Building a LED lighting setup

Anthony35 · Jun 14, 2012

I hope I am writing this is the correct section if not please let me know. I am inquiring on services of a knowledgeable person to quote and build a LED fixture for my 90 gallon 48" x 18" x 24" tank I current have a hood and would like this fixture to fit inside my current canopy.

Below is a picture of the hood.

Thanks
Tony

pickupman66 · Jun 15, 2012

Anthony, while I dont have teh ability to help you build yours, I can offer a bit of advice. it is fairly easy to do. all you really need is some meager electrical knkowledge and a soldering iron. the rest is pretty straight forward. I had some help building mine, and bought most of it pre-built used.

That said, there are several on this forum that know a whole lot more than I do and may can help you out... you can see my LED build by following hte link in my siggy.

turbo21 · Jun 15, 2012

pickupman66 said:
Anthony, while I dont have teh ability to help you build yours, I can offer a bit of advice. it is fairly easy to do. all you really need is some meager electrical knkowledge and a soldering iron. the rest is pretty straight forward. I had some help building mine, and bought most of it pre-built used.

That said, there are several on this forum that know a whole lot more than I do and may can help you out... you can see my LED build by following hte link in my siggy.

Don't forget that rapidled has the solderless connections. NO soldering iron needed

bob

Anthony35 · Jun 15, 2012

Just was not sure what was all needed and figured would be better to get someone that know what they are doing to build it for me.

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pickupman66 · Jun 15, 2012

Thats right.. the solderless connections. everything just sort of screws together. you can get angle aluminum from Lowes or Depot and make you a simple frame to cover the area you want to light. if it were me, I would make a 40x12" frame with 4 rows of LED's across. I cannot recommend the number of led's but around 3-4" spacing would be sufficient. roughly 36-40 LED's. make sure you put a splash guard on them to keep them from getting wet and corroding. I used a thin sheet of plexi from depot to make my shields and used 3" stainless screws and nuts to hold it off the lights.

I also used some drawer pulls so I can pull mine out away from the tank without removing the hood.

looking at the Rapid LED site, two of these should work perfectly for you.
24 Solderless LED Kit Dimmable - Rapid LED

FWIW, here are the two modules I have on my tank. Each one uses 4 ballasts.