DIY LED Lighting

At the holiday party, Christine showed me some DIY LED lighting that she was using for her racks.

Hopefully she'll see this thread and post up the details. I'm interested in learning more!

I pretty much copied Urau Joey's LED lighting idea except I didn't want to use a gutter to house the strip of LEDs. I wanted something smaller that would get the LEDs a little closer to the tank and not interfere with opening the lid. So, I used a piece of PVC trim shaped like an L.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QSxJymRBak

I got the lights from eBay. There are lots of options, but I went with waterproof, cool white 5050 lights. A 5M roll of lights, plus adapters was ~$30.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/171649416334...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The PVC "L" was from Home Depot. The ones near me carried two sizes. I think I got the larger one. An 8' piece was about $5.

The adhesive for the LED strip is pretty weak, so I ended up adding some strips of white electrical tape to keep it attached. I thought about supergluing it, but I wanted to be able to replace the light strip in case these turned out to be crappy (jury is still out on that) and I found better LEDs.

Also, for what it's worth, I bought one strip light initially to see if the cool white was really what I wanted (it was). So I ordered more, and they're a noticeably more blue than the first one I bought so clearly the place I'm ordering them from is just getting them in as "cool white-ish"

The LED strip is cuttable (every three LEDs) so you can make it whatever size you want. The strips are wired to be double ended, so if you cut it in half, you have two usable strips (probably more if you're comfortable soldering wires on them). For reference, these LEDs are about .1 watt each.

The only issue I'm having now is that the first maybe 6 to 8 inches of lights on the end where the power is connected are running much hotter than the rest and the waterproof casing on that end is starting to yellow. Any ideas on why that's happening and how to prevent it? I'm using the AC adapter that came with the kit, but since I'm not using an entire roll of LEDs for any one stretch of lights should I be using a smaller power adapter? I think my longest run is about 10' across four end-to-end 20L tanks, so I cut off about 6' from the roll for that section.

Thanks for the explanation! What do you mean by 5050? Spectrum?

Do you think they will work for low light plants?

mchambers said:

Thanks for the explanation! What do you mean by 5050? Spectrum?

Do you think they will work for low light plants?

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Based on what I saw at Christine's house, they work for things like Java fern, Anubias, subwassertang - the low-low lights...

I did something similar. Tried the gutter thing but then I built a canopy for my 100 and I just glued the lights on the underside of the canopy lid. I agree that the "glue" on the back of the strip is nearly useless. I ended up using a hot glue gun which can still be removed but is stronger.

I also started with the 5630 LED strip. It doesn't have the color control that common 5050 multicolor LED strips have but I believe it's brighter. It's also not quite as blue in spectrum.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111391227787

Matt, the 5050 and 5630 are the LED model numbers and they correspond to the surface area dimensions of the diodes.

Here's a comparison:

http://heracolights.com/2014/03/10/3528-vs-5050-vs-5630-led-smd-diodes/

I also ordered a 5050 multicolor strip off Ebay (won with a cheap bid on the auction). The remote didn't work so I was able to get most of my money returned (a real hassle for only a few bucks because the guy was an ***) so I ended up with just the strip. I found a 12V power supply off an old DirecTV receiver and I wired it up with a simple dip switch to cut on/off the whole strip and to give myself some control over the R/G/B channels. I can turn each channel on and off which gives you a few color combinations.

Combined the lights provide a nice accent on my 100 and I have them on a timer. I have an LED shop light from Costco as my manual main light when I really want to illuminate the tank. All in all, pretty cheap but I also did it as a fun project.

Matt, spectrum is a total guess. I think they're ballpark in the range of 5 to 6K based on something else I was reading, but as I mentioned, the color is clearly different (at least to my eye) between two purchases of the same product. I'm sure the vendor is sourcing them from wherever they can get them. If I needed a specific spectrum, I wouldn't go this route and would pay more to get something reliable.

