Why would plant grow lights be a bad idea?

[TeeJay87]

I use lights like these for trees and plants that I bring indoors for the winter and for starting seeds each year for the garden. It’s 6 4 foot long LED strips for a total of 252 Watts, and only $89 for the set. Can someone tell me why these would be a bad idea for a reef tank? Are they just going to grow too much algae? I realize they don’t have all the bells and whistles with the app options, but in principle, is there any reason that these wouldn’t work well assuming you built a nice floating hood for them? What about a softies-only tank?

For comparison, 1 XR15 currently costs $530 and is 95 Watts of power consumption.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

It's a pretty heavy red spectrum, which corals generally don't appreciate a lot of red light in our tanks (despite it being a useable spectrum for photosynthesis), but that's about the only issue I can see at the moment.

Hopefully others will have some thoughts for you here on the functionality, but personally, I'd be more comfortable with a bit more blue leaning light and a bit less red leaning light (white lights definitely can work, just the heavy red skew of the above is concerning to me).

Just as a note though, watts - while often used as a measurement of a light's ability to grow corals/plants - don't tell you how strong the light is, they just how much energy the fixture takes to run. Instead, to figure out the growing strength of a light, you want to look at the light's PAR output (or PPFD map) and spectrum. For example, the light you linked above lists 75 PAR at 20" high; looks great, but you have to account for the spectrum included. Most of the light put out by that fixture is in the green to red spectrum, so most of that PAR is not the coral preferred blue light; it looks like only ~1/3 of the light (and PAR) put out would be blue, so at 20" high, that light would probably be getting ~40 red PAR, ~15 green PAR, and ~25 blue PAR (not accounting for light penetration through the water).

Edit: Remembered one other point to consider- the IP rating of the light fixture and how well it could handle long term exposure to evaporating saltwater.

 

[TeeJay87]

This particular brand has these lights in white for cheaper. One concern is the lights are not intended for this use, and I’m not sure how much more dangerous they are compared to typical aquarium lights.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I have a plant light over my damsel tank to grow a mangrove.

I've placed a neon toadstool leather, green star polyps, and some pally's, they've stayed alive for about 6 months now, but they've all turned brown. That's what will happen, as mentioned above, the spectrum is different for green plants.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Algae control. Those lights will be harder to control algae, not made for a wet environment and any coral soft or hard will not look very good. Mho

 

[MoshJosh]

Plant lights will grow coral. . . and algae. . . they are really good at growling algae. Aside from the algae you will wash out a lot of the colors most of us are after. Tank will have a bit of a "dull" appearance. Even using a separate refugium and macros in the display I still had crazy hair algae when I tried using a grow light (full spectrum light for horticulture.)

T5s or off brand lights are probably the best options.

Here was my tank under a grow light. Some of the corals grew. . . and so did lots of algae

 

[rtparty]

Wrong spectrum. T8s don't have nearly the selection of bulbs that T5s do. PAR is going to be a crap shoot so make sure you have a PAR meter to check it all out assuming you can even find the correct bulbs for our application.

There are plenty of T5HO plant lights that can be used over our tanks. They generally last a couple years as they aren't made for the rough and humid environment above our tanks.

 

[oreo54]

I use lights like these for trees and plants that I bring indoors for the winter and for starting seeds each year for the garden. It’s 6 4 foot long LED strips for a total of 252 Watts, and only $89 for the set. Can someone tell me why these would be a bad idea for a reef tank? Are they just going to grow too much algae? I realize they don’t have all the bells and whistles with the app options, but in principle, is there any reason that these wouldn’t work well assuming you built a nice floating hood for them? What about a softies-only tank?

For comparison, 1 XR15 currently costs $530 and is 95 Watts of power consumption.

No... ratio of red to blue is arguably too much.
A hypothesis is red doesn't "grow algae" better. it just inhibits corals. Thus freeing up CO2 and nutrients.

some history..
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/red-light-good-or-bad-for-corals.333157/page-6

This is my opinion, not fact btw.
There are other grow lights with a.... better spectrum.
do be careful on the watt rating.. It's often not the led watt rating but incandescent equiv. Or just made up.

The one you posted looks correct at 252W
Amazon product
This one looks like 65w not 600.
Last thing, in r/b rich lights lumens is pointless.
Actually a wee bit better going on watts. PPFD best of course.

Sticking with the same brand using something like this is probably better..
Amazon product

1ft consuming only 20W

$32.99 for 4-1ft "tubes" 80w total
Approx $132 for the equiv of what you orig. posted vs $100

 

[TeeJay87]

No... ratio of red to blue is arguably too much.
A hypothesis is red doesn't "grow algae" better. it just inhibits corals. Thus freeing up CO2 and nutrients.

some history..
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/red-light-good-or-bad-for-corals.333157/page-6

This is my opinion, not fact btw.
There are other grow lights with a.... better spectrum.
do be careful on the watt rating.. It's often not the led watt rating but incandescent equiv. Or just made up.

The one you posted looks correct at 252W
Amazon product
This one looks like 65w not 600.
Last thing, in r/b rich lights lumens is pointless.
Actually a wee bit better going on watts. PPFD best of course.

