DIY LED hanging fixture

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cichlidtank

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 7, 2011
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bridgeportopia
Im wanting to build a DIY LED fixture that will be for my planted 40 gallon breeder tank. I have been reading Trick1441 's posts in the DIY Blue LED lighting thread and want to use the led's and drivers he suggested or something else in that price range

The part I am not sure of is that I want to build a hanging fixture 16 inches off the waters surface so I can view from the top, and grow hyancith duckweed or waterlettuce on the surface with some low/moderate light plants below, and 5 axolotl's. I will also have 6 inches of planters hanging on 3 sides for terrestiall plants to grow and filter the water and will need to be lit as well.Im geussing that with the fixture being held up so high will light these plants will be lit automatically.

any Ideas? Im thinking 2 20 watt led's with a 10 watt blue in the middle with a dimmer? would this be enough at such a height?

I also need to build in some cooling fans to keep tempratures down in the tank, be cool if I could do this in the same fixture but are any fans gonna be strong enough for this? I could just mount them on the sides otherwise. but I could use a fan to cool the lights but am clueless on were to buy something cheap to make it work, like a pc cooling fan with the right power.

a little long winded but anyone got experience?
 
Hello,Im newbie here.
I thought the big problem is the fans.
Thx for your sharing,hope you getting good idear about your tank.
 
just ordered 3 20watt cool whites, and 2 10 watt blue Led's along with the drivers and a dimmer for the blue, 95bucks. now the wait at best will be here in two weeks. Im gonna start with the fixture soon.

any Idea on some cooling fans, for heatsinks as well as ones to be used to cool aquarium? Im using a box fan right now.
 
true, I understand however that a heatsink fan can extend the lives of the led's and possibly the drivers could benefit even more.

as far as the tank cooling fans axolotls need cold temps and my tank wants to creep up to 70 even in the basement, my box fan keeps it 60 and its 100 outside.
 
I'm going to try and find something that might work for a fixture. I have mine in a canopy which I think you know and I don't really like the whole canopy thing. It's really hard to clean the glass with a big canopy in the way. I've been trying to find somewhere that sells empty fixtures with just the outer shell but no luck except for really expensive aluminum ones. I'll let you know if I find anything.

LEDs can produce a lot of heat. The little 1W ones that come in most fixtures don't produce much but the 20w ones he is getting will get really hot unless proper heat dissipation is allowed. I have a 100W that gets crazy hot unless there is a fan on it.
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So I wired it all up and nothing, great. Just a buzzing sound from each transformer,
I used a circuit detector on it and I have no power getting to the DC side, of course my detector only has 110 and 220 marks on it, but it is a simple little deal with just a led inside so I should be getting something shouldnt I? Fuses look good. So now what?
 
I'd make sure everything has a good connection. Id also make sure the AC wires are connected correctly. Some drivers it doesn't matter which wire you hook to the driver but other drivers it does.


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nothing :(

same buzzing, and it even continues for a few seconds after unplugged... this is disappointing.

I used the exact lights and power transformers as u had listed in the other thread, im not sure whats wrong, should my detector be lighting up on the dc side?
 
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