DIY Planted Tank Hood with LED lighting: 2. Electricals & Wiring

Time to get the PVC base ready before attaching the aluminum LED fixtures.

Materials required:

a) Length of regular wire

b) A few DC connectors (male & female) & an AC connector (female)

c) Tools required for drilling holes, cutting wires, soldering, and hot gluing.

Tools & wire

AC & DC connectors

Found the right measurement only after an intense bout of simple calculations, erring once. (note the many marker points!)

Below is the wiring diagram for the LED Fixtures divided into two light banks (1 & 2) which will allow an option for staggered lighting in future.

LED wiring diagram

A total of 16 holes were (8 on each side panel) drilled for wiring 8 LED fixtures.

I used old telephone wires which I had with me for the wiring. The stiffness of the wire made it easy to navigate it inside the 1.5 in PVC tubes for concealing all wires.

A few holes were drilled on back panel to accommodate a couple of 12v DC connectors (female) and a AC power connector (female) for a fan alongwith a switch for it.

The connectors + switch were soldered and all the (electrical) contact points were insulated with hot glue before mounting. 

Connections soldered

Insulated with hot silicone glue

A final application of hot glue around the switch & the 220v AC connector made it rock solid and ready for mounting and connecting the LED fixtures.

Now to waterproof the LED strips and prepare the LED fixtures. 

Hopefully coming up sometime soon…

DIY Tank Hood with LED lighting: 1. Planning

Over time and usage the previous hood that came with my earlier tank setup had fallen apart. The only piece of it existing at present is a 1.5 inch PVC rectangular (size of my tank) structure used for supporting the tubes and also acted as reinforcement.

all that remains...

Ignore the cat(s). They always snoop around when I am working on/with something. ;-)

I plan to use this PVC structure as a base for my hood. A few points which I have in mind while planning the hood is: 

a)    Lights should not be visible to the viewers from any direction (no glare/distraction)

b)    Should have option of staggered lighting (for future)

c)     Should have an option for mounting an exhaust fan/blower (for summers)

d)    It should be lightweight 

e)    It should be a single detachable unit (without any messy wires hanging from it)

f)     All wiring should be internal

g)    Lifting it and working in the tank should be easy

The LED Strip I shall be using (SMD 5630) is featherweight and would require some support to hold it in place. Since these strips are non-waterproof, an additional task of waterproofing them has to D-I-Y-ed. Though the lights came with an adapter (12v, 4A each) I am planning to power the LEDs by an old computer SMPS which should be sufficient with a few tweaks. This will allow me to add more LED strips in the future without changing or adding another powering unit.

SMD 5630 LED Strip (5m)

After carefully considering options, finalized on 0.5 inch L channel made of aluminum which makes it very lightweight.

lightweight L channel

The L channel comes in a length of 12 feet which can be cut according to requirement. I would need eight of these support(s) to mount eight strips of LED across the 4 feet tank horizontally. 

Each of these horizontal strips will have 66 LED modules with a total of 528 LED modules for the planted tank.

Now, the execution remains.

Digital Timer TM-619H-2: Specs

Due to many queries on the timer, below are a couple of images detailing the specification and wiring possibilities.

(zoom to enlarge)

(zoom to enlarge)

Info/Image Source

Power Distribution Board – Redux

Reworked on the power distribution board and decided to place the timer inside the board plus add one more socket and here is the Cat Powered Board!

Cat powered board!

Two sockets are attached to the timer, while direct power flows through the other two sockets each with its own switch. (Note the black lines)

Power Distribution Board

The slot for accessing the timer battery was a rather crude job on the back of the board, now taped to prevent dust.

While this looks okay, need to get the lighting system done, waterproofed and ready to fix on the D-I-Y Light hood.

More on that, coming up soon…

Power Distribution Board

Got a (PVC) box and switches + sockets from a local store and here is the power supply board with the electronic timer added to it. Lights and CO2 supply will be operated by the timer. Two sockets are attached to the timer, while the third socket is a direct power outlet (with a switch) that will run the pump/filter.

Cat-powered Board!!

Although the cat is sleeping peacefully, right now, a couple of things  are bugging me. First, I’d surely need to add one more power outlet for a cooling fan. Also overlooked that the timer (rear) has a removable (Lithium CR2032) button cell (saves the programming) which when needs replacement would mean opening up the supply board. I think I may need to modify and tweak this board further to accommodate my worries.

Till then… happy weekend.