# LED Lighting. Where to buy it? Which brand? etc.......



## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Hey everyone

I've decided I need a bigger African tank. The 120g I have just doesn't cut it anymore, so I'm starting to plan out my new tank. I'm in no rush. Its probably going to take me a year to gather all the supplies. My plan is to make the tank of all tanks. All the bells and whistles  I've pretty much decided a 225G, 72"L x 24"W x 30"H should be perfect. I'm tired of replacing bulbs so I wan to make the switch to LED

Keep in mind my tank is Planted and I want a light that will be good for plant growth and help light the colors in my fish. I also would like to run a controller. Sunset, 
sunrise its sweet. 

So my questions are........

Which brands are good?

Where do I buy 1?

Which controllers are good?

What length fixture for a 72" tank? or do I go 2 x 48"?

If having one made is way cheaper. Is anyone on here interested or qualified to make a custom one?


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## Vancitycam (Oct 23, 2012)

Uh oh here goes the lighting debate again lol, sweet news I can't wait to see this tank. The length and finding a fixture for it will be tough and expensive. You know what lights I'd choose but I don't think the ones for fw planted and controllable unless its changed last I looked into it there was a universal controller that was working with kessil Neptune? Apexi maybe or something not sure if anything ever was finished. If I find it ill text you the link. But you still have to come check out my tank n lights and "relax" for a few mins I will owe you one man.


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

Congrats! This is like the most exciting part of any tank project for me. Are you at all concerned about the 30" depth both from the perspective of being able to reach down that far and also with respect to being able to get light to penetrate to that depth. The LED choice really depends on what kind of plants you plan to put in. If its just a few swords or vals, then I think your options are much easier.

You should check out the Kessil fixtures at J&L. The Amazon sun version is for plants but I'm not sure about the controllability of that unit. I love the pendant design too as then you don't need a canopy. A few of them hanging from the ceiling look awesome. For freshwater and planted especially, you are fairly limited in your selection of LED. That being said, another great option is to check out Build My LED Custom LED Lights for DIY Horticulture Aquarium Hobby Lighting

If you are looking for a controller, Neptune is by far the best. A great second choice would be Digital Aquatics. I have both and the Neptune is way more rugged and more intuitive as well. Overall, less issues and glitches than the DA unit.

Can't wait to see what you decide on for your entire setup.


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## Vancitycam (Oct 23, 2012)

Tony did you peek in my window and look at my lights??lol just kidding good to see more kessil fans that appreciate the quality of the fixture.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

tony1928 said:


> Congrats! This is like the most exciting part of any tank project for me. Are you at all concerned about the 30" depth both from the perspective of being able to reach down that far and also with respect to being able to get light to penetrate to that depth. The LED choice really depends on what kind of plants you plan to put in. If its just a few swords or vals, then I think your options are much easier.
> 
> You should check out the Kessil fixtures at J&L. The Amazon sun version is for plants but I'm not sure about the controllability of that unit. I love the pendant design too as then you don't need a canopy. A few of them hanging from the ceiling look awesome. For freshwater and planted especially, you are fairly limited in your selection of LED. That being said, another great option is to check out Build My LED Custom LED Lights for DIY Horticulture Aquarium Hobby Lighting
> 
> ...


Im pretty excited about this project and Im hoping if I go all out on this one, than I wont ever need to upgrade again. The concern on the 30" depth isn't a factor to me. My tank is already 25" deep so what's another few inches? My tank is 5ft tall already including stand and Ive become custom to using a step ladder. The only I time I reach down to the bottom is to plant a new plant or to grab the rock I attach zucchinnin to which I have a long plastic stick to reach the bottom with. Im now pretty good with it. As for the plants. I will be using all the ones in my current setup. My plan is to setup the bigger tank exactly the same as my current tank, just with more space in between all the rock work and plants. I currently run the oddysea, 3 bulb t5HO. 1 bulb is blue the other are 6500k and a 10,000k and my plants flourish. I wont be growing any carpeting plants and the only plant I have that stays shorter is my Crypts and they are doing great with current lighting. I know their is LEDs more powerful than my odysea so Im ready to make the switch.

