# PSA: Cheap LED lights work great! (Review)



## inktomi (Nov 17, 2007)

Hi - 

I don't post often, but I wanted to call out this light that I saw buried in another thread, and which I purchased recently to replace a broken Kessil A380WE "sun" light. The light output from these is not as intense, but visually very similar to the Kessil. 

GLW® 30w 110v Outdoor Led Flood Light - only $16 at Amazon

I've seen these lights (or similar) reviewed on youtube before, and they always seemed to be over rated in power. I bought the "Daylight White" 30W unit -- and true to form it doesn't use 30 watts of power - only about 21 watts. It seems to be enough on my 60g cube, though I could deal with more light as well I think. 










These lights are made for outdoor use, and come with a 3 prong grounded cord. Be aware that sometimes the ground connection is not actually connected, though my lights appear to be. They seem to be reasonably waterproof, certainly enough to withstand some misting on occasion if you happen to hit them by mistake. 

I keep mine face-down on top of a 24" cube tank. I'm sure that you could remove the mounting bracket/arm as it's just bolted on, though it doesn't hurt anything so I left mine on. The power cord is a little short, you'll probably need an extension cord to reach below a tank if yours is on a stand like mine. 

They do not put all that much heat, but it is a little noticeably warmer below and pretty noticeably warmer above so keep that in mind. They do not get anywhere near "hot" though. 










They cast a well spread out field of light, with very little of the harsh shadows that some LEDs can produce.



















...and the light is a nice reasonable mid-day daylight color...



















I have various miniature orchids in my tank, and they don't seem to mind the new light at all. One even decided it was time to flower.










All in all, I would highly recommend these cheap floodlights for our tanks. They're small, low profile, water resistant, and put out a lot of light.... and best of all they're only about $16 shipped to your door!


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## DerpyDartFrog (Sep 17, 2015)

Sorry but your pics arent showing up


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## inktomi (Nov 17, 2007)

Bah. I'll fix it when I get home tonight. Sorry!

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## Lisaxaphona (Nov 2, 2016)

I'd like to see the photos too! Speaking of LED lights, I bought a 30" Aqueon Strip light (for aquarium hoods) on sale for 60% off.
The reviews are not that great for these lights, apparently the ballast likes to go out after using for a few months, some people even had it go out after a few days. 
I'm using it for a ball python, and since they don't need special lighting, I figured if/when it breaks I could just attach one of those LED light strips in it since they are usually pretty cheap. I was going to use an LED strip to begin with, but I wanted to encase it in something so it wouldn't be as ugly.


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## inktomi (Nov 17, 2007)

I guess now I can't edit the post. I was all proud of my nice in-context photos.. 

Here they are, all out of context.. 














































I think the light works great, and it certainly has a nice color as well. It's not overly blue like LEDs can be. Very close to "natural sun" to me!


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## 55105 (Jan 27, 2015)

I've been using these for a while now. For the price they're not bad at all.

I doubt they're as efficient as higher end LEDs but for "30w" they put out decent light and very little heat.


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## coryf (Apr 27, 2016)

inktomi said:


> I guess now I can't edit the post. I was all proud of my nice in-context photos..
> 
> Here they are, all out of context..
> 
> ...


That looks like a good amount of light. Especially for the price. Thanks for sharing. I've been using 4 of Josh's Frogs LED bulbs on my 36" wide 60g and I've been unimpressed with the amount of light they put out. They were also quite expensive. Now I'm thinking of swapping them out for 2 of these lights. Do you think 2 of the flood lights would be too much for a 60g tank?

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## inktomi (Nov 17, 2007)

Not at all. What you see here is a 60 gallon cube.

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## coryf (Apr 27, 2016)

inktomi said:


> Not at all. What you see here is a 60 gallon cube.
> 
> Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk


The specifications for the light say that it's 5000 to 6000 kelvin. According to my research natural daylight is 5500-6500K. Does the light appear warm to you at all because of the slightly lower kelvin and have your plants been growing well under this light?

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## inktomi (Nov 17, 2007)

The light does not appear yellow compared to the sun, it's very similar to what you'd see on a cloudless day outside.. maybe just a tad bit warmer. 

I have only had it a couple weeks but my miniature orchids and verssea are all doing well, as is the random moss that has been growing in the tank.

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## inktomi (Nov 17, 2007)

I think my phone is screwing with white balance here but this is a white tissue under the light.









