brainstorm: building an LED light

[DMBillies]

I need a light for my upstairs frag tank. Seeing as it is a frag tank I hate to spend much money on it and I tend to try ideas on it and if they work I try them on my other tanks. So... I had a slightly crazy idea.

Each year I see more and more LED Christmas lights for sale. They are pretty darn bright, cheap, and are available in white and blue (and red if you wanted to add a little of the warmer end of the spectrum). From what I understand, the blue (and red) lights are painted and are not actually emitting just in a small part of the light spectrum. So, painted blues are not perhaps ideal for the actinic effect you get from truly blue LED's. Nonetheless, it would seem possible to mount a bunch of the LEDs in some type of board, put them in some type of hood system to keep them protected, and hang them over your tank. I would think that it would only take 4 strings max to do a pretty sizeable light. At $10 a pop plus a few other materials, you're coming in at an initial price significantly lower than any other type of lighting system (not to mention the operating energy savings and lack of heat).

Just thought I would post this, get some opinions on the idea, and use the shared knowledge of the group to hopefully learn something I don't already know.

Thanks

 

[Angela Short]

I saw some under cabinet light strips from Lowes or Home Depo the other day that were LED strips. 2 rows mounted in a 18 or 30ish inch strips. They were pretty cheap also, like $20 and 35ish I think. They looked pretty blue also and I was thinking about a neat moon light by covering a few of them up with black tape. I bet the Led light industry is going to explode soon and we can get all kinds of cool things for our tanks very reasonable.

 

[Pickupman66]

Try this guy. These lights are for bass boats so many are water proof/resistant and come in many different colors. also extremely bright. they are 12 volt though so you would have to get one of those inverters from Radioshack to run them, but they use very little amps so that makes it easier to add bunches of them.

http://www.bluewaterled.com/

they do make the holds in the boat look pretty cool...

 

[gflat65]

I've been ordering those cheapo moonlights frmo Foster and Smith that are $14.99 for a module for 2sq ft and $11.99 for add ons (up to 6, I think). I've got the nocturnal blues and everything fluoresces. Sounds like roughly the same price range per unit and they offer it in white, if wanted to go more that route or combo. My living room glows with moonlight now. I'm sold on them. You'd want several for a primary light source, though. If you just want cheap, there is a guy on ebay that has 2', 3', and 4' 4 bulb T5's for $59, 79, 99, resp. The bulbs that come with it aren't pleasing to the eye (very white), but seemed to put out some decent light (brighter than the 130W of PC's I had over the tank before this fixture). It has only one reflector and they are all jammed in together, but for the money, so far I'm happy and haven't been bitten. Not sure I'd trust my main system to them, but so far so good.