LED strips

Henkie

Henkie

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To all the diy guys out there.

I want to supplement my T5's (2x54Watt) with led strips.

So what will I need regarding drivers, etc?
 
Led strips normally run off 12v. To be honest I have tried led strips and they are a waste of time and money as the don't really push out any usefull light. Rather get some 3w LEDs .
 
As long as its just the color you are after you won't be disappointed. Like I said , I tried them for awhile and I really wasnt impressed with them at all.
 
HI Henkie

Normal 12v ac adapters will work. Use the 1amp ones. just connect them to this and it will work depening how many strips u plan to run
 
I was running about 2meters of led strips off a 12v laptop charger. I guess any 12v dc source should work as long as they have the same current as the LEDs. That's all there is to it the led strips come with the resistors built in so you can basically just connect the + and - leads and you are done.
 
So what idea do you have of placing them? Is it around the bottom, top or sides(top to bottom). If it is on the top maybe you can use 1by 5m with no joints. That is what I was thinking of using with a controller.
 
I understand if you guys used the strips as your main source of lighting but I only want blue ones.
@PICASSO, I have a lighting unit that has about 5 cm in the middle, I was thinking of mounting it on there
 
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Henkie did u want to get those R100 strips just for some additional blue light? If so dont waste your time bud. Your other lights will completely overpower them. To give you an idea i use a blue strip at 50% power for moonlight. They are REALLY low powered
 
@rakabos, on one website (which I cannot find right now) I saw led strips which is blue and have a kelvin rating of 20 000K and white ones with 14 000K , designed for marine aquariums
 
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hey guys..

Here are my moonlights...running at 9v (cos i burnt out the 12v charger...:tt2:)

Pic is taken out when it was on the 12v charger...2m of royal blue led...


61404faa506939033.jpg
 
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Hi , to put things in perspective one cree 3w royal blue pushes out 500 lumens @ 350ma . So in comparision those strip leds are really underpowered. If this was my tank I would get four 3watt leds with a moonlight driver from Rapidled.
 
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