DIY Led Nano

Discussion in 'Anything DIY related' started by mr_meen, Feb 17, 2017.

  1. mr_meen

    mr_meen

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    Hi all.

    Been on the DIY again for my 1 foot shrimp tanks.

    Finding cost effective led solutions has been a bit of a task.

    Been playing around with the cheap LED floods as an option.

    [​IMG]

    Sorry for the bad photo. Also the only photo of Mark 1.

    Here is Mark 2

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    [​IMG]

    Let me know what you guys think.

    M.

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  3. Hiva

    Hiva

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    Nicely done...
     
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  4. Saintfullsinner

    Saintfullsinner

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    No better feeling than knowing uve created something stunning by urself....more satisfactory than going out and buying a ready made one
     
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  5. BoelderBeestie

    BoelderBeestie

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    Cool bracket. How many watts and lumens is it? I've got two 10w 1200l each over my 100L and it's keeping the plants alive but not seeing good growth until they reach about 10cm directly under the light. Should have gone for the 50w's. Whats your growth like with it?
     
  6. Clappies

    Clappies

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    @BoelderBeestie i use 3×30w floodlights on my 100l and i think its to much...2 × 50w will grow you a algae garden lol .My lights are 7cm from water surface.

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  7. OP
    mr_meen

    mr_meen

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    1200 lumens 6500k 10w. That's on 15l. Haven't tried on a bigger tank. But for R85 not bad

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  8. BoelderBeestie

    BoelderBeestie

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    Ok. So the 20w should work for me then as the 10w is a little to dim to grow anything decently on my 100l. Will get some when I'm close to that hardware store again and give it a try.
     
  9. ianpillay

    ianpillay

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    Looking good....what kelvin led is that ?
     
  10. OP
    mr_meen

    mr_meen

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    6500K

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  11. OP
    mr_meen

    mr_meen

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    ACDC is pretty good for the LED spots. Although builders had better range on colour.

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  12. High-wash

    High-wash Pleco

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    HI Mr Meen , What all did you Require to do this ? and what was the cost ? i have a small tank im wanting to use to Cultivate plants.
     
  13. Blade

    Blade

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    Nothing beats a good DIY, well done on the innovation!

    I have ordered 13 x 10w COB(Chip On Board) LED's, 8 x 10000K White, 3 x Blue and 2 x Red, this will be going onto my 560L which is 760mm deep, this will give me 130W @ 11 amps @ 12V. The cost of the 13 COB chips was R200 from overseas. Planning to run these off my TC420 LED controller.

    SKU060051- (11).JPG
     
  14. dorff

    dorff

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    @mr_meen Very nicely done. It is one thing to DIY, quite another to achieve something that looks neat and rounded off. Most of the nano tanks come with completely inadequate lighting units for plant growth. I am also looking to do something like this. On my 100 l near-cube open-top in my office, I use a 50 W LED floodlight. I must admit, the algae is a problem, and I try to beat it back with peroxide treatment. My kids run a small 10 l Boyu each in their rooms, and the OEM lights do not cut the mustard. I was thinking of using 10 W floodlights and just build a small bracket for them to overhang the tanks. Very similar to what you have done.
     
  15. OP
    mr_meen

    mr_meen

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    @Blade Those are the LED units I plan to use for further lights that I will be building to sell. They are available locally at Communica for future reference, maybe not that cheap though lol!

    @dorff Thanks man. I love the DIY stuff. I am busy planning a nano cube (15l) design at the moment. Hopefully to actually sell. I am also going to be making the lights you see pictured above to sell as well.

    @High-wash I just used a few off cuts of perspex and made the housing unit, the overhang and then the piece that connects to the side of the tank. The LED unit I pulled out of an LED spotlight that I bought at builders warehouse. It was about R100 I think. I did use some fancy counter sunk screws and tapped threads on the perspex, but you can literally just get some offcut perspex from a supplier for very cheap. I used a stanley knife to cut the perspex (just score a line a deep as you can on the perspex using a ruler and snap it) I used a heat gun to do the bending.
     

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