"Hockey puck" LED light system

[mack777]

Hello all!

I'm just rejoining the freshwater hobby after a long absence and thought I'd share this
idea for canopy lights for small tanks, or even large ones.

Just wandered through Wal-Mart (Halifax, NS) and noticed these new small L.E.D.
light clusters that look like hockey pucks. They give a pretty bright light and only use
2w power/each, and you can string up to 7 of them together on the same plug.

multi-LEDs, 74 lumens, 2w power, standard 110v plug with rotary on/off switch,
life 15000 hrs, 6105k colour temp so good for plants.

They cost $9.97/pk or a 3-pack for $29.97 if I remember right.

They have 2 plug connections, 1 for the power plug and and a 2nd one for a short
jumper cord to daisy-chain up to 7 units together off 1 plug. They have holes for
4 small mounting screws on the back.
I drilled out the plastic cover on the wife's 5g desktop aquarium to mount the light
on the underside of the cover, and then put a piece of tape over the unused 2nd plug
and then siliconed over it.

Then, just to be safe, I ran a bead of silicon all around the light cover and case to
seal it against any water entry.

The light looks great and really brightens up the tank.

7 of these babies strung together would only use 14w of power, just not sure the
depth of tank they would support but they would be fantastic for any small tank of 12" depth or less, or tiny hex-shaped desktop ones.

I'm thinking of trying them for a couple of little terrariums too as normal fluorescents usually only provide about 2700k colour temp vice the 6100 these guys provide.

:-)

Mack Brewer
Halifax, NS

[Keri]

I use these over some of my crested gecko tanks (for my benefit, not theirs, they are nocturnal lol) They work really well!

Do you have any pics??

[mack777]

Pics? Oops, nope, never even thoguht of it. Doh!

(and I put myself through university as a photographer) :err:

I'll grab one of my digitals and take a couple of Pics tonite of the light
installed on wifey's little desktop tank.

[mack777]

Okay, here's my first attempt to upload the pix I took of the wife's
ugly little plastic tank. (bought cheap for $20)

Note the 4 screws installed to hold the puck in place to the canopy.
The puck backplate is supposed to be installed with 4 included screws so you
can unclip the light from it, but I forgot. (oops)
I ended up using regular wood screws, about a size larger to they would "bite"
into the plastic puck mount and hold the lite on from the outside top.

[MDahms]

Great idea thanks for posting this.

Mike

[Kimr]

What a great idea!

[bae3]

I'm thinking of trying them for a couple of little terrariums too as normal fluorescents usually only provide about 2700k colour temp vice the 6100 these guys provide.


I'm looking forward to LED lights getting cheap as CFLs. What a savings in electricity that will be!

Btw, you can now get CFLs in higher color temps. 6500K is fairly common, and you can also get 3500K which is substantially 'warmer' than 6500K in color and brighter to the human eye and better for plants than the original 2700K CFLs. The Sylvania brand are in the supermarkets here in Toronto in 1, 2 and 4 packs. 4 packs are about $12 or so for 13w, same as the 2700K.