# Guide to DIY (LED) Moonlighting



## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

Edit: I learned a lot more about moonlighting these past few months. There are many more ways to moonlighting the more I look into it. People here have been very creative and came up with a lot more ways to DIY moonlighting. This is just one out of many ways to do DIY moonlighting).




I'm a complete noob in lighting and electrical wiring, so correct me if I'm wrong. I'm only doing this for fun, and also because LEDs are relatively safe since they use very little watts and emit very little heat. 

*Why moonlighting?*
After the project, you only need to see for yourself in person to understand how cool and beautiful moonlighting looks in an aquarium. It's almost as if you have another tank during night-time. The nocturnal critters come out and the diurnal critters start slowing down. The behaviour of every animal changes. Before the moonlight, the aquarium would go from noon intensity lighting to pure darkness in an instant, this caused the fish to go crazy, erratically swimming for a while every night. The moonlight helps the transition from day to night to day.

I've been really interested in moonlighting for a while now and really wanted to have it for my aquarium. However, some limits kept me from doing it initially. 

*Some reasons that kept me from installing moonlights:*
1. Premade Moonlighting Kits are often very expensive, selling for $20-$40 each just for 2 LED bulbs. And then additional $20 something for extensions of more LED bulbs. For example: http://www.bigalsonline.ca/BigAlsCA/ctl3664/cp17949/cl0/led?viewType=Category

2. There is not a lot of DIY information regarding DIY moonlighting. There is some, but they don't explain the process very clearly. Most DIY moonlighting comes from marine aquarium keepers--and the instructions to build these marine lighting systems are more complicated than they have to be. Plus they're not tailored to planted freshwater tanks.

Nevertheless, I managed to pull it off even with basic high school electrical wiring education, or at least what I learned when I wasn't sleeping in science class. 

*Some things I learned while researching:* There are alternatives in terms of light source, like regular tinted incandescent, tinted fluorescent, halogen, etc. But LED is probably the best because of its cost, flexibility in usage, efficiency and ease of assembly. 

LED bulbs are extremely cheap--I bought 20 bulbs for $0.99CDN on ebay. It uses very little electricity and emits very little heat, but a lot of light.
The assembly process is quite simple, just some soldering, wire cutting and planning ahead of time.

*Moonlight colour:*
Moonlight doesn't have a specific color temperature. It depends on which part of the Earth you are on, the time of the year, the atmospheric conditions, and the surface it is reflected off of. In general, in marine aquariums and saltwater, moonlight tends to look blue, whereas in freshwater, moonlight tends to look white. So I picked white LED bulbs instead of blue LED bulbs. I wasn't too concerned with the "planted" aspect of the bulbs because the goal wasn't to maximize plant growth, but to make moon lighting as realistic as possible in a freshwater aquarium.

*Disclaimer: Similar to all DIY projects, there is always risk and danger involved. Especially with electricty, as it doesn't get along with water very well. Thus the utmost concern for safety should be considered before partaking in any DIY project. This guide is meant as a general guide, and users should attempt this at their own risk. I am not responsible for any accidents that may result from this project.
*

Anyway, here is the guide.

*Items required:*
- electrical tape (about $5)
- soldering gun (about $10-20)
- soldering wire (about $3-5 for 85 grams, you won't need a lot anyway)
- electrical hook-up wire (For mine, I chose 18 gauge, doesn't really matter though, the thickness is mainly for aesthetics, $5-10; Also, thanks to tazcrash69 for mentioning heat-shrink tubing. See wikipedia for information.)
- LED bulbs (look for on ebay, I got 20 for $1, with free resistors)
- 1/4" resistors (the ohms depend on your wiring circuitry; mine came free with the bulbs )
- electric adapter (a really cheap way is to use look for old phone/electronic chargers/adapters--they have all the specifications printed on; most adapters range from 5V to 20V; also the more amps (or milliamperes, mA) it has, the more lights it can support, though it is safer to not push the adapter to its maximum capacity)
- plastic zip-ties ($1-2 for 100 or so)

If you can, buy products from a recognized brand name. This is for safety reasons. It is more likely that recognized brand name products have done product safety tests before selling.

As you can see, you can basically do the whole project for less than $10 excluding the soldering gun and labour cost. So why not give it a try if you're bored with your tank at the moment?


















Credit/thanks to jinx© for the second LED bulb picture, really helpful.

