Interpet LED Lighting System - Triple Bright White 115cm

After reading several reviews on how great LED lighting can be for planted aquariums I did a bit of research and bought the Interpet Waterproof 3x47 to replace my 15 watt flourescent tube that came with my 20 gallon aquarium, and the 36 watt compact fluorescent PLL 4 pin that I added to grow plants. I had hoped that the LED could replace the two fluorescent lamps, but unfortunately it is not nearly bright enough. In fact it is, and I'm estimating here, about 30-50% dimmer than the 36 watt compact fluorescent alone. So instead of replacing my old setup, this lamp is a supplement. Instead of saving power and heat, and getting a brighter light at the same time, I've incresed power usage, and heat is the same (this thing doesn't really make any noticable heat). This wasn't an unrealistic goal as several LED lamps on the market will meet these requirements. Unfortunately, not this one...So positives:Seems like good build quality. We'll see how long it lasts...Has both suction cup clip on brackets and built on brackets at the ends of the lamp so it is easily configurable/installable.I like that the power supply is detachable by plug and not hard wired. This has come in handy when moving the hood and when detangling wires.Does make a nice shimmer on the water and adds a nice effect to the aquarium, and with the other two lamps I expect to see some great growth.Negatives:Could have used higher power LEDs and still been a great power saver over fluorescent tubes. A competititor's product sold in America is 14 watts, this one is 7 for about the same size. This one was available for shipping to The Netherlands so I chose this. But I probably could have gotten that one shipped if I'd looked around a bit more... It's on Amazon's USA site top reviewed if you want to see it.When people see reviews of LEDs growing demanding underwater plants really well, they are higher power models. And unfortunately with the size of my hood two of these probably won't fit, though I might try it once the 36 watt PLL burns out. It would be nice to be totally fluorescent free. But the price of two of these to grow plants in a 20 gallon is hardly a bargain considering other products available...Now I should note my 20 gallon tank is not ideal for plants anyway, as with many fish tanks it is tall. It's about 15.5 inches (just under 40cm) tall. For plants a shorter tank is really best so the light doesn't have to penetrate so much water to get down to the plants. And with the range of plants I'm growing, I have high demands for lighting.Overall:This light would probably be perfect to grow plants on a 10 gallon/nano aquarium.And if you want something not too bright just for fish it would probably work quite well. Though in a fish aquarium I would most likely supplement this lamp with a single strip LED red (or color configurable with remote- those look cool) to get more color out of the fish. And it would definitely be an upgrade over lighting that comes standard with most aquarium kit setups.But for plants, more lighting is almost always better, and unfortunately the Interpet just doesn't compete with other higher power models available.I noticed most of the negative reviews said 'it could have been brighter' and yeah I didn't feel like it deserved a negative review so 3 stars.

I have an Aquience 550S Cube Aquarium see here for tank http://www.aquaone.co.uk/aquience_cube.php, I had a problem in that the lighting system broke, the lighting system is a sealed unit and the lighting system replacement was going to cost me in excess of £100. about a quarter or a bit more of the tank price which i thought was ridiculous.I searched for all sorts of tube lighting systems, and couldn't find one i liked and a double tube driver. I searched for led lighting and i finally came upon this, I ordered this for around £25 then i realised to my horror that the tank i had, used a support brace to strengthen the tank and i would not be able to put the light under the existing one. I need not have worried i got the item, and plugged it in, rested the right hand side of the light on the ledge of the tank, the light comes with two brackets which clamp on to either side of the support brace in the tank and keep the light completely stable (as the unit is waterproof it would not be the end of the world if it fell in, but i do not see this happening).I have seen in some other reviews they say that you can see the reflection of the lights in the water, i tried the lighting system behind the existing tube lights and i got a really horrible light reflection that was very distracting, however when i put the light before the old system in the tank i can no longer see this, so a little trial and error is recommended.The light while not being quite as bright as 2 15W strip lights, is more than adequate, and brings out lovely detail on the fish. I cannot find fault with this light so far as it is so versatile and has saved me a lot of money.I will try and post a picture of the fitting of the light in due course, but if you have any questions i will be happy to answer them if i can.only slight con is that the lead could be a little longer, but it fits quite nicely with my arrangement. as the power cable has a male and female socket you could buy very cheaply a cable which would extend the connection but you probably will not need this.Go and buy this item you will not regret it, if it lasts me even a year or so, i will still save money getting a new one as it is only slightly more expensive than buying two tube lights.

I bought this light to fit into the hood of the Interpet Insight 64l hood. There are 2 versions of this light available... 1 with a short lead designed to connect into the power box built into the hood of the tank and this one which has a full length lead and is designed to be plugged in separately to the rest of the tank. I bought this version (with the full length lead) as the power box built into the hood of my tank no longer works, instead I have the light plugged directly into a smart plug to control the light manually and also have it set up on a schedule. The light unit fits directly in to the hood of the Insight 64l with no modifications needed. The 3 bars of LEDs provide an excellent even covering of light in the 64l tank and the fish seem to absolutely love it too. A perfect light for anyone looking to replace or upgrade their Insight 64l lighting.I should also mention that anyone looking to replace their Insight 64l lighting should bear in mind that this lighting unit has a female power socket on the cable. The lighting unit designed to plug into the power box within the Insight 64l tank hood requires a male power socket and therefore if you are looking to connect this particular light to your Insight power box you'll need to purchase a male to male adapter of some sort or purchase the alternate purpose made unit for the Insight 64l hood.