I know Cam has those pendants. He's close to getting a job doing promotions for kessel LOL. Ive seen the one on the planted tank at J&L. They are an option but expensive. I have a while before I pick so Ill be doing a lot of research on all the ones people recommend.

As for my tank plans. Im leaning towards doing a sump. My uncle has been a plumber for 30 years and he gave me some cool ideas. My downstairs washroom/ sink is right behind where my tank is. Automatic top would be very easy to install or installing a hot and cold faucet under the tank to fill the sump would be very simple as well. I would also be pretty cool to be able to turn a valve and drain the tank into the sinks plumbing. Nice and easy water changes  For the stand Im going custom made again. I have 2 wicked carpenter buddies who appreciate all the things I've done and do for them mechanically or around their houses. So Im getting another free stand.  All I have to do is pay for the wood. They said this one will be even nicer than the last one they built


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## kacairns (Apr 10, 2012)

Controller, hands down Apex Neptune. I originally had a Digital Aquatics RKL, and when it became apparent I'd have to upgrade to the RKE to do what I wanted the price difference between the two units closed up greatly and the feature set the Apex has wins hands down compared to the DA RKE.

LED lights are expensive and I'd suggest if going with LED minimum of 3w but 5w emitters would be better due to your depth. Another option from buying those expensive pre-made good looking units is that friend of Anthony's who builds LEDs. He builds the aluminum heat sink and wires up power supply and whatever you want for emmitters (ie I'm going with a variety of 10w) and is even making me 4 separate control channels that I'll be able to control with my Apex controller. Picture of the heatsink, could easily have a wood housing built around it for looks to match a stand, which is what I'm planning on doing to match my oak stand that has a cherry stain


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

Sounds like an awesome project Justin! I was browsing the buildmyled site that I quoted above and its pretty cool. Lots of options and not terribly expensive. Maybe cost you around $500 for a 6 foot fixture. That's very reasonable. For that price, I wouldn't even consider DIY unless you want to do it for kicks. 

Plumb the whole thing with auto WC and life would be so much easier.


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## kacairns (Apr 10, 2012)

tony1928 said:


> Sounds like an awesome project Justin! I was browsing the buildmyled site that I quoted above and its pretty cool. Lots of options and not terribly expensive. Maybe cost you around $500 for a 6 foot fixture. That's very reasonable. For that price, I wouldn't even consider DIY unless you want to do it for kicks.
> 
> Plumb the whole thing with auto WC and life would be so much easier.


I originally checked out that site before deciding on diy. Yes it is $450-500 for a single fixture, but if you look further for say a 180g tank they recommend 2 fixtures for "medium light". So all depends on what you want to achieve for light spectrum, my experience medium light makes things look dull especially with LED


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

kacairns said:


> I originally checked out that site before deciding on diy. Yes it is $450-500 for a single fixture, but if you look further for say a 180g tank they recommend 2 fixtures for "medium light". So all depends on what you want to achieve for light spectrum, my experience medium light makes things look dull especially with LED


Yeah, I hear what you are saying. Not sure as I've got no first hand knowledge of that product. That being said, I think Justin's plants should be fairly easy to maintain and probably won't need any kind of extreme planted tank lighting system. So really, he needs a light that will be sufficient for him to view his fish. For Africans, I find that a bluer spectrum actually works very nicely and makes colours pop. Going to a more 6700K type spectrum definitely won't make the fish look as good as they are in 10000K.


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## kacairns (Apr 10, 2012)

tony1928 said:


> Yeah, I hear what you are saying. Not sure as I've got no first hand knowledge of that product. That being said, I think Justin's plants should be fairly easy to maintain and probably won't need any kind of extreme planted tank lighting system. So really, he needs a light that will be sufficient for him to view his fish. For Africans, I find that a bluer spectrum actually works very nicely and makes colours pop. Going to a more 6700K type spectrum definitely won't make the fish look as good as they are in 10000K.


