DIY LED Aquarium light

[blainep]

Call it being environmentally friendly, call it cheap (or call me cheap) or simply one more project.

Part of it simply is, the circuit the fishroom is on is nearly maxed out and I'm considering expansions.

The hope of this little project is turn approx 400 watts of florescent light into 70 - 80 watts of LED light.

Home Depot had their LED Christmas lights on for half price today, so I picked up a few outdoor strings today, along with a few 1x6 boards and L hooks.

Construction of the boxes/housings for the lights are simple. 3 1x6 boards cut to the length of the tank plus 2 small pieces for end caps.

I painted the inside of the boxes gloss white to reflect light back out into the tank. I plan to paint the outside black.

Part of the problem with is figuring out how many LEDs are needed to provide enough light. T8-LED replacement bulbs use 250 to 300 LEDs in a 48 inch bulb.
Cramming that many LEDs on an outdoor string into a little box is not going to be easy.

I'm waiting for paint to dry right now, so I'll get a few pictures done up and post them tomorrow.

Any thoughts or ideas ?

[Wiedertäufer]

Great project!

Are you talking about the lights that are inside of a rubber tube (rope lights, I think)?

If so, what about cutting out the rubber tube and reducing the distance between lights. You won't need to necessarily rewire them, but you could sort of fold the wires.

What's the wattage per foot? If it's a half inch tube and you have 10 inches by 4 feet to wind it, you could get 80 feet of the rope wound up on there. I've seen rope lights from .1 to 1 watt per foot, so that could be your 70 watts right there. I'd get a 12 volt power supply and wire in some silent computer fans to keep it cool (led is cool, but a silent fan or two would still be a good idea).

If you mean lights like this:
http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CatalogSearchResultView?D=931351&Ntt=931351&catalogId=10051&langId=-15&storeId=10051&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntx=mode+matchall&recN=0&N=0&Ntk=P_PartNumber
Then you'll probably get less on there as they'll be tangly and hard to work with. Some sort of softer staple might work for it though.

I'm going to go to Home Depot and grab some myself, assuming I can find out about their wattage and colour temperature. If you're worried about plants not getting what they need, you may want to add a string of red (or blue for reef tanks). I'm thinking of using a string for a nice ghetto moon light.

The real question is, what is the wattage per string? If they're only 2 watts or so per string, 70 watts is going to be 35 strings at what $10 each? You'll be saving 330 watts per hour switching from the fluorescent. In Calgary your energy costs are what? 10 cents a kWh. So if you have a photoperiod of 12 hours (simulating equatorial to tropic lighting) that means you'll save $.396 a day, or 144.55 a year. For me in Vancouver at 6.5 cents a kWh, I would save $94 a year if I replaced that amount of lights. However, the C7 white bulbs might be a very high wattage (for LEDs). That string of 35 could be 10 or even 12 watts per string. What does the box say? Wattage like that would make this project very, very affordable.

Check this thread out for how you could wind and arrange the lights:
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=73979&hl=

It's too late to be up talking about aquariums, so good night everyone!

[Slipstream]

Sounds kinda interesting, make sure ya let us see the final results with plenty'o'pics :yes:

[CACAdmin]

Definitely an interesting project. Especially as maxing out power supply is a common problem for many of us with MTS. Look forward to see how it goes... keep us posted.

[Melody]

Do they not generate as much heat as the other outdoor lights do? Outdoor lights can get hot enough to burn fingers so I'm just worried about them being used inside. No disasters for our members, thank you very much, even if it means that Melody once again calls attention to the fact that she is a total mechanical moron :laugh: .

Thanks for sharing the frugal tip!

[Wiedertäufer]

LEDs generate pretty much no heat. In fact, heat drastically shortens their life span and causes them to burn out. The more efficient a light is, the more energy gets put into light and the less into heat. For example, a 500 watt halogen produces about the same amount of lights as a 50-75 watt LED light. That's like running a 75 watt LED and a 425 watt heater just for the fun of it.

