home aquaria lighting using led's help needed

[kaighn80]

ok heres a brief explanation of what i would like to achieve, at the moment i am running 2 fish tanks with normal (read as aquatic for plant growth) tubes, one tank has 2 24 inch tubes and the other has 2 48 inch tubes. they cost a fortune to run as they all need their own power transformer. what i would like to do is make some led strips that would be able to replace the tubes in each tank and produce enough light that i could continue growing live plants, it would be nice if i could alter the colours slightly and have sunset/sunrise simulation but i have absolutely no idea how to accomplish this. as far as building something so long as someone could supply me with a wiring diagram or schematic i would be fine but i have to keep this to as small an outlay as possible and it needs to be cheaper to run than the fluorescent tubes i have at the moment. the tubes in the large tank are 36watts each and i need 2 to allow enough light for my plants they have reflectors fitted to give more light, i have them running on a timer switch so that they are only on for 8 hours per day, so a timer circuit would be helpful. even if it could be built as a modular design so parts could be added as and when funds allow that would be great. is there anyone out there who would be willing to hold my hand through this please?

[daza87]

What did you do in the end?

led lighting'

[zaclaga]

LED Aquarium Lights have come a long ways in technology in just a few years, from previously being added lighting decoration or extremely pricey for mixed results as per high light need applications such as reef aquarium.

In my opinion, it likes night lights for kids at night.'

[richard.nl]

You can try to mix cool white and warm white LED light. Sealed LED strips are available to do this in IP65 (can survive outside in the rain). They have 12 volt DC supply voltage as each strip is based on 3 LEDs in series and many of these groups of 3 in parallel. By putting all groups of 3 in series, you can apply drive current control for dimming.
E.g. a high efficiency switching regulator for max 60 volts DC power supply (so max 5 dimmed groups of 3 LEDs in each dimmed string).
http://www.conrad.nl/ce/nl/product/157972/LED-driver-RCD-48-serie-Recom-International-RCD-48-050W-Uitgangsstroom-0-500-mA-Voedingsspanning-9-60-VDC
This driver/dimmer has analogue input which allows use of a simple potentiometer for first tests. The PWM input can be used for connecting a microcontroller which runs the time program for brightness and white-tint. I guess you need at least 4 LED strings each with one dimmer/driver to spread the light across the whole surface of each fish tank.