Post by parker002 on Feb 27, 2012 12:42:08 GMT -5
I absolutely love them.
A few observations:
1. I ended up mounting mine inside my canopy. The beams are very focused, almost like a flashlight. Mounting them too close the surface of the water resulted in coverage issues.
2. I initially mounted them flush to the inside top of the canopy but quickly discovered that they get HOT. The heat sinks were actually hot enough to burn skin. For that reason, I installed 1.5" nylon spacers to create space between the heatsink and the surface of the canopy. The side effect is that I now (I think) have the lights in the ideal place so that majority of the light ends up in the tank but I don't have too many dark spots where the light isn't reaching.

3. To the naked eye, these lights do not appear to be as bright or intense as the combination of HO T5/T8 lights I was using before. However, a couple of snapshots with the camera suggests that my eyes are lying - not only are the LEDs just as bright overall but at shallow depths (ie. the tops of my Red Ludwigia) they are actually BRIGHTER. My guess this is due to the very specific wavelengths of light that are output by the Grobeam 1000 LEDs and the fact that the camera just captures them better. The old setup is on the left, the new LED lighting is on the right:

4. That all being said, here's the bottom line (at least until I see how they affect my plants) - these light output is BEAUTIFUL. The "shimmer" effect that TMC and Carl advertise is absolutely real and quite stunning. The light is very soft and pleasing. The tank isn't flooded with high-intensity light anymore, which creates some very interesting shadow patterns at the bottom of the tank that simply didn't exist in my previous setup.
A few observations:
1. I ended up mounting mine inside my canopy. The beams are very focused, almost like a flashlight. Mounting them too close the surface of the water resulted in coverage issues.
2. I initially mounted them flush to the inside top of the canopy but quickly discovered that they get HOT. The heat sinks were actually hot enough to burn skin. For that reason, I installed 1.5" nylon spacers to create space between the heatsink and the surface of the canopy. The side effect is that I now (I think) have the lights in the ideal place so that majority of the light ends up in the tank but I don't have too many dark spots where the light isn't reaching.

3. To the naked eye, these lights do not appear to be as bright or intense as the combination of HO T5/T8 lights I was using before. However, a couple of snapshots with the camera suggests that my eyes are lying - not only are the LEDs just as bright overall but at shallow depths (ie. the tops of my Red Ludwigia) they are actually BRIGHTER. My guess this is due to the very specific wavelengths of light that are output by the Grobeam 1000 LEDs and the fact that the camera just captures them better. The old setup is on the left, the new LED lighting is on the right:


4. That all being said, here's the bottom line (at least until I see how they affect my plants) - these light output is BEAUTIFUL. The "shimmer" effect that TMC and Carl advertise is absolutely real and quite stunning. The light is very soft and pleasing. The tank isn't flooded with high-intensity light anymore, which creates some very interesting shadow patterns at the bottom of the tank that simply didn't exist in my previous setup.