DIY Blue LED lighting?

[Kaiden]

I'm not sure if it's even possible but I would love to have some 'blue' light for my tank at night. I have a Marineland 55gallon LED kit that came with it but the 125 gallon that I bought only came with 4 36" florescent light fixtures. I know they consume more electricity than LEDs and they get hotter so I was wondering if there's a way to make my own LED lighting? A 36" Single LED light from Marineland will cost me about $80 and I'll need two...so if there was a way to make my own, I'd sure love to give it a try.

If anyone has ever tried doing this, I'd really appreciate if you can help me out.
Thanks!

 

[trick1441]

Hey there, I have done several diy led fixtures and they are great. The ones you can buy from the store are way too expensive and half the time don't last as long as they are supposed to.

I'd be glad to help you out, I started making diy led lights and it is a lot of fun and is a lot cheaper than the ones from the store and personally I think they look better.

Are you trying to make a light with just blue lights for moonlights or are you trying to make a light with white and blue to replace your florescents?

 

[Kaiden]

As much as I'd love to switch my florescents to LEDs, I'm afraid I can't because I have some sword plants in my tank. So I'm only looking to make a blue light for moonlights. I wanted to use it as a night light.

Thank you so much! I really appreciate your offer to help.

 

[trick1441]

As much as I'd love to switch my florescents to LEDs, I'm afraid I can't because I have some sword plants in my tank. So I'm only looking to make a blue light for moonlights. I wanted to use it as a night light.

Thank you so much! I really appreciate your offer to help.

Why can't you Use led's with your amazon swords? I have all live plants in my tank and they are doing really good. And my tank is all LEDs I have white for daylight and blue for night with a dimmer on the blue ones because sometimes its nice to change the amount of blue. I also run the blue with the white it looks more crisp but not too blue like saltwater.


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[Kaiden]

Oh really? I always thought plants need florescent or T5s to grow. But that would be great if I can use LEDs for them too! In that case, I'd love to have the same setup as yours with the white and blue LEDs. That's actually what I really wanted. I have a Marineland LED 55 gallon before and I loved the fact that it has blue and white lights. LEDs are more energy efficient too.

 

[trick1441]

Yeah you can use LEDs for plants as long as they are the right color temperature. I got all of my lights off of eBay as they were the cheapest.
This is where you will have to decide how bright you want your tank.
What kind of fish do you have?
What are the dimensions of your tank is it a 6 footer?
Do you want to incorporate your lights into your current light fixtures or make something to hold them?

Sorry for all the questions just trying to figure out what would be best for your tank. I'll put the two pictures I have of my tank (they are old and my tank is a lot cleaner and nothing looks the same now) on the right side I have 1 50w high powered cool white led and 1 10w blue high powered led.
And on the left I have 2 10W high powered cool white LEDs and 1 10w blue. The right is a bit brighter than the left.

The right side isn't as bright as it looks it just my phone made it look that way.

View attachment 769133
This is the moonlight I don't have it set this bright anymore but you can have it as bright as you want.

Does this seem like you would want to do something like this?


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[oneyedfish]

Ok Trick, I'm interested in what's going on in that canopy! I'm looking for LED lighting ideas for my standard 75 gal.

 

[tonto95]

Have you considered blue led's that are used to light underneath auto's, they are water proof and only need to run on a 12 vdc transformer. the lighting is not as bright as pictured above.

 

[trick1441]

Ok Trick, I'm interested in what's going on in that canopy! I'm looking for LED lighting ideas for my standard 75 gal.

Well i got 1 50w high powered white led and 1 10w blue led on the right side of the tank.


And on the left side I have 2 10W white (cool white not warm because warm is more of a yellow color not the right temperature for plants) and 1 10w blue

This is one of the 10w whites attached to the heatsink before I installed it

The blue are hooked up to a dimmer so I can control the amount of blue because I keep them on with the whites and when the whites are off. Glad I added this because when I had the blue all the way on I had a algae bloom so I turned it down a bit.



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[tonto95]

this is what it looks like