Moon Light Effect

[Reefer769]

if i wanted to hook up a moon light effect, could i just use LED's from radioshack that are like 20 cents each, and the do the wiring myself? or would i have to buy a ready made moon lights kit for 30$

[Leddy]

hey reefer, do they got those LED's at radioshack? i went searching for them the other day, but when I got to radioshack, they were closed. I think that'll be fine, as long as the wiring harness is safe. I gonna check RS tomorrow, see if i can hook something up.


leddy

[Reefer769]

yea i bought a set of LEDs at radioshack a while back, so im almost positive they will have them. Im planning on making a mini-hood for the leds, sort of a little box and im gunna wire it up inside so it looks real nice.

[Meric]

I used Blue LED's that rate at 475NM and have a MCD of 4500. The deeper your tank the brighter (More MCD) the LED needs to be. I am going to have 6 installed on my tank. The Superbright LED kits you buy for $30+ usually contains (1) 475NM Blue or Super White LED generally rated at 4500+MCD. The ones I saw at Radio Shak were much dimmer, The White was around 1200MCD and the Blue was 2600MCD. However that is not to say they will not work they were just dimmer, also the Blues were 465NM not 475NM. Do not get the Low Intensity LED's, they most likely will not have enough power to light your tank unless it is a 10 gallon.

You will need to purchase some resistors for your LED's if you didn't know already. I am using a 6VDC 300MA Power Supply, and I used 1/2 Watt 150 Ohm resitors that I purchased from Radio Shack. I also pruchased some LED Reflectors from the Shack. Also be sure to Solder the Led to the Resistor then solder the LED and Resistor to some Solid Core Speaker Wire 22AWG (also at Radio Shack) and Put Shrink wrap over everything after you are done to prevent Corrosion.

I will attach a few pictures to show you the LED's

[Reefer769]

would you just need one resistor for 1 LED light, or do you need 2 of them for 1 LED light, becuase in the pic it only shows the resistor on one of the 2 wires, would i need another one on the other wire?

[Meric]

Only (1) resistor per LED. You can put the resistor on the Positive or the Negative side of the LED. I put mine on the Positive side of the LED. Most LED's have a longer wire on the positive side. Resistors do not have a positive or negative side they are omni directional.

Just watch how much voltage you put on the LED's, Just as a test I put a 12VDC 1800MA power supply on one of my LED's. It blew the resistor in less than 10 minutes.

If you cannot find 150 Ohm resistors then buy 100 Ohm and 50 Ohm Resistors and solder a 100 Ohm to 50 Ohm, then solder the whole thing to the Positive side of the LED. That will give you 150 Ohms. 1/2 Watt or 1/4 Watt should be plenty big enough, don't bother with the 10 Watt Resisotrs they are overkill. Also be sure to look at the resistor packs closely the first time I purchased my resistors I picked up 150K Ohm resistors, because I didn't see the K. 150,000 Ohm resistor prevented the LED from even lighting.

The only other thing I can think of is to make sure you use a Solder Iron under 30 Watts, since that is the maximum most LEDs can take.

Wow, you would think I'm getting paid by the word. Sorry for being so long winded.

[Reefer769]

wow thanks for all the help, i found some 150 ohm LEDs at a radioshack, and the resistors, im going to start hooking them up today.

[OCSREEFER]

Reefer769

Ive made the same setup just a few days ago.
I purchased the lights from radio shack
#276-316 3.7volt 20mA 2600mcd blue LED - 4
#276-311 5volt 30mA 300mcd blue Led -2
#276-080 pkg of 2 LED Holders as shown in the previous threads picts
these us a 21/64" hole or slightly larger.

I used a 5 volt milti adapter power supply with one resistor on the positive output. I cut two pieces of 1/4" plexi glass 30" x 3/4". Drilled the correct size holes in equally spaced and mounded the holders. I cut small 1/4 spacers and glued them on the underside to prevent the face of the lights from setting directly on the aquarium cover. I wired them with heavy duty solid core telephone wire, with plenty of space between the two sections. They seem to work really well, I would suggest using the 2600 mcd light or larger - the 300mcd are very dim through 18" of water...

I've tried to attach some pictures of my job...
Hope this help out some...

Nick (ocsreefer)