Diy led moon lites - Local place to buy leds cheap?

[ldean3817]

[i am looking into building a led moonlite setup for my 100gal and 40gal tanks. does any one know a good place to buy leds local for cheap? pefer the denton or lewisville area but dfw area is ok.
thanks
larry]

 

[tesfeld]

[It's been awhile since I looked for them, but compusa and/or Fry's have some in their computer modding sections.]

 

[Traveler]

[I'm not sure how much they are but Radio Shack should have some.]

 

[quangtam7]

[I have 10 bulbs/resistors free if you want , enough for the length of you tanks 1 bulb per foot.]

 

[ldean3817]

[that would be great.. :wwww: ....thanks.... :bow: :bow:

i will get with you about picking them up.

larry]

 

[ldean3817]

thanks quangtam7 i got the leds wired up and tested. now i just got to come up with a to mount them and i will be good to go.

 

[swampRx]

one easy way to mount them is

take a 1/2 PVC conduit and cut it to the length of the tank. then cut a small cut horizntaly about 1/2" , then cut vertically to that line (basically you notch the end so the pipe is always laying the same way.)

then you can drill a hole through the pipe and stick the led's inside and glue em in place. then just set it on the lip of the tank

 

[ldean3817]

i had a similiar idea. i am going to take 1" pvc, cut it in half, and glue the two half back to back so that it make what looks like the middle section of a figure 8. then take and line the bottom half with tin foil to give it a reflective backing. after that i will drill holes for the leds to fit thought and glue them in place. that way the wires will be in the top half and i can mount the entire thing to the canopy next to my light and out of the way.

 

[ldean3817]

something like this

 

[slallen]

If you flipped the top over, you could use it as a cover for the wiring and LED leads. This would help protect it with splash, salt creep, etc...

You could even buy heat shrink to wrap the whole thing up. Of course you would have to put holes in the heat shrink where the LED's are.

Just my .02

 

[melev]

I don't know if you can find a quality paint that sticks and holds up, but it would be nice if you could spray paint the inside of the PVC "reflector" with Glossy Silver or Chrome paint.

 

[ldean3817]

i am going to try and find some plastic strips to cover the ends and then find some plastic strips that are about an 1" wider than the pvc to cover the top piece of pvc. that way it will hang over on each side so i can screw throught that to mount it.