the TC420 is a great start, but I wouldn't botther with led strips, just not enough light. I'd look at beamswork lights they work great with a TC420. basically any light 60watts (if 15v like many beamswork lights are) will work on a channel. so that means you can do up to a 4ft 5row .5watt light or up to a 30inch 2row 3watt light both of which are good options for a planted tank.
DIY led's for 6 tanks advice please
5
Hi I currently have 5 tanks, soon hopefully 6. Only two are planted and low-tech at that. They are currently lit by cheap non dimmable led bars, so I would like to improve lighting. This is how the tanks look now:
4 foot planted, lit by 10w cool white, 5w blue, 5w red, 3w warm white
12 gal CRS (3w cold white)
6 ft mbuna 15w cold white, 10w blue, 6w warm white
5ft mbuna 10w cold white, 5w blue, 3w warm white
3ft oranda, 5w cold white, 5w blue, 3w warm white
5 ft Discus (still at planning stage)
I would like to upgrade both the quality of the LEDs and the controls, I am thinking of going "medium tech". A TC420 and two double width aluminum channels of appropriate length each to hold one strip of 12v Epistar IP65 waterproof 5630 cold white and one strip of 5050 RGB with the diffuser (transparent or opaline?) to further protect from water. This would leave one channel on each TC to controll the dedicated (r/b) LEDs for the algae scrubbers.
Does it sound reasonable? Advice appreciated, Ciao from Italy
4 foot planted, lit by 10w cool white, 5w blue, 5w red, 3w warm white
12 gal CRS (3w cold white)
6 ft mbuna 15w cold white, 10w blue, 6w warm white
5ft mbuna 10w cold white, 5w blue, 3w warm white
3ft oranda, 5w cold white, 5w blue, 3w warm white
5 ft Discus (still at planning stage)
I would like to upgrade both the quality of the LEDs and the controls, I am thinking of going "medium tech". A TC420 and two double width aluminum channels of appropriate length each to hold one strip of 12v Epistar IP65 waterproof 5630 cold white and one strip of 5050 RGB with the diffuser (transparent or opaline?) to further protect from water. This would leave one channel on each TC to controll the dedicated (r/b) LEDs for the algae scrubbers.
Does it sound reasonable? Advice appreciated, Ciao from Italy
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Thank you for the advice, I get what you say about the LED strips not being comparable to quality fixtures but my only planted tank has been doing just fine on 23w of [email protected] 5050 bars as per photo
so I hope 32w of cold white and 28 RGB will actually be overkill being twice the wattage and probably 4 times the lumens as the chips are half decent rather than [email protected]
so I hope 32w of cold white and 28 RGB will actually be overkill being twice the wattage and probably 4 times the lumens as the chips are half decent rather than [email protected]
1 - 3 of 3 Posts
