Build Daily

Interior Lighting

August 12, 2017 18:07

How to make LED aquarium lighting ?

click fraud protection

Today there are many options for how to do lighting the aquarium with their own hands.Problems connecting light bulbs does not occur is much more difficult to choose the right type of lamps and power, as well as to choose a suitable location for the light source.Next to readers electrician himself will be given detailed instructions on how to make the lighting in the home aquarium.

Contents:
  • What difficulties might arise?
  • technology matching lamps
  • By Type By
  • power
  • In light output
  • Choosing where to install
  • fixtures Proper connection homemade backlight

What difficulties might arise?

The modern underwater lights In fact, there's not a lot of factors that can affect the lighting in the aquarium.Among the most important should be made:

  1. Over time, any light bulbs lose light output, so you need time to carry out their replacement.For example, the LEDs degrade over time, so after 3-5 years is desirable to have them replaced.At the same time, the fluorescent light output is reduced after six months of work.
  2. When passing through the water the light is scattered and absorbed by plants on the way to the bottom.For example, at the bottom and 50 cm aquarium light intensity decrease greater than 4 times.The same situation with protective glass, which can be mounted on the light - when passing through the glass loses its illumination intensity.
  3. bulbs and metal halide light sources emit large amounts of heat, which in turn have a negative impact on flora and fauna.If you decide to choose a powerful light bulb to illuminate the deep aquarium, be sure to think through heat removal system.
  4. can not with 100% accuracy and the power to recommend the color range that will suit your individual circumstances.For each species of plants and fish need their specific characteristics of the light sources, so below we give only general advice on how to make the lighting in the aquarium with their own hands.

As you can see, the complexity of the organization of lighting there, but all of them can be avoided if the right approach to the selection of lamps in characteristics.This is what we'll talk further.

technology selection

lamps to make aquarium lighting in the home, it is necessary first of all to carry out the selection of the right light bulbs for power, type and luminous flux.Consider the features of each of the characteristics of household lamps.

Style

The first thing you have to choose - a type of light source.To date, for the lighting of the aquarium using fluorescent, metal halide and LED lamps.incandescent and halogen bulbs products already relegated to the past, becausevery hot, they have a short life span and also low efficiency.Consider the most popular devices:

  1. Fluorescent (energy saving).Economy lamp consumes 5 times less electricity than a simple source of light.There may be linear (LL), the representatives of which are the product of T4, T5 and T8 or compact (CFLs).The first option is often used, particularly the T5 model, which, despite its high price, has a high luminous efficiency and long service life (over 5 years).As for the LRC, they are recommended to be used for lighting small aquariums up to 70 liters.If you buy a powerful LRC, you will need to take care of high-quality cooling system sinceproducts emit large amounts of heat.Fluorescent Lamp Homemade Light bulb CFL
  2. Metal.Have a good light output and high power, so often used to illuminate large deep aquariums in the house.Among the shortcomings - a small lifetime.metal halide lamp
  3. LEDs.Modern light sources for that future.To date, a variety of diodes has no limits.There are also LED strip, and spotlights, and LED lights, and even diode bulbs.They have the lowest power consumption, high luminous efficiency and long life.Disadvantage - the high price, although buying "discourage" their price rapidly due to significant energy savings.Diode lights algae

LED aquarium lighting is the most modern and recently used more often.A few advantages of such products - they are not too hot, can be operated from a safe low voltage (12 volts) and also possess high strength characteristics (body difficult to break).

Of all these options we recommend you choose to illuminate any LEDs or fluorescent light sources, which have a lot of positive feedback from owners of home aquariums.

lot of useful can be found in this video:

video review for beginners
YouTube Preview

On power

Today there is a wide range of household lamps, power from 5 watts and ending hundreds.In order to correctly pick up this technical feature, based on the following recommendations (in relation to the most popular - energy-saving lamps):

  • for moderate lighting aquarium produce enough calculation 0.2 - 0.3 watts per liter;
  • to make a bright backlight, power should be 0.5 - 0.8 W / l;
  • capacity if many plants and fish, it is better to calculate the power of 0.8 to 1 W / liter.

This calculation is generally accepted, but rely only it is not worth it.It is better to consider a more important feature - the light output.

