kids nite light

[jim692]

The tank is in my son's room and I was thinking of adding some leds to the top for a nite light. Will this be a problem for the fish. Also I couldn't find much online. Are you better off making one, or is there a source/mfg. that you can get them from pre-made?

Tank is 46 gal (36" x 14.5" x 20")

Thanks

 

[neilanh]

not a problem at all, white or blue LEDs are very common in a tank, both FW and SW, with no issues.

There's a bunch of places that will prefab for you, like digikits.com, or ebay, or if you're a DIY'er you can get LEDs and resistors and make your own.

 

[jim692]

Thanks, Neilanh
Think I'll try a few 5mm LED's and see what I can do.

 

[fort384]

Jim,

I installed LED strip lights in my tank... easy to install, they come with a peel off sticky tape that I just applied to the underside of my T5 fixture. It has worked great -- perfect amount of "night light". Got them off of this site:
http://www.plasmaled.com/LED_strip_lights_lighting.htm

Probably about 12-15 LEDs in the 2 ft strip. You just hook the wires into a small transformer, plug in, and it is ready to go.

 

[jim692]

Thanks Fort,
I'll check it out

 

[jim692]

I didn't like the one's I found on-line. Some seemed closer to a neon sign that a moonlight or night light. I decided to make my own. Found some components that seem to work well and am testing the unit out ATM.

 

[joy13]

Jim let me know how it turns out, my son may have a couple of projects coming up.

 

[jim692]

I posted some of the pictures of the test unit, with the top off, in an album.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/members/20442-albums419.html

Going to run it for a bit to see if it needs any adjustment.

 

[fort384]

Very slick Jim. If you don't mind me asking, what did the total cost come in at? Also, what size led's did you use, and how many?

 

[jim692]

Fort,

These are the LED's used

buy-leds-online.com
Blue 913LB7C ( $0.25 each) Color:Blue; wavelength-nm:470; typ-vf:3.4; max-vf:4; half-intensity- angle : 110~130°; lv-at-XXma-mcd:770~1300/(150~250)@ 50
Warm White 3000K+ 913MWO4C ($0.35 each Color:Warm White 3000K+; wavelength-nm:---; typ-vf:3.4; max-vf:4; half-intensity-angle:110~130°; lv-at-XXma-mcd:4700~7800/(900~1500)@ 50

Used the blue's 2 to 1 over the warm white. Didn't like the normal white too harsh. Needs the bit of yellow from the warm white. 6 total (4 blue , 2 w white) for the tank (36") worked fine but I went to 12 (8 blue, 4 w white) for more low intensity options. The wide angle led's work great for the tank. Keeps the light even and diffused. The 1.5 v - 12v power supply lets me adjust the light level by adjusting the voltage from the 3v, 4.5v, 6v, 7.5v, 9v, & 12v range. Resistors are calculated for 12v supply so less v is ok.

Cost about $54. Bought more stuff than I needed. Probably could cut $15 or so off that now that I know what to do. Power supply was $20 for adjustable. Straight 12v would be about $6. Same with the resistors, jacks, wire, etc.

 

[fort384]

Interesting. I like it... wish I went that route instead. Total cost could come in about the same as the ready made strip I bought, but yours sounds much closer to a moonlight analog. Also, I would have had more fun building it then just taping the strip on to the fixture .

Now, you can add a breadboard with a programmable circuit so the lights come on in sequence, and the voltage slowly increases so that you can simulate moonrise. Maybe even set it over a 1 month period so you can get the waning/waxing gibbons effect of the phases in there. Now that would be awesome (albeit completely unnecessary, but still fun ). I think I could come up with some statistics to show how healthy that would be for your fish to justify it.

Heck, you can use statistics to prove anything. 96.4% of people know that!