LED Lighting Question

[gio28]

i have come upon these LED lights and i dont know if they are good or not...so i thought i should ask if anyone knows about LED for corals.
They come in different kelvin ratings like 5,000 K and 10,000K and in the blue 465 NM. is there a certain kelvin rating that is best for coral growth or is i just personal taste of the looks they give?
each strip of the LEDs give between 50-100 watts of light depending on whether they are the blue or white variety. so how many watts would i need to light a 36 gallon tank to keep everything but SPS corals? so LPS is the max for my lighting requirements.
i was thinking i would get:
2X of the blue 465 NM that would give off 100 watts for both of them.
and
2X the 5,000K that would give off 140 for both of them
so that would be 240 watts total for my tank. but i dont know if these LEDs are legit or not...esp for corals..any ideas? thanks

 

[scsinet]

5000K isn't going to be a good fit for your tank.
10K would probably work if paired with the 465nm which is in the actinic range. Without the latter, the 10K will look yellow.
Can you, without breaking the rules, give more info about these... I've never heard of them before. My biggest question is when they say they'll give off 50-100w of light, what is that comparing it to? 50-100 watts of what? And I'm also concerned about the wide range of comparison. Is it 50 or 100? Big difference there... I'd be better if they gave specs in lumens or PAR.

 

[gio28]

yeah...so this info is for the 10,000K strip:
bright white 10,000K color
198 LEDS on the strip
Gives 100 watts of light
Using only 11 watts
Lumens are 697
MCD (idk what that is) is 1200
here is another part of the description
Description:
Model:Wb-198
Specifacations:
198pcs High bright 5mm LED
LED intensity:Ine LED IV 1200~1400MCD,3.5 lumens,white color,120 degree,
Weight:1 LBS
Cord length:1.65 feet
Variable Voltage:60HZ,110V,AC,
Spot power:198LED=11W
Color temperature:10,000K
Operating Temperature:-15 to +65
Life:10 Years,80,000 hours
Water Resistant
110 VOLT
thats all the info on the 10,000K LED strip

 

[scsinet]

mcd is micro-candelas, it's a measure of LED power. Really irrelevant in this case because nothing but LEDs is rated in them.
I did some checking on Ushio's site and a 10K, 175w halide lamp produces around 7500 lumens, so it would be the equivelant of about 11 of these LED strips. I also recall that 100w incandescent lamps produce about 750lm of light, so it stands to reason that they are comparing the output of these to incandescent lamps, which nobody uses in aquariums, thus rendering their comparison irrelevant as well.
I'd say they are greatly exaggerating the power of these lights. This sounds like the cheap Chinese knockoff type stuff (ratings are very frequently overblown in those markets).
How big of a tank is this and what did you plan do do with it? Reef? Assuming this is the 36g reef you mentioned in your other thread, if I were sizing a halide system, I'd use a single 250w on this tank. According to Ushio, their 250w 10K lamp produces 11,000 lumens, so that's about 15 of these light strips. Might be doable... but if the company is comparing these things to incandescent, I wonder if they are also stretching the 697lm figure...
http://www.ushio.com/files/specs/Aqualite.pdf

 

[gio28]

its a 36 gallon bowfront and its gonna be a reef. i have a 130 watt PC fixture over it now but i dont know if thats enough to support LPS corals even if i were to place them closer to the top.
im just kinda looking around for more powerful light if it is needed to keep corals in my tank. im trying to get what i can on a 15 year olds budget but def not a knock off product like this one seems like it is. i need to find good lighting so my future corals will be plenty happy with it but at the same time save as much money as possible. and i know this stuff isnt cheap so saving money with lighting my not be possible lol.