Miracle grow plant light

gogol · Oct 7, 2009

Has anyone ever tried to use these for their planted refugiums ?

http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-LED-Grow-Light-Equivalent/dp/B002NGKITW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1254889457&sr=8-2

mr_X · Oct 11, 2009

they are weak. they sell them at sams club and have one on display. don't bother.

mfisher2112 · Oct 11, 2009

I use this:

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=203213-1373-FL-300PDQ12&lpage=none

and these:

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=79261-75774-017801997347

And I have ricordea on rock rubble waiting for them to attach in the slow flow, and they are doing fine. Chaeto I just added last week is doing fine too.

gogol · Oct 12, 2009

Thanks for the inputs .... I was also looking at these array to light refugium, mangrove tank and phyto culture.
http://www.amazon.com/GlowPanel-Growing-Panel-Plant-Rivals-Spectrum/dp/B001N4K2QE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1255311357&sr=8-1

mr_X · Oct 12, 2009

also garbage gogol. the setup matt posted is much better, and cheaper.

mfisher2112 · Oct 12, 2009

Hey gogol, seems your heart is set on LEDs. hehe. If that is the case, I have been experimenting with these on my 90 gallon "softie reef":

http://cgi.ebay.com/AQUARIUM-LED-LI...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item35a408897a

mixed with these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/AQUARIUM-LED-LI...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4ceb5cb264

My zoas, mushrooms, GSP, and even an Acan are doing VERY well. Even my scoly down on the sand bed is happier than it has been in a long while. They are a bit pricey for a refugium light, but you might want to check them out. But if you look at his "other auctions", he has some shorter tubes. He also has some "screw in" bulbs, but don't know anything about them.

I'm running 4 of the 10,000k tubes with 2 of the 20,000k tubes on a 90 gallon tank.

Just a thought. But as for refugium, I try to keep it inexpensive because chaeto isnt very picky about the light. The 6500k bulb I posted in the aluminum clamp light puts out a VERY "white" spectrum light in a confined space, and as Mr X said, it's extremely inexpensive. about $15 gets you light for about 2 years if you change the bulb every 6 months. Just be sure you have the head space to make sure you don't get too much water spray on the bulb.

Good luck in your search. Hope this helps.

gogol · Oct 12, 2009

That was some pretty heartening info mfisher. Would you be able to post a tank shot of the 90g? Alternatively if you could give your address ( and don't mind my coming over) then I could swing by sometime to see them in action. Let me know. Thanks again for the info.

mfisher2112 · Oct 13, 2009

No problem on the info. Like I said, only been running the LEDs for about a month or so, so time will tell.

As for tank shot, I will do my best. Just don't mind the algae outbreaks! LOL!

And as for coming by, don't mind that either, but where are you? I'm in Newport, 08345. It's a pretty far shot for just about everyone in the club.

Will see what I can do about tank shots in the next few days.

gogol · Oct 13, 2009

And as for coming by, don't mind that either, but where are you? I'm in Newport, 08345. It's a pretty far shot for just about everyone in the club.

you got that right!! ... Tank shots would be really helpful,( we can swap pictures of our respective algae outbreaks ;D )

I am looking for a bright light in my 90G FOWLR.

mfisher2112 · Oct 13, 2009

gogol said:
And as for coming by, don't mind that either, but where are you? I'm in Newport, 08345. It's a pretty far shot for just about everyone in the club.

Click to expand...

you got that right!! ... Tank shots would be really helpful,( we can swap pictures of our respective algae outbreaks ;D )

I am looking for a bright light in my 90G FOWLR.

LOL I'll see what I can do.

The cool thing about these LED tubes is they are about the size of a T8 fluorescent tube. So they can pretty easily be mounted in just about anything. I just have them laying across a wood brace on top of the tank for the time being.

I will warn you though. I bought 8 tubes total so far from the guy. And I had one that didn't work at all, and one that had a loose power cord. Both tubes turned out to be a problem with the power cords connections inside the tube. The guy was very responsive, and even called me on the phone to help with the problem. I chose to avoid the return shipping to replace them and just pulled the end off and fixed them myself. What I found was that he uses a plastic connector that you "crimp" the connection together. I will be pulling those off and soldering the connections properly to avoid issues in the future with any of them.

