DIY LED & Florescent lighting setup

[0live]

You could easily add another T8 strip light to that hood, boosting you up to 36watts.

My thought exactly.

It's a new tank setup, if it works, great, it not, NBD. I'll still probably work in the arduino control if I have to add anything.

 

[ChristianFlor]

I've been wanting to put together my own lighting setup for a while now. I wanted to do LED, but wasn't ready go LED only.

There's 108 6700K LEDs and one 18w t8 grow light.
The top is just the florescent, the bottom is florescent + LED.
View attachment 207228

View attachment 207229

I have guesstimated the setup to be med light, but really have no idea. If its too much, I can easily pull out some LEDs. If its not enough, I can add some.

There's an arduino controller that has a temp display (and may eventually have pH) and cycles the lights. I'm going to get some rgb LEDs for some night lighting.

View attachment 207230

And the startup screen:
View attachment 207231



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Awesome man. Even I have got new aquarium and I think these led lights are best suited. Does these lights affect growth of plants?

 

[0live]

It's still early, so I'm not sure. Things aren't dying, so there's that.




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[ChristianFlor]

Awesome man. Even I have got new aquarium and I think these led lights are best suited. Does these lights affect growth of plants?

Ok I will try led lights now

 

[ech0o]

I am new to the forum but this thread attracted me as I am currently building an LED setup, nothing quite as large, but have found quite a bit of useful information. I was able to locate some of the SMD 5050 LED modules for a steal of a price, 4 bulbs in each module, .7W per bulb, and are RGB/W. They operate in the 620-630nm wavelength which I am pretty sure is one of the 2 areas of light where plants photosynthesize (correct me if i'm wrong but the higher range is something like 610 - 630). Now I don't know how well they will flourish as there is a lower spectrum that these will not fulfill, but should grow most plants just fine added you have enough lighting. Have seen these lights popping up from more sellers labeled as "Grow Lights" if you know what I mean, so not really sure, I am going to experiment and see!

 

[0live]

I haven't seen the smd5050s marketed as grow lights before.

The one thing you want to keep an eye out for is how many LEDs per ft or meter you get. You'll be able to cut the strip every three LEDs, but there's a big difference in output from 3 LEDs in 2 inches and 3 LEDs in 4inches.



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[0live]

Well, I got my par meter in the mail today, and instead of just coming here and posting the numbers I figured I'd show the progress on this tank first.

View attachment 208489

Anyone care to guess my par?

I did. By doing some math based on the numbers I posted earlier and was on PAR (har har) really just off by 3-5 for the LED component alone.


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[0live]

Not sure why the last one didn't work.