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DIY LED lighting
22nd January 2009
With the unit all wired up and fixed together it is ready for use. All the timers are in place. 12V Adaptors plugged in and wired into the board. There are 7 plugs (and cables) in total. 5 for the LEDs, 1 for the fans and 1 for the Cold Cathode moonlights. They are all currently held together as a single cable by cable ties. Will probably get a zip type cable tidy once the unit has been running for a while.
Here is the sequence of lighting: moonlight - series 1 - series 1,2 - series 1,2,3 - series 1,2,3,4 and then series 1,2,3,4,5 full light. Remember each series is just 0.22WPG and the total is 1.1WPG. This is visibly brighter to the human eye than 2WPG of T5HO
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How it performs with the plants is yet to be seen at this point. The LEDs are 30-35cm above the water level here where the fluorescents were 12-15cm above.
25th January 2009
After just 3 days of use the results are already showing. The needle ferns that are the main feature of this aquascape grew to the point they were blocking out a lot of the light to the substrate. another tell tale sign was that the CO2 usage went up and therefore I had to increase injection to avoid any issues with this. The lights were then raised up to 40cm.
9th April 2009
2½ months on and the lights are still working and have had no problems at all. The aquascape has since been changed as has the cabinet. The luminaire has been 'fabloned' to match the cabinet. I'm very pleased with the new lighting setup both aesthetically and performance wise. Hopefully it will last for a good few years.
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