*LED specifications:*
Emitted Colour : White
Size (mm) : 3mm
Lens Colour : Water Clear
Forward Voltage (V) : 3.2 ~ 3.4
Reverse Current (uA) : <= 30
Luminous Intensity Typ Iv (mcd) : 4000(Typical) ~ 5000(Max)
Life Rating : 100,000 Hours
Viewing Angle : 85 ~ 100 Degree
Absolute Maximum Ratings ( Ta = 25oC )
Max Power Dissipation : 80 mw
Max Continuous Forward Current : 30 mA
Max Peak Forward Current : 75 mA
Reverse Voltage : 5 ~ 6 V
Lead Soldering Temperature : 240oC ( < 5 Sec ) 
Operating Temperature Range : -25oC ~ +85oC 
Preservative Temperature Range : -30oC ~ +100oC
Quantity : 20
Free Resistors (Work for 12v)


The only important specs to look for is the mA, mcd, size, colour, viewing angle, and voltage. mcd is basically the light intensity, the higher the brighter. Viewing angle means the angle that the bulb can cover. 

The most important step is the planning. 

*Some questions to ask:*
*How many lights do I want? *For me, I didn't really know how many I wanted. So I picked 8 so that the aquarium would be evenly lighted.

*How bright are the LEDs? *There are some differences in LED brightness--if you buy the ones that claim "super-bright, ultra-bright, etc", the bulbs will probably emit more intensely. Just look for the "mcd". The larger the number the more bulb intensity, but this is relative to the size of the bulb. Bigger bulbs have higher mcds because they have a larger surface area. Similar to differences in diameter for fluorescent tubes that will affect the light "intensity". I just chose the regular white LEDs because they were cheaper.

*How am I going to fit this over the top along with the current lighting system?* For mine, my regular lighting canopy has about 1" of clearance space between the lights and the top of the aquarium. I have a plastic grate as the cover, so I used that to mount the LEDs. I guess if you have a glass cover or less space, you can fit all the wires and bulbs into the spaces between your normal lighting. It might be dangerous to fit so many lights together though, as the normal lights might heat up the LED wires and damage them.

*Wiring diagram:*
I based the wiring on this useful guide: http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz
It's pretty simple, plug in the numbers and let it calculate the diagram.










I didn't follow the diagram to a T, but used it as a loose guide for how to wire. I ended up doing the lights by trial and error, soldering a few lights, then testing to see if it would still emit. The resistor is also an important part, too much resistance, then you will not have any light emit. Too little resistance, and your bulbs may overheat and burn out. 

*Safety:* It's very important to tape off any exposed conducting metal parts with electrical tape. Even though you won't feel anything if you touch the wire while it's live because it uses so little energy, it's a good safety precaution. I tried touching it while it's on, you don't feel anything.

*Soldering: *For the soldering, it's straightforward. Cut the hook up wire to desired lengths. On the LED, you see two wires, one is longer than the other. Orient the longer side as the positive. Solder the hook up wires to the LED. 

*Soldering/placement of resistors: *As well, solder the resistor between the positive adapter wire and first LED bulb. Common sense--resistor goes BEFORE the LED bulbs!

*Soldering safety:* Another note is that soldering is probably the most dangerous part of the project because it produces massive amounts of heat to melt the soldering wire. The heat will easily/quickly conduct across the hook up wire, so you have to solder quickly. Remember to turn it off when it is not in use--you can't tell visually if it's heated or not, so always assume it is on the on-position. Even after unplugging, do not touch the heated part because it will retain heat for a long time.

*Connecting the bulbs:*To connect the bulbs together, basically solder the negative (shorter) end of the first bulb to a hook up wire, then the end of the hook up wire to the positive end of the second bulb. So on so forth for as many bulbs as you want--depending on the calculations made beforehand.

*Parallel circuitry:*An assumption I've made is that you know how to do parallel circuitry. Just make separate series circuits, and solder the ends together. You can also solder each bulb side by side--this takes longer, but if one of the bulbs ever burn out, the other lights on that series will continue to run. I didn't do it because it was too time consuming for just 2x 4 bulb series.

*Adapter:*The adapter has a female and male part to the plug--basically the positive end is the hole in the middle, and the negative end is the outer metal part of the plug. Tape the hook up wires to the appropriate side, plug it in and you'll have moonlight!

