My Ultra Budget-friendly DIY Canopy + LED Build

This is my first canopy build, I think it turns out great. I was gonna paint it black to match with the stand but the wood look is growing on me. This is not a show tank by any means so that's fine with me.
The wood costs me about $20 at Home Depot. 3528 Blue LED 5-meter is $8/shipped. White LED 5050 SMD (much bigger and brighter) costs $13 shipped. The seller on Ebay is 'pitalam'. I live in California and these items took only 7 days to reach me so just in case anyone wants to go with this route.

Canopy almost done. There's a final piece that goes to the back (not pictured)


White 5050 SMD. Super super bright!


Stapled these to the wood, then I use clear tape as splash guard, then staple the tape once again. (told you this was a budget build)


The 3528 Blue LED.


These 3528 Blue LED are great for moonlight effect. But once I turn on the 5050 White, you can barely see any blue.




5050 White is much much stronger so I only run it one line across.


Fired up. Both blue and white on.



Note: As you can tell, the 5050 White overpowers the 3528 Blue. I might switch 3528 to 5050 to balance out the color I have in mind. These 5 meter rolls are probly good for 240G tank. Overall, I'm really happy with the new setup.

Thank you all. I forgot to mention these lights are powered by an old 12V adapter that belonged to a wireless router. Also, I don't recommend buying the 5050 RGB version as the white color looks more like green and it's way dimmer than the regular 5050.

savannah_az said:

so if the smd5050 is so overbearing its canceling out the blue, do you think it would be a better idea to go with 5050 blue paired with it? or lower down to 3528 whites?

Click to expand...

3528 blue and white will be quite dim. Though they look okay for human eyes, pictures and videos will be very dark.
I highly recommend going 5050 for both blue and white.
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