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Sculpin 
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 Topic: DIY LED moonlights?
Posted: October 01 2008 at 1:13am |
The moonlights I have on my tank are pathetic. That said, I went to a fellow reefers tank the other day and he showed me some LED moonlights he got with his fixture (Coralife was the brand, thats all I got) and I was impressed and wanted some myself. After looking around on various aquarium supply stores I was not impressed with the price nor products for moonlights so I'm thinking about atempting my own but I want to get your opinion on wether you think it will work or not.
Here is the plan- I take these LED's- 1 watt 470 NM
+
And use a minimag reflector (or a cheaper one, thats just my first idea)- http://www.redflarekits.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=RFM-108-038
Wire and fix them to some kind of fixture and BAM!, I have some cool LED's for cheap, what do you think?
I may be overcomplicating it, if so someone pipe in. There has to be someone out there that has built some cool DIY Moonlights.
Sculpin
Edited by Sculpin - October 01 2008 at 1:26am
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: October 01 2008 at 1:43pm |
Buy this $3 night light at Walmart and plug it into a $2 extension cord
and hang it inside the hood. Works like a charm. The other day I
noticed there was a pack of 3 for $5 I removed the lens by simply pulling it out of the white plastic base to make it shine straight out. It's very bright. One is enough for a 75 gal tank.  
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Sculpin
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Posted: October 01 2008 at 9:06pm |
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Hey thats a cool idea, I'll look into that. Thank you
Sculpin
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snoyce
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Posted: October 02 2008 at 12:12pm |
If I understand what I have read about high powered LED lights like you listed. You will need a LED driver and a heatsink and/or fan to cool them. the Driver will have to match the number of LED's you want to run.
something like
or
I think the MAG reflector would focus the light more than you would want, they make LED lense covers that give different angles, but I think most are diffusing the LED to a wider angle not focusing it more, I thought the bare LED has about a 15 degree viewing angle then you add the little fisheye like lense to get 30,60,85 degree angle or whatever you want.
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KludgeGuru
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Posted: October 02 2008 at 4:07pm |
I think the 1W LED is way overkill. I think you would find that it would be way too bright and end up turning the current down anyway. You should just get a few regular LEDs and run them with a 12V wall wart with a series resistor. I don't think you really need a reflector either. Something like this: http://www.alliedelec.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?SKU=5059720&MPN=AND262HBA&R=5059720&SEARCH=5059720&DESC=AND262HBAI had 3 similar to these on my biocube and they worked but the were very directional so you could see the column of light from each LED. I took them out but I haven't had a chance to put something else in to replace them yet. If you end up going a custom LED route and need help with the circuit design or finding the write resistors or power supplies let me know. -Rocks
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mountaindrifter
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Posted: October 04 2008 at 12:15pm |
I made a really cool one last year with a similar led to the one you linked to in your first post. I designed it so that it would automatically turn off when the main light turned on and vis versa without using a timer to control it. I accomplished this without a driver as one of the other people posted and I didn't need a heat sink because I didn't push the led to it's rated maximum output. And I didn't have mains voltage running to my tank either. I thought about trying to market them for a while. It was a fun project. I learned alot about low voltage DC circuits too. I also have a small video that shows it turning off and on when the ambient light level changes. I never had a problem with it until one day it just stopped working. When I took it apart I found a dead earwig inder the circuit board and the LED seems fine. I just put it on the shelf and never fixed it. it's either the photo resistor that went bad, or the earwig shorted out he transistor. I think I'll fix it today! Oh, and one more thing. All those little LEDs seem to always put out a directed beam of light that never seems to look good in the tank. The LED similar to the one I have looks like it has the same 180 degree lens over it. I really liked it. It's a good point source and plays well with the serface of the water. And it has no problem lighting the whole tank. I wouldn't ever run a 1 watt LED at full output. It would be far too bright.
drifter
In this picture:
Bottom left corner is the connector for the standard wall wart to plug into.
Top left is the sensor that dertermins weather or not the main light is turned on.
Top right are the leads that I ended up cutting shorter and attatching the LED to.
Edited by mountaindrifter - October 04 2008 at 2:57pm
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24G NanoCube, Two years old, No crashes!!!
Provo, UT
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mountaindrifter
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Posted: October 04 2008 at 2:01pm |
quick update. My home made moonlight still works. It seems that some how the polarity of my DC source got switched the wrong way!  Nothing was wrong with it to begin with!!!
Drifter
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24G NanoCube, Two years old, No crashes!!!
