wasyed

So i received my Aquarium Fish International magazine for may 2012 today (why its always dated 2 months ahead i dont know) and I sit down after a long day of work and turn the first page and "We Made the Sun Obsolete.... Marineland's Aquatic Plant LED Light". In my mind I'm thinking yessssss finally! I'm in the process of changing most of my bulbs in my house to LED lighting and switched one of my two tanks to LED (my 29 gallon that does not have high demand plants). My other tank (75 gallon, more light demanding plants) I'm currently using t5-ho bulbs and I always wanted to switch over to LED to save even more electricity.
Now finally it looks like i can without having to piece together my own fixture. I quickly went online to look for places that sell the new LED aquarium plant light but it looks like it is still new so did not find any information on them yet around the web.
Everything went back to Marineland's website...
Marineland's website for the plant LED.
looks like they have:
1W 6,500K LEDS
3W blue
3W red
3W green
I can't wait for this fixture to go mainstream, I'm assuming it will be pretty expensive, especially considering it has a timer system built in for day and lunar lights... and as you know, manufacturers tend to skyrocket the prices when they include that feature.

Has anyone seen these around yet? Or have any thoughts on how much it would range in price?

AaronT

Why would they put green leds in the fixture? Plants don't use green light. That's why they look green.

ObiQuiet

It brings out the green color to make them look more "verdant" to us.

wasyed

Yeah i think its just an enhancer to make the plants appear more green. On the website it says "Green accents the natural beauty of aquatic plants."

AaronT

I guess it's in the same thinking as the ADA 'Green' bulbs. I like the rest of the design though. It's basically a grow light (red and blue high power) with white lights for viewing.

tankgazer

i have a marineland reef capable led for my 25 gallon planted. i think it has 10 white leds and 4 blue ones. i believe i bought it a year or so ago. i was told by the employees of That Fish Place it would great for reefs as well as plants. im still learning everything about the planted aquarium but the light seems to be doing well. although some plants i am having trouble with but who knows if its the light, or other factors.

old 97

Sweeet, I found it to be obtrusive in the early morn.

Although the sun is capable of 2000 PPFD
I have never heard a claim over 10-20 PAR from a marineland fixture.
You may need a couple hundred of those units over your aquarium.

Perhaps I am incorrect. Does the Manufacturer make claims?

ObiQuiet

Here's another new light from them:
http://www.marineland.com/sites/mari...l.aspx?id=4655

6,500K white plus a few 460nm blue.

Quite clever - clips onto the rim, and can be pivoted toward the center of the tank. The claim is 25 PAR at 12". With 2 you'd be up in the plant-friendly range, is that right?

This one is called "Hidden Light". There is another similar model called "Accent Light" which is all blue or all red, with lower output.