Are These LED's Enough?

I bought the Marineland LED kit 20:

http://www.marineland.com/uploadedFiles/Marineland/Products/SAST%20LED%20Aquarium%20Kits.pdf

it says 4.62 total watts + 990 total lux

Will these LED work for a FOWLR system?
it will be only soft corals, damsels and clowns (and live rock of course).

Do i need to upgrade? Money is pretty tight.
any help is apreciated

 

Maybe for a Pico. I have two Ecoxotic Panorama 12w strips on my 16G nano softie tank for a total of 24 watts and its not bad but could be a bit brighter. 4 watts isn't much light even for LEDs and on a fish only system of any size.

Best thing you can do is look at as many tanks as you can to compare different lighting arrangements and make up your mind from there.

 

I think I will just upgrade to t5 its better in the long run

 

I would disagree on the T5's.
LED's when set up correctly have so much flexibility. I did a ton of research and about 9 months ago went with the AI Sol Blues and their controller for my 100G and its probably the best thing I have ever done for my tank and my power consumption. same with the Panoramas, they replaced a 96w Powerquad PC and put out as much or more light for about 1/4 the power consumption and both systems should last 10 years compared to 9 months for the other bulbs.

 

ya but an led set-up would be at much greater cost,Right?

 

The initial cost would be a little higher, but if you factor in the costs after purchase, like the cost of replacement bulbs every 6 to 12 months and the excess consumption of electricity of T5's over LEDs, Then over the life of the fixture LEDs are much cheaper IMO.

 

Exactly. My two AI Sols are almost paid for already in 9 months between the $200 I sold the old lights for, the $35 to $50 a month I am saving on electricity to run the old lights, fans and chiller and the huge RO/DI water savings which leads to longer DI life. Add to that I would be due for bulb replacements by now at a cost of $250 every 9-12 months.

Good T5 fixtures with individual reflectors and name brand bulbs and ballasts are not cheap nor are the 9-12 month bulb replacements.