Trial and error - moonlights
- Thread starter OCELLARIS
- Start date
Hi Ocellaris
The hope of this really becoming something is deteriorating for me, was running 80 LEDs last night, yes its bright, but IMHO I think a T5 will have better performance, if you hold the light above something at the same distance as the T5, the T5 looks better and brighter......I thing the only way these LEDs would work would to literally cover the entire tank with them or use the high power models at the high power prices, on my tank that would be something like 7000 5mm LEDs, and at roughly a rand a piece... well is it viable?
those 10mm LED are nice but are no better than the 5mm, they have the same rating (mc, ma) as the 5mm, therefore that would not produce any more power then the other.
What I might do for interests sake, is use it on a small piece of SPS in a separate tank, could also judge how and if it actually works ? how knows, maybe i'll prove myself wrong?
The hope of this really becoming something is deteriorating for me, was running 80 LEDs last night, yes its bright, but IMHO I think a T5 will have better performance, if you hold the light above something at the same distance as the T5, the T5 looks better and brighter......I thing the only way these LEDs would work would to literally cover the entire tank with them or use the high power models at the high power prices, on my tank that would be something like 7000 5mm LEDs, and at roughly a rand a piece... well is it viable?
those 10mm LED are nice but are no better than the 5mm, they have the same rating (mc, ma) as the 5mm, therefore that would not produce any more power then the other.
What I might do for interests sake, is use it on a small piece of SPS in a separate tank, could also judge how and if it actually works ? how knows, maybe i'll prove myself wrong?
lIghty - just for your information's sake, and perhaps as a "fall-back plan", I am just waiting for the guy from "LED Lighting" here in Cape Town (see my earlier post for their web-site), on the technical specs of the LED's they use. He is currently investigating the possiblity of doing LED lighting for us marine aquarists.....
I will keep everyone updated once I have more information on this.
If you want to go have a look at what I am talking about, and don't wanna page back, here's the URL again: (LED Lighting South Africa: Design and Development of LED Lighting Applications)
I will keep everyone updated once I have more information on this.
If you want to go have a look at what I am talking about, and don't wanna page back, here's the URL again: (LED Lighting South Africa: Design and Development of LED Lighting Applications)
hi there dohn
no i have not used the old hard drive as a housing as there in is no space that
big inside the drive to house the resistor with the board so i had to opt for
any other sort of empty unit and i fount an old rusted up amp cover a 14cm x 9cm
had it sanded down and sprayed silver
here is my progressed project :
below is a 1.5ft length of perspex that i have used, i had scrapped out the downlighting housing idea and went with a simple strip for easy mounting
if you notice i have drilled out several 5mm holes, more than what i require, this is due to upgrades of more leds or the shifting of current leds to focus white or blue lights to different spots in the tank
below the wiring of the common negative cable with
links from it to the negative of the leds
these have just been soldered and not insulated as yet...
below a pic of all the wiring, (
spaghetti )
below is the insulation of the soldered points
http://www.marineaquariumsa.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=4914
below is a 1.5ft length of perspex that i have used, i had scrapped out the downlighting housing idea and went with a simple strip for easy mounting
if you notice i have drilled out several 5mm holes, more than what i require, this is due to upgrades of more leds or the shifting of current leds to focus white or blue lights to different spots in the tank
below the wiring of the common negative cable with
links from it to the negative of the leds
these have just been soldered and not insulated as yet...
below a pic of all the wiring, (
spaghetti
)below is the insulation of the soldered points
below is the leds placed with the pins bent, i have placed one blue one white and continued
next i started the connection of the negative and positive wires, i have not soldered them on as yet as i needed to test the whole setup so i have fixed the cables temporarily on the leds and insulated them for safety
after all cables had been connected and lights dimmed, i crossed my fingers and toes and swithched the power on .... :whoohoo:
and it works .....
ok so now i needed to see it over the tank so i put the canopy
on and absolutely bright.... note this is only an empty
tank...
front view :
back view :
i found that the leds where a bit too bright for being a moonlight
so i dropped the voltage
http://www.marineaquariumsa.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=4922
next i started the connection of the negative and positive wires, i have not soldered them on as yet as i needed to test the whole setup so i have fixed the cables temporarily on the leds and insulated them for safety
after all cables had been connected and lights dimmed, i crossed my fingers and toes and swithched the power on .... :whoohoo:
and it works .....
ok so now i needed to see it over the tank so i put the canopy
on and
absolutely bright.... note this is only an emptytank...
front view :
back view :
i found that the leds where a bit too bright for being a moonlight
so i dropped the voltage
http://www.marineaquariumsa.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=4922
i dropped a little more and perfect and looked good
it was what i wanted but i was still sceptical on the penatration of the light to the
bottom with water in the tank, so i filled the tank up with water
and turned the power on and ....
... its alive 
http://www.marineaquariumsa.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=4927
my mission accomplished, it can dim alot more and give it
a darker lighting , but in everything done so far, im very pleased
with my results and it works well for me and my tank, so all i did next were to
solder everything and neatend up the wires and i was done
it was what i wanted but i was still sceptical on the penatration of the light to the
bottom with water in the tank, so i filled the tank up with water
and turned the power on and ....
... its alive http://www.marineaquariumsa.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=4927
my mission accomplished, it can dim alot more and give it
a darker lighting
, but in everything done so far, im very pleased with my results and it works well for me and my tank, so all i did next were to
solder everything and neatend up the wires and i was done
Well done! Great thread!
Great thread!
Nice going ocellaris, coming along i got myself twelve LEDs to start off with and they work off a twelve volt supply in the same way yours is, they work awesome! my design doesnt have a cover or anything but is basically a scrappy wire fram one that sits in the middle of my two light pendants, it basically hangs on the rim and is almost invisible so i think i will leave it as it is best 24 bucks i've spent all month
i got myself twelve LEDs to start off with and they work off a twelve volt supply in the same way yours is, they work awesome! my design doesnt have a cover or anything but is basically a scrappy wire fram one that sits in the middle of my two light pendants, it basically hangs on the rim and is almost invisible so i think i will leave it as it is best 24 bucks i've spent all month
Nice going ocellaris, coming along
thanx scubaninja
its cool bro, i guess it took me awhile as i looked around for some housing and stuff, guess its not how well the presentation is but most important that it works
good going bro, yeah leave it where it is as once you start touching and moving around you heading for a bad spell