*Minor touches: *To tie the circuit to the plastic grate, I used the plastic zip-ties to tie everything tightly to the grate (tongue twister). Just be generous with the zip-ties to make everything look clean and professional. Plus you wouldn't want any loose wires dangling into the water.

You can use coloured wire to differentiate between positive and negative. I used black wiring initially for everything, but at the end I got confused, so I used green as the positive side and red as the negative side.

Another interesting thing I noticed is that even after you turn off the LEDs, because the adapter still has electricty stored, the LEDs will only slowly transition from on to off. This is a nice transition effect for the dawn and dusk look.


*Pictures:*

































































The aquarium actually looks dimmer. I set the photo to a higher exposure so that you can see it more clearly. As well, there's a really cool water ripple effect that you can't see here.

In the pictures, the zip ties weren't trimmed. After the zip tie has been tightened, just take a pair of scissors and cut off the excess part. Zip ties are a really good investment even for other projects, they tie everything down, are inert, do not conduct electricity, is extremely cheap, has a very strong tightening grip, and if you make a mistake, it's not expensive to replace. They run about $0.01 each.

Set the moon lighting on another timer--maybe 1-2 hours longer than your normal photo schedule. Remember, as long as the lights are on, diurnal fish won't be able to sleep. Yes, fish do sleep. Hope this guide was useful!


----------



## jinx© (Oct 17, 2007)

Cool little project and write up. 

I'll eventually do similar I'm sure as I have tons of LED's and electrical gizmo stuff laying around from computer projects in the past.

I've felt the same about the expense of the ready made moonlight products I've seen offered. I would look at them knowing that a better setup could be made for a couple bucks with some thought and planning.


----------



## jinx© (Oct 17, 2007)

I also want to add that there is in fact a positive and negative lead on LEDs and they usually wont work if wired backwards, so you may have just got lucky...lol


----------



## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

Lol yeah I think I got lucky.  I'll make the change.


----------



## tazcrash69 (Sep 27, 2005)

Moved it,. I think it does go in DIY. 
I didn't read it all yet, but looks good so far. 


When I did mine, I found some plastic raceway molding , that I mounted in the canopy with double sided tape. I drilled holes on the track large enough for the bulb to stick out, but the base holds in place, then I place sponge behind to hold in place. 

Unfortunately I didn't put in the resistors, and they died out.


----------



## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

I think your idea of the track is smarter than mine. It keeps the water from the wires, which is always a good thing.

Haha I wouldn't have known what resistors were if the ebay seller didn't include them with the bulbs.


----------



## tazcrash69 (Sep 27, 2005)

dekstr said:


> I think your idea of the track is smarter than mine. It keeps the water from the wires, which is always a good thing.


Ah, use heat shrink tubing, and it won't matter. 

Please use heat shrink tubing, good stuff.


----------



## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

tazcrash69 said:


> Ah, use heat shrink tubing, and it won't matter.
> 
> Please use heat shrink tubing, good stuff.


Oh so that's what it's called. I always called it "copper wire wrapped in rubber coating". Heat shrink tubing. Thanks for the info.


----------



## lostparadise (Dec 22, 2006)

how handy! thanks to share and post ıt..I try it in soon...


----------



## danepatrick (Jul 17, 2006)

> I tried touching it while it's on, you don't feel anything.


haha. here's one of those, "KIDS: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME." statements.

can you explain a little about the resistors and what purpose they serve? maybe a close-up photo of them?
maybe i missed this in the amazing documentary but i was wondering why to place them closer to the negative side of the series as oppose to one before the positive side and one before the negative side. mind you i know hardly anything about wiring and this post is simply wonderful!


----------



## psybock (Jan 12, 2007)

Nice feet... J/k, anyway, would using red LED's make a difference? I've heard that is the least visible of the color spectrum to fish...


----------



## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

danepatrick said:


> haha. here's one of those, "KIDS: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME." statements.
> 
> can you explain a little about the resistors and what purpose they serve? maybe a close-up photo of them?
> maybe i missed this in the amazing documentary but i was wondering why to place them closer to the negative side of the series as oppose to one before the positive side and one before the negative side. mind you i know hardly anything about wiring and this post is simply wonderful!


I actually accidently dropped the whole moonlighting system into the water just a while ago. Nothing happened. Fish were fine. In fact, the bulbs kept emitting UNDERWATER! 