Sticking with the same brand using something like this is probably better..
Amazon product

$32.99 for 4-1ft "tubes" 80w total
Approx $132 for the equiv of what you orig. posted vs $100

Appreciate you sharing! What about mixing some of these black lights in with the T5s? I’ve read black lights can harm fish, but maybe these are weaker than typical black lights? “Features: 395-400 nm wavelength, no harmful to retinas or skin. No ballasts. No flickering”

 

[MoshJosh]

There are also these:
Amazon product

 

[MoshJosh]

Appreciate you sharing! What about mixing some of these black lights in with the T5s? I’ve read black lights can harm fish, but maybe these are weaker than typical black lights? “Features: 395-400 nm wavelength, no harmful to retinas or skin. No ballasts. No flickering”

Are you just wanting the look of the black lights? Looking at spectral charts of what light corals can and can't use it looks like "black light"/UV is not utilized very much, so I would skip adding that.

If you are looking for affordable:

Horticulture T5 fixture with ATI bulbs, mix coral plus and blue plus.
Smat Farm LEDs
Vipraspectrum LEDs
black box/no name LEDs

 

[Bpb]

There are inexpensive options out there which would be more appropriate. Adding in near uv doesn’t offset the heavy amount of far red in those

 

[TeeJay87]

Are you just wanting the look of the black lights? Looking at spectral charts of what light corals can and can't use it looks like "black light"/UV is not utilized very much, so I would skip adding that.

I am about to pull the trigger on a 16 inch high frag tank (5 ft wide) that I want to use as a fish dominant reef tank, but basically the plan is just a few softies, live rock and fish. It’s really just sticker shock seeing the cost of lights/mounting and am looking for budget friendly lights that I can DIY the mounting or budget friendly mounting.

 

[oreo54]

I am about to pull the trigger on a 16 inch high frag tank (5 ft wide) that I want to use as a fish dominant reef tank, but basically the plan is just a few softies, live rock and fish. It’s really just sticker shock seeing the cost of lights/mounting and am looking for budget friendly lights that I can DIY the mounting or budget friendly mounting.

ReefBar 453 nm Deep Actinic Blue Aquarium LED Light 9W/Ft Coral Lunar Moon reef saltwater salt water

ReefBar 453 nm Deep Actinic Blue Aquarium LED Light 9W/Ft Coral Lunar Moon

21ledusa.com

Add some of these to the high cri lights I posted above..

You could go with the more socially acceptable cheaper reefbrite strips as well.
I'd keep the beam angles the same.

 

[MoshJosh]

I am about to pull the trigger on a 16 inch high frag tank (5 ft wide) that I want to use as a fish dominant reef tank, but basically the plan is just a few softies, live rock and fish. It’s really just sticker shock seeing the cost of lights/mounting and am looking for budget friendly lights that I can DIY the mounting or budget friendly mounting.

These come with mounts:

Amazon product

Wall and ceiling mounting are also good options.

Bar lights can work well:

Led Aquarium Bar for sale | eBay

Get the best deals for Led Aquarium Bar at eBay.com. We have a great online selection at the lowest prices with Fast & Free shipping on many items!

www.ebay.com

Beamswork Vivio White Blue LED Cichlid Fish Tank Light Dimmer Timer 12 20 24 48 | eBay

Many aquarists voiced how they want a functional yet simple LED light fixture for their freshwater aquariums. There are five levels of brightness the user can set with another simple press of a button.

www.ebay.com

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Add some of these to the high cri lights I posted above..

Just for clarification for everyone on the thread, which of the two above was the high CRI - the Fecida of the Barrina?

 

[oreo54]

Just for clarification for everyone on the thread, which of the two above was the high CRI - the Fecida of the Barrina?

"my" Barrina..if their spectrum is honest and the calc works..
Used 2000 lumens for a 1ft bar.
I normally ignore power calcs (20w, 100L/watt) but.. there they are.
Amazon product

 

[MoshJosh]

"my" Barrina..if their spectrum is honest and the calc works..
Used 2000 lumens for a 1ft bar.
I normally ignore power calcs but.. there they are.
Amazon product

Oreo you making lights now?

 

[oreo54]

Oreo you making lights now?

I've always made fw. Or at least helped design them.
Currently more retired except on the design end.

Oh you probably meant the "my".. LOL
O/P posted the first Barrina.
Amazon product

 

[MoshJosh]

I've always made fw. Or at least helped design them.
Currently more retired except on the design end.

Oh you probably meant the "my".. LOL
O/P posted the first Barrina.
Amazon product

Any thoughts on high powered "smart" W+ RGB lights? I have seen some landscape lighting I though would be interesting to crank the blue and white and see how they grow corals haha The Phillip ones are too expensive. . .

Maybe these:

Hampton Bay 10-Watt Equivalent Low Voltage Black LED Outdoor Landscape Spotlight with Smart App Control (3-Pack) Powered by Hubspace L08557 - The Home Depot

This 3-pack Low Voltage smart light offers color adjustable Integrated LED lighting. Sturdy, aluminum waterproof construction allows lights to withstand any weather. Simply plug-in and connect these waterproof

www.homedepot.com

OP I am not suggesting you use these, sorry I am going off on a tangent!