DIY Aquarium Light Issue

[remme]

Tried my hand at building an 82” light for my 7’ aquarium. The issue I am having is the LED strips progressively get dimmer the further down the line they are from the power source. My brain is telling me one of two things is the issue; either A) the power source is not strong enough ; 12v, 3 amp or B) the wires I used to connect the different strands is not large enough (It is super fine, I am not even sure the AWG, maybe like 32...it’s small).

In the pictures you can see the first 6000k strip is super bright, the blue strip is dimmer, the 2nd 6000k strip is much dimmer.

Let me know what you think. Thanks
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[Milingu]

My first thought was voltage drop (voltage loss) in the supply line. Why are you connecting them in series and not in parallel?

 

[remme]

I didnt know it made a difference. Just figured positive to positive and negative to negative. Ill try parelleling the wiring on Monday w/ 18 awg and see if that helps. Thank you.

 

[HUKIT]

A series circuit receives the same current to each LED, a parallel circuit receives the same voltage to each LED and the total current to each LED is the total current output of the driver divided by the number of parallel LEDs.

 

[remme]

Makes perfect sense. Thank you both