Recommendations For What Lights For My Fluval Edge

[TimFok]

Following a very interesting modification to a Fluval Edge I found online, I've decided to use the same method.
 

 
I've purchased a spare base and will be modifying it like the above so that I can house some extra lighting.
 
The question is, what do I fill it with?
 
I have already upgraded my MR11 bulb fixtures to MR16 bulbs. These will give me around 480 lumens each..
 
I'm planning on heavily planting my tank. This is my first tank, so I'm paying attention to easy to grow and maintain plants, with little lighting needs (due to the constraints of the tank). My thoughts are Lilaeopsis brasiliensis for the foreground, some dwarf sag in the back, and various moss, ferns and other easy to grow plants jotted about amongst some wood.
 
I'm leaning more towards LED strip lights. As these would be easy to fit, and I want to squeeze in both white LEDs for day plant growth, and some blue LEDs for ambient overnight. Other options could be small fluros, or MR11/MR16 bulbs? 
 
So with my current setup I'm producing just shy of 1000 lumens into a 23L tank.
Lumens is a figure I can relate to, as I understand it and it's easy to buy bulbs on a basis of this. So recommendations with reference to this would be great.
 
I know it's not necessarily the best way of predicting what lights are good for each type of plant,  I've read up on par levels and am aware of how they work, I've looked at getting a meter but I think that's a little far for my experience, I just want a light setup that's going to give me decent lights levels to grow easy going plants!
 
Thanks in advance

 

[Ps3Steveo]

You really want to avoid LED strips, they're worthless.

 

[TimFok]

Why so?

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Because of the PAR they give, its worthless to your plants trust me.

 

[TimFok]

How do they compare to the PAR levels of the MR16 bulbs? like:
 
http/www.amazon.co.uk/SuperLEDTM-BRIGHTEST-AVAILABLE-EMITTING-LUMENS/dp/B008U6S48Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1359560282&sr=8-2
 
Are they not technically the same? Small LEDs just in different housing.
 
Does this mean all LEDs have poor PAR levels?
 
What would you recommend instead?
 
I'm not commenting in conflict, I just want to get my head around it all! 

 

[techen]

What he means is most LED strip lights dont put out a lot of watts therefore will not grow plants, Ever. You need some very powerful LEDs, With good cooling and drivers to run them. Adding up to a lot of money, The best I'd suggest for a tank that size would be PL lights.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

High power LED's are for growing plants, like CREE XML's, strips are not the same as high power, strips are more for bringing out colours, not growing anything.

 

[TimFok]

Even if an LED strip setup matched the output of a respective PL light setup?
 
For example I could perhaps fit one 13w PL light like this under the custom hood. That produces 900 lumens.
 
Versus X2 lengths of 5050 SMD strip lights would come in at 1000 lumens. plus the widths (another strip cut in half), so an extra 500, equally 1500 lumens. considerably more output than the PL.
 
Or does lumen work on a completely different scale to PAR levels?
 
Don't get me wrong, I'm not remotely precious about an LED setup. I just want to understand what bulb I should be looking for and why. 

 

[Ps3Steveo]

I used to use lumens with LED's but its really kind of useless for power, I could fit 3M if strip to my tank and it would be as bright as my 15 x 3W CREE's to the eye but what the plants are getting is different, same as fitting 10 x 3W LED's to my tank and then 20 x 3W LED's, it would be the same to the eye but the PAR would be double.
 
Par means Photosynthetically Available Radiation. 

 

[TimFok]

Right, I'm with you. Thanks for the clarification, exactly what I needed.
 
I'll have a look around for some slim PL lights to fit in the custom hood.
 
Do you have any recommendations for what power I should hope to achieve considering the type of plant I'm trying to accomodate? 
 
EDIT: also, should I be considering fan ventilation for a bulb of this sort?

 

[TimFok]

OK what are people's thoughts on this?
 
http/www.amazon.co.uk/Energy-Saving-Fluorescent-Daylight-Series/dp/B005UCPU3U/ref=sr_1_5?s=lighting&ie=UTF8&qid=1359741848&sr=1-5
 
I could fit one of these under the custom hood no problem.
 
Too much? Would it generate a lot of heat? Would I need to look at ventilation? There's an 18W version also.
 
Thanks