Other than that, I've been very happy with them, and they are pretty darned bright. Should be really good for FOWLR, since you have no coral to be concerned about in that tank. Even if you did, like I said, mine seem to be doing well.

gogol · Oct 13, 2009

Started some research on LED lights today and could consider a DIY. I still really like the looks and effects of halides. My current fixture has 1 Fiji 75/25 and 3 ATI Blue plus. The corals are OK under them, but the polyps nearly double in size when the halide is on. Even my acans love it but I run it for 2 hour tops to avoid bleaching them.

I dont run a skimmer, so there is sufficient food in the water column for the acans to have their tentacles out all the time. .. It is a beautiful sight to see them grow fat under halides.

I will post my DIY plans sometime this week.

mfisher2112 · Oct 13, 2009

gogol said:
Started some research on LED lights today and could consider a DIY. I still really like the looks and effects of halides. My current fixture has 1 Fiji 75/25 and 3 ATI Blue plus. The corals are OK under them, but the polyps nearly double in size when the halide is on. Even my acans love it but I run it for 2 hour tops to avoid bleaching them.

I dont run a skimmer, so there is sufficient food in the water column for the acans to have their tentacles out all the time. .. It is a beautiful sight to see them grow fat under halides.

I will post my DIY plans sometime this week.

Cool thing about LEDs is you can get the same shimmer as Halides.

I have looked into DIY for LEDs, it can get pretty pricey.

My biggest thing with this experiment was to see if I could find something adequately priced that would give me what I need in the tank and cut the electric bill. I was running dual 175w halides with actinic supplements on the tank before I switched to the LEDs. I've seen as good results, if not better (less algae with the LEDs) than the halides.

One thing I did the other day was took a small colony of zoas and fragged like 3 small polyps off of it. I mounted them, gave them some time to recover, and then moved the new frag into a 10 gallon tank I had set up as a rescue tank for a clown I have.

After a couple of days, the color is different than the parent colony. Not significantly different, and not to say one is worse colored than the other, they are just noticeably different. I'll see if I can get comparison pictures of both if I ever find my damn camera...

I'm still running T5s on my 30 breeder (pair of maroon clowns are the only inhabitants there) and I'm running just two of the 10,000k LED tubes on the 90 gallon bow front that is FOWLR.

mfisher2112 · Oct 21, 2009

Ok, gave up on trying to find the stupid camera. Sorry for the crappy photos, but my camera phone was all I had. You can get a good idea of how brite the LED tubes are from this photo though. These were taken before I moved the powerheads after Jake's talk at MACNA, it is also right after a thorough cleaning because of the algae outbreak. Crappy camera makes it tough to see:

I'll see if I can get some updated photos. Wish I had some of the algae outbreak so the difference could be seen.

Currently the tank has nothing but a small carbon reactor and a coralife CS125 skimmer. The refugium does have some chaeto in it now, but didn't at this point in time. I wanted to see if it really made a difference. Tank is lit with 4 300 led 10,000k, and 2 198 led 20,000k tubes, and refugium is lit with a 6500 k spiral screw in bulb and aluminum clamp on work light from Lowes.

mfisher2112 · Oct 21, 2009

Found the camera! Sorry, it isn't much better! LOL!

Important to note (even though I don't have shots to document):

1: Prior to changing the powerheads, I had the equivalent of "new tank syndrome" break out. Hair algae everywhere, detritus settling on rocks and causing brown diatom break outs, and the sand bed was PURPLE with cyano.

2: The algae outbreak did not coincide with the addition of the LED tubes, however, it did continue after removing the metal halide fixture.

3: The reduction of the algae is most likely a combination of water changes, lighting adjustment, and flow correction. I do not, and have not, dosed or added anything to this tank except fresh Reef Crystals and RO/DI water water changes.

4: This is not a deep sand bed. The "piles" of sand that are up over the glass edge are because of the female tomato clown shoving all of the sand out of the center of the tank between the two rock structures up against the front glass. I put it back. She boligerantly moves it again. So. I gave up. She was tormenting the crap out of the leather with the sand storms... Grr...

Full Tank Shot:

Left Side:

Right Side:

Leather:

Zoas:

Female Tomato Clown:

Blue spot Nasso Tang looking for food (she eats out of my hands. little pig...)

Yellow Tail Blue Damsel. Model citizens. All 3 of them. But so much for a "school"... They all inhabit a different "Third" of the tank:

gogol · Oct 21, 2009

Thanks a lot for taking the pictures mfisher. The light does look very bright. If I can get my hands on a PAR meter I promise to take the hike and check out the reaings. Even if I can have SPS on the top half of the tank, it would be worth it. Thanks again for the shots.

mfisher2112 · Oct 21, 2009

No problem. My pleasure.

