1/5th? Really!? That would be cool but it seems fairly low. It would be awesome however. Can anyone else confirm 1/5th red LED to t5ho? That would make LED very cost effective if that's all it really takes to match standard lighting.
1/5th? Really!? That would be cool but it seems fairly low. It would be awesome however. Can anyone else confirm 1/5th red LED to t5ho? That would make LED very cost effective if that's all it really takes to match standard lighting.
That seems about right to me from my testing.
4x 3w OSRAM 660nm, run @ 700mA, takes up 2.1w per LED, so 8.4w of red LEDs grows more than a 42w 2700k CFL, both run on the same size screen (10"x12"), both run on the same 12/12 light schedule.
4 660nm LEDs is bare minimum to slightly exceed the growth of a 42w CFL, I run 6 reds and a blue on each side of mine and I easily get 5x more growth but at 1/3rd the power, not 1/5th.
In regards to T5HOs, I haven't personally tested them, but I would suspect the same 1/5th rule would hold true. Normal fixture is 2x 24w, so 48w of T5HO, if you spaced 5 Osram LEDs in a 20" row I would take a guess and say it could match the growth for 1/5th the power, but if it were me I would use 7 660nm LEDs per side on a SM100 type scrubber, 14 LEDs total which runs fine on a cheap $16 meanwell LPC-35-700 driver.
I'm a fan of 1w LED usage. other than the extra wiring, its always made more sense to me. semi dependent on distance of course... I like the more even coverage. The spotlighting, not just visual but intensity and you usually wind up with more lumens per watt with 1w LED...which is important because I generally use cheap LED.
I got a bag full of these driver that'll run 3 1w LED. If you go ebay and use 630nm your looking at about $1 per LED including driver. Not the highest output LED in the world but they are pretty cheap. If you run 660nm probably closer to 2$ per led driven.
I am running only 22% of what I did with my CFL so, Yes the 1/5th is in the range I have found to work.
150G. Reef/Mix
125G. 3 Regular Oscars/1 Jack Dempsey
75G. 20+ Africans
40G. Fish/Reef. Algae Scrubbers on ALL my SW
10G. SW Fish/Reef.
10G. SW Hospital/new fish quarantine/pod breeder tank
6 stage RO/DI system 200 GPD.
Wow. 1/5. I'm trashing my T5HO scrubber ASAP.
I cant remember the exact watts my LED's are taking, I know its not the full 3 Watts they advertise, seems like it was closer to 2 or 2.5 Watts. I am going to put 4 660nm on each side of my 6x6 screen very shortly and feel that its going to be plenty. With my little 1 cube scrubber I am running 2 660nm on each side and it seems just about right so maybe its not quite a fifth on a smaller screen that is more rectangular then square, this screen is 2.75"x 4.5". A 3.5"x3.5" screen would more then likely need only one on each side.
150G. Reef/Mix
125G. 3 Regular Oscars/1 Jack Dempsey
75G. 20+ Africans
40G. Fish/Reef. Algae Scrubbers on ALL my SW
10G. SW Fish/Reef.
10G. SW Hospital/new fish quarantine/pod breeder tank
6 stage RO/DI system 200 GPD.
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