UV led

mark freshwater · Jul 11, 2018

Hi ,
after posting on here and getting some good options , ive realised that there are some great led lights out there but my budget wont cover it at the moment.
if i was to get something from the cheap end eg marsaqua , is it possible to get a stand alone UV led strip as the marsaqua doesnt have UV.
id love to get a sbox or viaspectra but they would be $550-$600 australian dollars where the mwars aqua would be $300 and i could add a UV?
thanks mark

jda · Jul 11, 2018

Do you mean real UV, or violet and blue? I do not know that I have seen commercially made true UV strips (under 400nm) for aquariums, but there is probably some for other uses that you could DIY. Some people call blue and purple strips "UV", but they are above 400nm and not truly UV.

mark freshwater · Jul 11, 2018

im not of exactly what they are called ,
if you look at this light http://vi.raptor.ebaydesc.com/ws/eB...6203&category=46314&pm=1&ds=0&t=1531319313414, it has the purple/violet color which apparently supports coral growth where as https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/MarsAqu...435445827?epid=1442399656&hash=item3f32d03643 , doesnt.
I was looking for something cheap that just has the violet/purple so i could add it as a seperate unit to the latter light example.

jda · Jul 11, 2018

IMO, those are more similar than they are not and the rest is mostly marketing. Lots of people have nice tanks with MARS Aqua light. I would not sweat what they are typing and actually research some diodes if you really need to get to the bottom of things.

Pmj · Jul 11, 2018

You can get individual diodes on ebay for basically any color to replace leds on a black box such as a Mars Aqua. Just requires some simple soldering. How good they are at actual color rendition I don't know, but it's a common thing people do.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3W-High-Po...1b:m:mLQPOGpOaSggZlScv_an3Cg&var=441423484910