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## coryf (Apr 27, 2016)

inktomi said:


> The light does not appear yellow compared to the sun, it's very similar to what you'd see on a cloudless day outside.. maybe just a tad bit warmer.
> 
> I have only had it a couple weeks but my miniature orchids and verssea are all doing well, as is the random moss that has been growing in the tank.
> 
> Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk


That sounds great. I really appreciate your posts. I've been looking for new lights to replace my LED bulbs from Josh's which aren't very bright and struggle to grow moss well. Everything I've found like Beamswork Evo Quads are quite expensive.

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## coryf (Apr 27, 2016)

inktomi said:


> I think my phone is screwing with white balance here but this is a white tissue under the light.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks! You've sold me on these.

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## RasecEsp (Jan 7, 2016)

I just bought 2 (20w) of these and they get pretty hot to the touch, unless my temperature gun is off but it reads like this.
Top
























Sorry for the bad pictures


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## inktomi (Nov 17, 2007)

I don't have a heat gun to shoot mine with, but the 30w don't get what I'd call hot to the touch.

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## Lokirathehunter (Oct 16, 2015)

I have a 30w, left it on for a week straight, it never got very warm. I was able to leave my bare hands on the light. I haven't tested growth yet, but I've seen other people say this light grows plants very well.


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## artgecko (Dec 6, 2016)

Thank you for the great pics and review! Do you think this would put out enough light for a 36" deep tank? I just ordered a 36"Lx18W"x36"H terrarium and didn't realize how hard it would be to get descent lighting without selling off my body parts. I'm willing to give something like this a try since it would be 1/10th the price of a light fixture from a terrarium-specific site.


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## coryf (Apr 27, 2016)

artgecko said:


> Thank you for the great pics and review! Do you think this would put out enough light for a 36" deep tank? I just ordered a 36"Lx18W"x36"H terrarium and didn't realize how hard it would be to get descent lighting without selling off my body parts. I'm willing to give something like this a try since it would be 1/10th the price of a light fixture from a terrarium-specific site.


The inverse square law is definitely not your friend. I saw that there is a 50w version of the light on Amazon. Perhaps using a few of those would give you the illuminance you're looking for.

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## AdeljeanHo (May 24, 2016)

artgecko said:


> Thank you for the great pics and review! Do you think this would put out enough light for a 36" deep tank? I just ordered a 36"Lx18W"x36"H terrarium and didn't realize how hard it would be to get descent lighting without selling off my body parts. I'm willing to give something like this a try since it would be 1/10th the price of a light fixture from a terrarium-specific site.


I am assuming you have looked into the 40 w Jungle Dawn Spots? You'd need three of those. I know they are not cheap, I have the 24x18x36 and I have two of them. I can't complain on their performance though, def worth it since (as you are realizing) not may fixtures can punch down. 

You may want to try just one of the cheaper ones first and see if you get anything to grow at 3ft. The issue with most general LEDs is that they don't have the right lens to funnel the light straight down. Even though it may be brighter, it's diffuse and stays towards the top of the tank. So you may end up with too much light at the top and still not enough at the bottom. 

You can also get light meter. Tbey are not overly expensive. Around $20 will give you a lot of information about thw light distribution in your system. 

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## artgecko (Dec 6, 2016)

coryf- Thanks! I'll see if I can find a 50 watt version online.

AdeljeanHo- I have the screw-in type jungle dawns on my 24" deep and 18" deep terrariums and I like them... The spots are just SO expensive that I'm not sure i can justify that cost...I may take your advice and buy a cheaper spot and see what it looks like before I invest in more expensive units.


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## AdeljeanHo (May 24, 2016)

artgecko said:


> coryf- Thanks! I'll see if I can find a 50 watt version online.
> 
> AdeljeanHo- I have the screw-in type jungle dawns on my 24" deep and 18" deep terrariums and I like them... The spots are just SO expensive that I'm not sure i can justify that cost...I may take your advice and buy a cheaper spot and see what it looks like before I invest in more expensive units.


Yeah $70 x3 plus fixture is not a walk in the park. 

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## AdeljeanHo (May 24, 2016)

Thanks for the post corf. I think I might to give these a tru as supplemental light for my window plants that need e little extra. 

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## ruairidh_ (Feb 9, 2016)

Someone mentioned the risk of too much light at the top of the tank, a potential fix to this may be to use a diffuser sheet, which could dampen the intensity at the top a bit


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## AdeljeanHo (May 24, 2016)

ruairidh_ said:


> Someone mentioned the risk of too much light at the top of the tank, a potential fix to this may be to use a diffuser sheet


In principle that will work for the top, but will also cut down on how much light reaches the bottom. Which was the whole reason to go with the higher output light. 

