DIY LED Saltwater Aquarium Light How To Guide
DIY LED saltwater aquarium light
Well I have a beautiful, DIY LED Nano Cube DX 24 gallon aquarium now lit with LED’s. You can view the complete step by step process complete with pictures. A complete materials list & links are also given for your convenience. This product was done with little electrical & drilling/tapping knowledge. Considering a nice LED Hood can run you $300 to $900 I consider this well worth the time.
There was more I could write about this retrofit but I kept it somewhat concise. Any questions that you may have can be directed via the comment section or the contact tab above and I will answer as best I can. Also there are tons of aquarium forums out there where many helpful people can be found.
Of course this DIY LED saltwater aquarium light can be modified to fit any tank or configuration. I recommend Cree LED’s along with many other DIY’ers.
This DIY Project uses electrical components. I am not responsible for any injury or damage resulting from you following my guide. Be smart, be safe.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Materials List
- Tank Drawings
- Heatsink & LED Placement Drawings
- Polish The Heatsink
- Drilling & Tapping The Heatsink
- LED’s, Optics, Power Supply & DC Jacks/Plugs
- Install LED stars to Heatsink
- Wiring Project Box & Power
- Power Up Test
- Hood Prep
- Potentiometer Controls & Buckpuck Installation
- Finish Up
- Notes, Questions & Answers
Terrific article! I followed your instructions to retrofit a Red Sea Max using exactly the same LED specifications. What a difference! I didn’t use any optics and grouped the LEDs into 3 groups (middle and each end of a 22″x5″ heatsink. Visually there is heaps more light in the tank than the original 2x55w T5s, with a slightly bluer tint overall and a nice shimmer. Looks a lot like 14k MH. All my corals seem to be responding really well so far.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2394
are those the leds that you used? if so i found them cheaper. lol….great write up…i was about to start building my own led lighting system
@my93camaro
I would hope after 5 months they would go down in price! Good find as they are the same Q5’s. Dealextreme just takes so looooonnngg. I will be selling the above setup myself soon as I am converting back to freshwater.
I found this blog on Yahoo. Thanks for taking the time to write this. Good stuff here!
I just wanted to update the link for the heatsink in the materials list. Thanks!
http://www.heatsinkusa.com/storename/heatsinkusa/dept/263911/ItemDetail-10502738.aspx