# New 3,000 LED DIY light fixtures for 240 gallon



## biglove (Jan 4, 2010)

I lost my group of Frontosa last year due to dual heater failures that were hidden behind a custom rock wall. The temp when I discovered the failures in the tank were well over 105F. Was sickened. So I started over.

Have been playing with the Mixed Malawi/Peackcock tank for the last 16 or so months and have just finished my DIY LED lighting project.

After custom building a canopy with a total of eight 48" fluorescent fixtures a year of more ago, I decided to to with LEDs for energy savings, customization of light color and intensity and heat reduction.

The Hit Ligths LED strips from Amazon are very reasonably priced at around $8 each; but, the 24 watt power supplies run around $10 each; but, are UL listed.

Ordered everything off Amazon and custom cut two sheets of white acrylic to help reflect the light better. They are set up suspended with jack chain and "S" hooks to allow me to lift just the front of them for feeding or the entire light fixtures for removal of the tanks top glass to allow me to get shoulder deep in the tank for landscaping changes.

Total number of LEDs is 3,000. That's 600 blue, which also serve as moon lights and are on 24/7, and 600 red, 600 warm white and 1200 bright white.

The self adhering strips with 3M backed tape had a bit of an issue adhering at the ends where I twisted them vs cut and splice to save money as the end to end strip connectors are about $4 each and I would have needed dozens. A little super glue gel fixed the issue right up.

Additionally, the life span on the LED lights is 50,000+ hours whereas the flourescent bulbs needed to be replaced every six months with the threat of breakage and mercury contamination.

Since the tank is custom piped to drain to the outside of the house and has a fill line, water changes are a matter of flipping valves. My actually time maintaining the tank comes to about an 1-2 hours/month of actual work, not counting the three hours fill time.

My fish, Malawi Cichlids and a few African Peacock Cichlids, a lone Sumatran Clown Loach and two Albino Bristlenose Plecos are a happy, well established group. There are always at least 5-7 fish "pregnant" as these fish hold their young in their mouths, aka "mouth brooders." Most of the babies get to be snacks for the fish; but, occasionally a few survive. There are currently at least 7 small babies who are managing to survive/hide.

All in all, a rewarding and relaxing hobby.

My only wish is that the tank was eight feet long and 7" shorter (the tank itself is 31" tall). With the canopy/stand, the whole unit is almost seven feet tall, six feet wide and a bit over 2' front to back. Total weight with Arkansas field rock, black sand 180#s, the glass itself (over 600#s), canopy/stand, water and pumps is somewhere in the neighborhood of two TONS. When we just had the office re-tiled, they tiled around the tank and place transition pieces to hide the fact it sits on very thin strip of our older Berber carpet.

There is one heater, digital and don't need more due to our climate. Two canister pump filters underneath that circulate/filter water, three powerheads with filters that polish the water and filter it, four Koralia water pumps to agitate the surface and provide some mild current with the fish love to play in.

Hope that this experience and pics provides you guys with some entertainment and maybe will inspire others interested in the hobby to take up a DIY lighting setup. My total cost in the lighting was around $300

Thanks for having a look!


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## OllieNZ (Apr 18, 2014)

Looks great 
I'm intrigued as to why you were replacing your fluorescent bulbs so often....


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## biglove (Jan 4, 2010)

OllieNZ said:


> Looks great
> I'm intrigued as to why you were replacing your fluorescent bulbs so often....


Supposedly that is necessary to maintain them at peak light output and correct color.


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## JimA (Nov 7, 2009)

Nice job and it looks good! But why? You could have bought 3 48" BW reefbright lights for under 280 and achieved basically the same thing looks wise with half the trouble of all those light strips.. Give you kudos for the effort though! Sad about the fronts


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## biglove (Jan 4, 2010)

JimA said:


> Nice job and it looks good! But why? You could have bought 3 48" BW reefbright lights for under 280 and achieved basically the same thing looks wise with half the trouble of all those light strips.. Give you kudos for the effort though! Sad about the fronts


Tank is six foot X two foot and 31" deep. Takes higher output LEDs to reach that deep. A couple of high output 72" LED strips with all four colors is around $1K.

Have tried HO T5s in the past and standard LED strips and the bottom of the tank stayed dark.


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## JimA (Nov 7, 2009)

biglove said:


> JimA said:
> 
> 
> > Nice job and it looks good! But why? You could have bought 3 48" BW reefbright lights for under 280 and achieved basically the same thing looks wise with half the trouble of all those light strips.. Give you kudos for the effort though! Sad about the fronts
> ...


 Didn't think about the depth, good point! I assumed is was the same as my 240 @ 24"


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## biglove (Jan 4, 2010)

The tank's depth is my only regret. Wish it was eight foot long vs six and had 24" height but since I only paid $450 for the tank, tops, a couple of powerheads and stand a couple of years ago, I couldn't be that picky!

Being in a small town in Louisiana and not having access to used tanks that size, it was a find and a steal!


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## OllieNZ (Apr 18, 2014)

biglove said:


> OllieNZ said:
> 
> 
> > Looks great
> ...


That's a load of marketing c#@* to get you to spend money on bulbs. t5s will maintain at least 90% of their output for their entire life which depending on maker will be 20,000+ hours, I've never seen or heard of their colour drifting... Not that it would make any difference in a freshwater system anyway.


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## biglove (Jan 4, 2010)

OllieNZ said:


> biglove said:
> 
> 
> > OllieNZ said:
> ...


Not T5s. Sold those off long ago. These were four 48", twin bulb shop lights hanging in a custom canopy I built.


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## atreis (Jan 15, 2013)

T5s maintain their intensity well, but their spectrum drifts. This has been well documented by the saltwater community (whose animals can require very intense lighting with just the right spectrum). For freshwater, it rarely matters much.


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## nakeme (Nov 2, 2014)

Its really looking beautiful. I have also recently purchased lighting fixture for my fish pot. I would like to recommend a website [PM for vendor] here one can get this type of lighting.


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