Lighting options, help?

[fain]

Recently, I posted my good fortune at acquiring a 50gal tank. Well, when I went to the store to get the supplies to fix it up, I received another boon. Seems that the shop owner has a history with my father and felt that he could offer me a better deal. A 60gal for all the money in my left pocket. To say the least, there wasn't any money in there. (I checked)

Now I've got to re-plan for the extra 10gal. I've got a stand idea that my father will be helping me build, but I'm still designing the hood and lighting.

For the lights, I want LEDs. After some research, I've found that 36watts from LED lights covers the 180watts I would have needed with other setups. My only problem is deciding what to get.

I'll post the lighting setups as I find then, but I really want any suggestions. I don't have much aquatic or electrical background (Thank goodness my dad works in electrical! ) so I can use all the help I can get!

One such lighting option is available at my local hardware store.
http://www.homedepot.com/Energy-Star/Li ... ogId=10053

These are high-output LEDs and I'm afraid that they will be too bright for my loaches. The price is right and they are energy efficient, but I don't want to upset my loach babies.

Anyone have experience in these? Dimming them is an option, but I'd like feedback before taking the 'plunge'.
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New option!

Digikits 48" LED Moonlight bars. Anybody ever hear of them?
I prefer the blue tinted lights and judging by how my loaches act, I think they do too. Opinions?

[starsplitter7]

I know nothing about lighting, but floatin plants can reduce the lighting if what you get is too bright for your loaches. Just a thought.

[fain]

That makes two of us, eh? In doing more research, I've found some other interesting options. Ebay has flexible led light strips and led bars that are making me curious. Of course, now I'm not sure how many of those it would take to light a 4' tank.

..tis a mystery. Lucky me, I have until the stand is built to decide~!

[FAILED]

I got the same problem you got but, my tank is an 8 footer... Its cycling and cant really decide what kind of lighting im going to run on it But yeah like you the marineland LEDs caught my eye. i would love to hear some opinions or experiences others have with these kinds of lights. Thanks!

[Diana]

That linked fixture will create a spotlight effect. Not the usual thing in aquariums, but I could see some use in a Loach tank.
Put the plant that needs the most light directly under the spotlights and let the rest of the tank be somewhat dimmer.

I have no idea if that fixture puts out the equivalent of 180 watts of light.

There is no color spectrum of the output, either. For plants this is very important. For fish it is less so. For us, looking at the tank it is pretty important. A light that puts out too much blue for example makes orange fish look rather bad.

[fain]

Just found a new light type, putting it in the first post~

[Francois van Brederode]

Not only does blue lighting make orange fish look weird, they also make your algae grow like crasy.

I have a LED blue light tube only for the nights.
I used to have it on for 3 hours after light out and 3 hours before lights on.
But I have never seen that much algae grow so quickly.
Then tuning the LED's down to just 2 hours after lights out made the algae go back to there usual levels (just there, not extreme)