LED Lighting... What do I need?

[remiruby]

Hi All

I haven't been on here for a while as I have been travelling; however, I am now living in Melbourne and have re-purposed my old 38L (Jebo R338) tank as a small Freshwater Tank. The lighting structure in the hood is all rusted from the Saltwater days and the twin 8w T5's no longer turn on and so I am thinking of ripping it out and simply placing a LED light on top of the glass between the hood and the water and putting the hod on top as a hollow cover. Would this work or would the LED's get to hot on the glass?

Problem is I don't know what I need to look for in an LED light for Freshwater... could someone please provide me with some advice? I don't want to spend a lot as its just a small tank. Do I need 6500k, 10,000K, how many LED's? etc...

Would this (30cm option) be ok for the tank and growing some plants?
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/White-Blue-A ... 5d5800a154

Thanks a lot!

[Brett240]

probably not loads of advice to be found for freshwater on a marine forum mate. would avoid resting lights on glass though. fresh water lights use loads of white LED's if your aim is to grow plants.

[JohnnyBoy]

Really depends what your goals are.

If it's just to light a fish only tank then you can use anything, no need to spend money when you don't need to.

If you want to grow plants then I would recommend heading to a freshwater forum. Not very experience with what they need.

[remiruby]

Any good fresh water forum anyone is aware of?

[Aydee]

hit up http://www.aquariacentral.com

They've got a strong and reliable freshwater community.

Dave

[azfish]

aquariumlife.com.au for planted/freshwater aquariums. aceforums.com.au for cichlids etc.

LED's for plant growth, 6500k to 8000k is the sweet spot.
LED's for just fish - whatever LED you can find.

Amount of LED's depends on the requirements of the tank. High light plants, low light plants, no plants etc.