LEDs are semi-conductors that efficiently change electricity into light. And we're only seeing the beginning of LED lighting products. Over the life of the LED, they are already approaching being incredibly cost effective-- I imagine over the next few years LED lights will become the most cost effective lighting source for almost every application.

One thing these shifts do for us as aquarium keepers is completely muddy the waters concerning notions like "watts per gallon" or other ways of figuring out if you have enough light. What blainep is doing is a perfect example of how we'll have to start rethinking things like that-- 400W replaced by 80W? That's awesome! It makes me think it might be possible to have a cost effective DIY LED lighting source for a reef tank-- but it's still so confusing sifting through all the things like Lumens, Lux, mcd, PAR values, etc., in order to be certain there's enough light. The currently available retail LED aquarium lights are meant to be substitutes for metal halide lamps, so it's probably feasible to DIY an alternative to a power compact lamp.

Unfortunately, except for DIY projects, the cost of LED aquarium lighting is quite prohibitive. Like many forms of technology, it should come down over time.
(With how much I'm boosting LEDs, I wonder if there's an LED Manufacturing Association that I could get a PR job at... ::D:)

[Melody]

The Hydro offices promote them quite often with coupons, rebates, freebies & such, so keep an eye out for that. There are coupons on the BC Hyrdro website (http://www.bchydro.com/), including a $2 rebate (http://www.bchydro.com/rx_files/pshome/pshome53667.pdf) for Christmas lights, for example. Plus if you trade in your old lights in Vancouver they will donate $5 to the foodbank. That doesn't help the cost much for you but it does help someone anyway.:Holiday-4:

I find their Christmas lights aren't as bright as the others but in a small space they may do better. I thought I'd read something about the lack of heat but I'm glad to have that confirmed, since I didn't have time to look it up again... I'm too busy putting Christmas lights up...lol. :wink:

[Slipstream]

I know for a fact that they are not as hot, even the older small indoor lights get quite warm, LED lights, not even close.. The power use-age is a LOT less. And the life span is also a lot longer, so all in total, they are an excellent lighting system :)

[James]

We are seeing a great change in car lighting also, most trucks are going to led tailights and alot of new cars also. In our new auto shop, all trouble lights are now led using 60 blubs gives us more light than one 100 watt blub, with no heat. Hence no burned fingers on the light.

One might consider just wireing up the led's, which are cheap to buy, and simple push the bulb part through a hole in a board.

The one thing I have noticed with the led trouble lights is the light is very white compared to a normal house blub in the older style, but also know you can buy led's that give off different types of light.

James

[grumpystiltskin]

I wonder what sort of kelvin rating led,s give off ? A really good rating is 6700k for a planted tank, it wouldnt matter too much in fish only tank, i,ll do so reasearch on it i think ::D: I have a row of twelve blue led,s that i used to use for a moonlight affect. i rolled it up into a circle, and it put out some good light, like a moonbeam shining into the tank, i still have it somewhere in amongst all my fishy stuff, under the stairs

here is a good look at led,s http://hubpages.com/hub/PFO-Solaris-LED-light-vs-Metal-Halide

[blainep]

Wow, this thread has taken on a life of its own :laugh:

Nathan and Slip are correct about the advantages of LED light, it is extremely efficient, produces little to no heat.

There is still a ton of confusion about comparing light sources, I've been researching this idea for a while and so far, the only conclusion I can come up with is that there is very little usable information for the layperson.

I've gotten as far as mounting a 70 light string into one of the boxes. The result is that it is not enough light.

70 LEDs in a 48 inch strip provides what I would call a twilight effect. More light than a moonlight effect, but certainly not enough to provide a daylight effect.

I'm going to try to squeeze another string into the box to see what kind of difference it makes.

According to the information I can find, a 70 to 100 light string consumes about 4 watts of power. So if I can get 2 strings into the box, that will be about 8 watts of power consumption. Not bad for a 48 inch fixture.

