[Gomer]

Another comparison...still not a fair one

The top picture is a 7watt Azoo Palm light 7100K
The bottom is 7x 1watt luxeon stars that are ONLY driven at 115ma, NOT their rated value (and value that I will drive at when I get the drivers) of 350 ma.

hope this is starting to shed light on the issue

 

[Gomer]

WOOHOO!!! Drivers and last 10 LEDs came in today

time for an update picture

Some food for thought. Fluorescent lights are not on 100% of the time. They flicker at a high rate. this means that if you had an LED and a flourescent light putting out the same visible amount of light, the LED is really putting out more! How much more is dependent on how long the Fluorescent light is OFF for between pulses. Plants see # of photons at a given wave length, NOT the apparent intensity.


Top picture is the 7100k Azoo palm light.
Bottom picture is 7x 1watt Luxeon stars driven at 350ma.
All camera conditions are the same for both pictures

 

[skids]

I m a sucker for new fancy high tech stuff so the dawn / dusk capabilites of your setup do appeal to me.

Could one of you post just bullet style what LED's strengths are supposed to be over Power compacts?

Lower PG&E bills? Less heat?

 

[Gomer]

The follwoing is for LUXEONS..not normal LEDs

+high can get very high light density
+last ~50,000 hours (10-15 years+)
+more effectively remove heat
+can use as "spot lights" with a lense
+can do dimming/dusk/dawn
+all sorts of colors if you want to add a little more of a given color
+appears to have a good photosythetic responce overlap
-expensive
-needs a heatsink
-must DIY some part of it


maybe more +/- ...?


Not sure about wall plug efficiency, but 7watts of luxeons light the tank more than a 7watt PC. Not sure about plant growth, but I am working on that.

 

[IUnknown]

I have a question for the people using these LUXEONS. I am planning on getting the Nova II for my tank. The thing I am worried about is that the MH bulb will look to yellow. Would the 5 watt blue LUXEONS be bright enough to balance the color out if installed in the fixture?
Thanks,

 

[Gomer]

I am not familiar with the Nova. not sure if the luxeon would work unless you got something like 20-30° optics.

how about adding a small PC instead?
a 10-12,000K should help there perhaps?

 

[IUnknown]

Hey gomer,
Yeah the fixture is only 6" long, so I don't think there is room for PC's. Maybe if I add the luxeon's pointing at the bulb in the reflector. I'll have to try things out.

 

[Gomer]

7watt vs 7watt begins. Here is the start...Day 0

Plants in there:

Dwarf Hair Grass
Rotala Indica
Glosso
narrow leaf pearl weed (?)
Pear weed (HM)

 

[BigRed27]

Interesting, looking forward to future posts

 

[Gomer]

A new update

For comparison pics, all camera settings were the same. The lights are really brighter than represented, but that doesn't matter for this post.

 

[Cheyd]

Images failing...

 

[Gomer]

I'll fix it tonight.

 

[Gomer]

6 days on the 7v7 comparison

 

[Daemonfly]

Looks like slightly better growth under the LEDs?

 

[Gomer]

I think it is still early to call since the plants weren't 100% identical between containers. ..i just like to document as much as I can

 

[Winz]

hi Gomer,

sorry, is me again...
hehe... what's about the temperature testing? ...heheee

anyway, good job. thank you very much!

i have some ideas already.
1. your Luxeon Star should be 5500k but the PC is 7100k. i am afraid PC's one should be close to blue while the Luxeon Star close to yellow. can u find PC which is more close to 5500k?? so that, we can be more easy to identify the color rendering result? (sorry to put it so hard.)
2. is your PC absolutely new? if not, the difference may show from the result.

ps. it is better if u can take pics from the eye-level next time. ^^

 

[Gomer]

I did test it once, but it was about 1.5hr after the lights went out. those temps were the same. However, the PC tank did have a bout 25% more water evaporation than the LED light setup

I wont be getting a new bulb to check color rendering. If someone wants to donate a 5500k 7watt PC then I will The LED actually looks rather white with little hint of yellow, green or blue. These are the WO leds for those following Luxeon Binning. I do have some others with a greenish tint. These are mixed 33/66 to some WO's on the big LED setup.

The PC isn;t absolutely new. It is a few months old. This however shouldn't be a big issue. New PCs are brightest when new but rapidly drop ..then they slowly drop intensity over time. I am testing the PC while it is still reasonably young which is probably more representative of a PC than a brand new one (considering the length of this study).

I'll do eye level next time. ..just trying to avoid flash glare.

hi Gomer,

sorry, is me again...
hehe... what's about the temperature testing? ...heheee

anyway, good job. thank you very much!

i have some ideas already.
1. your Luxeon Star should be 5500k but the PC is 7100k. i am afraid PC's one should be close to blue while the Luxeon Star close to yellow. can u find PC which is more close to 5500k?? so that, we can be more easy to identify the color rendering result? (sorry to put it so hard.)
2. is your PC absolutely new? if not, the difference may show from the result.

ps. it is better if u can take pics from the eye-level next time. ^^

 

[Winz]

hi Gomer,

THX for ur helping~~
it sounds that Luexon + heatsink really release less heat than PC.
cool~

why u do open flash to take pics?
it should be better if u dun turn on "flash" and open wider the aperture from ur camera.

THANK YOU VERY MUCHHHHH!!

look forward for more comming result!

ps. hehe...what do u mean of "WO"?

 

[gpodio]

Hey, just thought you might be interested in this article:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/feature.htm

Towards the end of the page there is a nano-reef that Tullio Dell Aquilla setup using LEDs. Looks very bright for 13W of light. Looks like he is also combining different LEDs to get the desired overall look.

Keep us updated
Giancarlo Podio

 

[Gomer]

Another update. Thought this would be a better way of showing the tanks. White balance is now the same between the pictures. No flash. The PC has a blue cast. The LEDs seem very neutral in color..perhaps a slight yellow in comparison.

Dwarf hair grass: LED is starting to show runners. PC nothing
Rotala indica: Both are close, but the LED is slightly ahead(although they both appear stunted)
Glosso: too close to tell
2 leaf pearl grass: LED clearly ahead
pearl grass: LED clearly ahead. Horizontal growth seen with the LED only