DIY Under Tank Lighting

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booth2010

New member
So this is my first attempt at DIY LED lighting. I am going to do under tank lighting for the stand for my first go at it. The stand is going to be 38"Lx20"Dx30"T.

The only thing I know for sure is I am going to use 2x 2ft 1" squared aluminum tubing as my heatsinks.

I just bought 25 3 Watt Cool White Epistar LEDs from Steve's LEDs since theyre only $.80 ea. I figure it will give me several to mess up on since this is my first LED venture. I am not sure how many I am going to use yet so any suggestions will be nice. I was thinking 16 total LEDs so I could use 1 3 Watt LED 110V-220V Input 900ma driver from Steve's LEDs. I could go more and use 2 smaller drives though.

My main questions for now is, the leds I bought are coming in 2 pieces so I have to mount the LED to the Star. Do I need to put Thermal Paste in between the two or is the paste only for attaching the Star to the Heatsink?

I will post pics and more questions as they come up. Thanks
 
Is this for chaeto / refugium lighting? Or, just to light up the stand inside?

I used a $26 under cabinet LED light kit from Amazon including LED strips, power supply, wiring, and switch. It worked great, and the LED boards are inside a clear plastic housing.



 
EvenFurther said:
Is this for chaeto / refugium lighting? Or, just to light up the stand inside?

I used a $26 under cabinet LED light kit from Amazon including LED strips, power supply, wiring, and switch. It worked great, and the LED boards are inside a clear plastic housing.



Click to expand...

Can you post a link to the LEDs you used please?
 
I thought it wasn't going to be enough, but once I tested it after painting the inside gloss white, it was all good. The white inside is key.
 
izzyish said:
EvenFurther is that a DIY stand? If it is what did you use for primer and paint? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Yeah its a DIY.
The inside is white Zinsser primer with 1 part epoxy appliance paint in gloss white.

This paint is sold at Home Depot, its very durable and easy to clean surface. I found the recommendation here on RC, its a great product for this.
 
Those look nice. Ill be painting the inside of my stand with white plasti-dip so hopefully it will pop as well, it just wont be as shiny most likely. If I hadnt bought the LEDs already I would probably go that route. I will never use these LEDs for anything else so I am still gonna go the DIY way so I dont waste the money.

So my question still needs answered, does thermal paste go inbetween the the LED and the Star or just between the Star and Heatsink?
 
Ideally re-flow solder the LEDs to the stars. If not possible, yes you need a decent thermal glue there.

You know that switch you linked is on when closed and off when open? Also, if using a constant current driver, you need to switch the supply to the driver, not switch between driver and LEDs? I couldn't see anything about that switch's current handling - make sure it can handle more than the current you will be putting thru it!

I just used a couple of XTEs on small heat sinks, a mean well APC 350 and a 1A push to break switch for mine (switch on the AC supply for the driver) but mine is only a nano...

Tim
 
perkint said:
Ideally re-flow solder the LEDs to the stars. If not possible, yes you need a decent thermal glue there.

You know that switch you linked is on when closed and off when open? Also, if using a constant current driver, you need to switch the supply to the driver, not switch between driver and LEDs? I couldn't see anything about that switch's current handling - make sure it can handle more than the current you will be putting thru it!

I just used a couple of XTEs on small heat sinks, a mean well APC 350 and a 1A push to break switch for mine (switch on the AC supply for the driver) but mine is only a nano...

Tim
Click to expand...

Well I will be soldering them in place I just wasnt sure if the thermal paste was needed, not sue what the re-flow means though. Several reviews said that switch worked how I wanted it, but that was just a quick search for an example I havent actually found the switch I am going to use. As for the driver I havent picked that yet... Thats gonna be a hard part for me as well lol. I hate being new to things, but once I have done it once or twice I am usually good to go .
 
booth2010 said:
Well I will be soldering them in place I just wasnt sure if the thermal paste was needed, not sue what the re-flow means though. Several reviews said that switch worked how I wanted it, but that was just a quick search for an example I havent actually found the switch I am going to use. As for the driver I havent picked that yet... Thats gonna be a hard part for me as well lol. I hate being new to things, but once I have done it once or twice I am usually good to go .
Click to expand...
Ideally the whole base of the LED wants a good thermal path to the heat sink (star) - the best way to do that is re-flow soldering, which (simplified) means heating up the whole star with solder paste on it to form a full bond. You can do it with a hot plate, hot air gun or re-flow oven (easy to DIY) but, people have just used thermal glue and got away with it (others have had LEDs die when they've done it that way).

The details on the amazon page say it is a normally closed (NC) switch, which having just checked, should mean it is what you want (sorry!). Assuming it really means NC (my understanding is, when talking about reed switches, the "Normally" bit refers to when not in close proximity to a magnet, ie, in your case, when the doors are open).

Having said that, it also suggests it needs a 12V battery ;)

If you switch the DC side of your driver, the driver is going to ramp the voltage up as high as it can whilst the door is closed, as it is trying to achieve its 900mA (or whatever rating you buy) current flow, but since it is trying against an open circuit, it is never going to achieve it, so it'll just go as high as it can and sit there doing nothing. The moment the contact is made, that high voltage is going to hit your LEDs! The driver will drop it again as fast as it can, but that may not be quick enough to save your LEDs. Better is to switch the supply to the driver. That also means your switch is likely to carry less current (your driver may put out 900mA at whatever voltage your LEDs need, but it is very likely to draw a lot less from the 120V AC side - if you were running on 24V of LEDs, chances are the driver would only be using about 200mA input!).

Tim
 
I found these at Lowes for $30. No soldering or heat sinks required, plenty bright for working on the sump, the tape lets you press them in place and they have a switch included.
 
I also have LED strips, they're warm white 5050s and plenty bright, already on aluminum channels. You can daisy chain them and they plug right into a 12v AC adapter. I also got a switch extension in between the adapter and first strip and mounted that in there too. Don't DIY this, seriously. What you're looking for is already out there and in the long run probably cheaper than trying to DIY something similar!
 
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