Small LED Night Setup help

[bassplaya12]

I want to build a small set up of LED's for moon lighting and to show off corals a bit. I don't know where to start and I also don't want to spend over $65 on a premade light. I have a ten gallon tank. I just want the corals to have a subtle glowing I guess. Any ideas and help are appreciated

[nemosworld]

at that price point you can just buy lights from ecoxotics
stunner leds.

[bassplaya12]

No I'm saying I don't want to spend that much...LED's are cheap and I have some electrical knowledge, figured I could make one for cheap. Just need some ideas and some help

[der_wille_zur_macht]

On a small tank, for night-lighting, I'd just get common cheap "high brightness" LEDs in a 3mm or 5mm through-hole package. Don't screw around with true HP LEDs for something like that, you won't be happy. It would be like trying to drink a sip of water from a fire hose.

[nemosworld]

I heard of people using christmas tree string lights for this.
works really well.

[bassplaya12]

^^ That's all I wanted. I was gonna maybe do like 3 or 4? alternate UV and blue to get some moon light/coral enhancements. Put it in a cheapy radioshack project box and mount it to my light fixture. Anybody have some help in terms of that?

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Get a wall wart rated at an appropriate voltage and current, a few LEDs, and use one of the many online LED calculators to determine the resistor size you need to limit current. Wire it up and put it in. It should be pretty straightforward. No need for fancy drivers or other tricks.

[bassplaya12]

I didn't know those calculators existed hah...Would you recommend wiring it in series or parallel? Will water proofing be an issue? It won't be in the tank....What's the appropriate voltage and current for my application?

[bassplaya12]

also how far apart should I space them? I don't want streaky looking lights, just complete subtle color saturation

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Current and voltage will depend on the LEDs you pick and the number of LEDs. Parallel vs. series isn't going to be critical in an application like this. I'd probably choose based on whatever power supply I had laying around.

For spacing, I'd probably put them all right next to eachother and aim them up to bounce off whatever reflector you have on your main system lights. This should give a better "ambient" feel to the light. Also, when shopping, try to find an LED with a high viewing angle.

[bassplaya12]

http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/yhst-5590758...9_2108_7122316

That's a picture of the light I bought. What would you recommend doing with that?

[bassplaya12]

Would 5 5mm LED's be too much for my tank? I could always tone down the brightness with different limiting resistors i guess

[King_Richard]

I know your looking for the glow effect but I just rigged up some solar lights (the ones for landscaping in the garden section at walmart for 3$) they are white though. I'm using two of em on 60g cube tank not sure what the spec's are on them but the battery puts out 1.5v, just a cheap thought on it. You could always replace the led with one that you want.

[bassplaya12]

you have a link to those? I could just change the led i suppose. ^^ I used to live in pensacola before NY, it's a shame about the beach, most beautiful one I've ever been to

[bassplaya12]

^^^

[King_Richard]

It is a shame especially since I moved down here last year after I got out of the military just for the beach and school.

The solar lights are the one's from wally world. I just took em apart and extended the wires on them to put em where I wanted them. I did find last night that they only stayed on for 4-5hrs after the lights turned off though. So I might experiment with adding more solar panels and batteries to see if it'll extend the lighting period.

couldn't find em online but here's a pic of them somewhat taken apart.

[bassplaya12]

^^That is a shame. Where did you put those lights in your tank?

[King_Richard]

I made a box to hold some high powered LED's and I used double sided sticky tape to hold the solar panels near the lights so they charge the battery when on, I then drilled a hole to fish the lil led through along with the light sensor from these solar lights and called it good for now. My temporary box has an upper compartment for my driver and stuff so I stuck the batteries and lil circuit board up there in it. I just took some pics of it but my laptop has a virus and thats where the pics are so when I fix it I'll show ya.

The led "moonlight" itself is in the corner of my fixure, that's where my gf likes it since gives off some nice shadows there.

[bassplaya12]

Cool. I'd love to see some pics. Youre just using the guts from it then?

[bassplaya12]

You get those pics yet?

[King_Richard]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1861602
Towards the bottom of the page there's a couple pics of it.

Yup, just using the guts of it.

[bassplaya12]

Is there any on off switch with those lights? Or are they just on when it's dark out?

[funkman262]

They turn off when the sensor detects light and turn on when light is not detected.

[bassplaya12]

ok. so hopefully it won't be too bright at night bc it'll be in my dorm room.