Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Helllo, i am building a super small aquaponics system my question is if i can use an 10 watt led (cob package) for my little 50 cm by 50cm grow container? the cointainer is reflective (sort of silver) and it is sort of closed for the light.

Thanks! i am gonna be growing leafy greans but also really small tomatoes and such thanks alot!

Summer sunlight is over 1000W/m^2. If you can get all your 10W onto your 50cm X 50cm area, thats 40W/m^2, ie about 1/25 the strength of sunlight. There may well be issues with the spectrum of the LED too, it probably wont match sunlight.

Thanks so much for the quik response!

Will it help if i make it two 10 watt leds that are rgb so that i can set them to red and blue?

Thanks!

ive found a 20 watt 6000 kelvin bulb for a good price is that worth it?

To be honest buddy you will need to look at 100w+. Now with LEDs thats real watts not the "power equivalent". Have you considered CFL/T5 lighting ? Small space lighting is hard as you have to move the lights around the get optimum growth.

Yeah i have tought of that but it costs way more energy

It will cost you the same "energy" if you use LED or not. The real benefit of LED is being able to use specific spectrums, and the amount of heat generated. You will still need X amount of watts to cover a given surface area. You can get away with lower if you only grow greens etc. But you will struggle with flower/fruit production.

Sorry I just saw you did post specific to growing greens -.-

Thanks! you are talking about specific spectrums right? like those red and blue? I have found a strip it's 1m and purple so blue and red and it's 12 watt can't i just paste that all over my grow container haha

Thanks alot!

It really depends of the light spectrum, and thats when it gets very complicated. A strip will have multiple 1w leds. Generally people use 3w led minimum for light penetration. Does that sense? It will will have 20x1w leds.

Oke thanks The leds on that thing are way lower than 1w so that is not gonna be alot of light penetration then..... i can use 3w cob leds they are 6000k ive heard that that is quite good? i hope when i put like 10 of those together i can get a nice lamp that i can use with 30 watts and very even light because there are alot of lights do you think that can work?

Thanks!

The 3w cob should work then. 6000k is pretty standard spectrum, especially for leafy greens. Post some pics when its set up

Awesome! i am also gonna grow tomatoes but the smallest one earth i don't know what it is called But they are really small do i have to add a few 3000 kelvin cobs for that or just leave it like this?

Thanks so much!

Think about it this way Haduv, its snowing outside and you are naked, can you heat yourself with a 20w LED?

No, you need something more powerful if you want any sort of decent growth.

Is that a good comparison