I did some basic research on wikipedia for resistors. Basically they're like a "dam" for the electric current. Most electronic appliances you own already come with their own interal adapter / resistor or are designed for direct use with household electrical outlets. But since LEDs require so little voltage--if you directly used household electric outlet current it would burn out instantly. That's where the adapter initially comes in. It "slows" down the current to a more desirable rate. Theoretically, you only need an adapter if you have the exact current required to run through the bulbs. But in real life, that's not always the case. The adapter brings it to a closer acceptable voltage, and then the resistor fills in the missing required "resistance". Plus resistors are quite cheap, so it allows for manipulation of circuitry through different resistors. Basically resistors slow down the current to a desired rate so that the appliance (or bulb in this case) can run normally.

I'm not exactly sure whether the placement of the resistor is important. I just know it has to be somewhere along the circuit. Maybe someone with more expertise can comment. I hardly know anything about electricity and circuits too!



psybock said:


> Nice feet... J/k, anyway, would using red LED's make a difference? I've heard that is the least visible of the color spectrum to fish...


Haha after I posted I noticed my feet. :icon_redf But I think they look=s good--nice feet indeed. 

I have no idea whether red LEDs make a difference or whether the fish can see less. It'd be easy to test though--just wave your hand in front of aquarium at night with red LEDs, if they react then I guess they can see just fine. I know that moonlight can appear "red" on very special occasions in real life, so it's possible to run red LEDs to simulate that kind of moonlight colour.


---
Also, I just spent the ENTIRE day upgrading the 20g to the 55g! It was a massive effort and PITA minding a ton of things at once. 

I will start a journal on the new 55g very soon. It turns out that the brace in the middle divides the top to exactly the same dimension as two 20g highs for side by side. So I just moved the current moonlight system to one side of the tank. I will probably do one more moonlight circuit for the other half side of the tank, and this time take more close-up pictures. I'm really happy with the way the new tank turned out. I wasn't expecting to do the upgrade today, but it was the only day my brother was available to help me move the aquarium and stand from the basement to the main floor, so I had no choice. Not that I minded though.


----------



## ChunkMuffin85 (Dec 6, 2007)

the only thing I would add is a safety warning. I dont think people realize the danger they pose if they are not careful or touch exposed wires. Using a 500 mAmp adapter is even to kill a person. 1 Amp has about 1x10^19 electrons in it! Now consider that many electrons going into your body in 1 second. OUCH! so just be careful! 
Second I guess your LED's came with resistor's, that is awesome cuz then you know they work, but if you buy the wrong ones the LED's may not work, even if you wire it up correctly. If you google currents I am sure you can find the equations for resistance, or if there is a huge desire I could maybe either write it out or just send a pdf file that will get more in depth about circuits then you may care to know. Or just take a physics class!


----------



## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

ChunkMuffin85 said:


> the only thing I would add is a safety warning. I dont think people realize the danger they pose if they are not careful or touch exposed wires. Using a 500 mAmp adapter is even to kill a person. 1 Amp has about 1x10^19 electrons in it! Now consider that many electrons going into your body in 1 second. OUCH! so just be careful!
> Second I guess your LED's came with resistor's, that is awesome cuz then you know they work, but if you buy the wrong ones the LED's may not work, even if you wire it up correctly. If you google currents I am sure you can find the equations for resistance, or if there is a huge desire I could maybe either write it out or just send a pdf file that will get more in depth about circuits then you may care to know. Or just take a physics class!


Safety is really important I would say. If the appliance caught heat, there's nobody to blame except for yourself. Physics class is good too when you're not sleeping.:angel: Thanks for the info though, maybe I'll research it up more after finals.


----------



## swylie (May 10, 2007)

Fish can see red light. Red light is also sufficient to set their circadian clock. That said, they're more sensitive to other wavelengths.


----------



## psybock (Jan 12, 2007)

Well, I knew they could at least see it, they had to, otherwise they wouldn't hide whenever I shown a rose colored light over them. At any rate, i knew a blacklight wouldn't work b/c I couldn't see the fish unless they were up by the light, and it produces way to much heat. Anyway, but thats cool though, just wondering. Although, does anyone think if I got a light filter tube (the colored plastic tubes that are green, blue, red, purple, ect...) in red would that work the same?


----------



## swylie (May 10, 2007)

Some fish can actually see a broader range of colors than we can. That means that there is no color of light that we can see that they can't. Red is probably a pretty good compromise. I think that fish ("zebrafish," at least) are most sensitive to a greenish shade.

