led diy light

[Hypertek99]

Ok i'm going to go hunt for some chrismtas lights and try it too. Oh for reflectors i was thinking of buying a sheet of aluminum sheetmetal and polishing it out to a mirror.

 

[Hypertek99]

Ok so i was at walmart today and they have the 100 led christmas lights for $2 and the 50 led lights for $1.88. So i bought a white and a blue to experiment with. Here are some pics. It lights up the tank pretty good but i don't know if it's good enough to keep any high light corals. I have never used anything besides Metal Halides so don't know what other lights are like. But i'm going to frag a couple of my zoo's and put them in the frag tank and see how it does.

 

[Hypertek99]

Right now it's just on a piece of cardboard. I'm going to make the canopy with an aluminum sheetmetal and wooden boards.

Blue Lights 100 of them

White Lights 50 of them

Whites and Blues on

 

[Hypertek99]

When i'm finished with the real thing i'm going to use 200 blues and 100 whites. Not bad for only $6 of leds.

 

[IBMGeek]

This would be perfect for moonlights. I actually did a diy with some led from some cheap auto parts flashlight.

Then painted them blue to see how they would look.

 

[Hypertek99]

I have Moonlights in my main display. The led setup in the pics above is a lot brighter. Too bright for moonlights.

 

[IBMGeek]

Ohh when I said pefect for moonlights I was reffering to the blue christmas lights

The christmas leds (Blue) dont seem too bright. Ive seen some more powerful moonlights, or are you reffering to mines. I actually dont use them, it was just a test.

 

[tazzy695]

actualy those lights you used dont look like the led lights but normal christmas lights

I would probly do strait white about 300 to 500 bulbs with a t5 actinic light on the side to suplement the actinic lighting the blue dosn't give the same glowing effect it is either that or get some blacklight bulbs to add into the mix

 

[Hypertek99]

Doh i knew there was something wrong. LOL Are the led lights different??? Back to walmart i go to hunt for leds

 

[tazzy695]

yea they are actualy a different bulb and dont put out the heat that the normal bulbs you have will also they use about 1/10 the power here is a link to the ones I was talking about
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...=10000003+90401&marketID=401&locStoreNum=8125
it is from home depot since walmart.com dosn't have them on their site

 

[Hypertek99]

Ah ha they must be brighter than the normal lights too?? Going to home depot tomorrow to get some.

 

[tazzy695]

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...=10000003+90401&marketID=401&locStoreNum=8125

this is another one that I was thinking

 

[Hypertek99]

I'll post new pics when i get them in.

 

[tazzy695]

well I dont know if they are brighter or not but would like to find out

I know led can be brighter but depending on how it is difused all depens on how intense they are a normal led all the light comes out the tip of the bulb these seem to have the light difused differently so it comes out through the hole body

cool I would love to see the pics

 

[Hypertek99]

I thought the lights was a little warm after it being on for awhile. It actually heated my tank up 2 degrees.

 

[tazzy695]

and yea you mentioned that my center bulb was dim you are right I think I am actualy over powering the leds a little with the transformer I have on them and may have caused it to burn out a little not shure

but I am actualy impressed on how bright the tank looks for your first test with the regular christmas light bulbs by the way what size tank is that just for referance and how deep

 

[Hypertek99]

I'll let you know when i get the led's if they are brighter.

 

[tazzy695]

cool I apreciate it takes the guess work out of an experiement like this

I know that a company makes a led lights that is said to be a equivilant of a 250w metal halide but they want liek 4k for it

 

[Hypertek99]

Are you talking about the Solaris Lights?? They are expensive

 

[tazzy695]

yea those are it personaly I dont see why we couldn't build a light similar without the dimming for far less money