Lumen rating 15000 3W.... 16000 2-1W.
$280 vs $240...
1w sleeker builds are nicer to look at..

sorry just throwing some comparisons out there to consider..

another advantage to the 1W is you can have one of those and 1 fspec w/ the colored LED's..
should give better color rendering overall..
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LFF07EC/ref=twister_B01LFF08QO?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Lumen output between this and the 1w is fairly equivalent.

bad thing about any of the above is no easy "dim" hack .. Well manual ones at 6A are "close" and should be w/in spec in reality..

 

[dcholvin]

these are the ones I am looking at:
amazon:
6500K 1w Beamswork
Lumen: 9500 on each

 

[Jamieson22]

these are the ones I am looking at:
amazon:
6500K 1w Beamswork
Lumen: 9500 on each

I have a pair of those 72" on my 125g. They are doing really well for both pants and algae

 

[clownplanted]

I have a pair of those 72" on my 125g. They are doing really well for both pants and algae

Lol. Algae's best friend.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

these are the ones I am looking at:
amazon:
6500K 1w Beamswork
Lumen: 9500 on each

Plants could care less about Lumen's. May blind you with three at 9500? :surprise:
Would get better par with these Beamswork DA FSPEC LED 72" https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LFF07E...olid=1BDG13ZW993N6&coliid=I1JAOVBPW48GR7&th=1

Get Red's with this one but not with the 1W. I will be getting the Beamswork DA FSPEC LED 48" as a second light for my deep tank.

 

[Jamieson22]

One bit of advice on the BeamsWork. While the timer they sell works great, it does not allow a siesta, just a single one/off time for both White and Blue LED. So, skip it as you''ll likely just want to use with a regular timer.

 

[Bunsen Honeydew]

One bit of advice on the BeamsWork. While the timer they sell works great, it does not allow a siesta, just a single one/off time for both White and Blue LED. So, skip it as you''ll likely just want to use with a regular timer.

To add to this, if you go non-fspec, and get the BW timer unit, it has two timer modes, one for the whites and one for the blues, not one for blue+white and one for blues like how the switch is set up. just the whites by themselves give a green-yellow tint.

 

[dcholvin]

Sounds good, I will look into the BW timer

 

[Freemananana]

I use a single 6500K 0.5w LED on my 125g. However, it is suspended 6-8" off the surface and my 125 has the same foot print as the 180 (72"x24"). I basically have my light setup the same as you would on a 180. I have had explosive jungle val and dwarf sag growth. My crypts are extremely compact, sadly so actually. I prefer them to be tall. I think you'd be fine with a SINGLE 0.5w Pent or double if you do go with CO2, after you figure that setup out. Triple is overkill, even with CO2. I am scraping algae off my tank as is and also have some lids that diffuse the light rather poorly.

Check my journal if you're curious, but the 0.5w pent LED model is quite the light.