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mountaindrifter
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Posted: October 04 2008 at 2:47pm |
I just looked closely at the link that you posted for the LED that you had in mind. They have three different Blue leds. The only difference between them is how focussed the light is. The link you posted goes to the 30 degree LED. That might be ok if your tank was very deep, say 30 inches or more. There is another that is 70 degrees that should do well for the average tank depth of around 20-28 inches. Tanks less than 18 inches would do best with the third one which is 120 degrees. The LED that I made my light out of is the 120 variety. It does fine, but there is a lot of light spill over the edge of the tank that many people would find anoying/unprofessional. But that only matters if you don't use a hood to mount everything.
Drifter
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24G NanoCube, Two years old, No crashes!!!
Provo, UT
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Jhamb
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Posted: October 06 2008 at 10:28pm |
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I used some leds that I gound at auto zone for car accessories
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Jeremy
40B INW
USAF
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BobC63
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Posted: October 06 2008 at 10:53pm |
 Mark Peterson wrote:
Buy this $3 night light at Walmart and plug it into a $2 extension cord and hang it inside the hood. Works like a charm. The other day I noticed there was a pack of 3 for $5
I removed the lens by simply pulling it out of the white plastic base to make it shine straight out. It's very bright. One is enough for a 75 gal tank.
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I think that is an awesome idea, Mark - I was thinking of putting only 2 LED moonlights on my 225, one over each of the 2 rock "islands", vs. a whole "string" of moonlights that would light up the entire length of the tank... this looks like a perfect, easy, and cheap DIY solution. Thanks! 
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- My Current Tank: 65g Starfire (sitting empty for 2+ years) -
* Marine & Reef tanks since 1977 *
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Sculpin
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Posted: October 07 2008 at 12:33am |
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Hey thanks guys, you've given me a ton to think about. I may end up needing some help with all this though. I love to do DIY projects, so I may end up going the complicated route, however I still want to see the kind of out put and overall look of these walmart type lights. I'll keep you guys posted on my progress and maybe we can come up with a solid DIY LED system that works for any noob to build.
Sculpin
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superman1981
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Posted: October 07 2008 at 10:56am |
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I got the 2 pack for $5 that Mark mentioned and use them over my 125, they look great!
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Sure you are, you are Crappy Reef Club Member #1 -Chk4tix 6 gal nanocube 65 gal build thread
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john hill
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Posted: October 07 2008 at 6:51pm |
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i had the 2 pack on my 65 it was ok
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out with the large and in with the nano
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mermaidcamille
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Posted: October 08 2008 at 12:27pm |
I found some IKEA LED strips on eBay for $29.00 and I just attached them to my fixture with super glue (sounds lame, but looks fine.) Best thing is that the LEDs can be set to about 8 different colors (pink, green, red, light blue...) so I am not stuck with just dark blue like on my other tanks.
Camille
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135g...D.E.A.D
Welcome bright and shiny 120!
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: October 08 2008 at 4:25pm |
That's pretty cool if you can change them at the flip of a switch. Red - green - pink - blue sounds like a fake Christmas tree 
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mermaidcamille
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Posted: October 09 2008 at 10:47pm |
Kinda.  I like to think of it as mood lighting myself  . I like having options.
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135g...D.E.A.D
Welcome bright and shiny 120!
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Cameron
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Posted: October 16 2008 at 9:01pm |
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Pics?
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[COLOR="Red"](801)664-4240
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bbauman
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Posted: October 17 2008 at 7:07am |
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I've seen the IKEA lights and I had the exact same thought about their use. They're pretty bright and would do well for either a supplement or some cool looking moon lighting. I too would be interested in pics!
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jonafriendj
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Posted: October 18 2008 at 12:47am |
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I got mine from Auto Zone too. The walmart ones probably look fine, but an extra extension cord per moonlight? That's not for me!
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Pleasant Grove
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Werbs
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Posted: November 11 2008 at 3:44pm |
Ive been pondering the same thing, and these are the ideas ive had so far.
smiths sells some small LEDs mounted to a little directional bracket in their auto section for like 10 bucks. just power those with a 12v wall wart.
research cold cathode lighting. they are small, cheap, neon lights they use for lighting computer towers. and power with a 12v wall wart or a computer power supply (since they already have the adapters on them for a computer power supply.
making my own LED stip and powering it with a wall wart. but first you must find the current of the LED's being used, the voltage and the amperage of your power supply. voltage/amps=ohms or your resistance. now you use a resistor to bring down the amperage to a level that the led can support without blowing up. but thats just for one led. if you parallel the led's you will need resistors on all the LED's. if you series the LED's the the voltage will get divided between each LED.
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