LED lights sufficient for live plants?

Hi all
I am a newbie here and have had my Edge for just over 3 months. A few disasters, but a lot of enjoyment has been derived from it. My question is regarding the LED Edge replacement bulbs which are a lot brighter than the original halogen bulbs, but I need to know if they are good enough for the growth of my plants. The plants are not doing terribly well, although not dead, but very brown and it has been suggested to me that the LED's may not be effective for their healthy growth. I have the lights on for at least 6 -8 hrs a day, and today I added plant food whilst doing my 25% weekly water exchange. Hope that will be ok and do the trick. I would appreciate any feedback......please.

I have One guppy, one platy, two balloon mollies and two leopard danios.... the disasters I encountered were due to the tank being overstocked.(hindsight a wonderful thing)..
Lynette

Hi Lynette,

I've had an Edge since June. It's now planted up with Java Ferns, Anubias and Moss Balls. It hold 5x Galaxy Rasbora, 6x Mosquito Rasbora and 3x Cherry Shrimp.

I do a water change once a week (1x bucket, which I guess is about 8 litres)

In September I replaced the very hot halogen lights with the cool running Fluval LED ones (see this thread ... https://fluvaledge.forumotion.com/t43-lighting-unit-not-working#196). Before and After images are here .... https://i.servimg.com/u/f49/16/79/84/93/edge-h11.jpg and here .... https://i.servimg.com/u/f49/16/79/84/93/edge-l12.jpg

I have the LEDs on a timer, about 10 hours a day. I can't really say for sure if the plants are better off with the LEDs since I still seem to be losing plants for other reasons, possibly such as poor nutrition (so I started dosing with Plant Nutrition Plus the other week) and the roots just rotting away. I just put in some new plants last week so I'll report back any news.

I like the Edge in spite of it's awkwardness when having maintenance done on it. Also if you keep the fish small and few they should be OK. The major drawback of the Edge (in my view) is if you need to catch a fish it's very difficult; I ended up taking out all the hiding places (ie plants, rocks etc) and 2/3rds of the water but it's still very difficult and stressful for both parties.

Regards,

Ricky

Hi Rick
Thanks for your reply, much appreciated. I understand that the amount of kelvin(K) coming from the bulbs is what /how the lighting required for living plants is measured. We need at least 5 - 8 thousand K for it to replicate daylight. This seems to be a very technical topic, but vital I guess. Has anybody else out there had to keep replacing plants, I wonder.

Lynette

i have just bought some MR16- 78 led bulbs from ebay a lot more brighter and they cost £7, the power supply is fine with these bulbs too, the only downfall is that the pins on the MR16 bulbs are thicker, so you may need to push them in but once you use them you cant go back to MR11 bulbs, but i would say this once you get MR16's then you wont go back anyways!!!