Reef Discussion

[Dynamic]

Hi,

I just want to know if there is such a thing as too much light? I found this awesome LED on ebay for $10. I purchased it and put it on a heat sink. It is REALLY bright. I think it is rated at 850 lumen.

I will show you a comparison.


This is the Fluval Chi with stock lighting. Yeah, they are small LED's, but the tank is pretty well lit. It is not too hard on the eyes, although it still is not as bright as I would like.


This is the Edge. I have added the LED I purchased. It is ONLY the one high powered LED. If you go too close to the tank, it is VERY bright. Almost hard to look at.


This is them side by side. As you can see, there is an insane amount of light coming from the edge.

Now I understand the sun is really powerful. Does that mean that this little LED should be okay?

Cheers!

 

[jashay]

do you have a link to the seller??? I could use this sort of lighting! especially at that price. does he have any more? I think this type of lighting would work better in a deeper tank as it would penetrate more depth. could it be modded to have a dimmer?

I beleive you could over do it with lighting but cant say how much is to much, I know sunlight is over 100,000 lux (I think around the 120k, not sure).

 

[slin1977]

Fry away, lol

But seriously, is the spectrum correct for coral. I know many ebay led units that totally ruined valuable coral collections.
For Ten dollars they would be low power led anyway.

 

[n0rk]

To be truthful, 850lm isn't that much when you rationalise it, especially when you consider the best whites available are currently putting out around 175lm/W driven at 1W... yes, it'll grow things... but no, I don't think it'd be anything like too much light. The only caveats here would be that you need to be sure it's the right spectrum and the correct beam width, that'll define everything.

 

[Dynamic]

Ah thanks guys. I am going to experiment with it more. It is very bright though.