I've tried SPS in the past, and NEVER had luck with them at all. No matter what I did.

I've looked at a couple different par meters. I may just break down and buy one. I keep seeing one on ebay for around $90. I'm curious about the readings myself.

gogol · Oct 21, 2009

Would you know if the tubes involve any of optics? I found this array, which seems to use some sort of optics on them. http://cgi.ebay.com/LED-Aquarium-Lighting-Reef-Corals-Tank-Grow-Light-Panel_W0QQitemZ370278097901QQcategoryZ46314QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m263QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DSI%26its%3DI%252BC%26itu%3DUCI%252BUA%252BFICS%26otn%3D10%26ps%3D63

At their price even 3 of the panels are cheaper than 2 X 250 W MH or a 8X48" T5 system. If they last around than 2 years, I am not bothered about longevity either because the cost of replacing 2 arrays, is similar to replacing 4 MH bulbs. It does become a bit more expensive than replacing 8XT5 (Assuming they run for 15months each), but if I factor in the energy savings and the savings in initial investment, even this math would break even.

I guess what I am trying to say is, if the par values are good, then it is not so difficult to convince yourself to with LEDs in today's world.

vangvace · Oct 22, 2009

gogol said:
Would you know if the tubes involve any of optics? I found this array, which seems to use some sort of optics on them. http://cgi.ebay.com/LED-Aquarium-Lighting-Reef-Corals-Tank-Grow-Light-Panel_W0QQitemZ370278097901QQcategoryZ46314QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m263QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DSI%26its%3DI%252BC%26itu%3DUCI%252BUA%252BFICS%26otn%3D10%26ps%3D63

At their price even 3 of the panels are cheaper than 2 X 250 W MH or a 8X48" T5 system. If they last around than 2 years, I am not bothered about longevity either because the cost of replacing 2 arrays, is similar to replacing 4 MH bulbs. It does become a bit more expensive than replacing 8XT5 (Assuming they run for 15months each), but if I factor in the energy savings and the savings in initial investment, even this math would break even.

I guess what I am trying to say is, if the par values are good, then it is not so difficult to convince yourself to with LEDs in today's world.

I'm curious what the PAR output would be, but I don't believe those would work to get the initial levels you're looking for. LEDs designs that rival MH and T5 setups usually, if not always, include a heatsink. If you can find out more info on what leds they use though, let me know.

This seems promising, but still way less then I would expect to spend for a fixture. http://www.ledwholesalers.com/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=512

mfisher2112 · Oct 22, 2009

gogol said:
Would you know if the tubes involve any of optics? I found this array, which seems to use some sort of optics on them. http://cgi.ebay.com/LED-Aquarium-Lighting-Reef-Corals-Tank-Grow-Light-Panel_W0QQitemZ370278097901QQcategoryZ46314QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m263QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DSI%26its%3DI%252BC%26itu%3DUCI%252BUA%252BFICS%26otn%3D10%26ps%3D63

At their price even 3 of the panels are cheaper than 2 X 250 W MH or a 8X48" T5 system. If they last around than 2 years, I am not bothered about longevity either because the cost of replacing 2 arrays, is similar to replacing 4 MH bulbs. It does become a bit more expensive than replacing 8XT5 (Assuming they run for 15months each), but if I factor in the energy savings and the savings in initial investment, even this math would break even.

I guess what I am trying to say is, if the par values are good, then it is not so difficult to convince yourself to with LEDs in today's world.

No, the tubes use no optics. The LEDs are soldered right onto a PCB that is mounted inside a plastic tube like what you would slip over a fluorescent bulb in a standard light fixture.

I've seen those fixtures too and wsa curious, but the initial outlay seemed a little much for me to just play with, so I went with the tubes, figuring worse case scenario would be they could be used to light my work bench in my wood shop! LOL!

gogol · Oct 22, 2009

figuring worse case scenario would be they could be used to light my work bench in my wood shop!

... I was actually interested in learning some basic wood work, but wanted to attend some sort of crash course/workshop before I started handling a power saw ;D. Would you be able to recommend me one?

I have been in conversation with some of the guys who sell LED arrays (one of them being Pacific Sun). I will let you know of the outcome. The good thing about Pacific Sun is that they use cree LEDs as opposed to high powered 5mm and Rafal (NJRC member) will have them on his tank around mid-November, so I can check it out in action.