Aquarium Lights Anyone?

[chetanbais]

Hey guys!

I have a fish tank at home and i need to arrange for some lights in it.But the lights should be mild and cool so as to keep the things from getting hot!

I thot abt Neon light but heard tht it requires some special system to drive these.....any light on this topic?



any other means would be equally welcome..... But please dnt go too high abt the prices...

 

[HarveyH42]

First you need to determine what kind of light you actually need. Do you have live plants? Do your fish have any specific needs for light? Neons are usually high voltage (depends on tube size) and not ususually a good idea around water. How big is your tank?

 

[Tarsil]

I'd use some LED based lights. Just buy a cheap wall adapter, some resistors and some diferent LEDS (white, green & blue to cover fish&plants needs). Voila!
It's interesting to use some ambient LED light project (like those whit random variable colors). All tought might a bit stressful for some fishes.

 

[chetanbais]

Yeah even i am thinkin about the High Brightness LEDs now....
My fishtank is about (5ftx2ftx3ft)...n yeah there are some aquatic plants in it.... no specific light requirements for the fishes.... n the room temperature is about 25-35 degrees for most part of the year.....

So wht say?

 

[Hero999]

LEDs aren't anywhere as bright of efficient as fluroescent tubes which you can buy from your local aquarium supplier for a fraction of the cost of LEDs.

 

[chetanbais]

Fluroscent tubes are a bit too much for a small fishtank....
also it is irritating for fishes (They tell me so... ).....

LEDs are cool both by temperature n appearance.....n so are the neon tubes...
but involvement of high voltages n special circuitary keeps neon tubes out from the race....


Any inputs!

 

[Hero999]

5ftx2ftx3ft, is more than big enough for fluroescent tubes. I wasn't meaning to suggest you should use ordinary, tubes, I meant the special tubes desingned for use in aquariums. One 20W tube will probably give you all the light you need.

Do you realise how may LEDs you'd need to get the same light level? 100's and you might think they're warmer but this is only because they don't give off as much light, they only appear brighter because they emmitt all the light in one direction.

LEDs are great for flashlights, traffic lights or downlighters but they're not so good where yoy want a deffuse uniform light like an aquarium.

 

[justDIY]

5ftx2ftx3ft, is more than big enough for fluroescent tubes. I wasn't meaning to suggest you should use ordinary, tubes, I meant the special tubes desingned for use in aquariums. One 20W tube will probably give you all the light you need.

Do you realise how may LEDs you'd need to get the same light level? 100's and you might think they're warmer but this is only because they don't give off as much light, they only appear brighter because they emmitt all the light in one direction.

LEDs are great for flashlights, traffic lights or downlighters but they're not so good where yoy want a deffuse uniform light like an aquarium.

well said, and all good points

just to toss a wrench in the works ... if you're prepared to spend a LARGE sum of monies, you can build some fishtank lights using Luxeon K2 or simlar from Nichia or Cree ... although leds are no where near as efficient as "gas-in-glass", they do have the benifit of being highly directional ... the light is actually generated only on the surface of the die where the bond wires meet the semiconductor. what does this mean? well, a fluorescent tube that's say 100lm/watt might shine 10% of its energy in the right direction, and you have to rely on reflectors to direct perhaps at best another 30% of the isotropic light back the direction you desire... so that gives you 40% of the light the fluorescent generates is actually usable, the rest escapes or is converted into heat by the reflector. 100lm/w * 40% = 40lm/w ... well now, you have some valid competition for LEDs... now you just need to re-route your aquarium water over the heatsink for cooling all those leds... let 'em go past 25C and kiss your 40lm/w rating goodbye.

problem here is, high brightness leds are expensive ... trying to cheap out and go with 5mm or even superflux leds will yield nothing but a lot of wasted time ... most 5mm leds are in the 1-5lm/w and superflux maybe as high as 20lm/w... this is mainly due to a poor junction to amibient coupling ... the leds just get too hot if you try to get more light from them.

 

[Blueteeth]

hi,

Lots of idea's there, I don't 'own' any fish, so I wouldn't have a clue

But hey, for a medium tank like that...LED's and ccfl's would do but both emit quite a lot of light for a small area. You could get a semi transparent perspex tubes and bung some leds on the ends. Diffuse soft light, which will be more than enough to light the aquarium without pissing the fishes off too much, or blinding you when the lights are off. I tihnk the ones from pet shops generally are quite dim, perfect for your app. Btw, I've done the above before to make a 'cheap' floresant tube, only used 10 led's and was quite bright (thanks to epoxy and efficient light extraction)

If you do go down the LED route, remember, 'high brightness' usually means narrow viewing angle, I'm not sure what the angle is for the luxeons but I reckon anything above 100 degrees would do. Else...you'll have to difuse them your self (cheap plastic tube + baking paper or something semi transparent like a plastic bag). That is unless you want uber bright spot lights?

As for ccfl's, they do require 'special driving circuitry', but you wouldn't need to design one. Theres plenty of 'inverters' about, ebay has loads for TFT monitors...although they are quite powerful, and then of course you need to water proof the tube connections/inverter if its going anywhere near water, don't know what 1-2Kv would do to you fish....also, the ccfl tubes for the monitors themselves are on there for a few £ (or $) these are damn bright though, and not very long. Although....two at the top of the tank, shining into some plastic strips (try the rough acrylic, like sandblasted or 'diffuse') that will shine soft light down into the tank.

Anyways, as you can see, I'm biased towards led's. They're not as efficient as ccfl's but easier to work with (power/drive) and they CAN be diffused quite well given some acrylic/plexi, sandpaper and some determination.

Blueteeth.

 

[chetanbais]

well , lotta BRIGHT ideas here....
i guess i shud go for a combination of both so tht when its time for fishes to sleep, i can use the low power LEDs n otherwise the Fluroscent lights which will also help the aquatic plants....

 

[Oznog]

Lamina LEDs are significantly more powerful than Luxeons. They're bitchin cool because the whole device is very, very flat.

 

[Tarsil]

Why necesarely buy luxeon LEDs? Those LEDs are quite cool but have problems with heat disipating. Just plug in some diferent color LEDs. I've seen &used those 50mA, made in China. Are giving a lot of light on a 20-30 degr cone. U can buy like 25 of them for 10$ or less. That should be enought if u suspend them a bit over the aquarium. Use 50 Pcs if u want A LOT OF light. All of that for 30$ (including the adaptor&limiting resistors).
With some difusers is even better.
I'l go with LEDs cause this sol doesn't include high voltages, vv good sealing an so on. As a xtra ..u can get a cool mix of diferent colors.