Pictures are coming, I haven't had a chance to get back to it today, been working on my honey-do list. ::D:

[Slipstream]

u know what would look cool on a display tank?.. is some of those color-changing LED lights :laugh: May not be the best for growing corals, but it would look pretty sweet, specially around Christmas time.

[Wiedertäufer]

One might consider just wireing up the led's, which are cheap to buy, and simple push the bulb part through a hole in a board.
The one thing I have noticed with the led trouble lights is the light is very white compared to a normal house blub in the older style, but also know you can buy led's that give off different types of light.

Many people doing DIY LED projects are buying the large high output LEDs made by Cree and Philips. The full spectrum white is what you want for growing plants. And you're right, you can just add different colours right into the fixtures.

I wonder what sort of kelvin rating led,s give off ? A really good rating is 6700k for a planted tank, it wouldnt matter too much in fish only tank, i,ll do so reasearch on it i think. ... I have a row of twelve blue led,s that i used to use for a moonlight affect. i rolled it up into a circle, and it put out some good light, like a moonbeam shining into the tank, i still have it somewhere in amongst all my fishy stuff, under the stairs

You can get pretty much any colour temperature. Most "cool white" LEDs are in the 4500-6000K range. That problem is easily solved by adding a row of blue for every two or three of the white. And if you want more green plant growth, pop in a few rows of red (green plants use red light). Your moonlight probably turned out pretty concentrated! Now imagine an entire canopy with LEDs almost edge to edge -- I bet you could get some serious light going on.

According to the information I can find, a 70 to 100 light string consumes about 4 watts of power. So if I can get 2 strings into the box, that will be about 8 watts of power consumption. Not bad for a 48 inch fixture.

As a point of comparison, the commercial LED systems that would replace a 250 watts metal halide is 150 watts. And that's with high quality LEDs (not cheap Christmas lights) all pointed down. But 250 watt metal halide can grow SPS corals-- plants require way, way less.

LEDs are directional. Even with the plastic Christmas bulbs dispersing the light, it should still have a general direction away from the socket. I'd turn one on in the dark and shine it on a piece of paper to see what the angle is.

Do you have them facing down towards the water? White glossy paint isn't all that great of a reflector (still better than wood though), so you'll probably want as much of the light going towards the water as possible. Did you check out that link to Nano-reef.com I posted earlier in the thread? I bet you could get a pretty amazing amount of light if you packed them in vertically like that.

Here's another wacky idea-- what about using a "space blanket" as reflector material? It's that super shiny stuff used in emergencies to reflect body heat. The same material is often used for photographic reflectors. Properly selected and positioned LEDs don't require a reflector, but our DIY projects might.

[blainep]

As promised, a few pictures.

These are the tanks I'm trying out this idea on. Both are 50 gal. tanks, one 48 inches long, the other 36 inches.

http://tlfs.org/ntanks/light/mini-DSCN2407.JPG

A couple pictures of the box for the 36 inch tank.

http://tlfs.org/ntanks/light/mini-DSCN2401.JPG

http://tlfs.org/ntanks/light/mini-DSCN2402.JPG

At first, I tried to just wrap the light string around the inside of the box, that didn't work at all.
After a little brainstorming, I decided to staple the string to another piece of wood that I could attach to the inside of the box.
I used standard electrical staples and wound the the cord along the new piece of wood.

http://tlfs.org/ntanks/light/mini-DSCN2403.JPG

A closer look

http://tlfs.org/ntanks/light/mini-DSCN2404.JPG

That's one 70 light string attached to the board. The plan now is to attach a second 70 light string, there isn't enough room on the board for the entire string, so after the board is full, I'm going to try to tie strap the rest of the string up the center of the board.

More to come as I make progress.

[CACAdmin]

Could you mount a narrow board down the center of this one and then attach the next string to it? ...giving you two tiers of lights.

