# DIY lighting with led strip lights



## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

I got a used 30 gallon (30"x12"x18"tall) from my in-laws this holiday season and I want to set this up as a planted tank on the cheap. Right now as it sits, the hood that it came with does not fit and is all corroded and before I do anything else, I am going to make a new hood and light. I had some success making one for my Fluval Edge 12g, so I thought I would try for something a little more fancy. The tank is 18" deep so it would be ideal to have enough light to grow plants like B. japonica, C. wendii, S. repens, etc. I'm NOT looking for a carpet of HC or DHG.

For you light gurus out there, I am currently looking at Besdata 16.4ft RGB stirp of LED lights that come with a remote and are reported to be 72watts. My only concern is there is indication of the warmth (5000k, 6000k????):help:
I plan on using the whole 5m (16.4ft)
Here is the link to amazon:

Besdata 16.4ft 5M Waterproof Rope Lights 300 LED 5050 SMD Color Changing RGB Flexible LED Strip Light + 12V 6A Power Supply + Remote + IR Controller - Muliticolored - PL709A_CA: Amazon.ca: Tools & Home Improvement

Does anyone have experience or knowledge of these LEDs or any other product available online that does not come as a pre-built product? I am planning on a heavily planted tank with med-high light requirement. I like building things myself, even if the price is comparable to a branded product. What I like about these lights is the ability to change the rgb values and create lighting programs. I am not really interested in all the fancy strobing or crazy colours, although the bluer tones will be nice to create a good moonlight effect - better than the ones that come off the shelf. I am not crazy about the deep blue that most lights have.

Anyway, I am interested to hear your Thoughts, ideas and suggestions.


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

TheAnswerIs42 said:


> I got a used 30 gallon (30"x12"x18"tall) from my in-laws this holiday season and I want to set this up as a planted tank on the cheap. Right now as it sits, the hood that it came with does not fit and is all corroded and before I do anything else, I am going to make a new hood and light. I had some success making one for my Fluval Edge 12g, so I thought I would try for something a little more fancy. The tank is 18" deep so it would be ideal to have enough light to grow plants like B. japonica, C. wendii, S. repens, etc. I'm NOT looking for a carpet of HC or DHG.
> 
> For you light gurus out there, I am currently looking at Besdata 16.4ft RGB stirp of LED lights that come with a remote and are reported to be 72watts. My only concern is there is indication of the warmth (5000k, 6000k????):help:
> I plan on using the whole 5m (16.4ft)
> ...


If you go w/ 5050's I'd recommend getting the RGBW in warm white..
*



5m 60 led/M 300 SMD 5050 Mixed Color RGBW RGB + Warm White LED Strip Bare DC12V

Click to expand...

*4 "colors" are better than 3...

and a 4 channel controller


> Time controller led strip led moduel 12V 24V DC 20A 5 channel PC program TC420


THAT said, you are going to need a lot "o" strips for good lighting..

so an even better plan of attack is to use smd5630's (.5W chips) in white (ideally warm and cool) for power and 5050smd's RGB for tone.. 

The 5 channel controller would be ideal R, G, B, WW, CW..............

some reading:
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=545113


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

jeffkrol said:


> If you go w/ 5050's I'd recommend getting the RGBW in warm white..
> 
> 
> 4 "colors" are better than 3...
> ...



Great advice. I can see I have a bit more reading and online searching to find the right one.


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## Jimsp (Sep 29, 2014)

From my experience all these type strips operate at a wattage much lower than advertised. At 12V you'll be lucky to get 2.5 amps flowing which is about 30 Watts. Accordingly the light output will be much lower than claimed.


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

Jimsp said:


> From my experience all these type strips operate at a wattage much lower than advertised. At 12V you'll be lucky to get 2.5 amps flowing which is about 30 Watts. Accordingly the light output will be much lower than claimed.


The current limiting resistor does run the diodes at a lower than rated current.. In the case of the .2W 5050's you may get .1W out (if your lucky)..
with the smd 5630's you may get .2-.3W out of the .5w diodes..
all rough estimates and it depends on the exact resistor used..

Of course using a large voltage power supply would improve your output.. at the risk of overheating though..which is why they limit the current below specs in the first place..

some hard data:
Powering the strips from both sides may also help...  but in a multi-strip array where no single chain is over 6-8 ft it probably isn't necessary..
4f5m 5630's ...
http://electronics.stackexchange.co...specced-values-and-real-values-for-led-strips





















> I didn't go further than 14.21v (I originally didn't want to go past 13.8v, but oh well). You can see that I cycled through the voltages at a faster rate near the higher voltages, because I was too scared to damage the LED strip. At 14v it dwarfed the luminous flux outputted by 25m of RGB led strips that were in the room, that's for sure  – Sasha Dec 20 '12 at 10:37


unfortunately almost all LEd designs are like this.. 3W LED's are usually not run at 3W ect..
As a side note watt efficiency drops as you increase amp draw...but of course you still get more gross output..


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

jeffkrol said:


> The current limiting resistor does run the diodes at a lower than rated current.. In the case of the .2W 5050's you may get .1W out (if your lucky)..
> with the smd 5630's you may get .2-.3W out of the .5w diodes..
> all rough estimates and it depends on the exact resistor used..
> 
> ...


After some more reading I have also discovered that wiring the Strip from both ends helps boost the output helps decrease the drop, however wiring each strip in parallel to the middle of each will help lower the power loss. 

Definitely looking at the 5630's in place of the 5050's. But if I can get .3w out of each then I would need 200 LEDs for a 2w/G setup. I think adding a simple RGB strip from ebay dispersed through the unit, but this would be more for effect than for growing plants.


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

TheAnswerIs42 said:


> But if I can get .3w out of each then I would need 200 LEDs for a 2w/G setup. I think adding a simple RGB strip from ebay dispersed through the unit, but this would be more for effect than for growing plants.


Wpg doesn't really hold.. BUT if you want a baseline LED's are about 2x more efficient than flourescent lighting.
1WPG is generally enough for most tanks BUT the more the merrier esp. if a dimmer is incorporated..or deeper tanks..


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