Diy Led For 5G Planted Shrimp Tank? Help Please!

[Abby]

Hi everyone,

So DIY lighting is WAAAAAY outside of my limited bubble of fish knowledge. So, I'm turning to the pro's! (Where's Caine?! :P )

I have a 5 gallon tank collecting dust that I've decided to set up on my desk at work. I would like to keep it simple with just a small sponge filter, a few plants (I'll be asking for suggestions on those later but for now I'm thinking of some moss and a carpet of some sort. .glosso maybe? Hairgrass? We'll see!).

For livestock it will just be some red cherry shrimp and a snail or two (I have a soft spot for Spixi snails).

So, my question is. . .lighting. . .

Cheaper to do a DIY light for this kind of tank? If yes, where would I begin with this project? Or is there a product that someone can recommend that would be effective and not cost my first born?? I want to keep everything simple as this is really just a small accent piece/distraction in my office for me to look at when I'm frazzled (which is often). I don't want it to turn in to yet another tank which will require a significant amount of maintenance and upkeep with a massive footprint (I have 22 of those at home).

Feedback? Comments? Thoughts? Suggestions? For that matter, do you have an LED for sale?

Thanks all.

Edited August 28, 2013 by Abby

[Abby]

Hmmmm, I just found this on ebay. It is indeed cheap! Any thoughts from folks more knowledgeable than I?

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/White-Blue-48-LED-3-Mode-Aquarium-Clip-Lamp-Light-For-Fish-Tank-Plant-Grow-/200948197511?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ec9722887

[jvision]

If you can find an incandescent canopy for your 5 gal, just use a screw-in CFL. A 13W bulb will grow most things; a 23W bulb will have you trimming 3x a week!! Plan to dose Excel/Metricide.

[Abby]

If you can find an incandescent canopy for your 5 gal, just use a screw-in CFL. A 13W bulb will grow most things; a 23W bulb will have you trimming 3x a week!! Plan to dose Excel/Metricide.

Good to know! Thank you.

That Ebay link, would you say that's a 23W? It doesn't tell you what each LED is. . .the joys of buying Chines knockoffs I guess. Still, it looks nicely contained and not an eyesore. Although, I will also keep an eye out for a canopy. Hell, I may even have one somewhere.

[jvision]

I can't access eBay at work, so I didn't look at the link. If you want an open top, then a desk lamp with a CFL will do just the same. Most LEDs don't cut it - even a lot of the so called Aquarium lights are pretty useless for plants. So far, Finnex is the clear winner, IME - most others may start off OK, but dim significantly over even a short period of time.

[Iceturf]

The biggest thing I have heard with some of the cheaper random brand LED fixtures is that they 'dampen' over time. I believe the leading LED manufacturers such as cree have intellectual patents on the newest way to skin the cat and achieve 50% efficiency. I would imagine that cheaper random brands aren't as efficient but is that bad for you? I guess not.

If you have ever done electronics design, there are for instance Thin film capacitors, ceramic capacitors, tantalum capacitors, etc. Certain ends of the spectrum are pennies each. The other end several dollars. Each has their place. However, it becomes cheap to use certain capacitors with which tend to have a limited life (such as 1000 hours) or capacitors with a lower potential difference rating (the higher, the longer the life). Thus I would suspect that random brand definitely uses the lower end of the scale support components. These parts are used to help smooth out natural crests and valleys in the applied power. Thus increasing LED life. The dimming that some people experience may be two fold, sub par LEDs and poor support electronics. However, since most manufacturers don't bother to mention the quality of the control boards even expensive cameras may find themselves limited by slightly cheaper limit life parts. Buying an expensive LED module is no guarantee in quality.

I recall something a little while ago brought up by another AA member - manufacturer of one of the popular lines of tank LED's doing a talk about their quality, etc. I become pessimistic about the quality of products when they don't speak towards the actually significant aspects to an LED fixture, such as "newer better rated heatsink of XYZ rating". When they can't come out with hard and fast numbers or terms then their position must be wishy washy. That said, I get the general impression people are happy with a number of the brand name models.

Thus I would suggest doing this project yourself, but it took me several hours to wire mine together and short of having the equipment you're hard done by to do it yourself.

Best source of LED's I have seen (as brought up by another AA member) http://dx.com/p/cree-xte-r4oa-130lm-8000k-led-emitter-white-light-bulb-for-flashlight-silver-154613

There are three grades of Cree led's in this range, even if these are the lowest 'grade' they are still good for this application. You could buy all the parts for roughly 60$ or less, i did.

Edited August 29, 2013 by Iceturf

[Abby]

Thank you very much for the replies. Lots to think about here! I don't have the technical know how to wire up the lights. I'm sure I could suss it out (I've done some basic soldering in the past) but I think I might just stick to the screw in bulb variety!

Thank you both again.

Much appreciated

[Iceturf]

I saw a screw in LED light bulb online one time - used Cree type bulbs. That may be a consideration for you. You are better off going with LED over CFL (in my opinion) due to the mercury in CFL's. At least even though some LED's use arsenic, all of the 'bad' stuff is held contained within the dye where as a broken CFL....

Edited August 29, 2013 by Iceturf

[Abby]

I decided to order a no-name off eBay to try first. It was $14 with free shipping so my expectations could not be lower.

Given that I can spend more than that at Starbucks in a day, I'm not too worried if it turns out to be junk (which lets be honest.... There's a 90% chance it will be!) but hey, why not try!?

If this thing is crap I'll go with the bulb idea.

Thanks again all

[ckmullin]

$14 isn't a big deal to gamble. A light is always a light. If not for your tank it'd be a nice desk lamp.

Let me know how it works out as it does look interesting.

Edited August 29, 2013 by ckmullin

[Abby]

$14 isn't a big deal to gamble. A light is always a light. If not for your tank it'd be a nice desk lamp.

Let me know how it works out as it does look interesting.

My thought exactly! My office could use a bit of light anyway!

[ckmullin]

Was just going to add. If the light turns out to be a bum deal...make your ebay case to get a refund. I've had to do that a couple times over the years.

[creekbottom]

I have that light!!! Ok, I bought 2. I was looking for something to grow moss in a breeder box on the back of the tank. Several people more succesful than myself on TPT use that light and have said good things about it. My clip light says 3 watt but I have no idea what they are referring too.

Currently it is growing ivy and jasmine above water in the box, but it's only been a week. I read one thread on TPT and the guy used 2 of them over his tank and wasn't having any problem (I don't remember what he was growing, maybe don't try for HC.)

[Abby]

Hey now!! That gives me hope!!! Cheers!

[cainechow]

I have to be honest and say that the only reason I can see for going diy these days is for a custom colour blend or if you have a really deep tank and need optics and high output LEDs to hit decent PAR numbers at the bottom of the tank. In a small tank you xan get away with a lot.

I actually have a "ball" of HC that is growing pretty nicely in a 2.5 gallon thank that has a single emitter IKEA led desk lamp that costs like 10.00. No CO2, no ferts, just some shrimps. That thing is like a 1w emitter on the end of a gooseneck and that's it. It is a little on the yellow side though.

A pretty cheap option is a GU10 led off eBay. Those have their own driver built in so you can just wire them up to 110v right out of the wall. I think I have a PIC some place of my setup for my pico reef. They seem pretty good too and at 5,00 each hard to go wrong.

As for a full fixture, I'd probably go Finnex. The one that is 50.00 and has the supplemental red emitters.