Led flood light

[Jeffreyb]

I was told that an led flood light works pretty well for a planted aquarium has anyone here ever tried one.

[Fish Folk]

On 4/16/2022 at 6:58 PM, Jeffreyb said:

I was told that an led flood light works pretty well for a planted aquarium has anyone here ever tried one.

Well, how deep is your aquarium?? There are a number of different “LED Flood lights.”

We use LED _shop lights_ for planted aquariums. They work great…

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I use them. Work well and grow good plants. Watch some of MD Fishtanks YouTube and you’ll see a lot of them. 

[Emika_B]

It's been a while but when I did a Walstad-style tank I used LED floods and it worked fine.

[Jeffreyb]

On 4/16/2022 at 6:45 PM, lefty o said:

hygger makes some fairly decent inexpensive lights.

Thank you I will check them out 

[Jeffreyb]

On 4/16/2022 at 7:35 PM, Fish Folk said:

Well, how deep is your aquarium?? There are a number of different “LED Flood lights.”

We use LED _shop lights_ for planted aquariums. They work great…

Your tanks look great I think I’m going to give the led shop lights a try. I have a 75 gallon and a 40 breeder that I want to try first. Thank you 

[Fish Folk]

We use Walmart, Hyper-Tough LED Shop lights. Very cheap.

 

[Patrick_G]

On 4/16/2022 at 3:58 PM, Jeffreyb said:

I was told that an led flood light works pretty well for a planted aquarium has anyone here ever tried one.

Forum member @Isaac M uses them with success. Cory did a YouTube video review a few years ago that is  informative, but I can’t find the link. 
Here’s a link to a cool tank MD fishtanks set up using them.

 

[Tanked]

I have been using (2) $15.00 ea., 1000 lumen 20 watt 4000k LED work lights  on the 29 for almost 3 years.  They are intended to be floods so the second light was added for better coverage.  With a minor adaptation they sit directly on top of the aquarium.  The 4000k is too warm for my taste, So I added a separate  DIY 6000k LED lamp to balance the color.  When the ACO light becomes available I might upgrade, but until then, most of the plants are doing well.  I would suggest searching for a 6000k or other daylight LED

[Isaac M]

Hello @Jeffreyb, the led flood lights @Patrick_G mentions that I use can be found in the link below:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B074H62XML?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

I have really enjoyed my experience with these lights as I was able to grow plants very well, they are supposed to be waterproof (never tested this myself haha) and allowed me to save money. I only use 2 for my 40 breeder but if I wanted to grow higher light plants in the 75 gallon you are planning, I would probably go with 4. Here is the progress of my 40 gallon with the floodlights:

Good luck with your aquariums! Experimenting is part of the fun! 

[Jeffreyb]

On 4/23/2022 at 1:07 AM, Isaac M said:

Hello @Jeffreyb, the led flood lights @Patrick_G mentions that I use can be found in the link below:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B074H62XML?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

I have really enjoyed my experience with these lights as I was able to grow plants very well, they are supposed to be waterproof (never tested this myself haha) and allowed me to save money. I only use 2 for my 40 breeder but if I wanted to grow higher light plants in the 75 gallon you are planning, I would probably go with 4. Here is the progress of my 40 gallon with the floodlights:

Good luck with your aquariums! Experimenting is part of the fun! 

Wow that’s amazing. Thank you. I purchased a couple flood lights I’m going to try. They are not the same as yours but all the same specs so we’re going to give them a try and see what happens. Yes experimenting is part of the fun. 

[Isaac M]

@Jeffreyb sounds good, please let us know the results! 

[Jeffreyb]

On 4/23/2022 at 8:49 AM, Isaac M said:

@Jeffreyb sounds good, please let us know the results! 

Will do

[Jawjagrrl]

Check out King of DIY and MD Fish Tanks - both use LED lights that are a spot/flood type vs a strip light like most of the responders did here. I especially like the pirhana lighting Joey did with 3 spots for a 180gal - higher wattage on the outer lights to showcase the epiphites and a lower watt light in the center for a moodier open space the center where the fish like to hang out - but still enough to pick up the scale glimmer  as they move about.

I went with fluval 3s for my new setups because I liked the programming options, but had I been working with a smaller budget would have definitely considered floods.