Diy Led Hood Build

[dgwebster]

Could run throught the led's too.

Off topic, the mrs made up for my brain mistake and decided to show me a naughty woman on woman photo doing the rounds in facebook and said "what do you think of that tattoo". Apparrently there were cupcakes in the photo too, couldnt see that either.

Normal functioning mode has been resumed.

 

[Nutbeam]

lol

ok, next question

how do you calculate how many leds are required for the tank size?

 

[StandbySetting]

There's no real formula, but for a standard low maintenance tank I'd use 1*3W LED for each square foot, obviously spread to get the the best distribution.

 

[Nutbeam]

and high light just double the led per square foot?

 

[Craig89]

Mine works out at around 3 per square foot

 

[dgwebster]

I can see myself doing some work with the tubes and a light meter then LED & light meter then finding a correllation and creating a formula.

 

[Craig89]

Be nice to see but I would take the WPG rule with a pinch of salt from what I've been reading and disscussing with other forum members it's a lot more complicated and dosnt seem to be a very clear answer on which is best as there is a lot of factors that come in to play but LEDs are the next big thing

 

[dgwebster]

Well i use LED bulbs to light a lot of my home, have done for about 4 years now. I replaced all my energy saving bulbs and as a general rule reduced each bulb by 11W.

For example the hallway was:

4 x 50W

4x 12W (equiv. 60W incandescent)

4x 1.2W (equiv. 20W incandescent)

When i bought the LED i was essentially going from 200W of lighting to 80W equivalent so it was a bit of a risk that it was going to be dark and gloomy. Well it looked like blooming swimming pool bright white! Honestly, that 1.2W was like 150W was burning!

So now, I can have every light in my house switched on, burning away at the leccy meter for less than a single 60W bulb. Which is a good thing seeing as im still teaching the resg of the family that the light switches also do the reverse of how they only ever use the #40## things!

 

[Craig89]

Have a look at this
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/395587-lighting-for-basic-ow-tech-plants/
The interesting stuff is about halfway down the page, just shows how many factors cone in to play

 

[dgwebster]

Wow the word bloody got censored?

Ok i might not of used bloody... thought i did...

 

[Craig89]

Right so This afternoon I got cracking, didn't get too many photos but here are the ones I did take.

I made a simple frame to attach the mdf too then did the calculations for spacing and used a 22mm hole saw to cut the holes ( one went slightly wrong as I wasn't concentrating but noting some wood filler won't sort)

Just needs a little more sanding around the holes and a coat of black paint and then a couple of coats of yacht varnish to make it water resistant.

Here it is in place which shows the size of the new tank
(kind of anyway)

 

[Nutbeam]

good start, you going to suspend it?

 

[Craig89]

No it will be built into my new hood for the new tank

 

[Nutbeam]

how big is the new tank

 

[Craig89]

It's going to be 4ft x 2ft x 18" around 300l with an optiwhite front panel.