Part1 DIY LED Aquarium Lighting & RGB Dimmer-Preview & BOX FIXTURE

This is Part 1- Making the Fixture Box1 of my DIY 4ft LED aquarium lighting.
In this part, there is preview of the finished product and showing how to make the fixtureBox1.
I am in the process of creating part 2-Fixture Box 2, and will uploaded it within a week.
You can view my original RGB dimmable Lighting at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYoKSSI2mVM

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• LED
• aquarium
• lighting
• rgb
• dimmer
• moonlight
• part1

[stgawne]

how about 20PCS x 3W High Power ExtraBright White 12000K LED - 160lm 700mA from ebay thinnking about 40 total which would be $160US on ebay then 20 more blue color. Total of 180 watts with 120 - 140 viewing angle so I would like to get some lenses to change it down to at least 30 degrees or less because I will do 3 rows of 20 bulbs 72inches long.

[16506246]

You got the right idea.

The 3W Leds are a good choice. I find they are the most efficient and produce nearly no heat.

Remeber the water inside the aquarium has a refractive index... meaning it bends the led light beams. So calculate to have the outer Led's beam not exactly match up with the bottom edge of the tank, otherwise you will have a dark patch along the front glass.

Its best to buy some stuff to fiddle around testing with, shaping what your looking for. I reused my LEds 3 times.

[16506246]

If you want to build the ultimate LED lighting, buy 270x 3W Leds and do 9 rows of 30. This has exact even Light distribution of 6.1cm between each LED lenght and width ways. This will be a total of 810W (4.5W/gal enough for corals).

Every 4 Leds in any direction will have an overlaping beam for the full bottom 1/3 of your aquarium (awesome). Cost~600-800 $Au

Thanks for watching, hope I helped. Feel free to ask more Q's. If you do a project this big, put a vid up so I can be amazed.

[16506246]

I looked at proposed LED distribution. It would be easiest to do 6 rows of 35 Leds.

The total power needed to run this lighting at 12v is 47Ampres or greater. I would buy a 49A or 50A power supply just incase.

your 3W leds wont get hot if running them at 3.5v. will hardly be able to feel the warmth. You could prob mount them straight on plastic and get away with it.

Total project price including fixture, fans, everything, I recon between 500 and 700 $Au.

[16506246]

The smaller the led, the more efficient too. The only bad side is the more work, but its definitely worth it.

For your LED board, because your Leds are shooting 24inches, by the time they hit the bottom of the tank, the beam will be a diameter of nearly 13 inches. If i were you, I would place the LEDs on the outside edge on a 10degree angle shooting beam more inward the tank. It doesnt sound like much, but it will have a huge effect on how the fish look increasing aquarium presentation......

[16506246]

So you will need 110x 10000K and 100x Blue Leds+ 210 30deg Lens.

the bigger the LED, the more they cost, so yes it is way cheaper to go with 3W instead of 10W or something. 3W Leds cost $1.5ea and 30deg lens cost $0.4ea making your total in lighting to cost around $400Au.

Using a heap of smaller LEDs is not only WAY cheaper, but more effective spreading light evenly throughout aquarium. It looks more special and professional. You can sell it for more compared to a couple of big leds........

[16506246]

@stgawne WoW, Big Project hey?? To give you a good idea, I always have the Blue and White running during day which is about 97.5W (12.5w blue/uv, 85W white). This works out to being 3W per gallon. They say 3-5W/gallon is enough for saltwater. Looking at my tanks results, i would go for 3.5/gallon for no corals, 4-4.5W with.

Using this on your tank, your looking at buying 630W of LEDs. Yes your right with colour ratio, but I would go just a little more 10000K, less 420 (about 330W:300W).....

[stgawne]

180 gallon will be 72 x 24ish x 24ish. I will try using only 3watt leds thinkng 32-3watt 10000k led and 16-3watt led at 420blue color. total 48-3watt leds with a 30 deg. lens. Should that be sufficiant for saltwater fish and live rock no corals. Should I maybe use 60-3watt leds?

[16506246]

@00APrilAq00 This is a 4ft Tropical Tank with 5 Venustus Cichlids, Nubias Nana, and 3500L/h canister filter. I built the stand and hood out of pine wood, plywood and floor boards I found lying around the Uni.

The only things I bought from an aquarium shop was the tank, fish, plants and filter. Everything else I built myself using stuff from bunnings, bigw and ebay.

Sufficient lighting is needed for all aquariums to sustain the biological life cycle, and to look awesome :P. Thx for cmtn.

[00APrilAq00]

Isn't the LED Grow light thing.

I would like to those thing but they don't sell at my local aquarium shop.

That lighting is the best for corals and plants.

What sort of tank u hav?