In light output

Correct to calculate aquarium lighting for light output.For standard height of the container (50 cm) have to calculate the luminous flux of about 30-50 lumens per liter.Total volume for the most popular aquariums choose the following total light output depending on the size:

  • 25 x 750 up to 1500 lumens;
  • 60 l from 1800 to 3000 lumens;
  • 70 l from 2100 to 3500 lumens;
  • 100 l from 3000 to 5000 lumens;
  • 120 l from 3600 to 6000 lumens;
  • 140 l from 4200 to 7000 lumens;
  • 200 l from 6000 to 10,000 lumens;
  • 300 l from 9000 to 15,000 lumens.

As you know, for the illumination of a large deep aquarium will need to pick up a powerful lamp with high luminous efficiency.In this regard, the housekeeper, of course, in pole position, becauseconsume less electricity in the emission of the same luminous flux, as well as alternatives that can be seen from the table: Comparative characteristics of the lamps

also need to correctly carry out the selection of bulbs on the color spectrum.There is a theory that the flora is better to buy lights that emit yellow and red color to the plants grew well.However, this point is quite controversial and at the same time, most experts recommend to install a couple of different lamps.From the design of the color temperature can affect the lighting as follows: Color temperature under water

addition recommend even view video, which details the proper aquarium lighting importance:

How does the color spectrum on the backlight?
YouTube Preview

Choosing where to install

fixtures When you decide the required size and type of bulbs will need to be properly set up the scheme, which will be marked with all the places of installation of fixtures.Here it is a matter of your how to place them in the container: under the front cover or the side to make aquarium lighting, fixing lights on the sides of the lid.Colored lights are also recommended to install ahead to arrange the overflow of light on plants and fish.Colored lights underwater lights

over an open top aquarium, you can hang the fluorescent lamp, which will clearly highlight all the flora and fauna underwater.If the aquarium without plants, you can connect RGB LED strips that will make the original color backlight, as shown in the photo.Single-colored diode tape is also often used, but its brightness is not enough for high-quality lighting large capacity.Such lighting is best to strengthen the perimeter for additional decorative illumination water.Underwater lights RGB tape

correct connection homemade backlight

Well, we went to the main issue of the article - how to make lighting the aquarium with their own hands.Consider a simple guide to connect a homemade LED strip, which will create illumination under water.

First prepare all necessary materials.In our case, this LED strip of 12 diodes, plastic flask of suitable length, power supply 220/12 V, soldering iron, silicon and an awl.Since in our block connector for power connection, "Dad", you need to buy an additional 12-volt power socket "mum" to connect the tape itself.In addition to this useful piece of foam and two-wire cable to connect the tape.After gathering all the materials, go to the point.Materials for underwater lighting

with an awl punch a small hole in the cover to push through the wire, as shown in the photo.Punched with an awl cover

To tape need to solder wire that the other side will be connected to the "mother" clamping screws.Подключение разъема "мама" When you do this, you need the back of the LED tape glue pieces of foam in three places, so the material is not hanging in the flask.In our case, the insulation was applied to the machine, asfoam at hand was not.Diode tape bulb

More home-made should be put into a flask and carefully go through all the joints with sealant to prevent water from entering inside.The advantage of such flasks that when repairs are required in the aquarium lighting (specifically the tape itself), it will be possible without problems to get it out of the water and replace untwist.Cover isolated sealant

lamp Sealing

Homemade underwater lamp

Eventually tape is connected to a network, and tested for performance.As you can see, to make LED lighting in the aquarium with their own hands is not so difficult, the main thing to want!Checking homemade

recommend not to connect the lamp directly into an outlet, and a plug-timer.In this case, you can program a specific time on and off the lamps, so that they did not work in bright daylight.Usually daylight for plants should range from 11 to 14 hours a day, so you will need to calculate the time and establish a set point in the outlet.This idea will make aquarium lighting automatically.Another important point - do not buy Chinese LEDs, asthey are easily damaged during operation.

Socket - Timer

socket timer

Another great idea is to create a self-made lighting system:

Part 1
YouTube Preview
Part 2
YouTube Preview

That's all that I wanted to tell youhow to make light of the aquarium with their own hands, and what options are best for lamps of different home environment.We hope that the information was for you interesting and useful!

Also read:

  • How to choose the fixtures for the bathroom
  • Wiring LED strip
  • Comparison of incandescent and LED
instagram viewer