DIY day/night LED based lighting

[Fredje]

I would like to make a LED based smooth lighting solution for a moderately planted 50G aquarium, without breaking the bank and or having to solder onto a PCB from scratch. Right now I have the standard Juwel T5 lighting bar with reflectors.

The idea would be to fade in reddish morning light (1), gradually go to full power and whiter light (2) during most of the day, dim and go to a more reddish light again in the evening (3), fade into blue moonlight as it gradually powers down to off (4).

I was thinking of following parts, bought directly from China:
- Time/spectrum based RGB LED controller.
- 5m (16ft) IP68 RGB LED strip, e.g. this. At about 15lm (conservative estimate) per LED, this should give 4500 lumen at full power, which should be about the equivalent of 2x28W T5 bulbs (excl. reflectors).

Various waterproof connectors, transfo and seal caps could be bought of ebay, e.g. here.

Total price about 130$.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be highly appreciated!

[Munchie]

Originally Posted by Fredje

I would like to make a LED based smooth lighting solution for a moderately planted 50G aquarium, without breaking the bank and or having to solder onto a PCB from scratch. Right now I have the standard Juwel T5 lighting bar with reflectors.

The idea would be to fade in reddish morning light (1), gradually go to full power and whiter light (2) during most of the day, dim and go to a more reddish light again in the evening (3), fade into blue moonlight as it gradually powers down to off (4).

I was thinking of following parts, bought directly from China:
- Time/spectrum based RGB LED controller.
- 5m (16ft) IP68 RGB LED strip, e.g. this. At about 15lm (conservative estimate) per LED, this should give 4500 lumen at full power, which should be about the equivalent of 2x28W T5 bulbs (excl. reflectors).

Various waterproof connectors, transfo and seal caps could be bought of ebay, e.g. here.

Total price about 130$.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be highly appreciated!

Did you ever get around to this? I am looking to do the same thing with both my african cichlid and sw nano reef.

[dmolavi]

Search on Hackaday.com , there are a good number of DIY lighting solutions there: aquarium