Yesterday, i received white led strips from china. I thus now have quite a lot of LED, enabling me to rethink the lighting of the aquarium. As of now, i was using fluorescent bulbs for one aquarium, another kind of home appliance for the second one, and traditional neon tubes for the third.

I ordered two kind of led strips :

http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/6379239770.html and

http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/6379239771.html

Those are 5630 LED, known to be quite efficient, with aproximately 25-50 lumen per LED.

According to the specifications, we have 60 led per meter, and aproximately 9W per meter. Specs claim 40-55 lumen per led, i'll be conservative and consider those to have 30-40. Indeed, it will be easier to stop using some LED if i have too much light than adding more LED in my design.

Both LED strips are meant to be used in 12V, and i have 2 reels of 5m of each (i probably won't use that much, but it was cheap, free shipping, so i got extra that i can use for other things. And i have spare, just in case, so that i don't have to wait 2 months!).

I will be using a FSP180-50LE 180W flex atx PSU to power everything. It is very compact (40*80*150mm), and can provide 3.3V, 5V and 12V, with up to 14 amps there. That should be enough to power my LED, and why not, TEC modules to cool the water! I will use the 5V and 3.3V for the electronics, and thus have a reliable power source, rather than using unregulated wall warts.

Those LED are not addressable, but i can cut the strips up to any length. If i consider my shrimp aquarium, i will cut smaller sections of 50cm. Each section,should thus use 4.5W, with 30 led per section giving 900 to 1200 lumen. As of now, this aquarium has 3 fluorescent bulbs, each providing 700-900 lumen. I will thus probably use 3 to 5 sections of LED, and use a transistor to control each, so that i can modulate the light intensity. I'll see if i can use PWM to dim the LED.

Compared to my previous solution, i'll end up with a slimmer light ramp, use less power 10-15W total for the same light output, not have to worry about changing the bulbs often, no need for mains current there, and gain the ability to easily modulate the light intensity. The light will also be well distributed, and since the LED are directional, all the luminous is oriented towards the water. Those LED don't have the best CRI (Color Restitution Index), with 80%, but neither did my previous solution (even lower than 80%). I can anyway compensate with more light if a color is a bit weak for my plants.

See you next!