# The cheapest, super-bright and energy efficient LED for your planted tank. DIY.



## baghro

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, friends! I'm Tiger from India. I have devised an easy-to-make, extremely bright (~4500 lumens), energy efficient (just 45 Watts) lighting for your planted aquarium for under $5, powered using a spare computer PSU. This lighting system has a very long life of >50,000 hours provided you make it correctly as shown, and the LEDs do not overheat. It would take you around 45 minutes to 1 hour to do it, and years to enjoy it.

Commerical 50W LED lightings can cost $150, and most aren't nearly as bright as this one in the tutorial. This provides your planted tanks with metal-halide-like brightness, although not heating the water up, or making a hole in your pocket. In a 15 gallon tank, you'd get a fluorescent equivalent of 4-5 Watts per gallon of light.

Another big advantage of this lighting over most commercial lightings is that you can control the brightness of the LEDs by using a 12V LED dimmer that costs less than 1 dollar.

The best part about these PWM dimmers is that they do not lose any power to heat. So if you are at 50% brightness, you are consuming 50% electricity, and generating 50% less heat. LEDs are also more efficient when they are at less than full power. Two points to energy efficiency.

All parts can be purchased on Amazon/eBay, except the 2 feet aluminium channel. It will be readily available in shops that make window panes and fits them in buildings.

So, here's to metal halide brightness, minus the heat and plus the extremely high energy efficiency!

And minus the lots of cash!

Detailed instructions in the YouTube video.


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## Seattle_Aquarist

Hi baghro,

Welcome to APC! That is a nice DIY LED video you did there; thank you!


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## baghro

Seattle_Aquarist said:


> Hi baghro,
> 
> Welcome to APC! That is a nice DIY LED video you did there; thank you!


You are welcome! Thanks a lot for your comment. It really means a lot!


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## walzon1

I have found the LED strips to work fine for low light setups, I think this would be great with co2 injection. Also kind of concerned about you using the heatsink as ground. If it were to fall in the tank you would probably electrocute the fish and yourself. I would suggest also silicone you can get at 99 cent store to cover all the connections to protect them from moisture or splashing. Overall nice idea though.


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## mooncon

I need to replace my t5 bulbs but may get the materials and do this.What size tank is that in the video .


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## TropTrea

This is very simular to my second generation of my LED builds. I will say it works but but long range you skimp on quality parts.

The us of a PS Power supply is okay in some instances but with LED's you power is more constant when you are using a Current supply rather a voltage supply. 

The other thing is that there is big quality difference between the CREE and Philips LED's compared to some of the other companies out there. Where the difference falls is the ratio of heat to light, the life span of the LED's, and the overall efficiency. The better LED's today are touching near the 200lumns per watt range. 

Your overall price estimate is a little deceptive as well. The $5.00 is dependent on you having a lot a spare parts laying around for starters. But just looking at the Aluminum channel for 50 watts of power you should have it about 66" long for a good heat distribution without adding fans. At a local cost of $3.50 per foot your talking $19.50 for the main heat sink. 

Another big factor not mentioned is the spectrum of the LED's. There are many similar LED's out there with some being great for planted tanks and others great for reef tanks, but a majority good only for room lighting. 

OVERALL it looks good. better than many I have seen. But please post it on your tank to show how it lighting it. And then how it looks 6 months from now after your plants accumulated to it.


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## baghro

walzon1 said:


> I have found the LED strips to work fine for low light setups, I think this would be great with co2 injection. Also kind of concerned about you using the heatsink as ground. If it were to fall in the tank you would probably electrocute the fish and yourself. I would suggest also silicone you can get at 99 cent store to cover all the connections to protect them from moisture or splashing. Overall nice idea though.


You are very right! At this intensity, you'd definitely need CO2 injectors.

Thanks so much for the suggestions. Although your PSU is supposed to be grounded, it'd be wise to keep the connections separate and cover them with silicone. Very good suggestion.


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## baghro

mooncon said:


> I need to replace my t5 bulbs but may get the materials and do this.What size tank is that in the video .


Thank you. I used a 1.5x1x1 feet tank for this video.


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## baghro

TropTrea said:


> This is very simular to my second generation of my LED builds. I will say it works but but long range you skimp on quality parts.
> 
> The us of a PS Power supply is okay in some instances but with LED's you power is more constant when you are using a Current supply rather a voltage supply.
> 
> The other thing is that there is big quality difference between the CREE and Philips LED's compared to some of the other companies out there. Where the difference falls is the ratio of heat to light, the life span of the LED's, and the overall efficiency. The better LED's today are touching near the 200lumns per watt range.


Yes, indeed. But CREE and Philips LEDs would drive the costs high enough to make it a foolish investment for DIY. If a $15 setup works for 3 years, compared to a $100 setup that works for 10 years, I'd go for the first.



TropTrea said:


> Your overall price estimate is a little deceptive as well. The $5.00 is dependent on you having a lot a spare parts laying around for starters. But just looking at the Aluminum channel for 50 watts of power you should have it about 66" long for a good heat distribution without adding fans. At a local cost of $3.50 per foot your talking $19.50 for the main heat sink.
> .


I mentioned in the video that it'd cost $15 with the PSU. And no, this setup runs at 45C-50C at an ambient temperature of ~30C. That's way below the maximum allowable temperature for the LEDs. So I guess this setup dissipates heat quite well for this 2 feet channel.

Why? Because all 50 Watts is NOT converted to heat. Most is converted into light.

I mentioned the prices as it had cost me. Maybe it is different for different areas, countries, though. 



TropTrea said:


> OVERALL it looks good. better than many I have seen. But please post it on your tank to show how it lighting it. And then how it looks 6 months from now after your plants accumulated to it.


Thank you so much! I'll post a pic for ya!


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