LED Grow Lights For Sale in New Zealand Blog.

Acclimating your Corals to LED Lights

Tue, 14 Jan 2020 13:51:13 +0000

A big issue many reef hobbyists encounter when using new LED aquarium lights is coral bleaching and proper light acclimation.

Unfortunately, it's often an issue you never hear anyone talk about until you have already bleached a few corals or already made numerous trips to the local fish store or your favorite reef forum.

Acclimating your Corals to LED Lights Coral bleaching is when a coral loses its symbiotic zooxanthellae (what gives them color). When corals are "stressed," they often expel their zooxanthellae, leading to a lighter or completely white appearance (hence, why we call it "bleaching"). In nature, it can be caused by a multitude of factors, including:

Dramatic change in water temperature
Increased solar radiance (PAR and UV band light)
Changes in water chemistry or salinity
Bacterial infections
Silt and run-off
Herbicides, pollution and cyanide
In reef aquariums, the same factors can cause the same effect, especially an increase in light levels. Often times, switching from fluorescent light to LED is a dramatic increase in PAR, so it's very important to slowly acclimate your corals to your new lights.

We've put together this simple guide to help everyone out with acclimating their tank to a new set of lights. It doesn't matter if you are going from T5s to LEDs or Metal Halide to LEDs. Light acclimation is HIGHLY recommended!

Here are a few steps you can take to make the transition as easy as possible on you and your animals.

1) Raise your fixture. This method is best used if you have a hanging system on your lights or another way to easily move the lights higher over the tank. You will want to slowly lower your fixture over the course of 3-4 weeks.

2) Reduce your photoperiod. In essence, don't let your lights run for as long as they have been. Most hobbyists run their tank lights for 10-12 hours total. Most of us have a dusk/dawn schedule where we run only the blue or actinic lights for a couple hours before and after our daylight bulbs are used. You are probably safe to still run your dusk/dawn lighting for the same time, but you should drastically reduce the amount of time that your daylight bulbs are on. Try only running them for 4 hours now instead of the 8-9 hours that you were before. Then slowly, over a month, add one hour every week until you are back to your original schedule.

3) Use window screen or shade cloth. Just make a trip to your local hardware store or plant nursery and buy some window screen or shade cloth. You will want enough to cover the entire top of your tank with 3-4 layers of screen. You simply put the entire screen on top of your tank and remove one layer at a time every 4-5 days. If your corals seem a little stressed after you remove a layer, place it back on for 1-2 days and then try again. Overall, this should take you 3-4 weeks but in some cases can go much faster.

4) Use a dimmer. Transitioning has never been so easy! Simply hook up a dimmer and lower the light intensity. Carefully watch your corals for any bleaching or other signs of stress. You may have to implement another method mentioned above in severe cases. When your corals look healthy, you can slowly ramp up the intensity to the desired level. Again, this method should take 3-4 weeks.

No matter which method you use, ALWAYS watch your corals to see how they react. Taking your time and being patient – can and will – save your tank. No guide can replace what you are seeing happen in your tank. If corals are losing color and turning white, SLOW DOWN. Patience pays as always with reef aquariums! Take your time and you'll be amazed by the power of your new LEDs.

Benefits of Using LED Grow Lights In The Farming Sector

Sat, 08 Dec 2018 12:31:34 +0000

1% of all electricity use in the United States is towards indoor gardens. How can we limit our use and still produce?
LED grow lights are becoming a hot trend in the farming area due to the multiple benefits delivered by LED lighting technology. It is basically used for viable urban agricultural practices. One important reason behind the growth of LED technology is our increased awareness towards global warming. LED lights are used for lighting different areas including offices, streets, airport and other latest technologies such as TV, smart phones and computers. LED technology has also delivered great results in greenhouse settings. When it comes to the farming sector, plants grow well in a greenhouse setting. It is important to ensure accurate temperature and brightness to facilitate the process of photosynthesis. Over the last few years research conducted on LED grow lights has emphasized on enhancing the use of LED grow lights in farming. This has lead to the introduction of grow light kits which are easy to install and use.

Following are some of the benefits delivered by LED grow lights

Long term use due to long lifetime: In comparison with the other illumination technologies, LED grow lights have a long lifetime. The light emitting does have high efficiency and because they use low energy they can work up to 100,000 hours. This implies that they can be used continuously for 11 years. LED grow lights don’t stop working all of a sudden. They gradually emit less brightness, just before the end of their long life time, giving a signal to the users in advance. This helps the users make arrangements of new grow light kits.
Targeted Wavelengths: The conditions inside the greenhouse atmosphere must be carefully regulated. The growth of plants must take place under the right temperature and light so that photosynthesis process can occur naturally. There are particular wavelengths of light under which some plants are the most sensitive. LED grow lights use specific spectra to match with the peak absorption ranges. Plant growth can be enhanced by targeted wavelength as it ensures that least energy is lost during process of plant growth. LED lights can be installed at the two wavelengths that are closest to the ideal values.
More light and less heat: LED lights, installed using grow light kits, emanate less heat than other lighting methods. This is of crucial importance because too much heat might damage the plants and may decrease growth that leads to decreased lifetime. LED technology ensures that less heat is emitted and the efficiency of light remains high. This ensures that the plants have the right atmosphere to grow.
led grow light utilityFrom the listed benefits, we can conclude that LED grow light kits are much more beneficial then their counterparts. Apart from the above benefits they also help in huge energy savings. LED grow light kits offer different designs of LED lights and this ensures a lot of flexibility in the installation of the lights. Thus, LED grow lights have the ability to illuminate the future of sustainable urban farming and large-scale urban agricultural projects.

