FOR YOUR HOBBY

LED lighting is getting more and more popular in the aquarium and terrarium hobby.

All hobby costs money. Everybody dealing with aquarium fish, reptiles and birds know this, as lighting stands for a great deal of the cost, since the lighting is on 12 hours a day.

By changing to LED over half of the cost of electricity can be saved, and you will have the additional advantage not needing to change tubes once a year for the next 10-12 years.

One of my customers, who is collecting butterflies, told me that since he changed to 6000K LED, the colours are coming so close to the natural, as can be expected. It is like watching them in nature.

The choice of LED lighting is great: Tubes, light bars, flood lights, bulbs in all kinds of sizes and shapes etc.

Some “purists” are claiming that “normal” fluorescent tubes have a higher output (lumens). In fact they have a point, but one must not forget that such tubes are lighting all round (360 degrees), where LED tubes are sending all of their power out in 120 degrees. So, to make full use of a “normal” tube, it has to have a reflector. Much of the light is lost here, because it is not easy to keep it clean. Who cleans a reflector twice a day? Also a lot of energy is lost to generating heat.

For aquariums and terrariums a combination of 6000K (pure white) and 3000K (warm white) or 4000K (neutral white) is suitable. I am using this myself. 6000K, which comes very near to sunlight at noon, will make the plants grow well, but some plant species will then stretch and become a little pale. Therefore one of the warmer lights is added, because they have more red rays. Such the plants will be “pushed back” into their real dimensions.

As something new I have persuaded my producer of light bars to make some with 6000K plus red and blue diodes.

Technical specifications and prices are found on the page Price lists in the menu left.

Consectetuer,  variusi ipsum nullam repellendus

Community aquarium for Malawi and Tanganyika cichlids lighted by SMD light bars 6000K