A filter should work just fine for a fluorescent or incandescent bulb. Leds too, but you can get pure red leds instead. You'd technically be wasting energy, but it's night lighting, so who cares. Incandescents have the awesome advantage that they're easily dimable.

Whatever, though. This is all academic. Just make sure you keep your moonlighting dim enough for your fish to get a good night's sleep and you'll be fine no matter what color you use.


----------



## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

did you know they make dimmable ballasts?
You can dim you regular lights to make moon light.


----------



## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

mistergreen said:


> did you know they make dimmable ballasts?
> You can dim you regular lights to make moon light.


That could work too lol. Do dimmable ballasts work for all fluorescents and PCs? That would be an even better idea. Saves the trouble of LED.

The only thing that I think LED beats dimmable ballasts in is the ripple effect. The LED bulbs are small and intense enough to cause the shadow to have water ripples. But that's just personal taste. Dimmable ballasts definitely could work.


----------



## jinx© (Oct 17, 2007)

The dimmable ballasts are pretty pricey, but a good option if you have the cash or need to replace a ballast.

On a sidenote...I deleted the LED picture off my earlier post dekstr and its goofed your linkage to it. I thought you had attached it to your write up...lol
If you want to PM me your addy I could email the pic to you if you want to include it like planned.


----------



## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

lol yeah sorry about the confusion

sure just send me the picture link please.


----------



## swylie (May 10, 2007)

Dimable ballasts are very cheap these days. Some spiral CFLs are dimable. All you have to do is add another bulb to your hood. For example, there are some three watt candelabra dimable CFLs at Home Depot and some very similar seven watt bulbs at Lowes.


----------



## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

correct me if i'm wrong, all tubes are dimable.

A Ballast control the amount of wattage a bulb receives thats all.


----------



## tazcrash69 (Sep 27, 2005)

mistergreen said:


> correct me if i'm wrong, all tubes are dimable.
> 
> A Ballast control the amount of wattage a bulb receives thats all.


True, but I think the bulbs Swylie is talking about are the screw ins that have the ballasts built into the base.


----------



## swylie (May 10, 2007)

tazcrash69 said:


> True, but I think the bulbs Swylie is talking about are the screw ins that have the ballasts built into the base.


Exactly. However, if you're feeling very DIY you can crack open those bulbs, extract the ballast, connect it to some end caps, and use standard linear fluorescent tubes.

Here's an idea for dawn/dusk lighting. I'll use my own setup as an example, but you could translate it to yours. I have four 24" T8 tubes over my tank. I could find a dimable screw-in CFL that's ~20 watts, break it open, and connect its leads to one of the 24" tubes. I could connect it's power to a dimmer switch. As long as the regular ballast and the dimable CFL ballast were _never_ on at the same time they could share one tube.

Otherwise, if space isn't tight, just add another tube. You could add a standard medium-base screw-in socket for a CFL, or you could go DIY, extract the ballast from that three watt bulb I mentioned and hook it up to a linear F4T5 bulb. Or, since this is very low power lighting we're talking about, you could use incandescents to make it easier. Any incandescent can be dimmed.

If you're interested in covering a large area, consider rope lighting; it's like christmas lights, but should be much, much easier to work with, and I'm pretty sure that you simply cut it to the length that you want. I saw two foot rope light starter kit at one of the home improvement stores for less than $10, maybe it was even $5. Three watts per foot, but remember that this is low-wattage incandescent, so it's probably 10-20% the brightness of fluorescent for the same power. There were LED rope light kits too, but they were more expensive.


----------



## alohamonte (Jul 25, 2006)

*Diy*

Nice DIY

I also found aquarium moonlights to be too pricey.

About 2 months ago, I "made" a moonlight for my 6.6. I went to Home Depot bought LED nightlights ($5) on a cheapo extension cord ($2), use a little silicone ($3) to mount the nightlight to the upper back of the tank, and moonlight is done. $10 dollars and 10 minutes.

The LED is green.I figured natural moon light passing through a lake/pond would look green to the fish (green water?!) but blue and white are also in the shelf.


----------



## owlavatar (Feb 15, 2008)

alohamonte said:


> Nice DIY
> 
> I also found aquarium moonlights to be too pricey.
> 
> ...


