The Puffer Forum

What are your opinions on the Marineland LED Dual lighting system? I have one for both my 20 gallon and 55 gallon and I love them.
What are your thoughts and experiences with this system?

View the system info here with a cool demo:
http://www.marineland.com/LEDFlash.aspx

Does it shimmer like the halides , I was thinking of getting it for my 55 , if I like it maybe transition over on the rest of my tanks , get away from the compact florescents.

I was looking at that too but Wagner said that they didn't put out a ton of light. Something like only 1 lumen, and that LEDs with 2-3 lumen are better. Still don't know much about it though. If you get it, let me know what you think.

chuckfriedrice wrote:Does it shimmer like the halides , I was thinking of getting it for my 55 , if I like it maybe transition over on the rest of my tanks , get away from the compact florescents.

The little blue LEDs on my metal CF hood make my tank shimmer when they are on. So I am assuming that all LEDs will make tanks shimmer. They do at my LFS haha. Love going in and looking at their tanks...

I'm sticking with my T5s.

THose are nice but big $$ The AI SOL units are much better.

all depends on what you are using them for. The Single Bright model is relatively inexpensive, but you won't get super coral growth. The Dual Bright model doubles the power to 1w per LED, it's just like having 2 regular fluorescents and some blue LEDs. The Reef Capable model is tweaked for coral growth, it's like running dual t5.

I'm with PP at the moment.

My first thought is where's the heat sink? While LED's are cool at the front they aren't at the back and need to get rid of the heat build up, if they don't get rid of their heat then they aren't going to last long and unfortunately you can't just replace a lamp like you can with flourescents you need to buy the whole fixture all over again. I wouldn't even consider an LED fitting unless it came with a minimum 5 year guarantee.

The LED may be 'tweaked' for coral growth which I assume means that the LED has been produced with a colour temperature that best suits coral growth but a T5 can be purchased with that same colour temperature. LED's are only just beginning to compare with linear flourescent T5's (with reflectors) in terms of output and running cost but they truely are high end products so very costly up front.

There are a lot of folks on the reef forums going back from LEDs to T5s. So glad I didn't jump on that bandwagon!

I found a cheap knock off version on ebay , for a 1/3 of the price that the marineland one, lol . Im gonna try it and see how she fairs , If it works great ( ill get the one rated for coral ) If its crap then Ill stick with the compact florescent . So far ive order from the seller a couple times everything works great so far !

Seems the consensus is if you don't have plants or corals it is great for show. But that is all.

Stick with old school. It's trusted