‘LEDs in Action’ is a new mini series from Reefbuilders to highlight the importance and potential of LED technology for the home aquarium.
Although we are far from finished covering some of the DIY LED options for the home aquarium, we thought we’d switch gears and introduce a product on the other end of the spectrum. Clocking in at 90 watts and looking like a smoke detector, the UFO light is one hot LED luminaire. This LED kit is designed and marketed for ‘alternative’ plant growers and so it is only available in configurations that optimize growth or budding, not so much viewing. The original UFO LED grow light comes in an all red, all blue or a mix of red and blue. The most elegant aspect of these narrow spectrum LEDs is that they are optimized purely for photosynthesis so the energy that is used producing light does not go towards spectrums which do not encourage plant growth. Most of these models would not be that attractive as stand alone units on a display tank but the solid blue UFO could be a great supplement to tanks with white metal halides. We have not been able to find any occurence of someone using the UFO LED light on an aquarium but if it can grow ‘controversial’ plants, surely it must have some merit for aquarium use. It appears that the UFO light was never trademarked and there are dozens of imitation UFO LED lights. The original UFO usually runs in the neighborhood of $500.
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