# DIY LED flood lights don't know where to start...



## predaighter (Jan 7, 2017)

Hi everyone I have a question regarding aquarium lighting and plants. I am thinking about buying some led flood lights for lighting on my 42 gallon planted aquarium. The problem is that I am unsure of how much wattage would be ideal since leds wattage are different than say fluorescent and other types of lighting. Currently I have jungle val, dwarf sag, java fern, and water sprite as plants in my aquarium. I understand that these plants do not require much lighting to thrive but I do want my aquarium very lush (they haven't even grown since i've had them in my aquarium for three weeks). I have a link from Amazon for the lights I am thinking on buying below: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01M29ULN3/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1BP6I89E5U6BE&psc=1 please help me figure this out guys because it's got me stressing.

Thanks


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## The Guy (Nov 26, 2010)

Yikes I think maybe that's too much and intense IMO, I used a single 36 inch led over my 33 long tank 18" above the tank and it was lots of light for my plants. Got it at Costco worked great and comes with a built in switch and hanging brackets. I'm not really a plant guy but maybe someone will chime in with more advice.


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## troutsniffer (Dec 10, 2015)

You're gonna have problems with light spread with that. I'd go with 4x 10W for your tank and plants. 33 long tanks aren't very deep, 10W per light might even be too much without co2.


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## VElderton (Jun 3, 2015)

If you are sold on doing an LED flood DIY, Joey - King of DIY - from Nova Scotia did a great couple of episodes on DIY LED floods. He also did a comparisoon for DIY vs Commercial LED on a planted tank. 

Though his style has become more obnoxious for me lately the info is still good and the build is quite doable.


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

Is that the right spectrum for plants ?


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## oyf709 (Sep 18, 2010)

I think 4800K to 6000K is the right Temp, but really depend on the LED spectrum graph in terms of whether it is the right one. It is usually hit a miss as most of the flood LED are not made for plant growth. The worst case scenario might be the LED promo unwanted algae growth. It won't be as bad as wrong spectrum for Salt water =D


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