Green is an interesting choice because plants don't use green light, so to the plants it is still quite dark


----------



## kasslloyd (May 28, 2007)

I just use 2 blue cold cathode tubes and a spare old transformer I had from some long ago lost/forgotten/broken computer accessory. Took 10 minutes to put together and blam, moon lighting. Cheap. Far more adjustible brightness and cheaper then LED's. The tubes light with a pretty broad range of powers. They are made for PC 12V and maybe up to 8amps (not sure what the max is for those connectors...) I power mine with a 12V 1amp and its plenty bright, bright enough that it hurts my eyes to look at, and looks just as bright as I'd expect a "moon light" to be on my 55gal.

With such a wide range of voltages and amps they will light and run on giving you a fairly wide degree of brightness from the same unit, and their purchase cost of like $3-5 for a pair of tubes, wide degree of colors even UV and white, and various sizes.

Really why use LED's when these exist for basically no cost and easy as pie to wire up and use?


----------



## g8wayg8r (Dec 24, 2003)

Nice read. Lots of good information. 

The only critique I would offer is to wire the lights in parallel rather than in series. You can run into problems if you don't have an adapter with so much voltage. In parallel, you have fewer limits on the number of bulbs you can drive since they only draw 20 milliamps and most adapters can support at least several hundrad milliamps. Regardless, I only have one LED for my moonlight. I've got it mounted inside a bendy straw that attached with at tie wrap on the side of my hood.


----------



## samckitt (Feb 14, 2008)

This guy on Ebay has some cool little LED boards that I was going to use for this.

http://stores.ebay.com/MeasureExplorer


----------



## kasslloyd (May 28, 2007)

Those, you can get those kits for like $5 at most computer outlets... you can get a 12volt 1amp transformer anywhere (you might even have spare ones laying around). They couldn't be more easy to wire... and they're BRIGHT. Two tubes is PLENTY bright for my 55gal. Low wattage, cheap.

Heres a guide: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_moonlight.php


----------



## dekstr (Oct 23, 2007)

Hey,

Great ideas everyone! 

There's a lot more ways than I originally thought!
Some moonlighting ideas that I thought were much neater than my idea includes systems like cold-cathode tubes and LED strips. 

Here is a good one on an LED strip bar: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/diy/60559-diy-low-profile-light-hood-120g.html
It's a lot less labour intensive for sure, looks a lot cleaner and professional. I think it's really neat, erthlng even came up with the idea of using blue light sleeves to change the hue--again, lots of application for future moonlight ideas as well.

The cold-cathode tube and other LED desings are samckitt and kasslloyd are a lot more easy to install for sure, and look much better. 

I can see a lot of applications for LED strips and cold-cathode for moonlighting. In fact, I think I will try some of those projects the next time around.


----------



## Syren (May 15, 2008)

One thing you should really do is post this on instructables.com! I've been trolling the interwebs for a good moonlighting DIY and yours is really thorough. When I get mine set up I'm going to post it there. In fact ANYONE who's done a DIY project with pics should really think about posting it there. They have a great format that really spells out every step of any project. I wish they had a DIY high tech automatic CO2 on there...:icon_idea Sigh...


----------



## desjardo (Nov 19, 2008)

I have a 90 gallon with a 48" novo extreme. I wanted to still maintain a clean look so I went with leds. I also added a dimmer and timer. They work amazing. The problem with using different power packs and resistors is you are messing with hydro. Sounds like ni big deal until your ouse burns down and insurance says too bad.
Shrink tubing is good but if you use proper connectors you shouldnt need elctrical tape. That is for 12volt reapirs people.
Please don't wire 110 volt unless you have schooling. I know people who learned the hard way.
Anyway heres my setup. I since started puutting togethor kits that came 100% ready to go. You just drill holes intall chrome led mounts, and insert the leds. Very easy. Comes with 24 led's but I only use 8 on my 90gallon!
Most people order an extra p/s and do another small tank...








Sorry about the camera phone.
Oh I also changed the damn ballast so this thing now has a switch that turns on one or two T5's. Thats how they should come for the price!


----------



## Tech (Jan 22, 2009)

^^^i used a strand of 60 LED christmas lights and it has the exact same effect^^^

Heres how i did it:

i took a 2.5 inch piece of pvc, cut about 1/3 off of it horizontally.(4 feet long for my 75 gallon)

Used a piece of 2" clear tubing to go inside the black pvc.

taped the lights in groups, put them inside of it, you can even fasten them to the top like i did.

cap the ends and wala. basically a small lightbar for your moonlights, i sealed mine up as well with silicone.

and it fits behind my real lightbar, cant even see it!



except mine only cost 10 bucks ALL together!

heres a picture, my camera really bites.


