# DIY Aquarium Lighting Hood



## jose_j (12 Jan 2014)

Hi,

I'm opening this thread to show you my DIY aquarium lighting hood. It is designed for a 300L aquarium 120cm(length) x 60cm(height) x 40cm(depth). Wood is the same they use in exposed surfaces in boats and is 8mm thick. It is supposed to resist high humidity levels.

these are the wood parts, their dimensions are a little bit longer than the aquarium size to allow for some space and air circulation. Final lighting hood size is 125 x 42 x 15





this is how I assembled them








Once assembled i have used special varnish commonly used for outdoor exposed surfaces under extreme climatic conditions (snow, sun, wind, rain, etc) and then I painted it with black paint.













The opening system of the hood is based on a hinge similar to the one used in a classic piano lid.









and here you can see it opened





I have used this silver tape as a reflector, but I will improve this with proper reflectors. At the beginning the lighting hood was conceived for installing LED panels on it, so reflection was not a big deal as LED panels send light downwards.









my little assistant working hard









This angles are the resting point of the lighting hood over the glass edges of the aquarium. I have used 10 of them, and I covered them with a thick tape and fragments of road bike tyre (i love road bike cycling).













I installed a couple of computer fans to keep both air movement and controlled temperature specially in summer days. Here in Majorca we can easily reach 35-39ºC at that time.













As it has been said above, i used LED panels. They are  SMD 5050 6500ºK working at 12V with a computer power source. Number of plates were calculated attending to their lumens. I calculated 40 lumens per litre, that is, 12000 lumens in total. I also added some blue and red LED panels. All the system needs 140W. To install them i used plastic structures commonly used here when building tile walls.









here you can see the LED panels. Small circular ones are 160 lumens. Big circular ones are 200 lumens. Squared ones are the blue and red LED panels.









I also used a methacrylate sheet to keep the electrics protected against water.





















Currently I have a highly demanding tank in terms of light, so I have temporarily substituted the LED panels with a T5 fluorescent light system. LEDs are great but for a "Dutch" style set up in a 60 cm height tank you need a more powerful lighting system.

You can see the aquarium thread here:

300L pseudo-Dutch style Planted Tank | UK Aquatic Plant Society

Hope this DIY project will be useful for other UKAPS members. 

Cheers,

Jose


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## scrud (16 Jan 2014)

nice project. what do you use to control all those leds?! does it produce much heat?


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## jose_j (16 Jan 2014)

Hi scrud,

you wont need any special device to control these leds, they work with a 12V power source. I'm using one from a PC, thats all you need. These LED panels never heat up, you can hold them with your fingers while they are on, you only will notice that they are warm, but not much warm than our body temperature.

Plants love them. Here you have a picture of an old set up where I used these leds, its only 1.5 litre volume, but HC was very happy there






best regards,

Jose


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## scrud (17 Jan 2014)

cheers I've been looking at doing a nano tank, so some diy light might make for an interesting project!


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