I am giving it a try. I just ordered these http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013FNDLMW?redirect=true

~$13.00 each and $5 shipping. I'll let you know how it turns out

Veryfishe.com

Thanks

chriscoli said:

Matt, spectrum is a total guess. I think they're ballpark in the range of 5 to 6K based on something else I was reading, but as I mentioned, the color is clearly different (at least to my eye) between two purchases of the same product. I'm sure the vendor is sourcing them from wherever they can get them. If I needed a specific spectrum, I wouldn't go this route and would pay more to get something reliable.

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Good to know. Thanks for the quick response!

Reed said:

I am giving it a try. I just ordered these http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013FNDLMW?redirect=true

~$13.00 each and $5 shipping. I'll let you know how it turns out

Veryfishe.com

Click to expand...

Sketchy description on that one. A few places say 5050 LED diodes while part of the description says 3528. Hopefully it's the former.

Maybe Uaru Joey has some improvement "hacks" he can discuss at the Jan meeting.

Blaise

b considine said:

Maybe Uaru Joey has some improvement "hacks" he can discuss at the Jan meeting.

Blaise

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Joey is coming for the Big Fish Deal, not the January meeting. But still a good question for him!

I made a DIY led light using the gutter for a 4ft tank. The led came in a 15 foot strip and i didn't want to waste any, so what i ended up doing was gluing tinfoil to the entire underside of the gutter piece. After that i glued 2 1" PVC end caps to the inside of the gutter end caps. Then i just wrapped the entire 15 foot strand of led around a piece of 3/4" PVC pipe that then fit into the 2 end caps to hold it in place. It makes it quite a bit brighter that way for me, and looks really clean. this way you also don't need any extra tape of glue, the adhesive that's on the led strip keeps its in place fine since it is wrapped.

Daltharang said:

I made a DIY led light using the gutter for a 4ft tank. The led came in a 15 foot strip and i didn't want to waste any, so what i ended up doing was gluing tinfoil to the entire underside of the gutter piece. After that i glued 2 1" PVC end caps to the inside of the gutter end caps. Then i just wrapped the entire 15 foot strand of led around a piece of 3/4" PVC pipe that then fit into the 2 end caps to hold it in place. It makes it quite a bit brighter that way for me, and looks really clean. this way you also don't need any extra tape of glue, the adhesive that's on the led strip keeps its in place fine since it is wrapped.

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Would you mind sharing some pics? Sounds interesting.

Sure thing. I'll snap a few later this evening. The other thing i will add is that I don't think this light works very well on tanks over 24" tall. I originally made this for my 150g which is 33" tall and it did not light up anywhere close to what i was expecting. Ended up cutting 2 feet off the gutter and PVC piece to fit the 75g. Looks really good on that tank, but it is only 22" tall

I'm only using my LED strip lights on my 20-long tanks....I'm not sure I'd use it on a 29.

I have read that painting the inside white will actually reflect more lumens of light than more "mirror" surface like aluminum foil. The foil will absorb certain wavelengths of light than a more agnostic white. I can't say that I have done the research myself, but I did read it on the Internet and we all know that is never wrong.

I had more luck gluing mine to the underside of my canopy and not relying on reflection for a significant portion like you would if you wrapped it around a round piece of PVC. I also painted the inside of my canopy white.

jonclark96 said:

Joey is coming for the Big Fish Deal, not the January meeting. But still a good question for him!

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D'oh. Wishful thinking.

yup

lkelly said:

I have read that painting the inside white will actually reflect more lumens of light than more "mirror" surface like aluminum foil. The foil will absorb certain wavelengths of light than a more agnostic white. I can't say that I have done the research myself, but I did read it on the Internet and we all know that is never wrong.

I had more luck gluing mine to the underside of my canopy and not relying on reflection for a significant portion like you would if you wrapped it around a round piece of PVC. I also painted the inside of my canopy white.

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I've read that too, and thought it was plausible, even if it was posted on the Internet.

Bringing this back.

For those of you who have your DIY strips running, how are you liking them and what (if any) changes would you make?

Blaise

this is an interesting thread and these lights literally come for 12 buck, 5 meters with adaptor...

I am completely clueless when it comes to aquarium lighting for plants and I am totally lost specially with LEDs.

if I were to say quadruple (30 inches *4) the LED strip back and forth, will it give enough light for plants in a 22 inch high tank?

Thanks,

Dhaval