Hood & Lights Question

[Scouse Lee]

Hi, I've just set up a 4' tank that has a 2 piece hood which I don't really like, I'm thinking of doing away with it but I foresee 2 possible problems, 1st I presume there's a possibility of fish jumping out of the tank & secondly I reckon it will be harder to heat the water with the heat not being contained within a hood, am I right with these assumptions. Also I quite fancy one or two of these clip on LED's with blue & white lights, I've just tried my wife's one that she uses for reading her kindle with in bed & I have to say it looked really nice sending rays down into the water, obviously these are no good for permanent use as they are battery powered & only have one LED,(a white one). The look I'm hoping to get with one on each side of the tank is obviously light at each side with a darker area in the middle, does anyone have any experience of these or could recommend one, (I like the look of these tbh My link), if I was to put a piece of glass over the top of the tank to replace the hood would the light just reflect off it instead of going down into the water?
Cheers
Lee

 

[rjkitz]

Hi, I've just set up a 4' tank that has a 2 piece hood which I don't really like, I'm thinking of doing away with it but I foresee 2 possible problems, 1st I presume there's a possibility of fish jumping out of the tank & secondly I reckon it will be harder to heat the water with the heat not being contained within a hood, am I right with these assumptions. Also I quite fancy one or two of these clip on LED's with blue & white lights, I've just tried my wife's one that she uses for reading her kindle with in bed & I have to say it looked really nice sending rays down into the water, obviously these are no good for permanent use as they are battery powered & only have one LED,(a white one). The look I'm hoping to get with one on each side of the tank is obviously light at each side with a darker area in the middle, does anyone have any experience of these or could recommend one, (I like the look of these tbh My link), if I was to put a piece of glass over the top of the tank to replace the hood would the light just reflect off it instead of going down into the water?
Cheers
Lee

ok if ive read this correctly you simply want to shine a couple of normal (low powered i.e 20mA ish) LED's into your aquarium??
if that is the case then it is very very easy and i am glad to say CHEAP!!! if you let me know the colour of LED's you want to use how many you want to use and what kind of power supply you have (an old mobile phone charger rated anywhere between 5v-12v will work fine)and also let me know what country your in (so i can give you parts link) i can knock you up a schematic and give you the resistor values you need. if you would also like to mount the resistors or indeed the whole thing on vario board i can draw that for you as well
kind regards RJ

 

[Scouse Lee]

Cheers rjkitz but electronics were never my strong subject at school & I don't own a soldering iron I'm afraid lol

 

[rjkitz]

just answer the questions a lack of soldering irons and skill to use one should not be a problem

 

[DrRob]

For a glass cover, you'll be fine. It's pretty normal to do this. You can also get runners (check the vivarium supply places) that will allow you to slide them across for access to the tank.

For the LED lighting, depends what you want. You can range from LED luminaires that look a lot like the arc pod type lights for sensible prices on ebay as you've already found, or you could go for a named range. You do get what you pay for, but the cost to get the next level of quality starts to rise quickly.

One question, are you growing plants? If not then, so long as you don't go so bright as to encourage algae then anything that's IP rated enough to survive the humidity will be great.

 

[Scouse Lee]

just answer the questions a lack of soldering irons and skill to use one should not be a problem

Well I'd like a few blue lights for the night time & white for the day so I suppose being able to switch from one to the other would be good,yes I have a 5v phone charger & I'm in the UK. my tank is 48" long x 15" high if that makes a difference. Cheers.

For a glass cover, you'll be fine. It's pretty normal to do this. You can also get runners (check the vivarium supply places) that will allow you to slide them across for access to the tank.

For the LED lighting, depends what you want. You can range from LED luminaires that look a lot like the arc pod type lights for sensible prices on ebay as you've already found, or you could go for a named range. You do get what you pay for, but the cost to get the next level of quality starts to rise quickly.

One question, are you growing plants? If not then, so long as you don't go so bright as to encourage algae then anything that's IP rated enough to survive the humidity will be great.

Hi, I don't think I'll be putting plants in but if I do they will probably be artificial providing I can find some that are good enough.
Thanks.

 

[rjkitz]

ok one last question will the white LEDS be used as the main light for the aquarium?

 

[Scouse Lee]

ok one last question will the white LEDS be used as the main light for the aquarium?

Hi yes during the day they will, the light I was looking at had more white lights than blue and could either be switched to white/blue together or just blue.

 

[rjkitz]

ok one last question will the white LEDS be used as the main light for the aquarium?

Hi yes during the day they will, the light I was looking at had more white lights than blue and could either be switched to white/blue together or just blue.

what i have in mind is way way better than that but i will give you a range of options varying in price and complexity give me a couple of days to get started and i will do a seperate post with loads of info etc on leds. the main white leds require a different approach as they require more power but adding blue highlight leds is very very simple. 4' is a good size and gives you many options out of interest do you have access to a old computer power supply? theese are great things to have and easy got from th local recycle centre for around £5 but the charger you have will run a single high power LED with a couple of high light leds. anyway dont sweat it i will do a post soon detailing all your options and give you a step by step guide

 

[Scouse Lee]

ok one last question will the white LEDS be used as the main light for the aquarium?

Hi yes during the day they will, the light I was looking at had more white lights than blue and could either be switched to white/blue together or just blue.

what i have in mind is way way better than that but i will give you a range of options varying in price and complexity give me a couple of days to get started and i will do a seperate post with loads of info etc on leds. the main white leds require a different approach as they require more power but adding blue highlight leds is very very simple. 4' is a good size and gives you many options out of interest do you have access to a old computer power supply? theese are great things to have and easy got from th local recycle centre for around £5 but the charger you have will run a single high power LED with a couple of high light leds. anyway dont sweat it i will do a post soon detailing all your options and give you a step by step guide

Sounds cool. When you say a computer power supply I take it they would be inside a computer & not a separate thing as my computers just have a kettle lead that plugs into them.

 

[rjkitz]

yes they sit inside but dont worry about it we can find you another source of power cheap there are always options!

 

[hackmaster]

Hey rjkitz I'd like some info if you could help me out please.... I have a 6x2x2 and would like to DIY myself an led setup... I have a soldering iron and a pc power supply...

I would also like bright white and blue mix switchable if that's possible

 

[rjkitz]

i will do a detailed post soon outlineing how you can do this fairly cheaply! the computer PSU is a good power supply as it has plenty of OOmph on the 5v rail this helps keep the heat down as you are only having to drop 1-2v over the resistor therefore less heat generated. adding blue highlight isnt hard but for best results i would go with a PWM option on the blue LED so you have more control on the highlight. it will take a few days to get a post together plus i am waiting for some LED's to come that i have ordered so i can take some pics this will make it easier to explain things

RJ

 

[hackmaster]

Cool thank you... Your prophet in disguise

 

[hackmaster]

Any news on the led setup yet...?

Could I work with 10x 10w leds plus say 5x 10w blues how could I build this ie driver and heat sinks and attach to my pc power supply