The Puffer Forum

How long are the bulbs good for? What's their par?

they last 100,000 hours and rated at 6000-7000K Blue = 450 nM
**theres a few peeps on ebay not happy with this seller but lots other sellers with similar products. i have 3 panels i got off him before working same as i bought 4 month ago,**

Those LEDs look awfully nice, I'll probably get those. I did also have a guy who is willing to sell me a used PC fixture like this one http://www.petsolutions.com/Current-USA ... 01713.aspx he says the bulbs are pretty new and he is asking $75. If I'm correct though, aren't PCs a little outdated? If I don't get LEDs then I might go with this PC unless you guys think otherwise.

Those LEDs look awfully nice, I'll probably get those. I did also have a guy who is willing to sell me a used PC fixture like this one http://www.petsolutions.com/Current-USA ... 01713.aspx he says the bulbs are pretty new and he is asking $75. If I'm correct though, aren't PCs a little outdated? If I don't get LEDs then I might go with this PC unless you guys think otherwise.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but I think those LEDs are phoney.
You NEED drivers and power supplies for LEDs, you can't just run them in a circuit directly from a wall outlet.
Let me explain..
The voltage from a wall outlet is alternating current. It means that the voltage is kept constant, but the current can change.
LEDs are current driven, meaning that the voltage can change, but the current is constant.This is why LEDs last so long. To do this you need drivers and power supplies, you cant hardwire it directly for use in a wall socket.

Also, the leds pictured do not look like high powered leds. They look like the 5mm LEDs you can buy for 2 cents each. These are not the type of LEDs you want to use. They produce only 1/2 watt per LED.

I think this light you be perfectly suitable for a freshwater aquarium or a FOWLR SW setup, but for coral growth in mind, this won't work.

I thought they looked a little off...

I love using metal halides, but they will run up your electric bill. I was running three at once for about 12 hours a day and it cost me 1000$ for electric. I was using them to grow out corals though.

So no on the LEDs?

I have a friend using LEDs who is thrilled about them.

Bit not the cheap ones? Just the high quality ones?

Sorry, I just don't know enough about them.

Just a thought on the lighting, I have kept loads of soft corals under T5. My tank for this is a 39 by 16 by 16 inch tank, I have drilled the plastic hood that came with it and added two 55W power compact twin tubes made by Interpet - 50/50 white/actinic. Could also run the original hood's T8's alongside so did a 50/50 with that too.

I did have to take the front flap off the hood and add a double fan unit to cool it, but it worked. Grew mushrooms, a toadstool leather a foot wide, cabbage leathers, green star polyps and sun corals.

This was until 'wallpapergate', Pufferpunk...

/shrug bogus or not they work great . growing corals Idunno they reach same wave length as your 1000$ metal halide system.
and cost me 25$

Ok thanks, i think I'm going to buy these and just mount it over my tanks with the extra overhanging. This way if I want to keep corals I have something I know will work. Tell me what you think about them please. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWAX:IT

Looks good. If you find yourself down the road wanting light-intensive corals, you might want a second on of these, but but two acintics in one and two 10k daylights in the other so you can control a dusk/dawn effect. For now this should be fine. Good luck!