Plant-friendly light for Marineland 10 gallon tank?

[Aquatony]

Hello everyone.

Well, I perhaps am just outgrowing my 10 gallon tank and need to move up, but I have this kit:

https://www.petsmart.com/fish/suppl...wheel-led-aquarium-kit-17298.html?cgid=300002

The dimensions are 12.25 in L x 21.75 in W x 14 in H

The light is beginning to burn out, which is under warranty, BUT I have also been informed by MarineLand that the light does not support RGB, somewhat required for photosynthesis support, so I am now searching for a new light / top fixture. MarineLand support told me they do not sell anything other than the LED hood as one piece with the subpar LED lights.

Has anyone here tried to do a "real" light swap? Would I just be better off building a 39 gallon (what I want anyways eventually..)? I would like plants to be in the 10 gallon but I guess I may have to go back to artifical plants?

Anyone have any advice on this?

 

[Byron]

I cannot help if you want LED, but an inexpensive and effective alternative is a hood with two incandescent (screw-in) bulbs. I use this over my 10g and another over my 20g, with two 9w CFL Daylight 6500K bulbs. The plants are thriving. I've had this for several years. The incandescent hoods went out of fashion when fluorescent came in, because the old bulbs took a lot of energy and gave off lots of heat. But the spiral CFL bulbs have changed all that, and they are good light and efficient. You just want to get bulbs with a Kelvin rating of 6500K, which has your red, blue and green.

You're in the USA, so here is a link to what I'm talking about from the US:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3730+3792&pcatid=3792

This is a full hood with the light fixture attached (from the photo). If you look around you might find the ones with the light fixture that just lifts off, like mine does. You could later replace it with another fixture if you wanted, for whatever reason. But it is incandescent so it takes two screw-in bulbs. The smallest wattage I have found is 9w, and two of these is more than adequate. I'm attaching a couple photos of this tank with the light; this is my "fry" tank so not much in the way of aquascape, but you can see how luxuriant the plant growth is. I only add 1/8 tsp of Flourish Comp once a week, after the 50% water change.

Another option is to get a glass canopy set for the cover, then you can get a strip light (incadescent or fluorescent or LED) to sit over the top. I have this on my larger tanks.

Byron.

 

[StevenF]

BUT I have also been informed by MarineLand that the light does not support RGB, somewhat required for photosynthesis support

Actually RGB is a very bad choice for plants. RGB LEDs have one red led with light output at about 625nm Plants prefer red between 640nm and 660nm. The Blue led puts out 460nm which also may not be ideal, and then one green led. Also some plants need some yellow light to direct growth properly RGB does not produce any yellow, orange, or violet light.

high quality (with a CRI greater than 80) white phosphor LEDs cover most of light spectrum from about 660nm to 460nm. White LED are only a little poor in the blue and especially violet end of the spectrum. I made a grow light for orchids that used only blue and red LED and the plants didn't do very well. I then made a white LED grow lamp and then added some red and blue LEDs. The red and blue were to just supplement the red and blue from the white. Orchids do much better under the white light.

 

[Aquatony]

Byron, I am in the US, and looked at the link you provided.

My concern with that is the Marineland tank has a Biowheel filter which is pretty large. I assume I would somehow cut a space to accomodate the Biowheel from the top? Is that the normal way of doing things?

A friend of mine suggested your latter idea, that is, getting a piece of glass for the top and then having a strip lighting above it. That seems to also be very popular.

 

[StevenF]

The incandescent hood with CFL lights is a good option but CFL's don't always fit in these hoods. Instead of CFLs you can also use off the shelf LED bulbs. But sometimes in these hoods there is not always enough airflow to properly cool Led or CFLs . I started out with incandescent hood. I had to modify it for the CFls. Later I went to LED's but found very few that could tolerate the heat. I had to drill some calling holes into the hood. Many CFLs could tolerate the heat but getting them to fit required removal of a metal reflector.

I am currently using a flat acrylic sheet of plastic cut to fit the aquarium. With some cutouts for power cables and a fish feeder for when I go on vacation. On top of the plastic I attached a sheet of aluminum with led 12VDC light strips attached. A rubber gasket between the aluminum and plastic keeps the LED's dry. I need to make modifications to accommodate a new ramp timer to turn on and off the light and dim it to my desired light level. Right now it is a little brighter than I want.

 

[StandbySetting]

The easiest and most cost effective way to have LED lighting is to build your own circuit, if you can solder you can do it - it's really simple and the results are amazing. Not only that for under £20 - not sure what this would equate to in USD, you could have a more powerful LED setup than is available in the shops.

As far as off the shelf LED's go - you get what you pay for - the light output is crap on the cheap units.

Not only are LED's better for the environment they last longer and a unit will normally pay for itself in electricity savings over its lifetime.