Great thing about DIY with the setup I'm getting, I can change the individual LEDs, move the bars as far as the wire will allow for the emitters. Pretty much if I want to upgrade later, its somewhat easy, where as with a fixture like that, upgrade means, selling the old one and buying a new one. Which means that if someone got bored of keeping africans and wanted to switch to salt water, it wouldn't be hard on the pocket book and in fact initial investment is cheaper then "brand name" to begin with


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## dino (Aug 29, 2011)

Well can we try to narrow it down a bit justin? Are you into DIY?do you want pendants? Do you want a single unit or multiple? Excuse me if these questions have alrady been addressed i just browsed through the post


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## AKAmikeross (Nov 5, 2012)

Do you really need that much light for the types of plants you keep? I saw a 30" deep tank with a current USA led plus fixture. It was brighter than the same size marineland doubled bright I have and has the option to really dial in the color spectrum your after. Comes with remote and a few preset lighting options.

I would research if these lights are bright enough for the plants you keep. If these lights will work you could get 2 36" units for a little over 100 each. A lot cheaper, might be enough to keep your plants happy, lights up a 30" deep tank well and the ability to dial in the exact color spectrum you want is nice. Overkill is great when it comes to filtration but why spend the extra coin if your going to keep an african/low light planted setup for awhile. If you plan to get into corals or ground carpet plants thats a different story.

All my opinion of course but I would rather spend the money on something else especially with these current USA fixtures currently on the market... I was impressed when I saw it in person.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

AKAmikeross said:


> Do you really need that much light for the types of plants you keep? I saw a 30" deep tank with a current USA led plus fixture. It was brighter than the same size marineland doubled bright I have and has the option to really dial in the color spectrum your after. Comes with remote and a few preset lighting options.
> 
> I would research if these lights are bright enough for the plants you keep. If these lights will work you could get 2 36" units for a little over 100 each. A lot cheaper, might be enough to keep your plants happy, lights up a 30" deep tank well and the ability to dial in the exact color spectrum you want is nice. Overkill is great when it comes to filtration but why spend the extra coin if your going to keep an african/low light planted setup for awhile. If you plan to get into corals or ground carpet plants thats a different story.
> 
> All my opinion of course but I would rather spend the money on something else especially with these current USA fixtures currently on the market... I was impressed when I saw it in person.


Im on the same page as you kian. I dont need overkill. All that will do is cause algea and more work for me. Im happy with the way my plants grow now. My light is no where near the power of some of the new Led units out there. The US current ones seem perfect. I might try one on my planted tank to see how it does first. Its 24" deep and my light hangs another 6" above that. So if can grow plants in my planted Co2 tank than it should have no problem on my new setup. I just wish you could try out all the fixtures before you buy one.

Im still looking at every option and still have an open ear for ideas. Im not looking for super duper bright. Im not growing hair grass or anything. Just low/med light plants. I like the diy builds but I also like a simple plug and play.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Oh and I'm African for life. I wont be switching over to salt. Been there already and really enjoyed it but I love my Africans.


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## Vancitycam (Oct 23, 2012)

They really are just so colourful, active, beautiful fish with easy fw care just perfect and the variety is almost endless.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Ive been watching videos on the US Current Plus fixture. Its pretty impressive for the cost. Worse case you could throw 4 On there for around $600. But I still think 2 would work just fine. They are my front runner. Very affordable units.


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## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

Do you know anywhere that sells the 48" satellite freshwater led+ fixture around here? The only place I've seen that has it sells it for almost $300.00 and it's $120-150 in the States.


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## bonsai dave (Apr 21, 2010)

I got mine from Rogers Aquatics last June and I paid just over $ 200 with taxes


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

bonsai dave said:


> I got mine from Rogers Aquatics last June and I paid just over $ 200 with taxes


And what is your opinion on it? What size did you buy?


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## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

bonsai dave said:


> I got mine from Rogers Aquatics last June and I paid just over $ 200 with taxes


It's $262 at rogers now for the 48" pro fixture


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## bonsai dave (Apr 21, 2010)

I have replied to your pm 


jbyoung00008 said:


> And what is your opinion on it? What size did you buy?


Wow . I guess I lucked out. I would just get them of amazon .com . You can't beat their prices.


Steve said:


> It's $262 at rogers now for the 48" pro fixture


Here is a link to planted tank.net there are a few good threads on the fixtures .
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=379417
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?p=4162105#post4162105


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## Steve (Mar 27, 2013)

$116 off amazon.com w/ free shipping to the states so about $130 after exchange rate which is pretty good


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

I bought my Current Satellite FW+ last year thinking it as an inexpensive LED lighting solution for a few years until better and cheaper comes along. It's pretty decent right out of the box, no regrets buying it. I'll probably buy additional fixtures down the road.