----------



## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

How about a pic of the tank with the moonlights on?


----------



## RyanRX7 (Mar 17, 2010)

Just figured I'd add a little info on the resistors. You have to be careful with buying the kits of LEDs and resistors online. Most times the included resistors are intended for each LED to have it's own, and are rated to allow that single LED to run on the DC current provided by a vehicle (about 14 volts). They'll work fine on your 12v DC power supplies, but you won't be running the LED at it's peak (for some folks that's a good thing, cause the want them dimmer). 

Another thing to note is the wattage value of the resistor. They come in many sizes (1/4-1 watt are easy enough to come by). As a basic rule of thumb, you want the resistor to block no more then 60% (they will block more) of their rated value. An example would be to have a 1/4 watt resistor to block 250mW of power, would be running it at 100%.... you would be better with a 1/2 watt in that case.

The resistor can be placed on either the anode (+ side) or cathode (- side) of the LED, makes no difference. The anode is the longer of the 2 prongs coming off the LED.

The calculator link provided by the OP is an awesome tool for anyone trying to set up their own DIY LEDs.

One other thing to note..... Viewing angle is VERY important. With moonlights I say +/- 90 degree or better. I did a light once with 40 degree lights, very bad spot light effect, even with them being 27" off the substrate.

Also, they have LED dimmers for about $4 on ebay, it's a pot that adjusts the voltage allowed through, thus you can adjust the voltage to your LEDS making them dimmer. Great if you're unsure of how many LEDs to use, go with more and just dim them. If you do want to use a dimmer though, make sure you connect your power supply, turn the dimmer full on, and measure the current that comes through before you decide on your resistors (the dimmers, tend no to let the full power through even when full on).


----------



## RyanRX7 (Mar 17, 2010)

WOW, didn't noticed this thread was brought back from the dead.... hope it still serves to provide good info for folks.


----------



## Liquid_Pyro (May 26, 2010)

Hey, great thread...I bought a bunch of different colored LED's months ago for this purpose, but have yet to get around too it...would it be possible to have 2 or 3 different colored LED's attached to one power source but have only one color on at a time...maybe even cycle through them on a timer (although I would assume you would need some type of circuit board for) or something or just a switch, depending on how you feel that night, just have the red on..or the blue or w/e color?


----------



## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

dekstr said:


> *How many lights do I want? *For me, I didn't really know how many I wanted. So I picked 8 so that the aquarium would be evenly lighted.


For what size of tank is this for?


----------



## Airphotog (Aug 21, 2009)

Here is the set I picked up really cheap. I am using a 9 volt DC 800ma power supply from Radio Shack that I had laying around. They are now mounted and the fronts are blacked out. It kames a great night light and you get a whole new view of your tank.

Here is the link to the thread.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/diy/114342-diy-moonlights.html


----------



## Rubiks_Coop (Oct 1, 2010)

Why not just plug in some LED Christmas lights and tape them into your hood? I think I'm going to do that!


----------



## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

Rubiks_Coop said:


> Why not just plug in some LED Christmas lights and tape them into your hood? I think I'm going to do that!


Already did that. It did not work.


----------



## ridewake210 (Jan 12, 2007)

Rubiks_Coop said:


> Why not just plug in some LED Christmas lights and tape them into your hood? I think I'm going to do that!


Good luck


----------



## Rubiks_Coop (Oct 1, 2010)

> Already did that. It did not work.


Why didn't it work? =) I don't want to fail! xD


----------



## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

Rubiks_Coop said:


> Why didn't it work? =) I don't want to fail! xD


Virtually no illumination. Just saw a spot of color where the bulb was. I tried this on a 10 gallon tank. I looped them behind the tank.


----------



## farmhand (Jun 25, 2009)

Rubiks_Coop said:


> Why not just plug in some LED Christmas lights and tape them into your hood? I think I'm going to do that!





Hilde said:


> Already did that. It did not work.


Did you try clear white lights or color ones?


----------



## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

farmhand said:


> Did you try clear white lights or color ones?


I used the blue ones.

You can get LEDs on Ebay for a few dollars. Here is where you calculate the Resistors needed. Some sell the LEDs with resistors.


----------