[blainep]

Could you mount a narrow board down the center of this one and then attach the next string to it? ...giving you two tiers of lights.

Maybe, but you would have to be someone who is much more delicate than I am ! :laugh:

I've got the second string attached to the board. A boat load of zip ties to hold it all together.

Here's a look at it all tied together
http://tlfs.org/ntanks/light/2/mini-DSCN2412.JPG

A quick check to make sure it lights up.
http://tlfs.org/ntanks/light/2/mini-DSCN2410.JPG

Mounting it into the box. One good result of the stapling is that the bulbs point in a downward direction.
The lights mounted to the board are slightly wider than the box, so when it all slides into the box, the lights get turned downward.
http://tlfs.org/ntanks/light/2/mini-DSCN2413.JPG

Setting it on the tank.
http://tlfs.org/ntanks/light/2/mini-DSCN2415.JPG

And the results.
http://tlfs.org/ntanks/light/2/mini-DSCN2420.JPG

http://tlfs.org/ntanks/light/2/mini-DSCN2421.JPG

The camera version of the results is a little deceiving. The pictures look brighter than the tank actually is.

Is it enough light ? Yes.

Could it be used to grow plants ? Only low light plants, mosses, maybe a Java fern.

Would I call it a success ? Yes.

Cost rundown - per light fixture.
3 - 1x6 boards $6.00
2 - 70 bulb LED light strings $30.00
1 package of electrical staples $3.00
1 piece of MDF board at 1"x4"x 3feet - about $2.00

About $41.00 per fixture, not particularly cheap.

Benefit - lighting a 50 gallon tank with 8 watts of electricity.

For the next one, I think I'm going to mix a string of warm white bulbs and one of cool whites to see if maybe the different colour spectrums will give a little better colour to the tank.
These lights give a fairly blue effect.

[CACAdmin]

Great job! :Applaud: I'm impressed. As for the blue effect, I rather like it.

[Slipstream]

Yah, i think it worked out great, id do the same except i cant afford to buy the strings of lights.. lol

[grumpystiltskin]

Looks Great Blaine, i must admit i had a little chuckle when i saw all those lights ::D:
But what a good affect, and cheap to run.I have the same problem in my basement, im using too much power, we cant put the electric fireplace on,everything shuts down when we do, But i need good light ,all my tanks have plants.
I was wondering if you could get any more light output by taking off the glass caps?
Could be worth a try.

[Wiedertäufer]

Benefit - lighting a 50 gallon tank with 8 watts of electricity.

This would be perfect for a fish only tank. And if your pushing the limit on the circuit breaker for the fish room, it just makes sense.

After seeing yours I've decided that I'm not going to get any where the bulb is bigger than the socket. I'm going to stick to minis, rounds and rice sizes. I've found out that many of them have the exact same LEDs in them but just have a smaller "bulb" which is only really there to make them look like traditional Christmas lights.

I'm going to go for some that I can line up the way this person did:
http://www.reefland.com/gallery/files/6/0/5/0/01_original.jpg
http://www.reefland.com/gallery/files/6/0/5/0/light2.jpg

For the next one, I think I'm going to mix a string of warm white bulbs and one of cool whites to see if maybe the different colour spectrums will give a little better colour to the tank.
These lights give a fairly blue effect.You can mix and match them as you like. To increase the ability to grow plants, you may want to add in a strip of red or at least the warm white.

Also, if you can find a way to get the tips of the bulbs point straight down, you'll probably get way more light out of it rather than relying on white paint to do the reflecting.

Either way, 200,000 hours at 12 hours a day should mean the fixture will last you a bit over 45 years. Many of the LEDs will start dropping after 50,000 hours, so that's about 11 years of run time :chatterbox::chatterbox::chatterbox:

What other light fixture can provide you with 11-45 years of run time at 35 kWh a year (about $3.50 in energy costs)?

Great job!

[blainep]

Overall I am pleased with the result.

Nathan, I like the idea of having the lights lined up in the picture links. Do you know what material was used to hold the lights in line like that ?

