Best budget LED Lights?
- Thread starter Skyeboy
- Start date
Beamswork is super bright and always reasonably priced. I've got a 48" LED light from them that lights up my entire 6' 125g tank. It cost me around $55 shipped from Amazon Prime if I remember correctly
The cheapest route is buying led strips and gluing them to the bottom of the tank above. Just gotta make sure you don't get them wet.
Stempy has a good point, and I completely forgot that I made my own LED lights as well. I took the same LED strips Stempy is probably referring to, and glued them to the inside of a gutter (cut to length of the tank). You can line them with foil wrap tape (silver tape used in the HVAC industry), or you can leave them white. White is an extremely reflective surface, so it shouldn't be an issue if you left the gutter as is. Just be sure to silicone the LEDs in place so they don't fall, and to ensure that there's no way water can penetrate them...
The gutter:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Genova-4-5-in-x-120-in-Half-Round-Gutter/3009950
The LEDs:
https://www.amazon.com/SUPERNIGHT-W...TF8&qid=1481724899&sr=8-4&keywords=LED+strips
and the picture of them lighting up the tank is attached
Great diy. I'll try that out in the future. The roll of led lights seems like way more than we'd need for our 6' and 8' aquariums. Do you just trim off what you don't need or how are you doing it?
it is definitely longer than you'd need, but instead of cutting it I just bent it and looped it back and forth under the gutter. There are specific points where the manufacturer recommends to cut or trim it if need be, and points to connect copper wiring if needed to make a tight turn, but I just used every inch of it for as much light as possible. They were awesome, and cost me about $20 from start to finish
Hello; I have converted old light hoods over the years. Some were set up for the old incandescent bulbs and were simple to replace with screw in LED bulbs with a standard base.
I had two hoods that used 18 inch fluroscent tubes. I converted them to LED bulbs with standard bases. I got some standard sockets to replace the fluorescent guts and have made them work.
These screw in LED bulbs are working fine to grow my live plants. I prefer the "daylight" types closer to the 6500 K range.
On my 55 gallon tank I have been using a 48 inch LED shop light. It was on the discount rack at a local Wal-mart a while back for around $25. It happened to fit nicely on the existing tank cover. I know the chances of finding these on sale may not be so good, but LED lights are coming down in price bit by bit.
good luck
I had two hoods that used 18 inch fluroscent tubes. I converted them to LED bulbs with standard bases. I got some standard sockets to replace the fluorescent guts and have made them work.
These screw in LED bulbs are working fine to grow my live plants. I prefer the "daylight" types closer to the 6500 K range.
On my 55 gallon tank I have been using a 48 inch LED shop light. It was on the discount rack at a local Wal-mart a while back for around $25. It happened to fit nicely on the existing tank cover. I know the chances of finding these on sale may not be so good, but LED lights are coming down in price bit by bit.
good luck
Check out the kind of DIY on youtube. He has some great DIY lighting options that work great and are not going to break the bank.