27 replies to this topic

[Michael Wolfe]

After getting frustrated at the replacement frequency and expense of a few odd sized fluorescent tubes, and remembering a few other threads here, I decided to experiment with some DIY LEDs myself. I already have a couple of tanks that have Marineland LED fixtures on them. Although they have been durable, and I have been satisfied with their performance over the past year or so, these are rather expensive units.

For my experiment in LED aquarium lighting, I am using the shell of a regular shop light that apparently had a burned out ballast.

I disassembled and discarded the ballast and the tube fixtures and had replaced it with a 12 volt 60 watt waterproof power supply (purchased on line for $25).



Since this was a test project, I also added a terminal block on the end of the fixture (this was not really needed and all of the connections could have been made with wirenuts inside the fixture).

Now for the actual LEDs; I purchase a 5 meter spool of 600 LEDs on line for $25. These have the advantage of coming ready to use with double stick tape on the back. They also can be cut to any length. I chose to cut 4 pieces 46” long. This is what fit on the fixture and also almost used the entire spool.

There were very simple and easy to use solder points on the LED strip and I was able to solder short pieces of 20AWG wire to the strip with no problems.

Pealing the backing off and applying the strips to the old fixture was simple and soon I was ready to wire them up and test them out. Twisted all the positive ends together and all the negatives the same and put them on the terminal block

and… let there be light!

Next we have to see what they look like on the aquarium.

[Michael Wolfe]

Now to see how this looks/works on an aquarium. This 55 in the basement is currently lit with a standard shop fixture of 2 x 48 inch 40 watt fluorescent tubes.


And then replacing that with 4 x 46 inch x 2.9 watts per foot LEDs powered with a 60 watt power supply.


Now, I know that the camera is auto correcting a bit here, but I think I like the results.

A quick comparison:

• Marineland 36-48” 114.99 on Dr. F&S website has 16 white and 8 blue LEDs claims to be 1200 lumens and runs at 24 watts (I am using this on my 75 gallon tank currently).
• Fluorescent shoplight with two T12 bulbs 2600 lumens each(?) and draws a total of 80 watts
• DIY unit is 48” shoplight with 560 cool white LEDs. Labeled at 2.9 watts/ft so approx. 44.5 watts. Labeled at 144 lumens per foot so approx. 2200 lumens. Price $25 power supply plus $25 LEDs is $50 (plus some time, solder, and the useless shoplight carcass).

[Michael Wolfe]

I don't know much about wiring so I'm not sure how many watts my fixture draws. It says 32 watt fixture but there are two bulbs in it, each rated for 32. Does that mean it draws 32 watts total? Or 64? I don't know. I've got two of those fixtures over each tank so that means I could be using either 64 or 128 watts for my 11,000 lumens per tank.

Yes, it does mean 32 watts per tube, so I would say you are using 128 watts to run your lights.

What I do have a question about is how the lumens are calculated. I mean back in the day we would use an integrating sphere for a regular shaped bulb. But this calculates all the light coming out of the bulb in all the directions (which is useful for a lightbulb to illuminate your living room). I am not sure how that would work for a fluorescent tube. and if the light is going in all directions, then maybe the directionality of the LEDs is giving me some additional benefit. I mean it looks very much brighter... and a little it "bluer"... coming no doubt from the 6000K rating on the LEDs.

And I agree with Matt... soldering is a relatively straight forward skill... well within the range of a chemical engineer!

And regards your "costs" I would add to them fluorescent tube replacements and occasional ballast replacements and the associated frustration costs. LEDs are much more long lived and the 12V power supplies likewise very reliable.

[Michael Wolfe]

I could do one... the tank in general looks very good and the LEDs are working fine... I guess I should compare plant growth... or take another picture or something... but in general I am very satisfied.

[Michael Wolfe]

Here you go... I dont like this picture (because I have not done my java moss clean-out in a while and it is too dark green and light sucking). But you can see that I have a lot more chain sword now (see it stilling up in the back?)... so it must be growing... cause not only do I have more, but I sent a couple of people a bunch back in November... actually eliminated all of it from the front to create more sandy area for the N. amplamala to graze in (they seem to do better when they can do some sand sifting). Now it is re-invading the sand in the front.