lumens. help

[docta09]

been looking at lights
from what i understand whats important is lumens
(correct me if i'm wrong)
i found some leds that measure 1400 lumens when 32" away
think that'll be enough for a 29 gallon?

 

[little_fish]

Actually what we tend to look at are watts. So for a metal halides of T5 bulbs you are going to want at least 3 watts per gallon with lights that have individual reflectors. With LEDs you can do less, but i dont really know a hard and fast rule for judging wether or not it will give out enough light for a reef.

The best way to measure a lights power is PAR but it much harder to measure, is depth dependent and not commonly reported.

 

[docta09]

i thought watts just measured the amount of power(electricity) it uses -.-

 

[little_fish]

It does, and so all watts are not the same. PC lighting you need far more watts than with metal halide or T5 lights, and metal halide and LED watts are probably the best

 

[docta09]

ya i cant seem to find how much light i would need with leds

 

[docta09]

Ok so I asked a seller about sum leds he has and says theyll work on my 29 gall.
Its 14 3watts led 12,000k , 1,500 lumens at 32" away, total of 42 watts and compares to 120Watt t serial.
Sounds like enuf?

 

[irensing]

sounds like enough, but having the abillity to dim and color render would be ideal. Check out the aqua illuminations nano. really cool but a little spendy. Would probably be perfect on a 29g.

 

[Ulta]

Correct, always best to contact the manufacturer with questions like that :)

And yeah, you can use Lumens to measure light (Better than you can measure wattage). But in Reefkeeping we use PAR (The amount of useable Photosynthetic light.).

Def. sounds like a good set of lights for you! :)

 

[Ulta]

yeah, the ability to have a "blue" setting is really nice too.

 

[docta09]

it has about 4 blue ones

 

[Northstar24]

Is this an LED fixture you're finding on Ebay? If it is I would like to caution you against it. LED's are the new thing in lighting, and there are a lot of cheap, low quality products available right now. In this hobby, lighting is the most expensive part of a setup, but it is also the single most important piece of equipment as well.

For a 29 gallon, you could do a PAR38 LED Pendant light, something like this
http://www.boostled.com/collections/par30-reef