Cheap, portable DIY LED moonlights

[Steve]

Here's a cheap easy way to make some DIY moonlights that can be easily moved from one tank to another.

Parts needed- 5m (about 15ft) LED blue light strip from ebay ($10) ac/dc 12v/2a power supply also from ebay ($3) Light diffuser  panel (lowes about $8 for a big section). If you buy a few power supply units then you can make quite a few moonlights out of the 15ft strip.

Cut the LED strip to the desired length, cut off the end of the power supply, solder the wires to the strip, then cut the diffuser panel to the length of the light strip and zip tie the strip to the diffuser. Done this way you can simply lay the strip on top of any glass lids of any tank it will fit on top of so you can move it from tank to tank.



Here is the one I just made for my 20g tall angel tank

[Regalblue]

What about heat dispersion?  Doesn't it get hot without some type of heat sink?

[Steve]

LED's stay cool to the touch, basically no heat at all.

[Regalblue]

LED's stay cool to the touch, basically no heat at all.

Then why do other DIY LEDs utilize gutters?  Is that just for looks?

[Steve]

Various reasons. One is looks, if you don't have a full canopy then the gutter keeps all the light directed downward into the tank and you don;t have stray light beams hitting you in the eye. So it  looks better. Plus if you use a white gutter section the white reflects the light more so it will be brighter in the tank. If I were going to do this same thing I posted above with white LED's to actually use in place of an actual aquarium light, then I would probably use a gutter section as well for that reason. Doesn't have anything to do with heat though, you can run LED's for 8hrs and put your hand directly on them and have a hard time even feeling the slightest bit of warmth.