I bought mine from Kensfish, right now they have an additional 5% off promo:

Current Satellite Plus Freshwater LED 48-60 Inch


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## Sidius (Mar 25, 2012)

I've never owned a controller but from all the research I've done, Neptune seems to win hands down. I plan on getting one down the road.

As for lighting.. The Current USA FW+ fixture does seem pretty good and looks great in the videos I've seen. I'm looking into buildmyled right now for my own build. The Fish focus 13,000k - XB series seems like a great option for a planted african tank, but you can also customize the LED lighting in the fixture to come up with your own combination of spectrums as well. They're also supposed to be releasing their multi-channel fixtures any time. I doubt you'd be disappointed with either choice.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Thanks for all the replies everyone. So much good information on this thread. Im still clueless on what the best LED setup is for what I want. I appreciate all the comments. I just broke the news to the future ex wife LOL, I mean girlfriend, we are up sizing the tank in the near future. It went over better than expected. I found a better suited tank 230g , 72"L, 30"W, 24"H


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## Sidius (Mar 25, 2012)

jbyoung00008 said:


> Thanks for all the replies everyone. So much good information on this thread. Im still clueless on what the best LED setup is for what I want. I appreciate all the comments. I just broke the news to the future ex wife LOL, I mean girlfriend, we are up sizing the tank in the near future. It went over better than expected. I found a better suited tank 230g , 72"L, 30"W, 24"H


What technique did you use to break it to her? lol I may need to use the same one to get permission to keep my 90g tank lol


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## Atom (Apr 21, 2010)

I bought my 18" and 24" Current Usa LED+ from DoctorsFosterandSmith. Shipping was $20 plus taxes.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Atom said:


> I bought my 18" and 24" Current Usa LED+ from DoctorsFosterandSmith. Shipping was $20 plus taxes.[/QUOTE
> 
> What are your thoughts on the light?


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Some reviews I found on Kenspage. Oddly, almost all the reviews are by African keepers. Might be a sign  Current Satellite Plus Freshwater LED 48-60 Inch

The buildmyled wepage looks pretty cool Jamie. You could pair 1 Us current light and 1 buildmyled together and have the light of all lights. 

As for breaking the news to my Girlfriend about a bigger tank. I went with the approach of telling, not asking. She's pretty cool with my random ideas and projects. I think its more about the money too her. I bust my butt working all the time. I deserve a bigger tank


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

jbyoung00008 said:


> As for breaking the news to my Girlfriend about a bigger tank. I went with the approach of telling, not asking. She's pretty cool with my random ideas and projects. I think its more about the money too her. I bust my butt working all the time. I deserve a bigger tank


I'm pretty much in the same camp. Asking for forgiveness is way easier than asking for permission.  To be honest, my wife is the same way, she rolls her eyes when I tell her of my purchases but she knows its my passion and its better than me spending it on booze and the casino.

I think you are pretty much on your way to figuring out your lighting. In my own experience, Africans tended to look best under whiter/bluer light. Not the best for plants but I think with the types of plants you have, you should be fine as long as the lights have decent intensity. Feeding the plants will help too in keeping them nice and lush.


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## Pat805 (Oct 12, 2011)

Why don't you get it from Charles he has some nice led lights.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Pat805 said:


> Why don't you get it from Charles he has some nice led lights.


I bought my last light from Canadian aquatics. 

They don't have what I am looking for this time as far as I know.


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## Vancitycam (Oct 23, 2012)

Could buy a nice one from him and get him to throw in a school or cardinals for me  ill drive to go pick it up and deliver it for you lol kidding


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## Atom (Apr 21, 2010)

jbyoung00008 said:


> Atom said:
> 
> 
> > I bought my 18" and 24" Current Usa LED+ from DoctorsFosterandSmith. Shipping was $20 plus taxes.[/QUOTE
> ...


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## Ra's al Ghul (Apr 28, 2010)

I heard some good things about the Fluval plant led, Marineland

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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