WHAT YOU NEED FOR A SUCCESSFUL INDOOR GROW OPERATION

Mon, 15 Oct 2018 12:16:43 +0000

When I first started to look into what I would need to create my own successful grow operation I didn’t think there would be too much to it. I was well aware that I would need some lights and some kind of appropriate structure for growing plants in, but I figured that was about it. As it turns out, that was just the beginning – there’s a lot more involved with growing plants indoors and if you don’t take the time to create the right environment for your plants you won’t have a lot of success.

Indoor grow operations require several things to be successful including lighting, the appropriate amount of humidity, proper ventilation to ensure CO2 levels are maintained, a controlled temperature, and, of course, there are safety concerns to consider as well. If you put all of these things in place and use them in the right way there is no reason that you can’t grow plants indoors that are as healthy as outdoor plants.

Setting up Your Lighting
If you decide to use LED lights for your indoor grow operation as we recommend on this site, you can place the lights a lot closer to your plants without risking damaging them due to exposure to too much heat. In general you can set LED grow lights no more than a couple of feet above your plants so that they can get the most amount of light in the optimum parts of the spectrum possible without too many concerns. This is normally done by hanging the light fixtures from wires attached to either the inside of your grow tent or from the roof of your greenhouse. If you’re using a grow tent it may also be a good idea to find one with reflective material on its walls and ceiling to enhance the amount of light your plants receive. You also need to ensure you use light fixtures that provide lights from all the essential parts of the spectrum from blue to red.

The Essential Nature of Humidity
In order for your plants to grow successfully indoors they need the right amount of humidity, which should be somewhere between 65% and 80%. If you allow the humidity to drop below 65% your plants won’t get enough moisture to sustain them properly and that moisture is essential in the photosynthesis process. If your indoor grow operation becomes too humid your plants won’t flower or bloom properly and you also risk the introduction of fungi which can harm your plants.

Finding the Right Temperature
Even if you get the humidity and lighting levels right it doesn’t guarantee that your operation will be a success if you don’t get the temperature right. Ideally you want to maintain the temperature in your indoor operation between 70° and 75°F – slight variations are okay, but you should monitor this carefully if you want the ideal crop yields. Artificial heating sources and/or air conditioning are important when attempting to control the environment of your indoor operation, so if you don’t already have access to these tools in your designated area you’ll have to consider a temperature control system as an essential expense and included it in your budget.

Bringing in the CO2
Plants need CO2 just as much as we need oxygen – without it they won’t survive. The problem with an artificially created indoor grow operation is that you can easily find that you have insufficient levels of CO2 if you don’t control your environment. This means you have to set up a proper ventilation system which ensures fresh air is constantly pumped in from outside into your grow operation. This may be as simple as having an open window on one end and an open door on the other, or it can be as complicated as an intricately set up ventilation shaft system. Obviously the first option will be a lot cheaper.

Don’t Forget about Safety
Another thing you need to consider when setting up an indoor growing operation is how safe your operation is. Traditional lighting systems used in grow operations can become quite hot and this requires extensive cooling equipment, to not only maintain temperatures that are conducive to plant growth but also ensure that you don’t set the place on fire. If you’ve ever touched a light bulb inside your favorite lamp you’ll know exactly how much heat I’m talking about – chances are you burned your fingers and you probably didn’t want to do it again.

This is one of the main advantages of LED grow lights, along with the fact that they’re highly efficient. LED lights give off minimal heat and as a consequence are much safer than traditional lighting systems. If you have LED Christmas lights try plugging them in and then touch them after they’ve been plugged in for half an hour or so – you’ll probably barely notice any heat at all and that’s typical of LED lights. They don’t require expensive cooling equipment and so they’re much safer and cheaper in the long run than traditional lighting systems that have been used in grow operations in the past.

If You Tick All of These Boxes You’ll Be a Success
There really is a lot to consider when you make the decision to begin your own grow operation, but if you do your homework and set it up properly it shouldn’t take you long to produce healthy and productive plants. As long as you set your lights up properly, ensure your plants are exposed to the right amount of humidity, maintain the right temperature, keep the CO2 levels up, and always consider safety first, there is no reason that your operation won’t be a success.