Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm looking for some LED lights for a vertical shelving system I'm building. The aquaponic system will be in my living room so I prefer "white" light.

I'll be growing low light plants (like ferns) on one of the shelves, and brighter light plants on 1 or 2 of the other shelves. So two different types might be needed. The distance between the growbed and LEDs will be about 14 inches.

It will be a flood and drain system, indoors using a 50 gallon aquarium, a Low Boy like this: https://zoomed.com/50-gallon-low-boy-breeder-flat-aquarium/ and I'll use a 10 to 20 gallon sump aquarium underneath.

The vertical shelving system will measure 47" x 11" with shelves being two or three levels above eachother.

What LED lights will work best in this situation?

Not one suggestion after a week?

Well I ended up getting some DL-single T5 lights at a store I visited in Atlanta GA. The guy said they should be fine for low light plants like ferns.

Wish me luck!

sorry i saw this one late...
I've had great results with household LED 15 watt bulbs, white for leafy veg, "warm" for fruiting plants. With 4x15w bulbs i lit up about 1m2 and got good growth. Reflective paper helps.

If you're going down the LED route,make sure they are not from china.Get a proper brand (it will cost you).

And the grow light version of LEDs (sold as meant for growing plants) are dangerous for your eyes.Probably not a good idea in your living room.

The T5s are a good option,for your eyes & your pockets too.

I just got finished setting up four 1'x4' LED light systems on the cheap. They are highly adaptable and run so cool I should be able to keep them one inch off of the leave of my plants.

So far they run cool and my spectrometer says that they have a very wide-band color spectrum compared to my other fluorescents!

They are LEDs in the form of T8 bulbs rated at 2300 lumens each and 6500k color spectrum. Housed in a classic hanging fluorescent housing. It appears that the bulbs themselves are coated in phosphorus which is what produces the wide light spectrum.

I only intend to grow mainly lettuce and other leafy greens and these will likely do the trick. Futher testing still required... but since the bulbs are changeable I can fine tune the system.

GE makes T8 bulbs that are rated for growing and produce more lumens. However, these are not, and yet still produce great spectrum range. My spectrometer shows a light spectrum uninterrupted from 430nm up to 640nm. The GE grow bulbs do have a bit higher of a lumen rating... but with half of the life. Which... @ 12hrs a day would still be a good half decade though. lol The ones I got should last around a decade @ 12hrs a day.

These lights should put down around 2300 lumens per square foot if you keep them just off of your plants and do like it did and put them in a 1' wide housing that holds 4 bulbs. They feel cool to the touch after running all day too.

I picked up two 10packs at Lowe's for $74 each. You pick your own housings…

I took some pics... I will post them up in a bit.

Here are the pics of the lights. They are fully adjustable to from anywhere from the gravel... all the way up to the pulleys.

If you have any questions... just ask. I will be submitting picks of my system as it progresses over on my build page.