LED Aquarium Lights, Lighting

[Carl]

An excellent article from our friends at "Aquarium Article Digest"

Quote from article:
"I know of many examples based on professionals consulted for this article that bear this out, not just hear-say from forums, YouTube comments or other social media.
Using the AI Hydra, which is an excellent high power LED that is frankly second to none when it comes to light output per square inch of light fixture, however when plant and coral growth is noted watt per watt of input energy, these same aquarium design professionals have noted that the AquaRay exceeds the AI Hydra.

Does this mean your AI Hydra is inferior? This is simply one aspect of where PUR might come into play.
No, lets just compare apples to apples. If you want a very high powered LED that really concentrates light over your reef tank [or planted] the AI Hydra Twenty-six or Fifty-two HD might be for you, however for the majority of applications such as those installed by an aquarium professional in his aquarium design & maintenance business, he has found that this much power is not generally needed and efficiency along with the 5 year versus 1 year warranty is what is most important."

aquarium-digest.com/2010/04/11/led-aquarium-lights-lighting/

Carl

[Carl]

I have updated the "Aquarium Lighting" article.

Here is an excerpt from the LED section"
"As well "pulse width modulation" (PWM) is best used for controlling the dimming of these emitters so there is no change to the spectral output as opposed to using "current reduction" (aka “linear or analog reduction”) used by many (most) brands of LED fixtures of which the result again is less than optimal PUR and wasted energy as heat instead of light energy.
The over all result is lesser quality light energy from these LED lights that employ dozens of emitters, poor drivers, and current reduction controllers.

Reference:
How to Dim an LED Without Compromising Light Quality"

Reference:
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.html#led

Carl