My DIY, LED light Retrofit project (with lots of pictures)

Hey everyone, I am new to the forum posting, but I signed up quite awhile back and browsed a lot about a lot of different subjects. Well this is my first post, but I figured I would share this with people that appreciate the aquarium hobby. I'm building a retrofit for my current stock hood on my 55 gallon tank. I wanted to switch over to LED lighting, but no matter where I looked I couldn't find one that fit reasonably into my budget. So I decided maybe I'd build my own.

I got looking into using large High powered LEDs so I could grow high light live plants at some point. I ended up going with GU10 socket LEDs which contain 3 high power 1 Watt LEDs. The Great thing about these lights is that they are 110v ready so no 12v power supply is needed, lowering the cost. I ended up buying 5 blue and 5 cool "true" white bulbs from sellers on ebay straight from china costing me somewhere around 34$ shipped, I did order them from different sellers to get better prices, as the blue ones were quite hard to locate. I paid 6$ for 10 ceramic GU10 sockets with leads on them already.

I started by finding a suitable board to mount the sockets on to.


I measured it out to roughly 50" since I know my tank is 48" long and I didn't have the hood with me at the moment. and I'll trim the edges off once I receive the rest of the LED bulbs and finalize the mounting.


I measured out to evenly space the sockets on the board.


I had to drill small holes for the socket wire leads to run through, I drilled them and fed the wires through.





I found some very small screws to hold the sockets into the wood, this may require a trip to the hardware store if you are going to do something similar.



once they were all mounted, I flipped the board over, and measured out a length of 12 guage wire for both + and - sets of leads.


I started at the end and stripped off small chunks of the wire's insulation in the proper places to connect all the leads.

From there I wrapped the socket lead to the bare wire and soldered them together



once all 10 were soldered on both leads, I siliconed each connection and wrapped it in electrical tape, I would've liked to heat shrink them, but at the moment didn't have any. (this is where I plan to vary this step when I re-do this later on after I build full wooden canopy for it, my intention later is to wire up 3 sockets to a separate lead/plug for a moonlight circuit that I can build to automatic timers for full day/night cycles) but for now, I just wired all 10 together so hopefully the blue will help my live plants..



I only have the blue LED bulbs in as of right now, I am rethinking the amount I will use of the blue, I almost fear that an even 5/5 white blue will be too much blue for my personal taste... I may do 6/4 in the future.

but since my stock hood still has the fluorescent lighting in it as my only source of lighting, I have to wait to gut it and put the LED board in its place, They blue lights that are currently installed have amazing intensity. They do get warmer then expected, so I will most likely will be adding a fan at some point. but I imagine this will be much more efficient then the off color bulbs I'm currently using. I can't wait to get the white ones in, they should be here within the next couple days meaning I should be able to have the light installed onto the tank by the weekend! Please feel free to ask any questions and I'll try to keep updating this as I make more progress.

 

Great job! Thanks for all the detailed pixes.

 

Recieved the Cool White LEDs bulbs today, now I'll be most likely re-wiring the setup, possibly going to wire in a dimmer for the blue LEDs so I can adjust it to my liking, and maybe going to wire them separate for moonlight effect... should have more pictures by the end of the day.

 

Looking good!

 

Ok, so I know its taken me a few days to post this reply, but I had to upload my photos. I did finish the build, but I'm not entirely happy with the outcome so I'll be making changes to it before too long. I had ordered 5 blue and 5 white bulbs, that was my first mistake. Since I installed all 10 sockets and wired them, that left me either starting, or ending on a blue which I'm not happy with because it makes the one side of the tank look uneven and off color to me. So I went back online today and ordered 3 more Pure white, now I'll have 6 white and 4 blue, and 2 white spares and a blue spare, in case something happens to one of them.

I got a little lax taking the pictures of this part of the build, I have no excuse for that

I gutted the stock lighting hood. but left the original power cord and switch




I then trimmed down my board to fit inside, leaving enough room under it for the wiring to run.



I then decided to remove the original switch which was sticky and mounted a brown wall switch




I then tapped the wires into the wiring I previously had completed.



Because of the depth of the bulbs, I had to raise the hood back up on the side so the bulbs didn't lay direction on my canopies. I cut some pieces of wood and fastened them on the sides after painting them black, I have some screws to hold it up off the sides of the tank, I am also not happy with the way that is so I'll be changing it, but its working for now.




This is the before and after shots of the standard lighting, and then the new LED setup.




I do get a nice shimmer effect on the bottom under my filter location where there is plenty of surface agitation.

 

On an LED web site I once found a formula for combining blue, red and white leds to achieve specific kelvin temps. You might want to search that out, and working with 6500K or 7000K as your target temp determine the mix of led colors you want.

I am impressed. Parts ordering list please.

 

I wasn't so much going for a specific kelvin temp. I did read that the blue helps with live plants so I figured I'd give a few blue a go. but heres the lights and sockets I ordered.







Those were what I ordered on ebay. I simply used a wall switch from home depot and the already existing wire for the stock normal hood. I will be taking it back apart soon and wiring up the white and blue on separate switches so I can do light cycles. I would recommend using a thinner piece of wood to fasten the sockets onto so they don't stick down as far, Thus possibly eliminating the need to raise the hood up.

Went and bought a second switch and rewired 4 of the sockets to a second circuit, and another power cord, now I can effectively light cycle the tank with timers (I'm not doing that yet, but I have the possibility to do it) and I have 6 white and 4 blue, I will post pictures of each tomorrow, I don't like the looks of just white being on without the blue, but the combo looks perfect now, and it looks awesome with just the blue lights on as well... very happy with my inexpensive overhaul... if I wanted it perfect I'd have spent the money on a manufactured one... but since I'm cheap I decided to build my own, and for what I've got invested, its pretty sweet.

 

Finally got it basically how I want it until I build a complete wooden canopy for it... heres some shots of the different options for my lighting with my dual switch setup

this is the full lighting turned on. 6 white, 4 blue


This is just the 6 white (I think it looks too yellow)


And lastly, here is just the blue, its so intense, but I think it looks awesome... I'm not sure how good for the fish it is, but They seem ok with it. I usually only have it like this for 2-3 hours a night.

 

are these leds for 110v? or do you use a converter?

 

Nice set up

 

are these leds for 110v? or do you use a converter?

Based off the parts list and pics, it is a 110v setup.


I like the build, do you know if there is a way to mount diffusers to those lights? It looks like you get some spot lighting that a diffuser would help remove.

Nice build,
outlaw