Deep tanks are a pain to light becuase so few light have the right lenses, esp on a budget  

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## inktomi (Nov 17, 2007)

Amazon has these in a few different wattages btw. You could try a more powerful one and let us know. 

What I love about them is that I don't feel too bad investing this money in a trial. It's not like a $700 light for a reef tank..

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## inktomi (Nov 17, 2007)

One idea for making the light more focused..

These come apart very easily. Just screws. Inside you'll find a totally standard LED chip.. and I'm sure with a little research you might be able to find matching plastic optics online that could be added to focus the light more.

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## Fingolfin (Jan 31, 2016)

In your experience, do you think this light would be overkill for a 10 or 20 gallon vert?
Thanks!

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## inktomi (Nov 17, 2007)

No, I don't think so - certainly not for a vertical tank.

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## froggy_skibum (Aug 10, 2013)

I'm playing with the 10w version of these lights, I just ordered an optics lens yesterday


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## inktomi (Nov 17, 2007)

Where did you find a lens?

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## Dr.Hoatzin (Jul 28, 2014)

The issue isn't simply lenses on the diodes but overall output--narrower optics will give you higher PPFD towards the bottom at the expense of coverage of your sides up high, while broader optics will cover the entire expanse of the setup including sides but have lower PPFD at the bottom. Ideally your lights are high enough output that broader optics will still provide ample light at the bottom, allowing for coverage across the entire setup top to bottom.


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## TheForSaken (Nov 21, 2016)

Loving the prices of these spots.
Excuse my ignorance on LED's, I have zero experience with them.
Enclosure dimensions I'm working on are 62"w, 13"d, 48"h. I'm thinking 4 of these spots in the 50w-60w would get me where I want to be, growing mainly an assortment of mosses. 
My question is, is there some sort of software that I can plug in my enclosure's dimensions and it recommend the type of lenses would be recommended for my set up?
Trying to optimize my light coverage without going broke doing so, by losing light outside of the enclosure's footprint. 
If I go with 4 of these spots, obviously the 2 on the end would also need to be directed so they don't shoot out the sides.
Can anybody help recommend optics for my set up or link me to a site that may have a software to do so.


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## coryf (Apr 27, 2016)

artgecko said:


> coryf- Thanks! I'll see if I can find a 50 watt version online.
> 
> AdeljeanHo- I have the screw-in type jungle dawns on my 24" deep and 18" deep terrariums and I like them... The spots are just SO expensive that I'm not sure i can justify that cost...I may take your advice and buy a cheaper spot and see what it looks like before I invest in more expensive units.


So my 2 lights came in today. I ordered 2 of the 30w flood lights. I went for the 30w version after reading some reviews that mentioned high heat output and questionable brightness output of the higher wattage versions. My original intention was to replace my 4 LED screw in bulbs from Josh's Frogs with the 2 30w flood lights. Unfortunately the light output is nowhere near the amount I would need to light my 36" wide 60 gallon terrarium to the level I wanted. The good news is that they perfectly fit in the recesses of the Exo Terra screen top. It's like these lights were made to fit the Exo Terra. I ended up sliding the Exo Terra hood forwards to light the front half of the terrarium and I placed the 30w flood lights to light the back half of the terrarium. I'm quite satisfied with the brightness of the vivarium now.

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## artgecko (Dec 6, 2016)

coryf- Thanks for the report! I will definitely try the 50 watt then... and I will let you guys know how it goes. I think I will get one to try, and if it doesn't work out, it can go on my 18" cube.


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## Lokirathehunter (Oct 16, 2015)

I've got the 30 watt on my vertical ten, freshly planted. We'll see how it goes.


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## Ravage (Feb 5, 2016)

Good Tip on the lights. On the RasecEsp photos, I wanted to just mention that you can't get an accurate reading with a temp gun through glass. Pop open the lid and shoot directly into the tank. I use a Kintrex technical unit, and it still isn't what I'd call "precise". Not that you need a super accurate temp on a frog tank, but the glass refracts, reflects and disperses the beam, giving lower accuracy.


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## jsard85 (Dec 26, 2016)

Glad I found this forum as I am new to the hobby. I am putting together a 18x18x24 Zoomed enclosure and was going to pick up a Current USA led plus but then found out it may not work well. So then decided I was going to go with the Jungle dawn leds in a zoomed hood but after finding this post decided to try this out instead and save some money. I just ordered it off amazon so we shall see how it does, wish me luck.


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