Fightin lightin .. again...

[Magnum Man]

I've got a NiCrew Skylight going out again...says purchased in April of '24... so, it's not 2 years old... the controller is well away from the tank, and the light unit it's self is just over 1 foot above an open tank... it's rapidly blinking... I sure wish these things lasted longer, especially with how many lights I use for my system..

 

[GaryE]

The rapid blink of death... I've had a few of those over the years.

 

[Magnum Man]

I'm thinking of going outside the box again... as I just manually turn this light on and off around my schedule, it's not part of my sun rise or sun set lights... I have a buddy that retired from commercial lighting. If I could find a similar light bar, that I could just turn off and on, and would have a longer life... it would better suite me...

 

[gimme30]

Funny how this was never an issue when we used metal halides or fluorescents.
At least the Nicrews are cheap!

How about a tube fixture on a timer?

 

[Magnum Man]

maybe something like this, I could just hard wire to an off / on switch, for my main tank lights...

Amazon.com

my sunrise / sunset lights are a group of plant lights mounted above and just behind, the tanks, then a 2nd group mounted above, and at the opposite side of the work area behind my main group of tanks... these are dimmable , and have timers built in with 2, 4, and 8 hour options, and I use a combination of both, to achieve sun rise and sun set, then I turn the main tank lights on and off around my schedule, and the combination is perfect, except for light longevity... if one plant light goes out it doesn't really disrupt anything. but it's really frustrating when the main lights fail...

 

[GaryE]

I have couple of tanks lit with screw in LED bulbs in pendant fixtures. With a mix of plant light bulbs and regular as many lumens as I can get, those tanks are growing well.

 

[Magnum Man]

when I built this set up 30 years ago there was an incandescent socket on a switched circuit, with a plug on the end, so the whole circuit could go on a standard manual timer, above each tank, as I was frustrated with the aquarium fluorescents back then...

I had a combination of high pressure sodium, and metal halide, above a reef tank, back then, and the metal halide bulb burst like they do occasionally, and the hot slag from inside the bulb, landed on the carpet in front of the tank, and burned a 6 inch hole in the carpet, while we were away, at work... really lucky it didn't burn the house down... we replaced them at work, for the same reason, so I have several of those lights here, but won't use them in any situation where they could catch anything on fire...

 

[GaryE]

For all the quality issues, which seem to involve heat getting trapped with LEDs, I love them. Because of their high cost, they may not save money, but they surely save energy. The cost of my fishroom on a monthly basis dropped when I switched to them.

Fluorescents had flaws galore. So do LEDs, but the costs of running them are way lower. I find it hit and miss. I have some that have been reliable and have run for five years, no problem. Others, mainly the simpler, less expensive models died pretty quickly.

In between, I had a system with compact fluorescents (remember them?), which has gradually back online with screw in LEDs. They're good to grow basic, easy plants, and I reserve the more complex lighting for more complex set ups. I expect the cost of LED fixtures will shoot up in the US when the accumulated stocks of them are sold out, but here they should remain stable. I haven't tried any of the Chinese brands yet, just the Chinese manufactured ones with western brand names.

As long as it is installed so it stays dry, a light is a light if you stick with plants like Anubias and Bolbitis, or even Vallisneria. LED plant bulbs used strategically haven't given me bad algae.