I think if someone was going to use LEDs for a planted tank, a better quality LED should be used.Something with a better light output.

I was chuckling a bit as well Mick, but, it works.

[Wiedertäufer]

Nathan, I like the idea of having the lights lined up in the picture links. Do you know what material was used to hold the lights in line like that ?

It looks like they were individually glued to the metal from a hanging file folder. If you glued it far enough away from the LED, hot glue could be used. Crazy glue or rubber cement or even epoxy would work.

[Canadian]

WOW BLAINEP YOUR A SNAIL KEEPER EH? !! look at all these snails are they dead?

http://tlfs.org/ntanks/light/2/mini-DSCN2421.JPG

[blainep]

Nope, they're not dead.

Thats their home until they grow enough to go to the petstore.
They'll be heading out pretty soon, the next round of babies are hatching out !

[blainep]

Finished getting the second light together tonite.

Looks like it's doing the job.

I've got some ideas for the next one. I think a trip to Home Depot is in order. :laugh:

[Wiedertäufer]

Thats their home until they grow enough to go to the petstore.

What type of snails are they? I think you had some canas on the auction site a short while ago-- I almost bought them, but like plants too much to have a non-planted tank for them.

[blainep]

What type of snails are they? I think you had some canas on the auction site a short while ago-- I almost bought them, but like plants too much to have a non-planted tank for them.

Those guys are Asolene Spixi snails.

[Slipstream]

I wonder if those new compact florescent lights would work for a tank.. u know, the ones that replace normal light bulbs..

[PPulcher]

I wonder if those new compact florescent lights would work for a tank.. u know, the ones that replace normal light bulbs..

They work, and as a bonus they produce far less heat than a regular incandescent. If you want to grow plants they are not the most efficient, as they suffer from light 'restrike' due to the curly nature of the bulbs. The LEDs consume far less power than even the CFs.

[Zebrapl3co]

Nice, but it's kinda blunt though. You need a bit of electrical background here.

LED have a micro reflector dish built into the diode. This is why LED are directional and only shines on a specific point.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/Ledmrp.jpg/180px-Ledmrp.jpg
What the xmas light did was disburse it so that you can see the light from all direction. Unfortunately for you, this becomes ineffitiant as you lose a bulk of the brightness due to refraction.

What you should do is try to see if you can remove the refracting head and allow the LED to direct the light straight down into your tank. Then, you'll be able to maximize your energy use.

[Wiedertäufer]

I wonder if those new compact florescent lights would work for a tank.. u know, the ones that replace normal light bulbs..

That's what I use for my planted tank. I have two Phillips 6500K 29W daylight bulbs in gooseneck clip lamps. Plants are growing like crazy.

[CACAdmin]

It looks like they have fround a way make LED's brighter It "involves making microscopic holes in the surface of LEDs to increase the level of light they give off."
See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7162606.stm

However, as it's very expensive, I don't think we'll see these for a while. So I guess we'll have to work with what's available at the moment.

[tiff]

If you really want the look of LEDs without the cost you could always try cathode tube. It would give a beautiful blue glow that you're looking for. The cathodes tubes can be purchased cheep off of ebay for like 5 bucks. Search for info on how to set it up though. I say the instructions on another site...hmmmm...
Here it is...
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103075
Just another idea
:)

[thegrandpoohbah]

Yeah, I've seen those cold cathode tubes too. I know they work great for moonlights but I wonder if you can get white ones and whether or not they'd be bright enough to actually light your tank during the day?

[tiff]

Well, not sure if they give off the right amount of light but there are different colors of lights (white, green, red, and blue) Check out if this is what you are looking for:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/12-DUAL-WHITE-COLD-CATHODE-LIGHT-KIT-MOD-CASE-BRIGHT_W0QQitemZ190209432742QQihZ009QQcategoryZ510 64QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I'd try them @ that price
They'd be cool looking and energy effiecient
:)